Gaming Systems New Technology

[Karlu]

Building a new gaming system to handle some of the demanding games like Crisis. The configuration is i7 config versus a 790i.

I think I am leaning towards the EVGA X58 SLI LGA 1366 Motherboard with the Intel Core i7 920 processor 2.66 Ghz, 8MB, L3 cache, 4.8 GT /s QPI, Tri Channel 3 GB PC10666 DDR3 1333 mhz, and a Geforce GTX 280 Video Card.

My other choice is the XFX 790i Ultra SLI motherboard with the NVDIA nForce 790i socket, with Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 processor 2.66 Ghz 1333Mhz FSB, along with OCZ Reaper 4GB.

Based on review it seems like both would be great for gaming and developement. What is your opinion?

 

[Proximon]

You won't find many fans of NVidia chipsets here.

Get an x58, or if you want to save money get a P45 and OC the heck out of it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/257075-31-what-parts-choose

 

[kubes]

Proximon is right, many of us here are not fans of Nvidia's nforce chipsets. In general they are pretty bad.


I would say your second setup is just a bad idea in general. It uses ddr3 instead of ddr2. The board itself is very expensive and really you should think about the q9550 instead of the q9400. Lot more l2 cache on the 9550.

If you wanted to stick with the core 2 series and want only one GTX 280 card:

Asus p5q pro ~$120 bucks
G skill 2x4gbs ddr2 800 ~$75
Q9550 ~$320.
This is a cheaper setup that will probally boast the same if not better overall system preformance.

If you plan on running multiple cards then deffinently go with the core i7 setup. In general the i7 is better than the core 2 series stuff. The Cpu was designed to target the enterprise audience. However the cpu has still in benchmarks proved it also has a slight increase in preformance when gaming. It has a very noticable increase when dealing with sli/cf. If your spending over $1200 for a gaming rig i would tend to lean towards getting an i7 setup.