Building my Dream Machine over the course of the next year..

[aperrigo]

Ok... I just found out my current Motherboard's CPU can be upgraded to a Quad Phenom. And with that Knowledge I was considering upgrading the graphics cards in my system to the 8800 GTX SLI.

Should I still upgrade to the dream machine I listed from newegg or should I just stick with the cheaper route and go with the quad Phenom and new Graphics cards?

Although TheeMahn and myself did throw down the gauntlets on whose system would be better...
DECISION DECISION DECISIONS...

[deate]

Ok... I just found out my current Motherboard's CPU can be upgraded to a Quad Phenom. And with that Knowledge I was considering upgrading the graphics cards in my system to the 8800 GTX SLI.

Should I still upgrade to the dream machine I listed from newegg or should I just stick with the cheaper route and go with the quad Phenom and new Graphics cards?

Although TheeMahn and myself did throw down the gauntlets on whose system would be better...
DECISION DECISION DECISIONS...

You know, with the way things are changing, I'd go with the AMD QUAD PHENOM for now, wait till the last minute for the motherboard upgrade, as you never know whats coming down the line. And I suspect even the newer motherboards will be backwards compatible with Phenom for a while. Just remember CPU's are important, but worthless with out a place to stick them, and having an outdated motherboard when the newest line of processors arrives REALLY sucks. I know AMD has fallen behind, but I suspect they are up to many different things that you don't hear about, with acquisition of ATI.(look at my post on HTPC rigs on the Gigabyte board) You'll notice they have figured out how to tie onboard grapics to discrete cards for crossfire,I foresee many more changes like these in the near future as they play catch up. But, this is just my opinion, and HEY, I bought into the whole 939 will last quite awhile socket theory!!!

[cowboy]

I would look at the failure rate of the evga brand cards...

[DaddyX3]

I would look at the failure rate of the evga brand cards...

What are you saying cowboy? I have owned one for the last couple years. Granted, couldn't even use it to run Solid Works CAD software and felt that it had some serious issues with directX 9 .... lol!
Have you seen my #'s on glx gears though? Here let me refresh you ...
64953 frames in 5.0 seconds = 12990.447 FPS
65062 frames in 5.0 seconds = 13012.384 FPS
65087 frames in 5.0 seconds = 13017.304 FPS
65113 frames in 5.0 seconds = 13022.415 FPS
64663 frames in 5.0 seconds = 12932.494 FPS
Solving this mystery is up to you

[Cab]

You know it all depends on timing and how often you would upgrade down the road. I say this because rumour has it AMD and Intel are about to change sockets on us again. Yes i will attempt to find the articles and details but I was reading the Am2+ and the whats intels 754? 755
Edit (775 Socket)
sheesh drawing a blank here... Anyway I'll edit this later when i come out of my haze. Theres also a chance AMD and Intel are releasing GPU processors thats coming down the road. Then theres the issue Thee Mahn is having are you going to be stuck using ATI if you go AMD? I dont like that at all I will jump ship in a heartbeat to which ever side is winning the war at the time I upgrade. I've said it before I've owned AMd and Intel like em both but AMd cant touch Intel right now. I see that changing soon but you can go to almost any benchmark site and the top 5 to 10 cpu's are Intel, Then you see the AMD's, now the ATI vs Nvidia line is getting really close in the GPU department. If your running super high resolutions and using AA etc.. ATI is not there yet. I personally havent seen a 30" monitor except in the stores and on the internet. I have a 22" which I think is real big and native they run 1650x1080 theres a lot of cards you can run at that resolution and use AA etc.. and still run anything out. I wont start a battle on the who is better thing who is faster. Anyone ever building a Pc can use the analogy your going to be as slow as the slowest thing in your pc. (That doesnt sound right..) Its like a hot rod car you can have 600horsepower but if your running on a tire thats 4 inches wide.. all that power doesnt mean nada. same with a PC you can have a Quad core whatever overclocked to 4ghz but if you have cheap ram or only 512 mb your system will ... well suck. My policy on buiding a new system is I try to get a really good motherboard, decent RAM and a overkill super stable powersupply. If I wanted to upgrade tomorrow. I have a 850watt power supply (modular), I have a 22" monitor, I have 6GB of ram that will go to 1333mhz. My mother board will so far run even the latest CPU out. So a CPU and a Video card or 2 or 3 and I could have the latest thing out. I say this cause whatever you decide think of down the road. I have a cpu running at a FSB of 1066.. but my board will handle 1600. If I was going AMD route I would think and read up on whats the latest HT they have? Dont quote me but the latest ones are? 2.0 or 2.5? I havent checked and rambled on enough. Make your core components able to upgrade with you. Dont buy a CHEAP mother board You'll regret it I always have. I may edit this post or delete it, I tread lightly as not to offend anyone because some people are so sure there brandX or model this or that is the best. Do your homework and take reviews with a grain of salt. I'm sure I can find a article that says whatever your brand or model is the best. If someone wants to see any benchmarks on my system I'll gladly put up shots. Thee Mahn can attest my system aint a slouch.
Cab

[Cab]

I was sitting here thinking about my post and I just wanted to add my last system was a
MSI Neo4 SLI Platinum Socket 939 with a AMD 4000+ I had 2gb of memory Corsair XMS I ran a 7800Gt then later upgraded to a second 7800GT. well in the course of time I had the video cards in SLI and tried to run 4 hard drives. The power supply couldnt keep up. I had numerous crashes and had to disconnect 2 hard drives to boot up and make things stable. I upgraded the power supply and got a good deal thats why I have a 850watt modular one ( you can add/remove cables) I was really happy with the system and one day cleaning it really good (like a tear down cleaning) I couldnt get the damn heatsink off the CPU. So I removed the heatsink fan and all to clean and reapply thermo. Well Some how my dumbazz dropped the thing and bent some pins on the cpu. Well after I threw a fit I carefully straightened the pins and it never lived again. So I went on a mission to replace the cpu thought hell I'm getting a X2 this will be nice. You cant get a 939 anymore. I found a few 3000+ and low things. So I researched it and got my Mother board and cpu I have now. And some memory. I only have a 8800Gt because I found it locally for 220.00 with a rebate and I thought hell DX10 I gotta have it. well DX10 aint that big of a deal but this 8800GT will whoop those dual 7800GT's all day long. Just to add I had a ATI 9800Pro that I really liked also. I only say these things because I truly have had both brands. I install internet and network computers for a living among other things and I get to play with a lot of systems. I have found you can run XP on 256mb of RAM its very painfull but will work. AMD/Intel Nvidia/ATI discussing these is like talking chevy vs ford or religion and politics. I want to help but I dont want to start a flame war. Do your homework dont buy the latest and greatest stay a step behind, example my 8800Gt video card isnt the fastest but I also dont want to pay 500-600 dollars to have maybe 5% more performance. Besides even if you game, after 30FPS its all just bragging. You really wont notice the difference between 60FPS and say 120FPS. As long as it can stay above 30 you'll be happy.
Cab

[cowboy]

Thanks for the heads up..maybe by the year 2010 will decide how to build my tower..lol Another monkey wrench...

[aperrigo]

I Truly appreciate the responses to my question.
Regardless, I am upgrading to the following specs over the next two weeks..

Case: CoolMaster 830 S
Power Supply: 1000W SilverStone Strider (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Model: ST1000) (Silent)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz (1333MHz FSB) (12MB Cache)
Motherboard: nVidia 790i Ultra Core 2 Quad (nForce 790i Ultra SLI) (DDR3 Only)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 Corsair at 1333MHz
Floppy / Card: Digital Media Card Reader (Black)
Hard Drive 1: - 500 GB 3.0Gbps SATA Western Digital
Hard Drive 2: - 150 GB 1.5Gbps SATA Western Digital Raptor X {RAID 0}
Hard Drive 3: - 150 GB 1.5Gbps SATA Western Digital Raptor X {RAID 0}
Hard Drive 4: - 320 GB 3.0Gbps SATA Western Digital
Hard Drive 5: - 32 GB 3.0 Gbps SATA OCZ Solid State Drive....<--- Future Purchase depending on market.
Optical Drive 1: BLU-RAY/DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (Blu-Ray 4x / DVD Writer 18x / CD-Writer 48x)
Network Card: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: EVGA nVidia GeForce 9800GX2 1GB
TV Tuner: - DVICO PCI HD tuner 2.0
Sound Card: Motherboard Multi-Channel High Definition Audio
Physics Card: - AGEIA BFG Physics PCI 2.0
Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 3 WindTunnel (Copper Heatpipe Heatsink & Zalman Case Fans)
Case Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Blue Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)
Round Cables: Enhanced Interior Air Flow (Optical Drive & Floppy Cables (Black Cables)
LCD Display: - 22 inch GateWay HD LCD with Picture in Picture for my personal pleasure
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - SteelSeries 5 Point Virtual Surround Sound Headset
Keyboard: - some cheap back lit keyboard...thinking about upgrade
Mouse: - cheap Logitech USB Mouse

Most of the components such as the hard drives are from my current system.
I am giving my current system to my parents.

They have been using the same computer for 8.6 years now...and its getting pretty close to dying.
Hopefully, They will truly love the system I am setting up for them...I am giving them XP x64 Pro / Ultimate Edition 1.8 x64 Hardy...for them
This way they can experience a little joy with sadness....if XP gives them woes then they can go to Ultimate Edition.
Unless the screw up Ultimate Edition they should feel happy with it.

And I won't be getting my stimulus check this year because apparently the IRS doesn't want to count my VA pension and I have no Tax liabilities so since I am a student I screwed my self over. I suggest everyone read the requirements for their stim packages.
It will also have a lot of fans....and then it will SUCK

[DaddyX3]

That will be one really nice system!
Your a lucky dog! I could not find a Q9450 in stock anywhere a few weeks ago! I went to find one and no one had it. I called the local computer shops and everything. They must be coming out with another batch of them soon I suppose, but this chip was unattainable when I built my system (which I was very upset about, cause those chips blow the doors off [url]ALL[/url] other chips in the price range!) Good luck with your build ... I'm jealous