Quick question: Building a new PC, AMD or Intel?

[redrumloa]

I'm way behind on PC hardware, my mind is in about 2006 technology. Who is the leader atm in price/performance ratio right now? I don't do cutting edge, I like the most bang for the buck or slightly better.

AMD or Intel? Which CPU and MB do you recommend?
Video card suggestion under ~$250? Dual head prefered.
Hard drive?

Thanks.

[redrumloa]

Thanks guys, I'm leaning towards Intel. I'm also thinking DDR3, is it worth it? Is EVGA an ok brand nowadays :-? So far only DDR3 motherboard I am finding are EVGA.

[redrumloa]

I've placed my order. After being an AMD buyer for 10+ years, I have gone Intel. Here's what I got, feel free to critique.

ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe (Intel P45 Dual DDR3 2000, SATA 3Gb/s, RAID, CrossFireX Ready, PCI-E 2.0)
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66GHz
Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x DIMM-PVS34G1333LLKN 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 Dual Channel)
CoolMax 700W ATX PSU (20+4 pin, Supports SATA, SLI and Cross-Fire)
1TB HD (Perpendicular Recording, SATA 3Gb/s NCQ, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache, Model: ST31000340AS)
Diamond HD4870 (512MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 Video Card.)

Oh yea and let's not forget the 28" wide screen LCD I picked up last night. Good heavens.. That thing is like looking directly into the sun!
 :-o

[redrumloa]

Trev wrote:
Unfortunately, you may or may not see all 4GB, depending on how the motherboard allocates memory resources and whether or not you're running a 32-bit operating system. Don't get mad at the motherboard or operating system, though. It's normal. (If the motherboard and operating system support PAE, you can reclaim it.)

The motherboard darn well better for $225  :lol:

http://www.directron.com/p5q3deluxe.html

# Memory: - 4 x DIMM, max. 16GB, DDR3 2000(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz, Non ECC, un-buffered memory - Dual channel memory architecture - Supports Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)

I will be dual-booting WinXP 64bit and Ubuntu 64bit.

[redrumloa]

redrumloa wrote:
I've placed my order. After being an AMD buyer for 10+ years, I have gone Intel. Here's what I got, feel free to critique.

ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe (Intel P45 Dual DDR3 2000, SATA 3Gb/s, RAID, CrossFireX Ready, PCI-E 2.0)
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66GHz
Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x DIMM-PVS34G1333LLKN 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 Dual Channel)
CoolMax 700W ATX PSU (20+4 pin, Supports SATA, SLI and Cross-Fire)
1TB HD (Perpendicular Recording, SATA 3Gb/s NCQ, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache, Model: ST31000340AS)
Diamond HD4870 (512MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 Video Card.)

 :-o

Well, scratch this system completely. Directron botched the order process, for various reasons I didn't have the patience to hold their hand fixing it. I've bought all the components at CompUSA(Tiger Direct) locally. The system will be similar, but slightly better imo. I'll list the components here tomorrow.

[redrumloa]

Methuselas wrote:
You mean *ALL* those people in that alternate dimension you keep in your pocket, where you get all your Amiga products from don't have any PC sh!t you could get off them?? Pssh, what losers. That's disappointing, Red. You just lost some cool points!

EPIC FAIL!


 :lol: :roflmao:

*runs and hides*

Hey be careful! I'm bigger than you! :smack:

[redrumloa]

Here it goes, final purchase:

EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 (2.66Ghz, 8MB cache)
4GB Corsair DDR3 1333Mhz
GeForce GTX 260
Ultra X3 800 watt power supply

:banana:

And with that, the main PC is going offline to be gutted and updated.

/me crosses fingers

[redrumloa]

amigadave wrote:

What was the final cost for the complete system?

Almost embarrassed to say how much I spent on this upgrade. Just about everything except the case is new, including a 28" LCD monitor. I'm up to about $2,100 total.

[redrumloa]

Dr_Righteous wrote:
MUCH better Red!  :-D

Cool, for the cost of this beast I hope it will cook breakfast for me and massage my feet :lol:

[redrumloa]

redrumloa wrote:
Here it goes, final purchase:

EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 (2.66Ghz, 8MB cache)
4GB Corsair DDR3 1333Mhz
GeForce GTX 260
Ultra X3 800 watt power supply

:banana:

And with that, the main PC is going offline to be gutted and updated.

/me crosses fingers

Update:
I got everything assembled last night and the computer would not turn on at all.
 :headwall:
Turns out, the brand new $200 power supply I bought is defective. I will be returning it today and finally be able to install WintendoXP 64bit and Ubuntu 64bit.

It is probably a good thing I have to return it, because 800 watt is looking to be too little down the road. With a single GTX260 it is sufficient, but if I add 2 more for SLI it requires 1,000watt or better :-o

What a beast this system is going to be, heavy too! The video card must weigh nearly 4lbs!

[redrumloa]

no phun or offence to anyone
just sick of some a.org users complaining of amiga hardware being too expensive (look at price of pc hardware). it all depends what you want to run the computer for... if you're pc user after the gigahertz and latest fastest hw then you do this. (i'm sure vista will crawl on this nicely haha).  

You can't compare the 2, period. I could have bought a full system with monitor for $299, or I could have built one cheaper. I went closer to cutting edge and no way it will be obsolete in 1-2 years. The raw computing power will be insane, and there will be plenty of room to upgrade.

I only installed 4GB DDR3 1333, the board can take up to 16GB DDR3 2000.

I only installed a Intel Quad 2.66Ghz CPU, I can upgrade in the furute.

I only installed one GeForce GTX 260. The board supports SLI 3x16, so I can add 2 more GTX 260 down the road, or 3 newer GFX cards should I feel like it.

I don't do Vista, I'm going to dual boot Ubuntu 64bit and WinXP 64bit. Both of which will fly.

I have nothing bad to say about Sam, but you cannot compare a Sam to a modern semi-cutting edge PC. You have to compare a Sam to a 6-10 year old PC and when you do that the price of a Sam looks painful.

One more note. On second thought a fully decked out Sam with , 1TB hard drive, OS4.1 and a 28" LCD etc would be in the same price ballpark of what I just paid.

Yet another note. AmigaForever (UAE) on my computer will run circles around OS4.1 on a Sam. Keep that in mind.

[redrumloa]

redrumloa wrote:

Update:
I got everything assembled last night and the computer would not turn on at all.
 :headwall:
Turns out, the brand new $200 power supply I bought is defective. I will be returning it today and finally be able to install WintendoXP 64bit and Ubuntu 64bit.

More :headwall: today. I was having major headaches getting this system set up. It was terribly unstable and finally started giving me BSOD's. I ended up running memory tests and 2 of the memory sticks failed the test, meaning another trip to CompUSA to exchange the bad RAM.

FINALLY I am up and humming. I picked up Dead Space and Fallout 3, gonna play some tonight. Tomorrow AmigaForever gets installed.

[redrumloa]

by Atheist on 2008/11/12 6:49:55  
So Redrumloa,  
How's she handling? Must be dreamy, having such a speed demon system!

Every since I exchanged the RAM it has been sweet, rock solid stable. I've only really pushed it with one new game "Dead Space", it flies full speed with all gfx options maxed out. truly amazing! This is with just one GTX 260, added 2 more in SLI would truly be nutty overkill at this time.

I look forward to trying some video conversions to see the speed.