Buying a new rig

[Spino]

You're right, there is - Flightsims!

I can't go until Fall without my airplanes. I'll go bonkers. I need my own rig. Soon.

Sounds like you're addicted. Maybe an intervention is in order...

Well if that's the case then spend away. I do recommend that you refrain from purchasing a quad processor as they're simply too damn expensive right now to justify the cost. Intel's E6600 cost about the same as the Athlon 64 6000 and is only a wee bit slower than the E6700 or E6800 chips.

Stay AWAY from the cheapest X-Fi card, the X-Fi Audio. The X-Fi Audio card does not come equipped with the lauded X-Fi 20KX DSP chip but sports either a lesser version or a completely different DSP chip altogether. The difference will not be big if you're just doing 2D sound but the lack of a decent DSP chip will have an effect if your in-game sound options are cranked all the way up and you have 3D sound or EAX enabled. Consider nothing less than the X-Fi Gamer or if you can find it, the older X-Fi Music card. Since you're a sim junkie then you know that you need all the free CPU horsepower your system can spare so don't cheap out on the sound card.

Also be sure to get two sticks of RAM instead of one, this way you'll be able to take advantage of the speed benefits of a dual channel memory configuration.

[Beirut]

Stay AWAY from the cheapest X-Fi card, the X-Fi Audio. The X-Fi Audio card does not come equipped with the lauded X-Fi 20KX DSP chip but sports either a lesser version or a completely different DSP chip altogether. The difference will not be big if you're just doing 2D sound but the lack of a decent DSP chip will have an effect if your in-game sound options are cranked all the way up and you have 3D sound or EAX enabled. Consider nothing less than the X-Fi Gamer or if you can find it, the older X-Fi Music card. Since you're a sim junkie then you know that you need all the free CPU horsepower your system can spare so don't cheap out on the sound card.

I'll check that out. I read the PC Gamer review that said all the cards have the exact same base technology.

[Stuperman]

If you 'play' a lot of flight sims at reall high Resolutions (1600x1200 or >) then I'd recommend as much video memory as possible, as bigger resolution resolution means more textures in memory. I'd say go for the 640mb 8800gts at least, and consider the 768MB GTX if you want to .

As other's have said Intel is cutting prices by as much as 50% on July 22nd, I just picked up a Gigabyte mobo and E4300 to hold me over till the quad cores are cheap.

and REMEMBER!!! a cheap power supply can kill a whole rig, and you want lotas amps on the 12v line, the Enermax Liberty series are some of the best.

@Spino - no black friday in Canada :(

[Beirut]

As other's have said Intel is cutting prices by as much as 50% on July 22nd, I just picked up a Gigabyte mobo and E4300 to hold me over till the quad cores are cheap.

I will Googlefy that rumeresque storification.

[Spino]

I will Googlefy that rumeresque storification.

No need...

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7293

Intel set to cut prices ahead of AMD's "Barcelona" launch
Last week, AMD talked about its desktop plans for the upcoming year in Sunnyvale, California. Although AMD showed its upcoming desktop processor running in single and dual-socket configurations, the company chose not to announce an official launch date for its next-generation desktop processors. According to Robert Rivet, AMD executive vice president and CFO, however, AMD's next-generation processors will be ready by Christmas.

Despite how distant the possible December launch date of AMD's native quad-core desktop processors may seem, Intel is already stepping up the competition and will be instituting a series of aggressive price cuts in July. We originally reported these major price cuts, which will be targeting Intel's quad-core desktop and server processors, in March. At the time, we didn't know the official date of when the price cuts would take place. We can confirm today that the price cuts will take place on July 22.

Intel Core 2 Quad
Model Core Frequency L2 Cache FSB July 22 Pricing
QX6800 2.93 GHz 8MB 1066 MHz $999
Q6700 2.66 GHz 8MB 1066 MHz $530
Q6600 2.40 GHz 8MB 1066 MHz $266

The first part of the price cuts will center on Intel's quad-core desktop processors. The Q6600, which Intel launched in February, currently sells for $530 in quantities of 1000. When the product was originally launched, it was priced at $851 in quantities of 1000. The next round of price cuts will effectively lower the price to $266. The selling price of the Intel QX6700 will also be lowered, coming in at $530 by the end of July.

Intel Quad Core Xeon DP
Model Core Frequency L2 Cache FSB July 22 Pricing
X5365 3.00 GHz 8MB 1333 MHz $1172
X5355 2.66 GHz 8MB 1333 MHz $744
E5345 2.33 GHz 8MB 1333 MHz $455
E5335 2.00 GHz 8MB 1333 MHz $316
E5320 1.86 GHz 8MB 1066 MHz $256
E5310 1.60 GHz 8MB 1066 MHz $209
L5320 1.86 GHz 8MB 1066 MHz $320
L5310 1.60 GHz 8MB 1066 MHz $273

Intel is also slashing the prices of its quad core Xeon DP processors. The flagship Xeon DP X5355 will see its introductory $1172 price drop to a more manageable $744. Likewise, Intel's slowest 1333MHz FSB Xeon DP processor will drop to $316 while the Intel's two low-voltage Xeon DP L5320 and L5310 processors will fall to $320 and $273 respectively.

Or just check this chart out...




Which I got here...

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...13348&t=515717

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Wheres my E6400 and 6600 or are these the replacements?

[Beirut]

No need...

Thanks!

[Husar]

There is one thing however, that makes me wonder whether getting such a thing would always make sense. The thing is Win XP and it's because I read that Vista is only really optimized for Quad Cores, once you get to more Cores, it won't get you optimal performance or whatever. Since XP is even older than Vista and had to get some patches to get Dual Cores working correctly, I wonder how it will handle Quad Cores?
Also keep in mind that Intel Quad Cores currently use twice the energy of their Dual Core counterparts and most games don't really use the cores anyway so far. Of course you can then run two games simultaneously if your graphicscard allows it(how about two cards without SLI, one for each game?)

[sapi]

I'm strongly against quad cores, even if you can call the current intel chips quad; they're not actually quad cores but two dual core dies on the same chip.

That causes heat and memory optimisation problems, as early dual cores experienced; and not only will you get next to no performance increase (over a dual core), you'll be paying a lot more for a hotter chip.

[Beirut]

Just got it!

It took a lot of hard work to cover this baby but it's on the desk beside me.

The end result:

E6700 CPU (Thanks Sapi for kicking me in the Intel direction.)
ASUS P5N-E-SLI MB
BFG 8800GTS OC 640MB
2GB Corsair 800Mhz RAM
X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card
Western Digital 250GB + 80GB HD
OCZ Gamer Stealth Xtream 600w PSU
Antec 900 case (Very cool, full of blue lights.)

And, for some unknown reason (thank you Lord), the guy I work with has decided to take the day off tomorrow. Whatever will I do with myself all day...

FLY!

[TosaInu]

Enjoy Beirut.

[Beirut]

Thanks Boss.

[sapi]

Good for you, Beirut

Enjoy

[Spino]

Gratz Beirut! Happy hunting!

[Gawain of Orkeny]

All good stuff. I think you could have gone with a little better Mobo with what you have there but that one is fine. You sure wont have any trouble playing MTW2. Thats pretty much a mid range Mobo. A very good midrange one Probably the best there is for the price.

[Husar]

I've written it somewhere before, but the NForce 650i has a better gaming performance than the 680i, the latter just has a lot of additional connections for peripherals, SLI etc. and better performance for them IIRC.

So I'd say that's a very good gaming mainboard.

[Beirut]

So far the performance is pretty good. IL2-1946 just rockets. Everything maxed with good action and it's 30+FPS. Very nice. FSX runs as well as can be expected and FS9, which I locked at a 40FPS max, flows like melted butter (though it took two hours to install and I still have more add ons to add on). Going to install M:TW2 tomorrow. Should be interesting.

Having a few problems geting my Saitek Evo flightstick to work properly, but I'm sure I'll work it out. Love the case. The front access USB plugs and headphone jack are great. The only problem is my woman wants it off the desk and put under the desk. She thinks the case is very tacky and too big. Sure has a lot of fans, though. I can't see this thing ever overheating.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

You drink and fly?

[Beirut]

You drink and fly?

Yes, often.

[LeftEyeNine]

WoooOOoooOoo

Achtung! Spitfire!

...rrrRRRRrrRRRRROOOOOOORRRRrrRRrrrrRrrrr...

[Husar]

I just noticed you seem to have the same cheap external HDD case from EverTech that I have. Unbelievable.
Oh, and the same joystick(we established that before), oh and the mainboard I want to get...
Why are you copying me?

[Beirut]

I just noticed you seem to have the same cheap external HDD case from EverTech that I have. Unbelievable.
Oh, and the same joystick(we established that before), oh and the mainboard I want to get...
Why are you copying me?

My cheap external HD is a Comstar, and that flightstick is actually my left hand throttle, my main flightstick is a MS FFB2 and it's not in the pic.

[Husar]

My cheap external HD is a Comstar

On the pic it does look exactly like my case, and that's an EverTech. Well, whatever...

and that flightstick is actually my left hand throttle, my main flightstick is a MS FFB2 and it's not in the pic.

I remember now, you also mentioned that before.
I shall not burn you for the heresy of copying me then.

[Incongruous]

You guys are like, supplying me with gamer pr0n.

[Whacker]

Beirut, you forgot to ship it to me first so I can "test it out" for you first... For a year or so...