New build advice, with guidelines!

[quidlor]

So I've had my current box for around 4 years (AMD X2 3800+) and felt it was about time to upgrade!

I have no idea what to get as most sites reviews on things are now 6 months old so new hardware isn't included obviously. I'm looking at spending around $1500 (Canadian, which is still more or less equal to US currency) willing to go higher if it makes sense.


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming, 1st-persons and mostly WoW (the new expansion has a lot of updates gfx and my current box runs avg 18-20fps with gfx settings cut in half or more).
Media center also gets used a lot if that matters, lots of multi-tasking, playing games while watching media center tv, movies, multiple browsers
(I have dual monitors, 19" and 22", want to buy a 24" just not sure what monitor is good for it's price

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
Around $1500 CAN, will go up or down a few hundred

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
Canada

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.
Not really

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
TV Tuner (Hauppage 1600), multiple Hard drives for just storage.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Yes but too many out there with conflicting view points

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
I'll OC, currently my system is OC'd, but don't need to if the system will run fine with what I plan on doing. I only OC'd to push more out of what I already had.

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
I prefer in a 1-2 months, however again I've heard conflicting arguments on waiting for Core i7.

----------------------
Old post:
CPU - Intel Quade Core ???? I don't mind OC
CPU cooling - whatever is good to keep temps down without sounding like a jet engine
Motherboard - preferably good on board audio with some good bells and whistles
Memory - 4gigs of what DDR3?
Storage - Either RAID 0 or a nice WD Velociraptor drive
Video - Most likely ATI 4870x2
Case - Doesn't matter, I can pick that one out
PSU - Quiet is better but not at a ridiculous price
----------------------

Any help would be more than appreciated. I was looking for reviews to go by but i'm not having much success, normally I build my own systems which end up turning out "OK" but this time I thought I'd go to the experts for a bit of help.

Thank you for reading!

[Edited] - Included building guidelines while posting on this forum

 

[Blain]

Settle down Jethro

 

[Roguestar]

Don't RAID-0, get a single faster reasonably priced drive such as the WD 640GB.

Go use the stickied threads, for formatting your needs for us and for getting an idea as to what kind of components to look for. You're on the right track so far, except for picking a quad core CPU for gaming. Buy a faster dual core and you'll not be wasting your cash.

You're spending a lot on places you'll not see the most improvement; that 4870X2 is good if you're using a 26" screen and playing at ultra-high resolutions but otherwise you could drop it down a notch. We need to know your needs. Use the sticky.

DDR2 not DDR3, you're not on a massive budget here and we don't want you to waste cash. Use the sticky.


Edit: Didn't notice until I had posted that you had two threads, for some reason. I defer my advice to my previous post, in this case. Wait until i7 comes out and makes Core 2 cheap.

 

[quidlor]

Originally posted by: Roguestar

Edit: Didn't notice until I had posted that you had two threads, for some reason. I defer my advice to my previous post, in this case. Wait until i7 comes out and makes Core 2 cheap.

Thanks for your help! Is this on the basis that the server chips will be released first? If I only have to wait 1-2 months that's fine, I can do that. Otherwise I'd rather upgrade now.

 

[quidlor]

Posted twice for some reason.

 

[quidlor]

OK, despite what I've been told, I want to go ahead and build one because I'm just a very impatient person. Could anyone be of some assistance in putting together some parts.

The places I'll be buying from will be either www.canadacomputers.com www.tigerdirect.ca or www.ncix.com (CAN)

Thanks for everyone's advice so far.

 

[Roguestar]

FYI Newegg have a canadian store at www.newegg.ca now.

If you're gaming and running TV at the same time, dual-core may still be fine for you, but to be honest I might go for a quad if you're going to be running a media centre on the other monitor, playing games on the main monitor, and standard browsing etc in the other monitor all at once. You're going to want 8GB of RAM for that, likely. Bearing those suggestions in mind, use the other sticky for parts suggestions; you're looking at something like Q9550 / 8GB DDR2-800 / P45 motherboard / 4870 1GB / WD 1TB Caviar Black, for that kind of setup. Don't RAID-0.

 

[quidlor]

Would it not be better to go with a Q6600 (and overclock it) and a 4870x2? Rather than the better CPU with a lesser video card?

 

[Blain]

You're asking about next generation CPU's but want to buy a last generation processor?
Something's not adding up here... :roll:

 

[quidlor]

Nah I said to myself screw it, who knows how long I could be waiting. If it's only to save a few bucks for price drops happening to CPU's then I don't care much for a few bucks. I'm not broke, just have other plans for money so don't want to drop a fortune on a new computer.

so if I were to be able to pick up a new core i7 processor for what current mid range C2D's are going for then sure I'll wait the 1-2 months. I have a feeling that won't be the case though since I remember reading that they're releasing server proc's first.

 

[Roguestar]

Core i7 CPUs will be more expensive, will require more expensive motherboards and will require more expensive DDR3.

 

[sao123]

I am also building a wow system... I recommend a higher clocked intel (3.0+) system. Dual core (E8400-E8600) is probably better here, because of higher clock per price.

Ive read 2 different tests which both say the same thing.
Here is one of them.
WOW generally performs better on Nvidia GPUs, and is more CPU intensive than GPU intensive.

Wow also gains nothing from CF/SLI/x2, so i chose an EVGA GTX260 Core 216. While it is slower in heavy GPU applications (most FPS games) it outperforms the 4870 in most RPG's and RTS's.
(The types of games i play most = WOW and Command and Conquer)
and in this case, this is the card you want for WOW.

 

[Roguestar]

Even the 8800GT is more than enough for WoW. We're talking about an old game here after all. Any current graphics card will more than run it fine, so when choosing a graphics card you should not consider specifically whether it gets 234fps or 256fps in WoW but rather, which card out of all the new ones that'll plough through WoW without effort, will perform better overall. That's the smarter approach.

Edit: The "test" linked in the post above only compares one previous generation ATI card to two previous generation nVidia cards and a current gen nVidia card. I wouldn't take it very seriously.