i need a 64bit Intel mobo and proc. ive been out of the hardware loop for a while now so tell me, whats the most badass mobo and proc i can buy right now? and what would be the AMD comparison of this?
if you got the money for build the mother of all pc's The Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 Conroe is what ur looking for. Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz LGA 775 Processor - Retail at Newegg.com but if thats a lil bit out of ur price range then the next one down would be The Intel Duo 2 Core E6700 Conroe is just as hot Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor - Retail at Newegg.com the new Duo 2 Cores outperform what amd has out rite now in comparison. the AMD's offering is the AMD 64 X2 on the AM2(940) socket which i guess the best one would be AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor - Retail at Newegg.com but which is still outperformed by the E6700 motherboards im still lookin on one for my build. soo i can offer advice.
If money's no option, then you have 2 choices: nVidia: XFX Geforce 7950GX2 PVT71UZDF9 Xtreme Video Card - Retail at Newegg.com @ $579.99 & ATi: ATI 100-505090 FireGL V7100 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail @ $599.99 I am more aware of the nVidia market, so I just based it around nVidia's top GPU Price and ATi's alternative. Hope this helps.
The FireGL's are CAD/Workstation cards. The Radeon X1950XTX is ATi's top contender. One X1950XTX is comparable to a GeForce 7950.
this is ATi powerhosue to compete with teh 7950gx2 ATI's Radeon X1950XTX: You Say You Want A RAM Revolution | Tom's Hardware
ok so its looking like the Intel core2 extreme, raedon x1950 (although i cant find it for sale... is it not out yet?) , the Intel® Desktop Board D975XBX, and then i have to decide on memory. it will probably be 2x "2GB 667MHz DDR2 CL5 DIMM " do i want ECC or non ECC? i understand ECC is "better", but i have heard there is a performance hit because of it. opinion?
You do not want ECC and you want to use DDR2 533 memory, not 667, unless you plan on overclocking. Also, you chose a CrossFire board. So unless you wish to get two video cards, you can look at other boards and save some cash there. Also, instead of getting the x1950xtx, you should get the x1950 CrossFire. It's got the same clocks as the x1950xtx and it's got the same MSRP, but it's a CF master card, which means you can couple it with another to get CrossFire. (i.e. 2 x1950xtx won't work in CrossFire together, at least one of the two has to be a CF master card, like the x1950 CF for instance). Even if you don't plan on using CF, get the CF version because if you change your mind, you'll already have it, plus its resell value will probably be higher than the plain xtx. ATI only paperlaunched their new cards, they'll become available soon. Good article on the new ATI cards/lineup. AnandTech: ATI's New High End and Mid Range: Radeon X1950 XTX & X1900 XT 256MB
thank you. could you give me an understanding as to why i want DDR2 533 and not 667? ill be ordering most of this stuff this coming week and i want to get it all right
The FSB on a Core 2 Duo is 1066 mhz, so 2x533mhz. So the memory has to run at 533mhz in order to keep up. The idea between getting faster RAM is that if you overclock, it will be something less to worry about. I've also read that running the memory synchronously with the FSB helps the system perform better, better than if the memory was clocked higher actually.
