artsluver

Hi,

I am looking to do an upgrade of the system I have. I use my system for reencoding with CinemaCraftEncoder, playing games, photoshop, dreamweaver, flash, fireworks, torrenting, newsgroups, it is also our home theatre, it does it all basically. I have 8 sata drives connected to my current system.

I won't tell you what I am running but the word s478 Prescott is involved

I am using WinXP Pro 32bit.

So, I am looking to upgrade 4 components, CPU, RAM, Mobo, and GPU.

I cannot quite figure out which way to go with the parts.

Do I go the Q6600 ($209) route, or the Q9450 ($319) route?

4gb or 2gb? Mushkin Ascent PC2-8500 4gb, Mushkin HP PC2-6400 4GB, or some other ram.

8800gt or 9800gtx? There seems to be about a $60 premium for the 9800 cards right now which seems reasonable. ATI is not an option, only buy GPU's with lifetime warranty's.

P5K-E, P5Q Pro, P5Q-E, EVGA 590i FTW, DFI Dk P35-T2RS, or some other mobo? I have 8 Sata drives and 2 sata burners in my current rig with expansion sata cards that I would like to get rid of if possible. Some of these boards take 8 sata devices which has definitely caught my eye (I have heard there are some out there that take 10? but cannot find them).

So, that is kind of where I am right now looking at parts, and combinations. Any feedback, direction, contraindications, experiences, overclocking success stories etc. would all be appreciated.

Thank you!

swiftshinobi

If you have the money, get the Q9450. It has 4mb more cache, is faster clock-for-clock, and runs cooler. OC-wise, it should be reach 3.5-3.8, about the same as your average Q6600 (I heard the most recent Q6600's are not as good overclockers - get a Q6700 if you are concerned about that). As for RAM, get 4gb. RAM is so cheap now that the minor price difference is well worth the cost. If you're sticking to Nvidia, get a 9800GTX for $199 or less. Just for your information though, Visiontek sells ATI cards with a lifetime warranty. The HD4850 is comparable to the 9800GTX and the HD4870 performs close to both of Nvidia's GT200 cards depending on the game. At this point, I would recommend getting a P45 board like these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131297
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128344
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131296
http://www.motherboardpro.com/DFI-LA...2RS-p-665.html

Out of the boards you listed, the best is the DFI DK P35-T2RS.

artsluver

Hi Swiftshinobi,

Thanks for your responses.

I did name one that you recommended, the P5Q-E. Do you feel the P45 DFI board is better than the P35 varietal I named?

Do those boards fit a TRUE to your knowledge?

I did not realize that Visiontek was offering lifetimes, how do compare to eVga, XFX, and BFG for replacements? Are they as amazing as those companies to deal with?

Thanks.

chessmyantidrug

For the processor, I would get the Q9450 if you can afford it. The Q6600 is a nice price/performance chip, but the Q9450 will run cooler and the cache should make a noticeable difference for your applications.

For RAM, any 4GB kit should do. There isn't really a need to spend $150 on it, though. You can get some Redline memory that's clocked slightly slower (1000 MHz), but should be able to overclock to 1100 MHz. After the MIR, it's $94.98.

If you don't want to go with ATI (which is a shame), then the 9800 GTX+ is what you'll want when it comes out. It's slightly more expensive than the 9800 GTX, but comes with a 55nm GPU and I believe it's clocked faster. This is nVidia's response to the HD 4850 (ATI is responding with stock overclocked 4850s). If you go with an Intel chipset, I would recommend an ATI card for the option of CrossFire down the road. If you explore that avenue, you'll want either a x38 or x48 board. The 9800 GTX+ should come out in a couple weeks.

You'll probably be more concerned about the width of your case than the motherboard when talking about a TRUE.

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swiftshinobi

All those motherboards should fit a TRUE. Sorry, I didn't see the P5Q-E you listed. I don't have any experience with Visiontek (the last ATI card I had was a 9600XT), but there's plenty of happy ATI owners in this forum. I do feel the DFI P45 is better than the P35's that you listed. I'm not sure how it compares to the Asus P5Q or Gigabyte EP45 series, though.

ubernewhacks

The general rule for RAM is 2 GB for XP, 4 GB for Vista. However, if your programs are going to be RAM heavy then you might need to up the XP RAM to 4 GB.

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artsluver

Hi Everyone,

Just a heads up for the case I have a Silverstone TJ03 so the height of the TRUE should not be a problem, just what ever is around the socket on the mobo I get.

I am also using a Corsair 620 PSU so juice should be ok too.

As for crossfire or sli I don't really have any interest in that, I am a one videocard kind of person. From what I have seen in the past GPU's seem to come out in such rapid succession that a new card is always coming that is quicker than two cards in sli/cf, so I prefer to stick with one.

Thanks for the heads up on the gtx+, didn't know that was in the pipeline.

So are these q9450's good overclockers? how do they compare with the q6600's?

Oh, the Mushkin Ascents are $119 after rebate so only $20 more.

One quick question about 4gb of RAM in Win XP Pro 32bit, will it cause any problems? or conflicts? or slowdowns? or will the only downfall be not being to see and use all of it?

Thanks as always for your replies.