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Questions About a New Machine

Post Date: 2008-04-30
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Guardian View Drop Down
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Posts: 2 		  Quote Guardian Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: Questions About a New Machine
    Posted: 30 Apr 2008 at 4:44pm
Situation:  Moderate gamer, FPS, Strategy, very little on-line but want to try more.  Will us in home network; other desktop and 2 laptops will all be running Win XP SP2.  Will do some MS-Office stuff occasionally, run Quicken weekly, and create videos once in awhile.  I like to do several things at once, i.e., internet, spreadsheets, Quicken, and E-mail.  Will not use for photos or movies.  Also, I use headphones 90% of the time for gaming. 
 
My current desktop is a P-4 at 2.0MHz with 1GB memory.  It is 3 years old, about the time I always look for something new.  (My wife wants it for herself!)
 
My new machine will be hooked to a 24" monitor (probably a Dell Ultrasharp 2408WPF at 1900x1200 navtive res.)
 
My questions are:
 
1)  Is quad core the future or will core duo 2 run most everything for the next 3 years.
 
2)  Is Win Vista 32bit Home Premium fine or is Win Vista 64bit the future?
 
3)  Should motherboard FSB speed but the same as memory speed?  or does it really matter?
 
4)  Could I really tell the difference from a single nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB card versus dual 8800GTS 512MB SLI?
 
5)  Unless I go with Win Vista 64bit, 4MB of memory is unnecessary, right?
 
6)  the nForce 780i SLI motherboard seems to be a good pick.  Anyone have any stability issues with it?
 
I think that's it.  I would appreciate all expert and experienced responses.  Every bit will help me build the right machine for me.  (ME is the key!) 
 
 
 
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SunfighterLC View Drop Down
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Posts: 1527 		  Quote SunfighterLC Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 30 Apr 2008 at 7:59pm
1) Quad cores are indeed the future. And since you stated you like to multitask a lot, id either recommend an overclocked Q6600 Kentsfield or if you got the money a Q9450 Yorkfield. Take note though there will be a new line of chips to replace the aging core 2 line here soon late 2008, currently named Nehalem. Some more information on it below. This new chip will require a new socket, so you wont be able to upgrade to it later on down the road, youd have to get a new motherboard for that as well on top of the new CPU...thatd be a lot of work.
 
2) 64 bit systems are the future, but maybe not near future. Id say the next windows to come out will probably be a 64 bit version. But for now though 32 bit is the norm and will be the norm probably for the entire life of Vista (hopefully short). 64 bit is more for the ethusatist user that understands that some things might not work under 64 bit, like an old printer for example. Basically the main reason why people even choose 64V is because they want to use 4+ GB of ram.
 
3) You asked the one question is till cant figure out in my head really. The math gets really complex because you gotta split that speed amoungst the total number of cores, and then take the memory's dual channel into it. Maybe somebody else will answer this one, though i do assume a 1 to 1 ratio is nice to have, but not required.
 
4)On a 24inch monitor youd definally notice the difference between a single GT card, and a dual GTS get up. If you ment a dual GT vs dual GTS, eh..itd be pretty close, but i think youd maybe notice a slight difference. Remember this really will have an effect on 1600xwhatever +. In my opinion (others will say even a lower rez) thats when SLi really starts to show its power.
 
5) Not completely, your system just wont be able to utalize all that 4GB, say you have V32 and have 4GB, now it depends on how many goodies you have taking up memory space, but youll probably end up anywhere from 2.8 to 3.5GB of ram to be used outside of the system. 2.8 to 3.5 is still bigger then 2GB. but enough that youd notice a major difference is the question.
 
6) its a fairly new board, so it probably has some quirks to it. I havent heard much about problems on it that can be attriuted to the board itself. the whole 680-780-790I line has some problems with hard drive corruption though. Its more of a problem on the 790i though.
 
Some more information on that can be found here. it takes about the 790i mostly, but some about the 780 is mentioned as well.
 
E8500@ 4.03Ghz
XFX 790i Ultra
1000W Corsair HX
2 280 GTX EVGA FTW
4GB OCZ Reaper 1800Mhz
250-80-300GB VR HD
Logitech Z-2300 2.1 Speakers
Asus Xonar 7.1
Hanns-G HG 281D 28" HDMI Monitor
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Bill the Cat View Drop Down
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Posts: 1150 		  Quote Bill the Cat Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 30 Apr 2008 at 9:36pm
Originally posted by Guardian

 
3)  Should motherboard FSB speed but the same as memory speed?  or does it really matter?
  
 
RAM effective speed should be half the FSB effective speed. 800 MHz RAM runs 1-to-1 on a 1600 MHz FSB. Both of those imply a 400 MHz System Clock. Which, by the way, with a 9X multiplier, implies a 3.6 GHz CPU.
3.6 GHz E6850,       4 GB RAM, GTS 250,   TJ9, Win 7 64-bit
4.4 GHz i7 3930K, 16 GB RAM, GTX 670, 550D, Win 7 64-bit
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Guardian View Drop Down
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Posts: 2 		  Quote Guardian Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 04 May 2008 at 8:00pm
SunfighterLC and Bill the Cat....thanks for the replies.  They answered my questions very quickly.
 
Still shopping around.  Still trying to determine what will fit my budget...no, actually, I'm trying to keep my budget low and get a great machine!
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