Need help on Q6600 gaming components!

[karioskasra]

I used to be into this stuff a long time ago but has since phased out of the scene, hence your help would be appreciated in upgrading from my system (7800gtx, x2-3800 manchester)

I generally multitask a lot. 4GB of ram is practically required, though I do not want to switch to Vista just yet. Will I be capped at 3gb if I buy 2x2gb modules under XP? Is overclocking with 2x2gb modules bad enough that I should just stick with a 2x1GB set?

Is there a certain e-tailer, or any sort of way, that can get me a G0 stepping or is it a crapshoot when you click the buy button?

Is going from an 8800 320 to an 8800 640 or even an 8800gtx worth it for games that use large textures and Unreal3 games? My LCD runs at 1680x1024.

I'm currently using an OCZ 520W Powerstream, will I need something bigger?

Here's what I'm aiming for: I want to be able to play stuff like Crysis and Unreal 3 at very good detail and 1680x1024 resolution. I also want as much ram as I can cram in there without OVERLY affecting overclockability or performance.


From reading around, here's what I was thinking:

q6600
p35 motherboard (don't really know which one)
2x2gb pc6400
8800 320

What do you think?

 

[Sinn707]

I heard Ncix.com ran out of B3's and only ship G0's, you should still ask them first to make sure though.
The board you should get is Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R, stability, quality, great overclocking features.
Crucial Ballistix has a nice deal on newegg right now, nice DDR2 800 kit, tight timings, overclockable.
I suggest you start with 2GB+XP and then get more if you really need it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146565
The PSU is fine. To play Crysis @ 1680x1050 with good details, 320MB won't be enough. I suggest going with a 640MB GTS minimum and preferably a MSI 8800 GTX for about a $100 more. Also, if you plan to overclock your G0 Q6600, I strongly suggest getting some alternative cooling for it, Tuniq 120 Tower is within the best, you can get it for $47 here:
http://www.xoxide.com/tuniq-t-120-hsf.html

Good luck.

 

[karioskasra]

Thanks a lot for the tips. Ncix seems like they only ship to Canada, and I'm going to hold off till November for a new card. Now if only Vista didn't suck for gaming I could get 4gb and kiss my paging slowdowns goodbye.

 

[Cutthroat]

Vista does not suck for gaming, it works just fine. I get roughly 2% less fps in games, it's too insignificant to notice. If you want to play games like Crysis with DX10 you will need Vista eventually anyway.

NCIX does ship to the USA, you need to go to their US site

 

[theYipster]

I concur that Vista no longer sucks for gaming. In fact, the OS has come a long way over the last nine / ten months (except for X-Fi drivers, which are still awful... but I digress.) In any case, I would recommend getting Vista now and going with the 4 gigs of RAM. As DDR-3 RAM settles in, DDR-2 prices won't be as low as they are now, so it makes sense to do the 4 gig jump today. You'll definitely notice a difference.

However, it is important to note that the prerequisite for utilizing all 4 gigs isn't upgrading to Vista, but upgrading to a 64-bit OS. The reason many people upgrade to Vista when going 4 gigs is that Vista x64 is a much more mature, stable, and supported platform than XP-64. So, when you upgrade to Vista, make sure to get the x64 edition. Otherwise you'll have the same RAM limitations found in XP.

Mark.