I posted a few days ago about a possible AMD build (here's a link http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] preciated), but after reading several articles about AMD and Intel, it seems I should be taking a hard look at Intel for gaming purposes. I've decided to go quad core, as games are going to eventually utilize multi-core processors. Here's the build I have so far:
I really need help choosing a motherboard. I don't plan to do Crossfire (or SLI) and I'd like to keep the motherboard under $120 (under $100 would be excellent). Otherwise, I'll probably go with my AMD build and just substitute a Phenom 9850 in for the 6000+.
If anyone has any useful articles comparing the q6600 to its AMD equivalent (I'm not exactly sure what the equivalent is), it would be great if you could post a link. Benchmark links would also be great to use as a comparison.
The Q6600 should drop price a bit as anticipated on July 22. Do you plan to overclock? If not you can scrap the cpu cooler to save you a bit and invest in the mobo.
450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended (550 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU for a list of Certified products.
Choose a DDR2 motherboard, rather than DDR3.
P45 motherboards:
Two models stood out, and both used DDR2 rather than DDR3 memory. DFI and Gigabyte had the best onboard feature set, but while Gigabyte also had the most complete set of rear panel ports, DFI had the highest stable DDR2 memory speed. The Lanparty LT X48-T2R also pushed our Core 2 Duo E6850 the farthest, but higher achievable FSB for the X48-DQ6 speed might put it ahead if we’d used a different processor.
From what I've read, it's relatively easy to overclock the Q6600 to 3.0Ghz, would it be better for me to stick with the AMD build and overclock the 6000+?
