Decisions decisions!

[djcool976]

Not many posts but I read here very often.

I've finally got the go ahead on a computer upgrade. It's been far too long since I've upgraded. I'm just going to use what I have and pick up a new cpu, mobo, video card, and ram.

I'll be going with the Q6600 and the 8800GT SSC for sure. I'd like to stick with DDR2 RAM for mostly the price alone. I'll probably be going with 4GB since I'm a big Supreme Commander fan and it's not that expensive anymore.

The part I can't decide on though is the chipset I'd like to choose. It seems that I can go with X38 and get PCI-e 2.0 support but I lose the option for SLI and the boards are rather expensive. I could then go with P35 but lose PCI-e 2.0 and SLI however I'll get a much better price. My next choice would be 680i but here I only get SLI and a hefty price tag.

Can anybody offer some direction here that would help ease my decision. Would it just be better to wait for X48 or 780i?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Denithor]

Crossfire/SLI generally aren't worth the effort as they don't scale anywhere near 100% (sometimes you get 20% increase, sometimes 50%, but sometimes if the drivers aren't right you lose performance versus a single card).

You are far better off getting a mid-range card now and in a year or so upgrade to another mid-range card. Next year's mid-range card will probably have the performance of this year's highest end cards (for example, last year's mid range was 8600GTS, this year it is 8800GT with nearly the same performance as last year's high end GTX model).

Keep in mind that you can sell your card when you upgrade and as long as you don't wait too long between upgrades you can get a fair price for it to offset the cost of the new card.

So, to address the motherboard question, I would definitely suggest a P35 chipset board. The abit IP35 (or Pro) are great for OC, as are the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3(L or R) boards. Basically just pick a board with the features you want and go for it.

Make sure you have a solid power supply to run your new system (Seasonic, Corsair, and Antec Earthwatts series are all excellent high efficiency units with plenty of power).

One final comment: if I was upgrading my rig right now from what you have, I would go with the e2180 (for about $80-90) and overclock it to >3GHz (here's why). If you use this system mainly for gaming you will notice very little difference between a C2D and a C2Q at this time (not many games truly support/benefit from quad core versus dual core). In about a year (when more games/programs in general are using four cores) pick up a Penryn quad which will overclock better and cooler than the Q6600. The pricing will be good when Nehalem launches and that processor should then last you 1-2 years before you really need anything more.