Time for a new gaming/dev workstation

[zaphod]

But I'm starting to feel old because I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the technology out now. Going through dell's XPS customization there are all kinds of options for dual video cards and dual or quad core processors from 1.8ghz to 3ghz

Anybody gone through this process recently or keep really up to date on this stuff? I just want a machine that will run new games well and that doesn't cost me 4 grand. Is SLI worth it or will one do the job? I'm pretty sure I don't need a quadcore intel, but is there a big difference between 1.8ghz and higher for the core duo's? I would think most games are only going to run on one core so you would want the highest clock speed? Any advice would be awesome.

[FrieChamp]

Can`t really help you but I wanted to say that I`ve found it increasingly difficult lately to keep up on hardware developments as well. Probably because I only got an old notebook for internet access but no gaming rig at home, I play all games on my machine at work.

Oh, and I moved the thread to off-topic because it isn`t directly games related, hope you don`t mind!

[hessi]

1. the Ghz of a CPU dont give any information on its speed! all you know is: its getting faster hot as another CPU. the higher the frequence the faster the overheating.

2. multi core cpu: you have 2 cpu's in a single 'box'. this means you have to use software that supports multithreading! many games do not. thats why dual cpu systems were for servers or rendering only a long time. atm game developers try to get their engines up running with this technology. i would recommend you a dual core system. i ordered an intel mac with a intel core 2 duo. it must be pretty kick ass.

3. graphic cards in sli mode are really expensive and i would go so far to call it useless. i never saw a computer with SLI graphics in action. i remeber old Voodoo 2's with this option but it was not a that big performance plus, because it is the same problem as with CPUs: you have to use a software that supports dividing calculation the process in multiple threads without fucking up the system. (for example accessing values that will be calculated by the other PU later -> memory access violations such as nullpointer)

resume:

get your self a multicore CPU! it will get into game buisness. that is sure.

get a good single graphic card. dont invest in a sli system. it will be expensive and wont bring you a that big performance boost. better stick to a good single card like the NVIDIA 7800GT etc.

get 2 GB of RAM. more than this will be waste (as we all know windows cant adress more than 4 GB, but you can actually only activate like 3GB of it for use.)

i hope this did help you a bit.

[cyberjunkie]

What hessi said,

Yep, a dualcore should be more than enough. Intel's Core 2 Duos's seem be doing better than than the Athlon X2's. 2GB RAM should set you fine for the upcoming games and Vista.

People would say wait for the DX10 cards , I think the GeForce 8800 is just out and maybe you should wait for the prices to drop a bit. They're priced around 500-700$ according to Pricewatch. Use your existing card or buy a cheap Geforce 7'series card for the time being. Those 700$ priced cards will drop to half in a couple of months. Also no DX10 games around, so you might as well wait for them to start pouring in first.

Oh and if you aren't using a LCD screen, get one of those too while you're at it ! I know I'd like one too

[Izuno]

Zaph i have the same problem. There's a lot of PC games I need to test out for my clients, and I don't have the time anymore to deal with research.

My cousin has a new MacPro and I may go that route. I already have a MacbookPro laptop and it runs windows great. Even though the video card is good it's not ideal for running hogs like Company of Heroes.

If / when you find a solution soon, please let us know. Right now I have an AMD 3400+ running an ATI x800 pro or some old thing like that. I need an upgrade!!!

[zaphod]

I've been on a mac bender lately so I was thinking about buying a mac pro and running windows on it for games, but I figure If I'm going to be using this as a windows machine I might as well get a pc more suited towards gaming. I still have my blackbook for getting my mac on. I didn't even think about dx10, how do these people afford to buy a new video card every year? Is a dx10 card bought in a week even going to be able to run crysis when it comes out in a year? I guess you just had to close your eyes and buy whatever is available now at the price you want to pay.

[Bic-B@ll]

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wis ... er=3500285

[Schmung]

Depends on budget.

SLI is a fucking waste. Dual core is awesome.

Intel is top of the hill for the moment, but I personally feel that AMDs approach is better and their mid range is cheaper, so I side with them. Get a nice mid-range X2 and a 79xx or 8xx series card and it's job done.

I'm leaving mine until the soccket 939 prices drop like a stone and I can get a 79 something. Then leave it for 18 months. Would stick with mine for longer, but lack of dual core is a pain at the moment.

[zaphod]

XPS 700 Jet Black

Intel® Core2 Duo Processor E6600 (4MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,1066 FSB)

Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs

Video Card 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual-GPU Graphics Card

Hard Drive 640GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 320GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)

Optical Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable

Sound Cards Sound Blaster® X-Fi XtremeMusic (D) Sound Card

well it should be on the truck soon, I'll let you guys know how she handles once I get it unpacked and operational

[Izuno]

XPS 700 Jet Black

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600 (4MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,1066 FSB)

Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs

Video Card 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual-GPU Graphics Card

Hard Drive 640GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 320GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)

Optical Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable

Sound Cards Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic (D) Sound Card

well it should be on the truck soon, I'll let you guys know how she handles once I get it unpacked and operational

How much does that cost at Dell?

[FrieChamp]

Is a dx10 card bought in a week even going to be able to run crysis when it comes out in a year

Zappy plz :roll:

[ReNo]

I just threw down some cash for a new system, but I've not got it all setup with a fresh windows install yet so I don't want to judge it prematurely. It's currently running on a windows install for a totally different system and, I'm guessing as a result, it's not all that glorious in Windows. That said, it does run the games I've thrown at it with ease.

Core 2 Duo 6600

Asus P5W DH Deluxe

2x 1Gb Corsair PC6400 C4

Western Digital Raptor 150Gb

ATI X1900XT 256mb

I'd say wait for the prices to drop on the new DX10 cards - they are ludicrously expensive at the moment, with the lowest spec models costing just about more than the highest spec current gen cards. Get something like a 7900GS/GT, or the same card as I grabbed, which is sadly becoming difficult to find I hear. The new X1950 pro's are apparently great value for money and give good performance in any current games too, although they aren't quite as good as the X1900XT.

Here's a good guide to help you on the graphics card front...

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/11/07/the_best_video_cards_for_your_money_uk/

Dual core is definately worth putting down the cash for in my opinion. Benchmarks show that the Core 2 Duo's pretty much decimate all of the competition, and with more and more software and games supporting multi-threading it makes sense to jump in. The lower spec C2D's perform mighty well and apparently overclock exceptionally, and the E6300 is priced very competitively too. Of course the motherboard and RAM you need to go with it aren't so cheap

[Steppenwolf]

Core 2 duo is better for another reason compared to AMD. The processor need less power. I thought ive read that the difference can be around 50-60 Euro per year if u use the PC each day.

[zaphod]

It cost me about 3k even Izuno

[hessi]

Core 2 duo is better for another reason compared to AMD. The processor need less power. I thought ive read that the difference can be around 50-60 Euro per year if u use the PC each day.

that's why apple switched from intel core duo to core 2 duo