Help me design my next computer.

Code Monkey · 02-04-2007, 11:17 AM

I will be building a new computer this summer and am looking for your input. I need to get up to speed on the latest and greatest. So offer up your bits of info. It's been five years since i built my current one so I have a lot to catch up on. FYI, I will never use AMD or ATI so you may recommend it but I won't use it for personal reasons.

I am really interested in the Intel Quad CPU's. I use a lot of processor intentsive programs. My current system is a dual cpu. I am also into gaming so it is going to have some power at the core and on the graphics end.

Anyway, feel free to offer up some advice on the recent developements in the computer world.

No mac or off topic posts please.

Loco · 02-04-2007, 07:13 PM

how much are you looking to spend ?
I can get you a few builds listed

Code Monkey · 02-04-2007, 07:20 PM

I am just looking for info on specific new components individually. I will design it when I have all the info. I used to do nothing but build gaming systems untill I wandered into the software side of things. But it's been awhile now and I am out of the loop on what's hot and what's not. I will have several thousand dollars to build it.

I'm thinking I want to go SLi so I will need a heavy power supply that's for sure. I hear SLi 2.0 will allow missmatched cards as well. Though it most likely means the lowest card speed will be the controlling factor.

Code Monkey · 02-04-2007, 07:22 PM

I'm liking this Abit board right now. I have always been a fan of Abit. Abit IN9 32X-MAX

Yvgeniy · 02-05-2007, 09:14 PM

See, Quad CPU's are pretty good, but you don't want to go too far with that. Dual Core was okay, but Quad is sort of overdoing it in my opinion. I don't mean that it's a bad thing, necessarily, but I don't feel that Quads will live up to its full potential. Why? Because even a Dual Core needs to have programs specifically programmed for it in order for it to go full speed. Basically, when you make applications or programs you have to program the division of the program's parts amongst the cores, meaning, which core uses which part of the program. Most programs aren't really programmed like this and it's actually more expensive to do it and more tedious for obvious reasons. So... but unless this is done the Quad core will not necessarily improve your performance by much because it's likely that whatever application your'e running will only be run by a single core and the other 3 will be free.

At least that's my understanding of it. I don't know how they handle this. Because I also heard about cores that go beyond 4, etc. and I think that that's pretty pointless and inefficient.

As far as SLI goes... I have SLI. It's pretty good and works better than a single graphics card, but you may experience weird problems with it. Since SLI technology is still new and since games aren't typically made to be compatible with SLI (unless perhaps the new ones), you may find that some of your games behave in odd ways. Essentially I find that there are some compatibility issues with SLI. This is also often dependent on the 3D settings for your graphics cards, but from personal experience I found that some things are just weird. For example, I get screen lag from certain games at times even though my system specs are WAY higher then even the recommended settings. Playing these same games with a single card tends to improve performance (unless it's too much for one card to handle).

I would say go with a Core Duo, a high end Nvidia card (or SLI), around 2GB of RAM, and a 10,000RPM SATA hard drive (fast mother!).

Code Monkey · 02-05-2007, 10:28 PM

Well, it's not a matter of wether applications can use all four cpu's. Operating Systems from windows 2000 an up allow you to assign applications to specific cpu's. So for me being able to asign apps I use together to different cpu's is a plus. I have been using multiple processors for some time now and when used properly it can really make for true mutlitasking. I use Photoshop alot and that will use multiple cpu's. Most software compilers will use them all and that is a plus.

Yvgeniy · 02-06-2007, 12:49 PM

Oh, I don't doubt that, it'll certainly improve your performance. I guess what I was trying to say didn't quite come out right, but basically I was making a general point on the increase in CPU's. I've heard of systems with 6 and up. It sucks because I still don't have a Core Duo, so I'm stuck with a single processor, but it's not a bad one, AMD Athlon 64 FX-55. I'm normally an Intel guy, but I won this PC as the grand prize in a random drawing from BioWare, so I can't really complain (otherwise I would have probably never owned SLI, hehe). But yeah... I do a lot of multitasking and video editing, which is extremely taxing on your system especially when you're working with like 30GB's worth of files in the timeline. Latest Macs with Final Cut Pro typically tend to handle that pretty well, but I don't really like Macs with the exception of use with Final Cut Pro (best editing software currently).

Also uhm... I actually saw an advertisement for supposedly the world's fastest PC to date. It cost a hell of a lot of money but I recall its specs being pretty sweet. Technology changes pretty fast, though, so I'm pretty sure there's probably something faster out there by now.

Code Monkey · 02-06-2007, 07:46 PM

Free is better than dual.

Yvgeniy · 02-06-2007, 10:37 PM

Yes, definitely. By the way, I always use these two sites to find great deals on hardware. The way it works is they post new deals everyday, so you can keep checking until you spot something you're interested in. I got a 500GB SATA drive off of there for like $130 or so, which is a great deal as far as those go. But you can find all sorts of goodies.

Slickdeals.net

Fatwallet.com

(RSS feeds available for both)