Mobo for a new build ?'s

[L00ker]

So I am planning a build it's not going to be a hardcore gaming rig but I want it to have some balls, I have been out of the system building thing for a while (been limited to laptops) and want to build a rig that will be suitable for doom3 and Quake4 while not being insanely expensive, these are the basic specs I am looking to build to and am looking for some recommendations as to what I am looking to build and would like some basic hardware recommendations for mobo/ram/video (those are my main priorities)

1.5gb ram probably paired 2x512 mb and 2x256 so both are dual channel if thats the way to go as 2gb prolly isn't really needed (or is it?)

~3.2Ghz Intel processor with Dual Core (Or is HT enough?)

Video with 256MB (512 seems to be a little overkill for my needs) I am thinking Nvidia 6600 series? also dual monitor would be preferred as CRT's are cheap enough (used and new)

Sound not too important as I will probably be fine with onboard or is sound cheap enough (sub $100) that a decent card will be worth it?

Hard disks probably 300gigs worth of 10k rpm SATA (I work for a storage company so I might be able to get them cheap)

Basically I want to be able to use it for any modern games with ease at 1280x1024 at ~50-60fps or is that unrealistic?

 

[imported_killuminati]

well .
rite now for the CPU , Intel Pentium D 940 (3.2Ghz ) .
but i suggest the upcoming Intel Core Duo2 .which will start from $180 , and release date is end of July .

well i say wait for the mobo , coz nVIDIA just offically released the New 590 and 570 SLI .

and dont gfet the 6600 , get the 7600GS , it for the same price , 4 more Pixelpipelines , Higher Clock rates .
but i suggest the 7600GT , the unlimited Mid-range Beast for around $140 .

Peace & ciao !!!

 

[mb103051]

SLI is not really necessary for great gaming.i believe it is a fad that will go by the wayside with dual gpu cards.if you get an ultra board and a cpu in the 3800 range dual or single core and 2 gigs of ram you will run anything out there.2 gigs will be needed for microsoft vista coming out in 01/2007 plus games love 2 gigs.an amd 3800 dual core and a nvidia ultra or sli 570 board[just dont enable sli if its an sli board].2 gigs of corsair or ocz ram and an asus board,a nvidia 7600 or an ati 1600 video card and your all set for fairly inexpensive.im sticking with amd .conroe is coming out but real world performance wont be noticeable and amd has k8L coming out in early 2007 and it will equal or beat conroe.

 

[Data2k5]

I have a SLi board but do not intend to make use of a second card.
The SLi advantage is meager and does not justify to pay double.

 

[L00ker]

mb103051:
I didn't think SLI was really necesary for gaming, maybe CAD or some other large scale video (HD video editing?) but I figure the chipsets on those motherboards are going to perform a bit better than a non-SLI board. I am kinda an intel fan so I figure 3.2GHz should be good just wasn't sure if the Single Core/Dual Core was really a true performance jump or just another one of intels marketing gimmicks (Who intel???). I was hesitent about 2gigs but memory is always nice to have. So I am thinking 4x512mb DDR2 sticks or is 2x1GB DDR2 just as good(Thinking in terms of bus width here)? and a 7600 series card should be enough for my needs. I am assuming that GT series is the way to go? no GS board?. It sounds like I am on the right path and have reasonable expectations.

 

[will889]

Originally posted by: mb103051
SLI is not really necessary for great gaming.i believe it is a fad that will go by the wayside with dual gpu cards.

I used to think so but what's really driving SLI and Crossfire are the now raging sales of 20.1-30" LCD's with very high native resolutions and demanding games. Until the cards can catch up with only one single high end card being able to get 60 FPS average on a 24" LCD @ 16:9 high res. SLI and Crossfire are here to stay.

If CRT's were still the in thing SLI wouldn't even be popular at all really IMO - with a CRT you can scale the res between 1024x768 and up to 1600x1200and LCD users can't - with LCD's you are stuck at one resolution for the most part and you have to situate your graphics solution around that (and for 24" LCD's to get good high average frame rates you need SLI or crossfire with the newest games), whereas before you could just adjust your monitor's resolution with a CRT to suit your card when it started getting "long-in-the-tooth" . It's about wide screen gaming now.