I have enough parts to build two machines...Need advice on making 1 gaming, 1 media center

[dalearyous]

ok computer 1:

given to me (well bare bones, i added some parts):
Gateway Desktop
e6300 core 2 duo
4 gigs corsair DDR2 ram
320 gb hard drive
happauge tv tuner
radeon 1900xtx

computer2:
dual core opteron 175...good stepping, currently running stock 2.2ghz
4 gigs ocz DDR memory
2 10k rpm raptor drives on raid
160gb storage
nvidia 9800gtx

basically here is my question, what would you recommend i do to make one really good computer and all the extra stuff can create a media center pc. overclocking is definately an option because i got my opty to 2.8ghz and it was stable. however i know the e6300 overclocks very nice...but it has crap for a motherboard in it (buying a new mobo isn't out of the question). from what i have heard, is there are mixed feelings, half saying overclocked opty is better other half saying buy a new mobo and overclock the e6300 (especially since it has ddr2 memory).

any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. i hope this post makes more sense than my last one which got kinda off subject.

OH ONE MORE THING, windows xp or vista? 32 bit or 64? dual boot? i am currently die hard xp only fan. however, every where i read vista seems to perform better with new games (IE age of conan, crysis, and other memory intensive games). i am very familiar with both and like the networking side of vista more anyway.

 

[ther00kie16]

You can really go either way cuz the video card's going to be the big factor. Seeing as how you have a 9800gtx, I doubt it's going to make much of a difference which CPU you use for gaming.

 

[dalearyous]

...and what version of windows do you recommend?

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Vista 64.

 

[dalearyous]

...anyone else?

 

[lxskllr]

Vista64

 

[WraithETC]

Check if that tv tuner will work with 4 gigs of ram. There are many hauppauge cards that do not when 4gigs + 64bit os is used.

 

[dalearyous]

i think i might stick with vista 32bit because i don't want to deal with inconsistent operating system

 

[dalearyous]

computer 1: 3dmark05 vista home premium: 10603
computer 2: 3dmark05 vista ultimate: 12800

that seem about right?
did not change hardware from original post and no overclocking yet

 

[MarcVenice]

Hmmm, I would have put the 9800gtx together with the e6300, when overclocked the e6300 will be lots faster. The 2.2ghz opteron might actually be bottlenecking that 9800gtx, I'm pretty sure it does in more CPU intensive games like WiC for example. But it could also be a bottleneck in Crysis. And I'm sure there will be more games where a 9800gtx can't be used to it's fullest potential with a mere 2.2ghz optie.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: dalearyous
computer 1: 3dmark05 vista home premium: 10603
computer 2: 3dmark05 vista ultimate: 12800

that seem about right?
did not change hardware from original post and no overclocking yet

That doesn't seem right at all. the 2 scores should be close to identical, with only normal variances between benchmarks. This is assuming both are the same flavor(64 or 32 bit). If your Ultimate is 64bit, the higher score could be explained by more usable memory.