New System/system upgrade

[Rugbyfan1972]

I am considering buying a new system, the following is what I have in mind, the only thing I am unsure of is the CPU, whether or not I should go with an AMD X4 2.5Ghz, stick with the AMD X4 3.2Ghz that I have shown below, or go with an intel quad core and obviously a motherboard capapble of taking an intel processor?

 

Also what graphics card should I put in this system

 

Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-US2H M/B M-ATX AM3

 

AMD Phenom II X4 (955) Quad Core 3.2Ghz AM3

 

KingstonHyper X 2GB PC6400 800Mhz DDR2 (3 or 4 sticks giving me 6 or 8 gigs of ram)

 

1TB UDMA 300

 

ATX PFC 750 Watt Power Supply (24 Pin) Unit

 

LG 22x Super All-Write S-ATA Retail Kit

 

HP 22x DVD-RW Retail S-ATA Retail Kit

 

PC Cooling 8cm Case Fan Dust Filter

 

896MB Gigabyte Nvidia Geforce GTX 275 PCI-E 2.0

 

Xclio A380 Super Tower (Blue 25cm &36cm Fan) (No PSU)

 

Vista 64bit or Windows 7 64 bit (undecided as yet)

 

 

 

 

 

At pressent I am running the following

 

 

 

 

AMD X2 6000+

 

500GB HDD

 

3GB Ram

 

8600GT 1GB graphics card

 

Soundblaster Audigy

 

1 DVD drive

 

1 DVD R/W drive

 

 

 

 

I am not sure on the motherboard that I have now but I know it is a AM2 socket

 

 

 

 

 

At present I have BHAH running at 22-42fps max (not sure how as I have it capped at 40), it generally runs at 35-38 with the terrain and scenery sliders on 2, aircraft and effects 3, and clouds on 1.

 

 

 

 

 

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Rugbyfan

 

 

 

[+starfighter2]

Your present system is cool enough if you ask me, just replace 8600GT with the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX or as you mentioned 275 GTX-based graphics.

[+RAF_Louvert]

I agree with you starfighter2. Make that change Rugbyfan1972, and if your mobo supports 1066 memory, pop in as much of that as you can and you should be able to crank OFF way, way up.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

[Von Paulus]

If Rugbyfan pretend to play other games or sims than the multicore choice is a good one.

Games are beginning to take advantage of multicore systems.

[Dutch_P47M]

OFF enjoys speed, but it is single Core. Sooo why go for the bucks to run a fast QuadCore, when a Dual will suffice ? The quicker the better

 

 

If it is a AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ then it is a dualcore CPU!!!!!

 

What games are you going to play, if it is also RoF then you should go for a Quad!!!!!! Staying to games like MAW, ETO, IL-2 and OFF3 then keep your CPU, and wait for upgrading when Oleg releases his new Battle of Brittain (if you are a WW2 combat flysim fan).  

 

Keep also a close watch to the Intel i7 series, the prices dropped and the i7 mobo's do have more a less the same prices as the AMD AM3 mobo's. 

 

Yes check your system like uncleal explained, you can also use SiW, some AM2+ mobo can run on a Phenon X4 CPU!!!.   

 

 

 

 

 

[Rugbyfan1972]

All,

 

Thank you for your help, although rereading my post I should have been clearer,I have already looked at purchasing a 9800GT, only to discover that my machinesmotherboard only supports PCI-E version 1 whereas the 9800 is PCI-E 2, andwhile my machine will run that graphics card I will not get the full potentialout of it.

 

That is the reason why I had decided to go the "whole hog" and buy anew machine or at least a new motherboard as I am led to believe that an AM3motherboard will not support my present CPU, which I already know is a dualcore one, I also had decided to buy the best I can in CPU to complement thegraphics card I intend buying.

 

I am also looking to play modern games as well with Deus Ex 3 being high on mylist of priorities.

 

My present Motherboard is a Gigabyte M61SME-S2L

 

I could go with an AMD dual core running at 3.10Ghz, but as my present one isrunning at 3Ghz it seems a waste of money.

 

Does anyone having viewed the above have any other recommendations/suggestions.

 

Uncleal, thanks for the link to PC Wizard and the advice regarding vista.

 

The i7 processors in England are not that cheap, the cheapest I can find frommy local computer shop is the Intel Core i7 920 (4 x 2.66Ghz) costing £274.95with the cheaper of the two motherboards being the Intel Core i7 920 (4 x2.66Ghz) costing £166.95, if I went for the 2^nd of the 3 i7 CPUs IntelCore i7 920 (4 x 2.66Ghz) it would cost me £520.95 the most expensive i7 the IntelCore i7 Extreme Ed' 975 (4 x 3.33Ghz) costs £929.95 which is more than the systemthat I had listed in my first post costs in total.

 

 

[Von Paulus]

Thank you for your help, although rereading my post I should have been clearer,I have already looked at purchasing a 9800GT, only to discover that my machinesmotherboard only supports PCI-E version 1 whereas the 9800 is PCI-E 2, andwhile my machine will run that graphics card I will not get the full potentialout of it.

AFAIK that doesn't affect too much the performance using a PCI-E 2 card in PCI-E16x slot.

But if you really want to play other current and future games besides OFF you really have to upgrade.

Consider also the i5 for gaming.