Best price/performance PC now?

[Titan]

I'm wondering what people think the best higher-end PC is in terms of price/performance today, with overclocking allowed. It seems to me that Athlon64s are just a bit too pricey compared to some extra cheap 32-bit systems.

Personally, I think I would go for a dual xeon system right now. The Asus PC-DL is less than 200 bucks and each 2.4ghz xeon goes for 185, and can be overclocked to 3.4 ghz or higher with proper cooling. If you do a lot of multitasking, that's 6.8ghz of paralell-processing power and 2 hyperthreaded CPUs for under 600 bucks for mobo/CPU. Also, the Asus NCCH-DL is supposed to come out soon (if it hasn't already) which will support 64 bit xeons and is a great overclockers board as well.

So if I were to build a new rig now, that would be my choice. I like AMD, but the Xeons are just too good of a deal to pass up. Dual operons are too expensive and dual bartons don't quite pack the same punch.

Thoughts?

 

[Sideswipe001]

/me runs a rig close to that one 2x2.8Ghz Xeons @ 3.2

 

[DaveSimmons]

You don't say what you want to use it for.

A dualie is a bad choice for most desktop applications including gaming compared to a fast single CPU.

 

[splice]

I love my dually setup. I don't think I'll ever go back to a single cpu setup again.

If you want to go with dual Xeon's get the 1.6's that are available in the Hot Deals section and a Asus PC-DL and do some OC'ing. That right now is the best bang for the buck AFAIK.

Don't let some ppl deter you from getting a dually. You'll notice a difference in windows even if you run plain "desktop apps." Or if you like to watch dvd's or TV on your computer while doing other tasks. Hell, dragging a window will peg a single CPU at 90%+ (assuming you are showing the content while dragging).