Yeah I just the article on leaked Nehalem at engadget, It will be a different socket. Thus starting all over in a different board, which will take time to mature. I really appreciate all the help and patience with me guys. Starting back from the top.
My gaming habits, really aren't into shooters like Crysis. 90% of my gaming is with Strat's, SIMS, and RPGS: Black & White 2, Age of Empires 2/3, Heroes of Might and Magic V, Neverwinter nights 2, Civ IV, Sim City, Starcraft, Diablo, WoW (retired), etc...
So my gaming habits will be around genre's of this type. My old PC the 6800GT etc, that PC is Dead. Completely. I was out of town, and i came home it didn't work anymore. Vid Card was ruined, mobo, etc. I chunked the parts on ebay not to long ago. I've been using my E1705 laptop, which unfornuately has an onboard 945gm graphics *ugh* Yet it did play HoMaM IV, BW2, WOW, etc
The games that I will be playing on the new rig will be Supreme Commander (REALLY wanna play this) and Starcraft II whenever Blizzards releases that (REALLY REALLY CANT WAIT FOR THAT) For gaming I've been just playin with my XBOX 360, and PS3. But I'm yearning to go back to Computer Gaming again. When I would play Age of Empires III on LAN with my roommate on my laptop, whenever we swarmed each other, the laptop would completely fart out. So i'm going to retire this laptop obviously, to strictly just surfing and give it to the wife.
So with all this in mind, dropping the bar a bit on what I should get. Let's say go back to the best for the buck scenario then. I still want to stick with the e8400, there's not much a difference between it and the Q6600 from what I can see. Except for the fact the e8400 is a 45nm so that means it runs cooler than a 65nm correct? Also it uses less electricity, someone stated $5 less a month in electrical costs itself by going the the e8400 instead of the Q6600? Run benchmarks between the Q6600 and the E8400 there wasn't that much a difference in Supreme Commander? So, I'm still leaning towards the E8400.
Now as for a video card, review of the 9800x2 at toms shows supreme commander at 2560x1600 AA4+AF8X running on the Gx2 at 55.4fps, 3870X2 at 39.1fps, and 8800ultra at 29.7 9800x2 taking the crown. I think I still want to stick with a 9800x2, by the time I build this I'm sure the problems with its driver's will be fixed by then, if not already fixed now.
That leaves me next to Memory. Some of you guys said DDR-800, some DDR-1000. Doing just a quick look on pricewatch. 4GB kit of DDR2-800 lists at 65.98, 4GB for DDR2-1000 lists at $153 and 4GB of DDR2-1066 lists at $159.99 Is there really that much of a difference between DDR2-800 and DDR2-1066? Prices between 1000 and 1066 are ignificant so I will refer to just the 800 vs 1066. What kind of improvement will I see between 800 and 1066? Go with the 800 $66 route? and go for 8GB at $132 or go with 4GB of 1066 at $160?
Then there's the Motherboard? There's so many choices in motherboards what in the world to pick? I'm definately going to get the E8400 and 9800x2, so? P35 board? X38 board? 600i series? which one? lol.
Then there's the PSU. 338 watts was what I think the 9800 x2 card maxed out on in tests, so let's say 400w dedicated just for it. benchmarks on the E8400 showed it idled at 119w, and load was 160w - so let's say 200w for it. We're already up to 600w or 498W real wattage on just these two alone! So what can I expect to add for that with say: Each hard drive, each 2gb stick of ram, add-on drives (Cd, DVD, Blu-ray), fans, etc. Could I get away with a 600w or should I go for at least 800w-1000w ? Which companies nowadays make quality PSU's?.......One person earlier said go with Modular, years back when Modular's first start surfening people said avoid them because of power leakage...is that still a problem?
Air, Water or Peltier? I've avoided water in the past because of the fear of goofin' it up, So what's the story now? Also while back, I read something about 3M having some kind of liquid material that you could actually SUBMERGE electrical equipment into...I don't remember what the stuff was called, it was non-conductive (obviously) anyone done this yet with computers?
Looking at Microcenter on most of this MWave for the 9800GX2 you can get and other sites:
Corsair XMS2 4GB PC-6400 DDR2 Memory Kit for $79.99 (after rebate)
$160 for 8GB
OCZ 4GB PC-6400 DDR2 Memory Kit for $69.99 (after rebate)
$140 for 8GB
Intel E8400 CPU
$199.99
PNY XLR8 Geforce 9800 GX2 1GB DDR3 PCI EPRESS 2.0
$529.84
Antec Performance One P182 ATX Tower
$69.99
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU cooler
$62.90 or water cooling peltier? etc?
That leaves me undecided on PSU, Motherboard, and What form of Cooling to use? Also what's the best Hard drive to go with nowadays? I've read that the new gen hard drives are about as good as Raptors So what hard drive would you guys pick? I prefer Seagate, I BIG fat NO, on maxtor, I had 2 of 3 of them to brick out on me.
With this line-up so far i'm looking at $940 (Memory, processor, chassis, video card)
Not counting Mobo, PSU, Cooling method, Hard drive.
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