First Build Questions

[freezekill]

Ok, so I've decided a few things about this build, but I still need some help. This will be mainly for gaming since my now obsolete MBPro cannot handle stuff so well anymore. This is my first time plus I have no experience overclocking, but would love to get into it. Here's a newegg wishlist detailing what I've picked so far https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=10898588 . None of that is set in stone though so feel free to make suggestions. So, my biggest question is the motherboard. I want to be able to overclock it because I'll be keeping the E8400 until games actually make use of 4 cores.

-I'm looking to spend around ~1000usd
-I don't want to spend a full 1000 again in a year, but want to upgrade a component or two to keep up
-that being said, my motherboard questions are infinite
-Since I'm only going to upgrade my CPU after quad cores are used by games (in the future), and the new i7 series form Intel isn't going to use a FSB, I'll need to upgrade my mobo at that time too.
-Given that, should I invest in a mobo w/ Crossfire + one w/ DDR3 ? or just wait to get DDR3 when I next upgrade my mobo
-I wouldn't get DDR3 now at all, just good 'ole PC6400 DDR2 until later on

In essence, what do you think the timing will be? would I be needing a quad core or DDR3 sooner?

Is Crossfire worth investing in at all? Should I just cough up the dough for a 1GB 4870 GDDR5 now? or invest another 4850 in a year or so when its price goes down and have 2?

thanks so much.

 

[Zenthar]

You seem to be in a situation similar to mine a few months ago.

Here is my opinion:
■DDR3 won't give a boost in performance any time soon; it will do falsely so with i7 because of the integrated memory controller, but that is something else.
■The cost of a CF MB + 2nd card might exceed the cost of just upgrading the card and selling the old one...

In a year or so you could always buy a Quad if games started using cores efficiently and prices will have dropped) and upgrade video card, but after that, for i7, all new CPU, MB and RAM ... :-/

 

[DigitalD]

I like to try and buy at the sweet spot where performance for price is at its best so with that in mind I would get DDR2 800 and avoid DDR3. I personally like having a SLI board (or CF) myself in case I want to add another card in the future.

I like nVidia cards more than ATI at the moment. nVidia has slashed its prices recently on its cards to compete with nVidia and imo they are the best deal.

Look at this comparison:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-1920x1200-AA,801.html

The 1GB 4870 is $300 (or $270 if you get a deal). You can get a GTX 260 for only $200 if you look around and they work real well in SLI. nVidia cards run cooler too. The 4870 is a good card, but you are looking for opinions and so there's mine!

 

[freezekill]

1st - thanks

2nd - i'll be using a 22" LCD so if i went the less expensive MB route: maybe DDR2 1066/800, 1 GPU slot, 4GB memory, e8400... then which video card should I go for now? 1GB/512MB and GDDR5/GDDR3?

I want the setup to last a year, then I'd upgrade quad-core and upgrade video card depending on my current action I guess.

 

[freezekill]

yeah I'm in the same boat w/ the SLI/CF future-thinking... but if I have to buy a completely new board for sure (given no-FSB i7) in ~2 years, why put money into one now if I don't explicitly plan to do SLI/CF in the next 18-24 months?