Need Advice. Building Multimedia/Gaming Machine

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msian

93 posts

Master Geek

#26102 11-Sep-2008 21:54

Hey Guys. Need some advice. But before I list my specifications I have right now, its important to know what im looking for.
Well, I have never been a serious gamer. I play really old games like cs/red alert cause I never owned a high end graphics card in my life, but I do alot of surfing, downloading, and love watching movies.

Now, im fed up of being bored, so I decided to build something that will allow me to play the latest games, and provide me with a stable and fast computer while I multitask, watch my movies etc. I guess you get the point. Another point to note is that I will not overclock it nor do i know how to. So it will be used as it comes.

These are my specs I have chosen for now:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz 8M 1.06GHz (Many versions of this like G0 and so on - whats the diff?)
Asustek P5Q Deluxe Intel P45 (I chose this mobo for now but do I need to spend on this? There are cheaper ones, no?)
CoolerMaster HAF 932 as opposed to antec900 (heard roomier for cables)
Zalman ZM750-HP 750 W PSU (I chose 750 watts to be safe.. whats sufficient?)
Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF DDR2-1066 4GB Kit RAM

SAPPHIRE/HIS Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5

Western Digital 640GB 7200rpm SATA (Should i buy 2 of these? For RAID? heard raid is good n stuff.. no idea really)

So what do you think guys? My main concerns are the mobo and if i need 2 HDD. Please do comment. If my questions are too "basic and noobish" please excuse me as its my first build and I am kinda lost. Cheers.

eXDee

4032 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#163889 11-Sep-2008 23:16

For games and general usage i strongly reccommend dual core, eg e8500 which is the same price as the Q6600 but for non multi threaded applications it'll be a lot faster. A lot of people don't understand that games/other programs have to be written specifically to utilise quad core. This takes a fair bit of coding apparently, and its a waste of man power having people code this instead of getting the rest of the game done, so most game companies will only integrate dual core, since that's what their main market uses.
Yes in the future games will support quad core more and there are a couple that utilise it, but for the next few years they will mainly be optimized for dual core, because it's only smart to make it for the masses. Look at Valve, i think most of their source games are currently only single core, which will run a lot faster on a dual core rather than quad.
Quad core is better for video encoding and servers and similar applications, but imo not for gaming and general usage just yet.

G0 etc - thats the stepping. Only really makes a diffence for heat slightly for normal speeds, but has big implications on overclocking.

P5Q Deluxe - may as well go for the P5E if you want to spend that much on a mobo, which would allow for full 16x crossfire if you decided to add a second 4870 (excessive power), though i'd drop it to the P5Q Pro, saves money and not much difference between Pro and Deluxe.

PSU - go for the Corsair 620hx. 750w is excessive. You could even run two 4870's on 620w. This one is quiet and is modular meaning no cable mess. Yay.

Sapphire is nicer than HIS, longer warranty i think otherwise they are identical because they are reference boards.

RAID - probably not worth the hassle and requires you to know what you're doing, combined with consumer RAID obviously not as good as enterprise RAID. Just go for a nice fast drive like the Samsung Spinpoint F1 series, they have the fastest seek times and transfer rates, check reviews if you must. 750gb or 1TB, i have a 750.

msian

93 posts

Master Geek

#163893 11-Sep-2008 23:29

eXDee: For games and general usage i strongly reccommend dual core, eg e8500 which is the same price as the Q6600 but for non multi threaded applications it'll be a lot faster. A lot of people don't understand that games/other programs have to be written specifically to utilise quad core. This takes a fair bit of coding apparently, and its a waste of man power having people code this instead of getting the rest of the game done, so most game companies will only integrate dual core, since that's what their main market uses.
Yes in the future games will support quad core more and there are a couple that utilise it, but for the next few years they will mainly be optimized for dual core, because it's only smart to make it for the masses. Look at Valve, i think most of their source games are currently only single core, which will run a lot faster on a dual core rather than quad.
Quad core is better for video encoding and servers and similar applications, but imo not for gaming and general usage just yet.

G0 etc - thats the stepping. Only really makes a diffence for heat slightly for normal speeds, but has big implications on overclocking.

P5Q Deluxe - may as well go for the P5E if you want to spend that much on a mobo, which would allow for full 16x crossfire if you decided to add a second 4870 (excessive power), though i'd drop it to the P5Q Pro, saves money and not much difference between Pro and Deluxe.

PSU - go for the Corsair 620hx. 750w is excessive. You could even run two 4870's on 620w. This one is quiet and is modular meaning no cable mess. Yay.

Sapphire is nicer than HIS, longer warranty i think otherwise they are identical because they are reference boards.

RAID - probably not worth the hassle and requires you to know what you're doing, combined with consumer RAID obviously not as good as enterprise RAID. Just go for a nice fast drive like the Samsung Spinpoint F1 series, they have the fastest seek times and transfer rates, check reviews if you must. 750gb or 1TB, i have a 750.

Hi thanks for your reply. I understand that games only utilise dual core and all that, however quad will be better for multi tasking. no? And since its about the same price I thought id go for the quad core. I will probably use this pc for 4-5 years so I thought quad would be better.

As for the mobo, I agree with you when you suggested P5Q Pro, I am also looking at that motherboard however, it seems that the expressgate feature has to be installed on a hard drive and wont be on the rom like in the deluxe. And also it is 8phase vs 16 phase of deluxe (does this mean anything?)

And one more thing is, do I need any cooling? I just plan to have a good case with good ventilation, and I may add some fans maybe 1-2. Is this sufficient? PC may be on for 12 hours in a row or so even if im away.

Will go with your advise and go for sapphire then, and as for the PSU will definitely look at the one you recommended.

Thanks