New high end gaming system, couple of questions.

[uberowo]

Building a new system from scratch. Would like some input on some of the specifics. First of all..

Quad or Dual core? Are there any gaming titles being released the next year that'll take advantage of 4 cores? Does the Quad core get much warmer, and does it overclock equally good? (I dont overclock that much, but a moderate oc without having to many worries of heat/noise would be a plus.)

Vista is just around the corner, I'm assuming 4GB RAM will be the next "standard"? Or is this still meaningless? Any special considerations I should take when buying RAM?

8800GTX SLI is obvously a must these days, any brands that stand out? (High performance, less noise etc.)

On my current system I have a couple of WD Raptors in raid 0 for my system and gaming drives. Is there any point to this now that SATA2 disks are widely available?

Are there any complete water cooling solutions available for a system like this? (Two 8800 gpus, one cpu and possibly one northbridge cooler..?)

Also, any general feedback would be of interest, PSU recommendation for example. Think performance, not budget.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: uberowo
Building a new system from scratch. Would like some input on some of the specifics. First of all..

Quad or Dual core? Are there any gaming titles being released the next year that'll take advantage of 4 cores? Does the Quad core get much warmer, and does it overclock equally good? (I dont overclock that much, but a moderate oc without having to many worries of heat/noise would be a plus.)

Vista is just around the corner, I'm assuming 4GB RAM will be the next "standard"? Or is this still meaningless? Any special considerations I should take when buying RAM?

8800GTX SLI is obvously a must these days, any brands that stand out? (High performance, less noise etc.)

On my current system I have a couple of WD Raptors in raid 0 for my system and gaming drives. Is there any point to this now that SATA2 disks are widely available?

Are there any complete water cooling solutions available for a system like this? (Two 8800 gpus, one cpu and possibly one northbridge cooler..?)

Also, any general feedback would be of interest, PSU recommendation for example. Think performance, not budget.

imo i would think your current rig with a 8800gtx would be sufficient for some time unless you are running oblivion @ 2560x1600 (or whatever it is). 2GB is still good, dual core is still good, since raptors only come in sata you really don't have a choice - you can get drives with higher str but not faster seek times (at least for sata)

as far as brand, if i were to buy any nvidia card it would be a evga based strictly on their warranty. all of the cards are so close because they basically all use the same design you may as well get the best warranty

 

[thuganomics]

IMO, Quad Core CPU's are just a waste of money.
2GB will be sufficient for awhile.

 

[Gautama2]

2gb for now. Single 8800gtx for now. Buy the 37" 1080P Westinghouse. lol.

 

[uberowo]

I'm to lazy to upgrade to 4gb and sli in 6 months.. I'd rather buy an ideal setup now, and then wait 12-18 months and replace it all.

 

[Gautama2]

Too lazy? Its pretty much plug n' play.

 

[MrX8503]

I think the 4gigs of ram is kind of unnecessary. MS needs to streamline Vista to make it more efficient, the requirements on that OS is way too high. I want efficiency and a rock stable OS, i could care less about the bells and whistles.

THis is why I wont be going Vista for a long time.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: uberowo
I'm to lazy to upgrade to 4gb and sli in 6 months.. I'd rather buy an ideal setup now, and then wait 12-18 months and replace it all.

i believe that your current setup, with a gpu upgrade will be more than adequate for 12mos. at the place we are now with current,1 or even 2 generation old stuff, you really don't feel the extra speed like you use to

also you would be better off to wait if your current rig works for you to see what other dx10 cards come around as competition makes everything cheaper and faster

 

[Randybob]

Quad cores won't help gaming any more than dual cores will right now. Get yourself a fast dual core machine. For strictly gaming, you can go with 2 GB. More than 2 GB can help a little with multitasking, but programs can't see any more than 2 GB right now unless they are specially coded to do that. Any 32-bit version of Windows can address up to 4 GB, and if you run Vista that extra RAM may come in handy. Again, with the video card, it all boils down to what resolution you're playing at. If you never play at anything higher than 1280X1024, from what I've read you will not notice a difference. I would just get the single 8800 GTX. If you need another one down the road, you can buy it later and much cheaper.