That is a difference of $227 dollars on parts so you can get 2 4850s and CF them for a better gaming result. I wen witht the Q6600 because its the best deal on a quad core and it will easily OC to 3GHz no problem (I have one). The mobo uses the P45 chipset which is a great OC'ing chipset and much more stable. That plus the 16 phase voltage regulators will allow more stable and better OCing. The memory because Corsair is very fast and it has a lifetime warranty.
I was wondering if the mobo you recommended supports crossfireX at 16x for both PCI lanes? I know it probably doesn't make a whole lot of actual difference as opposed to 8x speed, but its still nice to be able to give them full speed on the lanes.
The CF would be at 8x unfortunately. It would be like having 2 PCIe 1.1 @ 16x though as it is PCIe 2.0.
But if you want 2 full 16x PCIe 2.0 lanes you would have to get a X48 chipset. Thats the only benefit to that chipset over the P45. Other than that the P45 is a much better overclocking and much more stable chipset.
The CF would be at 8x unfortunately. It would be like having 2 PCIe 1.1 @ 16x though as it is PCIe 2.0.
But if you want 2 full 16x PCIe 2.0 lanes you would have to get a X48 chipset. Thats the only benefit to that chipset over the P45. Other than that the P45 is a much better overclocking and much more stable chipset.
i haven't seen any charts to see how much better 16x is then 8x but if its more stable and a better at oc'ing. it seems like you can sacrifice a little performance you'll gain it back in oc'ing. just do lots of research and build something that will suit your needs
What games will you play, and at what resolution? One of the best guides is guru3d. http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=vga_charts What I find interesting is that at 1920x1200 a single 9800GX2 or GTX 280 will play any game at over 60fps, which is considered best possible gameplay. I expect that the upcoming 4870X2 will also do it. Why pay more for higher capability? A LCD monitor will have a refresh rate of 60hz(some claim 120hz), but your eye can not detect much over 75hz. With the lowered prices of the GTX280, I would try that first if you have to buy today. The 4870X2 may well become a better deal by the end of the summer.
At the level of the E8500 or Q6600, the vga card is much more important for gaming than the cpu.
Today, very few games can make use of more than two cores. Flight simulator X is an exception. It is not a trivial matter to code multi threaded programs, and game vendors will not sell too many games that require quads to run. I don't see this changing in the next couple of years, and then nehalem will be upon us.
Net: E8500 for the increased clock speed.
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E8400-stock, GA-P35-DS3R(rev2.1), Corsair 4x2gb 6400C5, EVGA 8800GTS-512-G92, Vista home premium-64-bit, WD velociraptor-300gb, PC P&C silencer-610, Antec SOLO, 2 x Samsung 275T, Samsung-203b-dvd
How much overclocking are you planning on doing?
If your going for a high overclock go with the Asus p5q, as its a p45 chipset which is an excellent overclocker.
However if your only going for a low to mid-range overclock I'd get the X38, or X48 chipset mobos that have been recommended, as they will provide your crossfireX setup with its full potential speed, since they'll run both PCIe 2.0 lanes at 16x speed when crossfired.
You definitely want an x38 or x48 mobo, not the P5Q as crossfire won't cut it as it would be running at x8/x8 lanes in p45 mobos, and x16/x16 in x38 or x48 mobo.
The P5E Deluxe is better then the Maximus Formula because it is the X48, The P5E Deluxe is the Rampage Formula minus the LCD Poster and the onboard buttons.
I have the Rampage Formula and it ROCKS. I have had it to 463 FBS stable but due to the summer I went to 450 for heat reasons. This board has so many options in the BIOS to finetune you overclock.
Bob facebilly is right on the money with his first post in this thread. the only thing I would change in the list is the RAM get atleast DDR-1000. The Q9450 will do 3.6 on Air. 3.6 is 450 FBS and DDR2 would be running at 900(450X2). Yes some DDR2-800 will run at 1066 but not all, I learned that the hard way, I got some Corsair DDR2-800 that would not run above 875 no matter what voltage I set it at. If you get DDR2-1066 you will not run into that problem. I went with OCZ DDR2-1000 so i could go above 400 FBS.
The HD4950 in Crossfire is a great deal now. I have my second card in route.
Q9450
P5E Deluxe
4 Gig of DDR2-1000 or better
2X HD4850 The ones with the best price or rebates
The power and cooling PSU is great
I second that decision.
I wasn't sure on the multiplier of the Q9450, but haplo1 is absolutely right. If your gonna want to overclock past 3.2 ghz you'll do best to go with some good ddr2-1000 memory.
