If you had $2000--what system would you build?

[warcrow]

Lets say you have about $2k to biuld your next gaming rig in anticipation for Crysis and all the great games coming in 2008. What would you do? Would you wait till November to build the thing (Nov 16th release date for Crysis) and see if nVidia or ATI release a new card?

If not, and you were going to biuld a system today--what would you build? The stipulation is that it must have a 8800GTX (No GTS or Ultra).

I'm thinking about going C2D (higher clock speeds on the 2 cores than 4 cores with lower speeds).

Thanks in advanced guys.

*EDIT*

New build so far:

Antec Performance One P180 Silver cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer $129.99

ASUS P5K3 DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - $246.99

EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 $546.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power $124.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775 Processor Model $319.99

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $109.99

 

[Ika]

Wait for G92.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: Aflac
Wait for G92.

Do you know if there is a time frame? I thought nVidia had a a 6 month product refresh, but the 8800 came out in Decmeber didnt it?

edit: Hrm, it's rumored that it's 4 months away.

 

[LightningRider]

Yeah, supposedly November 2007 for the G92.

BTW, I'd go with a Quad Core. Crysis will make use of a Quad Core you know. I think they even said that it will make use of up to 8 cores. I heard them also say when talking about dual and quad cores that Crysis will run best on Quad Cores. UT3 and others also make use of Quad Cores and you can always overclock if you really need to get extra performance.

I think Quad is the smarter investment.

 

[drakore]

Quad cores aren't the easiest to overclock.. However if you aren't into refreshing your system yearly or bi-yearly, a quad core would be a better investment. Right now is kind of a strange time to buy, it is a fairly big transition period for a lot of items. Memory, CPU's, GPU's, DX, and chipsets are all either transitioning or have recently transitioned. Yes this is always going to happen, but usually things are staggered.

For memory, ddr2 stuff is still the way to go just based upon price and performance. The dx10 transition kind of makes it hard to buy new cards. They run hot and are first gen. Personally i always like buying items that have been tested over time.

I am kind of rambling on...

I would wait until the x38 chipset release, and penryn release. Stay with a DDR2 board. Get an 8800GTX or Ultra (depending on price difference, sometimes it can be as low as 50$) You could always look at hold over items. Like a 320 MB GTS until the new G revision.

It is really hard to build for the future because reviews are necessary to pick out items. Cpu's are generally the only thing you could future plan for... maybe memory

 

[wpshooter]

I would not waste my money to build a computer to play games on.

I can think of much better use of my money and my computers.

But to each their own !!!

 

[BadRobot]

If he is going to wait 4 months and he has 2000 dollars, he maybe able to go with ddr3 by then.

If he got the highest grade ddr3 now then it does as well as ddr2 but with a much larger price tag attached to it so it does not make sense. Imagine how it could be in 4-6 months from now...but you can't play the waiting game for ever.

Either wait till the game comes out and then buy your rig with the beset available so you can enjoy it or just do it now because you can only predict that better stuff will come out but you can never predict when. (unless they give a release date and it is only like a few weeks away) november is 3 months way from now, who knows if they won't push it back further.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: drakore
Quad cores aren't the easiest to overclock.. However if you aren't into refreshing your system yearly or bi-yearly, a quad core would be a better investment. Right now is kind of a strange time to buy, it is a fairly big transition period for a lot of items. Memory, CPU's, GPU's, DX, and chipsets are all either transitioning or have recently transitioned. Yes this is always going to happen, but usually things are staggered.

For memory, ddr2 stuff is still the way to go just based upon price and performance. The dx10 transition kind of makes it hard to buy new cards. They run hot and are first gen. Personally i always like buying items that have been tested over time.

I am kind of rambling on...

I would wait until the x38 chipset release, and penryn release. Stay with a DDR2 board. Get an 8800GTX or Ultra (depending on price difference, sometimes it can be as low as 50$) You could always look at hold over items. Like a 320 MB GTS until the new G revision.

It is really hard to build for the future because reviews are necessary to pick out items. Cpu's are generally the only thing you could future plan for... maybe memory

I like the rambling.

Here is something I peiced together. So, DDR2 is the way to go--not DDR3?

I also dont plan on OC anything.

My only hitch right now, is the GPU. I'm on the frence right now because I dont have a lot of faith in the 9800 cards the might be coming out in November. not because of the hardware, but because of the drivers. Isnt nvida's Vista drivers just barely coming into stability? Here is where I'm heading right now (but am still very open of course to change).

*Removed due to part changes. See OP*

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: BadRobot
If he is going to wait 4 months and he has 2000 dollars, he maybe able to go with ddr3 by then.

If he got the highest grade ddr3 now then it does as well as ddr2 but with a much larger price tag attached to it so it does not make sense. Imagine how it could be in 4-6 months from now...but you can't play the waiting game for ever.

Either wait till the game comes out and then buy your rig with the beset available so you can enjoy it or just do it now because you can only predict that better stuff will come out but you can never predict when. (unless they give a release date and it is only like a few weeks away) november is 3 months way from now, who knows if they won't push it back further.

What speed DDR2 are you reffering to? I just checked Newegg and there are a TON of different speeds. PC2 10000?

 

[warcrow]

Ok, updated OP with new build and removed the DDR3 for DDR2.

 

[jkresh]

there is no point buying now for crysis. X38 will be nice (especially if it actualy can handle sli), and g92 should be a big jump over anything out now (and should be out around crysis). If g92 is still a few weeks out when crysis comes out you could always pick up an evga card and setup up to g92 when it is ready. Aslo while ati's vista drivers are better then nvidia's right now, nvidia has had good drivers for a long time and they will have legitimate vista drivers at some point., also the difference between vista and xp in terms of gaming benchmarks has been shrinking with each driver release.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: jkresh
there is no point buying now for crysis. X38 will be nice (especially if it actualy can handle sli), and g92 should be a big jump over anything out now (and should be out around crysis). If g92 is still a few weeks out when crysis comes out you could always pick up an evga card and setup up to g92 when it is ready. Aslo while ati's vista drivers are better then nvidia's right now, nvidia has had good drivers for a long time and they will have legitimate vista drivers at some point., also the difference between vista and xp in terms of gaming benchmarks has been shrinking with each driver release.

I wonder if nVidia will push back the release of G92--I guess thats one of my concerns. The other, is that the initial drivers will probably be a little unstable at first since that seems to be the trend with new tech and driver support (depsite nVidia having fantastic driver support).

I'm going to have to look into the X38--havent heard anything about it. I'm just not into the tech scene like I use to be.