Qoatl

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I have two questions. The first is this:
With current hardware, is it worth 790i w/ DDR3 RAM? Is there enough performance increase to be had over 780i w/ DDR2 RAM to justify the price difference?

Second, anyone with a similar rig that can give me some guidance regarding how much power I'll need?

EVGA 790i mobo
Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16 GHz (o/c'd to 4.1)
ACF 7 pro cpu cooler
4x 80 mm case fans
4x 1GB mushkin DDR3 1333 RAM
2x GeForce 9800 GTXs in SLI
2 hard disks
2 optical drives

Thanks! I would hate to order the parts only to find that I didn't have enough power or connectors.
 

shadowduck

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First Question: NO DDR3 is not worth the money, and the 790i is bug ridden as vastly overpriced.

Best Idea: Avoid nVidia's craptacular Intel chipsets altogether.

SLI on a 9800GTX is about the WORST thing you can possibly do! The 2xx series with be out soon, and will rape the 9800GTX in performance. 2 of them, my god just NO! Are you going to game on a 30" monitor? Otherwise you DO NOT NEED SLI and there is no way in HELL you need that anyway. You are just throwing money down the drain and putting out a ton of heat and wasting power.

Don't buy the E8500, not worth the $70 over the E8400 since it the exact same chip just E8500 is qualified higher. Means nothing for O/C.

Better idea!

4GB (2x 2GB DDR2-800) G.Skill RAM 4-4-4-12 timings
MSI Neo-F P45 motherboard or Asus P5E
rest of what you got is ok.


PSU: PC Power and Cooling Quad 750W.

Wait for the 2xx series and 48x0 series video cards.
 
IMO, its not worth the 790i with DDR3, at least not yet and Im not sure there will be a good reason.

Secondly, this psu will be plenty:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

750 watts will be enough if its a quality psu brand.

I have the 780i with ddr2 4gs, Q6600, 2 hard drives, 5 - 120mm led fans, 8800GTX ANS3 SLI, 1 - DVD drive and a TEC CPU cooler.

I would also recommend you wait on the new video cards if you are planning on spending that much money...
 

jerb

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Short answer: No


At the moment it would not be worth that much. Its all marketing.

I just built my brand new rig 2 weeks ago and my spec= Intell e8400 oc'ed 3.6
Gigabyte p35 chipset mobo that supports ddr3 memory, but i bought ddr2 600
Bfg geforce 8800 Gts 512 (g92)
2x western digi's in raid zero
dvd writer
Enermax Liberty 500 watt Psu

The set up i built i am more than impressed with, Granted im not sli but i only game @ 1600 x 1050.

I dont think u need to upgrade at all, heck maybee u could get a better OC if u did but who the heck would want to tare down a system for a mobo upgrade that is minute.
 

Qoatl

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Well, there seem to be a lot of strong opinions around here and I have not actually purchased anything yet. My goal is not to be able to play at obscene resolutions, but to give my system some longevity because it's going to be a while before I can upgrade. My wife budgeted $2200 for me to buy a new computer and anything I don't use goes toward something else, so the money is not a huge issue (still, don't particularly care to waste money).

Let's say I want to come in at around 2K for a system and already have optical drives, mouse, keyboard, speakers, sound card, and monitor. What would you recommend that will keep me running for a while without upgrades?

I suppose I could go with an 8800 GTX and put away the likely price difference for the new generation, but this relies on two things:

1) EVGA actually puts out the new card within the next 90 days

2) The price during the first 30 days or so will not be obscenely overpriced just because it can be (and I'm sure it will).

Sure, the 9800 will come down in price after the 2xx cards come out, but not that fast -- not 90 days from now.

Any thoughts?
 

shadowduck

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$2000 Build:

High Middle Range Build: ~$2000 Currently: $2042.19 shipped before rebates

CPU: Intel Core2Duo Q9450 Quad
Motherboard: ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48
RAM: Patriot 4GB DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 x2 (8GB total)
Hard Drive: 500GB Seagate 32MB cache x2 (1TB total)
Optical Drive: LG Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive Black SATA Model GGW-H20L
Case:Antec P182
Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling 610W
OS: Vista Ultimate 64-bit
Input Device: Logitech G15 and Logitech G5
Video Card: EVGA 512-P3-N800-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (for the trade-up program)
Arctic Cooling MX-2 compound

The step up program will allow you in 90 days to trade in your 8800GT card for a 2xx series card which will last you a long time. You could also look at the 48x0 series card since they will be out soon.

Now that build is around $2,000: but you can do just as good for even less.

Mid-Range Build: ~ $1,000 Currently: $965.91 shipped before $30 MIRs
CPU: Intel Core2Duo E8400
Motherboard: MSI P45 Neo-F
RAM: G.Skill 4GB DDR2-800 4-4-4-12
Hard Drive: 500GB Seagate 500GB 32MB cache
Case:Antec P182 (Combo on Newegg to save $50 with E8400 and this case)
Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling 610W ($10 MIR)
OS: Windows Vista Home Prem
Video Card: EVGA 512-P3-N800-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (for the trade-up program) ($20 MIR)- Get the best 2xx series card you can- should be say $600.
Arctic Cooling MX-2 compound

There you go. Under $1k before the new video card for a really nice system!
 

Qoatl

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okay, you answered my question before my edit, so I'll repeat here:
I suppose I could go with an 8800 GTX and put away the likely price difference for the new generation, but this relies on two things:

1) EVGA actually puts out the new card within the next 90 days

2) The price during the first 30 days or so will not be obscenely overpriced just because it can be (and I'm sure it will).

Sure, the 9800 will come down in price after the 2xx cards come out, but not that fast -- not 90 days from now.

Any thoughts?

Even if it comes in under budget, it's hard to justify $600 for a video card. When are they due out? I thought it wasn't until November.
 

Qoatl

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Also, don't the Duos generally match the performance of Quads in games? This might change in the next couple of years though, I guess.
 

shadowduck

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The 2xx series cards will be released Wednesday.

$250-600, but you get to subtract the full price you paid from the 8800GT from that. Don't get a GTX just an 8800GT G92. The GTXs are older and much slower using the G80 core.

9800 is a terrible card to begin with, that is the problem. It offers little/no benefit over the 8800GT and in some cases loses to it.

The card I would get is the GT260 that will be around $400. The high end $600 card will be a beast with 1GB of RAM. I do agree a $600 video card is hard to justify.

ATI's new cards are looking better and better though so it might be worth it to wait 2-3 weeks to get benchmarks from the new cards.

Duos are better in games yes, E8400 would be preferable on a pure gaming system. The quad wins if any application you use takes advantages of multi-core (video editing, Photoshop etc.)
 

PCnut

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For future Proof you would be better with a quad in my opinion. and I can see no reason that EVGA will not have the new cards out in less than 90 days. Considering they are suppose to be released in the next few days if i remember correctly. And unless you just have to have the nVidia i would look at the 3800 or when they come out the 4800 series cards for price/performace.. And unless you want to use SLI i would stay away from the nVidia chipsets. A nice P45 chipset would be good and future proof as far as computers can be. But like they said above the Asus Rampage formula is a great MB. good luck and enjoy.
 

jerb

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There is no future proofing, jeesh. (it's a myth i swear)


go with a moderate best bang for the buck that can get the job done that u need it too and thats that.


The asus mobo mentioned is a little overpriced, u can get a great overclock and performance with a much cheaper mobo.

Just buy what u need and nothing more. no need to throw money into the wind with a $300.00 mobo LOL, which u get nothing for in return.


Ohh and Enermax Pwns for PSU's.

Ohh and P35 chipset is all u need:)

Ohh and all this part of the forum does is hype what they them selves like/prefer. and hype product LOL
 

shadowduck

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P35 is going away. P45 is a much better investment jerb.

I don't hype product, I recommend what works in my shop for my customers and has the lowest return rates. I don't believe in "hype" and "marketing" which is why I am so against SLI.

Enermex makes a great PSU, that much is true.
 

Qoatl

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Thanks for all the help.
I will wait for the new cards.
I must say, however, that I am still tempted to get a 790i board and one GTX 2xx card so I can add two more in the future when they're dated and dirt cheap. Is the chipset really that bad? It just seems like a better solution than to remove an old card and put in a new, single, expensive card in the future.
 

Qoatl

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Yeah, maybe P45 and either a 280 or 4870x2. I have a feeling the 4xxx series is still going to rely on brute force.

I am still inclined to go with a Duo, although the Quad may be better in a year or so when it is used efficiently in games. I think I will get the E8500 rather than the E8400. The extra money is not that big of a difference and the E8500 can overclock easily to 4.1 and possibly to 4.2.
 

Qoatl

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Well, processors aren't really all that expensive. I can always afford a new one later as game software starts to use Quad more efficiently. I'm more concerned about the video card at the moment.

I really don't like the way they handled the Crysis benchmark in that article. While it is useful to compare the settings at which the 280 and 260 can attain similar framerates, who decides what the best playable settings are? With so many aspects of the graphic detail that can be adjusted to so many levels, why object detail on medium with everything else on high. There are probably 50 other configurations that would max out a particular card that a user might prefer. What they should have done is used the same settings for both cards without prioritizing a particular aspect of the configuration (e.g. all medium settings) and compared the framerates.

As far as SLI goes, I know there are some people who are not big fans, and you clearly have a particular dislike for it. Still, it's worth considering. Afterall, 9800 GX SLIx2 outperformed the 280 on the same settings in that article, and I can get three 9800 GX2 cards for $50 less than one 280 ($600) and run them in tri-SLI, getting significantly better framerates. From what I've read, it seems SLI does take some work and tweaking, which should be done by the manufacturer, not the end user, but it's hard to argue with the results when you do get it working well for a game. For everyone on a forum complaining that they are getting no benefit from SLI in a particular game, there are 4 others who say they've identified settings that are giving them an 80%+ boost over a single card.
 

shadowduck

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80% I am not sure. 30% maybe.

Highest playable is decided at the highest setting the game is playable in at > 30 FPS across the majority of the game. HardOCP unlike most sites does not just simple run the FPS tester included with most games, they actually play the games themselves find the area(s) that stress the cards the most and use FRAPS to test framerates. It is a much better system.

I have a dislike for SLI because of the all the issues users have with it. nVidia and Intel do not like each other and nVidia's chipsets show this. In my shop we have constant issues with bugs, weird BSODs, and other performance issues on nVidia chipsets. These issues are just not present on Intel chipsets. If SLI was on a rock solid chipset platform, I would have less issue and reserve recommending it to people.

The 280 is a bad value, you are correct. I am saddened by that. The 260 looks be a good value though at $399. I just hope the next generation nVidia chipsets are better.

The 4850s are supposed to cost $199 and will outperform 8800GT.
 

Qoatl

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Yeah, definitely not possible to future-proof your system anymore. Still, my situation is not entirely typical. I am a medical resident and will be for another 2 years. Before that (obviously) I was a medical student for 4 years. Prior to that I was in the computer field for 8 years. I used to keep my computer very up to date, but have had to settle for upgrading individual components as much as possible on an old motherboard for the past 6 years.

My wife took pity on me and managed to create a budget for a computer out of the tax bonus and a little bit of extra cash from other sources. Basically, she managed to scrounge up $2200 for a computer. There isn't going to be another $1800 of free money from the government any time soon. I have no hope of upgrading in any significant way for at least a couple more years. I can't just buy a better video card next year.

Even if I can't future-proof a computer, I can give it all the life it can get.

As anyone here likely knows, there's a big difference between what $2200 will get you in a Dell ad and what you can build yourself with it. Any part of it that I don't spend now vanishes back into the void. It is essentially guaranteed that the computer I have now is exactly what I'll have in 2 years, so there is definitely some incentive here to focus more on bang rather than bang-for-buck, if you know what I mean.

Building something mid-range isn't really my best option.
What I might do is build something for around $1200-1400 and convince my wife to hold the rest in an upgrade bucket, but I won't hold my breath.

I don't want to spend irresponsibly, and I would rather use the extra cash to get something for my kids than blow a few hundred bucks on a 5% upgrade. I do, however, need to get parts with a good bit of life in them.
 

Qoatl

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Hmmm... I suppose I could go with the ATI card and pick up another one cheap in 2 years and bridge them w/ crossfire.
 

shadowduck

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The 48x0 series will be Wednesday and out to retails by July. 4850 is supposed to beat 8800GT and 4870 is supposed to best 9800GTX by a pretty good margin.

Prices look to be 199/299.

Might be worth waiting for.
 

Qoatl

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Shadowduck:

I'm thinking somewhere in between:
ASUS Rampage motherboard
8 GB of G.Skill DDR2 1066 (4x2GB)
ACF 7 cooler
E8500 processor
2x250GB Seagate Barracudas (32MB cache, SATA 3.0G/s, 7200 rpm)
Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium (never used Vista, so I'll need to look into this more)
Antec P182 case (checked it out, like the case, not sure how helpful the lower fan will be as it doesn't looke like its set up to generate much flow... but the 120mm top fan is nice).

I have keyboard, optical mouse, nice CRT monitor (dislike LCD), and a couple of opticals I can move from another system (DVD+/-RW is good enough for me).

That comes out to around $1350 before a video card.