Building gaming rig... But should I wait?

[DukeDaal]

Hey guys, lately I am wondering if building my gaming rig now is such a good idea or not because of the Nehalem CPU coming soon.

So I am wondering if Nehalem is a signifigant boost in processing power that would be wise that I should wait because spending 5,000 in a gaming system when Nehalem is this close wouldn't be so wise.

I was going to get the Q9450 Processor and lap it, also lap the TRUE heatsink to have both flat surfaces. Probably overclocking it to 3.6 on air.

Also if anyone knows the rough estimate of when its coming out that would be great.

Thanks

[DukeDaal]

Bump in the name of an answer.

Maybe if someone could move this to the intel forums.... :shrug:

[Heretic]

Depends on how long you can wait. I believe production starts q4 2008. If you can wait that long, the least it can do is force prices down on current C2D chips. From previews I've seen it offers a 20-30% boost over Penryn. Hope that helps.

[fasttruck860]

If your going to spend that much money you might as well wait. You will pretty much have to replace all the major components if you build a rig now and upgrade later. You will need an X58 board which is triple channel ddr3 and a new chip. Plus by that point you can pick up a 4870x2 or gtx 280 for much cheaper and it will be the refreshed cores.

[superbowtie]

Where do you live first off that might help on prices because I'd rather spend 5k in the USA then in the EU. probably buy Top of the line Everything and be under 5k in the US. Also what Resolution do you want to game at? 1280x1024? 1680x1050? 2048x1536? What OS you plan to use xp or vista?

[DukeDaal]

I live in the U.S and my specs for my current build aren't really complete but everything adds up to $5,325 and this total includes a new monitor, keyboard, headphones, sound card, mouse, mouse pad.

Planning to play at 1920 x 1200 24' monitor for my setup, I will be doing heavy gaming on it.

The works basically..

I am planning to use Vista for directX 10. But I will go with 8GB of ram just to be sure and hopfully DDR3 prices drop soon.

Does anyone know or have an exact date on the nehalem? Like in 4 months it might be sold?

[Dave_Sz]

$5k and you're going with air cooling?

[Chickenfeed]

You don't need to go on water just because your going to spend some money. There are many air solutions that will still perform adequately. Water isn't exactly the most elegant solution either so there are still reasons to stick with air.

With your budget you could easily afford a full blown Nehalem based machine (even right out of the gate) so I'd hold off until then. In the end the longevity of the build will be better and you'll have gotten more for your money.

[DukeDaal]

Yeah I am pretty much wanting to set up a machine that will be future proof and in my opinion future proof means 2-3 years which is more than enough for me, hell I will probably be gone doing something by then.

Yeah I am spending 5,000 dollars and still going air BUT the actual system is really 3,000 dollars.

You see hard drives alone I am spending about 700 dollars (2 velociraptors in raid 0) and a seagate.

Not to mention I was going with the SAMSUNG 245T monitor, G15 keyboard, and G9 (I have the G5 currently) So that right there is... about 1,000.

Even though I am probably going to go air, I go air... to the extreme were talking lapping the CPU and heatsink, and high powered fans because noise to me isn't to much of a issue.

But I am not afraid to go water cooling if I have to.

I guess my real question is, Nehalem is the future of gaming? Then it would be wise to wait...

[superbowtie]

I agree with chickenfeed. i've built systems right before major changes and it sucks down the road. agp to pci xpress comes to mind, I bought a 6800 gt agp new for like 400..:shakes: ti4600 ordered 2 days before ati 9700 was released... :shakes:ouch, p4 3.2Ghz only to have the 939 athlons come out like 3 months later.:shakes: what can I say I was young, dumb and stupid.:D btw sorry dad.

[Chickenfeed]

No one can answer that yet but based on preliminary info, it would seem Nehalem will be a solid and fast platform.

As for Raid 0 Raptors, I'd honestly advise against it unless you intend to use hardware raid ( which isn't cheap ) You mention heavy gaming and in my experience motherboard based raid usually disappoints. The gains as far as games go are so small its hardly recommended for the cost. You'd be better off running the 2 drives separate to be honest or putting the saved money towards something else. Do note though that by the time you build this machine they may have released their 20K RPM model and price drops/capacity increases may make solid state drives a more attractive option.

Considering there is still a lot of speculation on these things ( let alone Nehelam and the video cards that will exist at that time ) its hard to make any solid recommendations on anything other that what exists today. We only know what is at this point, not what is to be :cool:

Considering your budget is including other things and you mentioned the machine to be closer to 3K that may change your mind. 3 grand is still generous but you can surely expect Nehalem to be pricey at launch ( and to my knowledge they plan release the extreme edition cpus first followed by the mainstream )

Your budget would easily let you put together a class machine today however. It would still probably be solid for 2 years but Nehalem is still the newer platform and would last even longer ( along with the new technologies that will be introduced on the new motherboards/platforms). If you saved up some more until it launches you'd be in a comfortable position and can re asses things then. Thats what I'd recommend myself. Prices on the things your interested in will have fallen ( and in some cases better products may come along for the same or less cost ) 6 months is a long time in the computing world so if you intend to build a Nehalem machine, I'd leave it all until then.

[DukeDaal]

Yeah :)

I am still using AGP currently, and you know I can play games like TF2, Half-life 2, company of heroes just fine. Just not any of the newer games like Age of Conan which is the game I will be primarily playing when I build it.

I guess I will wait for now.

[DukeDaal]

No one can answer that yet but based on preliminary info, it would seem Nehalem will be a solid and fast platform.

As for Raid 0 Raptors, I'd honestly advise against it unless you intend to use hardware raid ( which isn't cheap ) You mention heavy gaming and in my experience motherboard based raid usually disappoints. The gains as far as games go are so small its hardly recommended for the cost. You'd be better off running the 2 drives separate to be honest or putting the saved money towards something else. Do note though that by the time you build this machine they may have released their 20K RPM model and price drops/capacity increases may make solid state drives a more attractive option.

Considering there is still a lot of speculation on these things ( let alone Nehelam and the video cards that will exist at that time ) its hard to make any solid recommendations on anything other that what exists today. We only know what is at this point, not what is to be :cool:

Considering your budget is including other things and you mentioned the machine to be closer to 3K that may change your mind. 3 grand is still generous but you can surely expect Nehalem to be pricey at launch ( and to my knowledge they plan release the extreme edition cpus first followed by the mainstream )

Your budget would easily let you put together a class machine today however. It would still probably be solid for 2 years but Nehalem is still the newer platform and would last even longer ( along with the new technologies that will be introduced on the new motherboards/platforms). If you saved up some more until it launches you'd be in a comfortable position and can re asses things then. Thats what I'd recommend myself. Prices on the things your interested in will have fallen ( and in some cases better products may come along for the same or less cost ) 6 months is a long time in the computing world so if you intend to build a Nehalem machine, I'd leave it all until then.

Yeah as for the hard drives I wasn't sure if Onboard raid was good or not, I didn't think it would be stable so... But tell you the truth right now I am using a 7200 RPM 16mb cache 750 GB drive and its pretty fast.

But you never know, I just want to put my operating system, applications, and video games on the faster hard drive than have a seagate for storage.

SSD's might also be an option which I would be jumping for glee at that point!

[Chickenfeed]

I just made the same decision your making now as far as waiting or not. I decided I wanted to take advantage of the lower prices and more mature platform now and wait until Nehalem/DDR3 prices settle out and some stable chipsets show their heads ( and who knows AMD might do something amazing by then )

Although I'm not building this machine exclusively to play Age of Conan, it is one of my main interests at the moment. I'm just waiting for my video card but so far is does great in Conan and all around ( using one of my 8800GTS 512s currently ). I find the single Raptor to be very quick and like you plan to do, I'm using a separate larger drive for storage.

All in all though, this machine is what I expected it to be and I'm quite happy with it. I knew I wouldn't personally regret waiting as I tend not to jump on new tech out of the gate ( with video cards being the exception ) but it really depends on your needs and budget. For what I'm doing now and what I'll be doing into the future I feel this machine will meet my needs. Its really a decision of when you jump on train as you know you will eventually. You can spend less today and have a solid experience or spend more later for a superior experience albeit at a greater cost. Theres pros and cons to waiting and its just down to the individual.

[DukeDaal]

Yeah I don't mind waiting.

I do have a couple questions that I would like answered...

1. Running dual cards see that much of an improvement?

Say I am running a Q9450 at 3.6 Ghz and I run 2 GTX 280's in SLI is it worth it or will my CPU bottleneck the cards full potential? I hear you need 4GHZ+ to even utilize SLI or anything like that.... Maybe I will be good with single.

2. Sound card sit between the bridge?

Whether crossfire or sli, is it possible to fit a prelude or omega sound card in the PCI slot between the bride in most dual card configurations? There is the PCI-E 1x sound cards but not sure if they are that good, I don't want to use onboard sound.

Ehh I will be using headphones.

3. Also this is my Video card right now...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143046

Its the Geforce 7800 GS 256mb of memory, its AGP. (2 year old card)
is it worth upgrading to this video card? I heard it performs well. I am using a 19" monitor (1280 x 1024 resolution) right now and my processor is a Pentium 4 2.66ghz (Yeah I am using a Dell I have had this computer for 4 years at least)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161226
Here it is.

I am not sure if my processor will bottleneck the card.... so not sure. I am using 2 gb's of OCZ DDR 400 ram.

[adamsleath]

ok my 1.5 cents:

get an e7200, cheap 2x2gb ddr2 and a P45 mobo.
these can be replaced/upgraded/sold when nehalem starts taking over the market.
and whatever graphics card...depending on whether you going 24" or 30" LCD :p:

change to Nehalem when it doesnt cost an arm and a leg. and when ddr3 prices have come down to reasonable levels.

if you can get a quad to 4 GHz that's all hunky dory, but getting a Wolfdale to 4GHz is way easier and way cheaper.

even 5GHz would bneck 280 sli would they not?

but most games are graphics bound, not cpu bound.

so it's a stepping stone to a future upgrade, but you could still have a really good gamer with a v nice screen, soundcard, the works...

4GHz quad is going to need serious cooling and or expensive high multi chip like q9550(or QX) i suppose, and price cuts do keep coming along with Intel.

and gtx280 is really expensive as it is just released, although 1 or 2 would be wicked.

waiting is always going to payoff , damned if you do and damned if you dont.

[DukeDaal]

What full tower cases can you guys recommend for air cooling?

I don't mind spending $400 on a really nice case since I already measured it fits well within my budget.

I am struggling with Cosmos S, Stacker 832, Silverstone TJ07 I am just looking for the best air cooling solution I can find case wise instead of going water as for noise... I will probably replace the fans and add every fan that can fit in it with a more powerful one.... The cosmos biometric power button doesn't appeal to me. And the width of Stacker 832 isn't big enough for most heatsinks.

[Heretic]

Take a look at some of the Lian-Li cases or the Rocketfish (rebadged Lian-Li) if you can find it. The Rocketfish is especially good if you enjoy modding.

[postumus]

if i was spending 5k and doing heavy gaming i would definitely be getting a 30" display, I've got the gateway 30" XHD and it's the only component in my system I know I won't have to change for ages...