Updating the 'puter for hardcore ownage

[kandrathe]

AMD just isn't competitive right now compared to Intel. For me, there was zero reason to go with AMD over Intel. AMD had its day, but right now Intel CPUs are supreme in terms of price versus performance. Check out the CPU charts at Tom's Hardware.

It's always back and forth with those two. I'm encouraged by the release of quad-core Barcelona chips. Generally, I find that AMD offers a better chip cheaper for the CPU power I need at the time. So the AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ for $153 might be replaced with a AMD Phenom 8450 Toliman 2.1GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Triple-Core Processor Model HD8450WCGHBOX - Retail for $148.99. This is competitively placed between the Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale and Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 Wolfdale. The AMD Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HD985ZXAGHBOX - Retail sells for $235 which measures on many benchmarks as well as the Intel Core 2 Extreme which retails for $1000 to $1600. For the direction I'm going in Quad core processing, I think AMD is the only way I will be able to afford it.

I'm not suggesting that you made a mistake for choosing AMD, because I do think that brand loyalty is important. I just want you to be aware that Intel has technically better CPUs right now.

Brand loyalty is a part of it, but the one thing I won't change unless it fries is the motherboard, so you have to pick a side. For today, and for 3 years from now when you can upgrade your CPU.

Just like Deebye's build, I'm uncommitted on GPU so I'd get a couple inexpensive SLI ones for now. Something like ASUS EN8600GT MAGIC/HTP/512M GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card for $59.99 (w/ $20 rebate)

Haha, I saw that on newegg.com and if I lived in the US I would have been all over it.

I'm not convinced SLI is a good option for anything other than enthusiasts running the latest and greatest video cards. I think there will always be a single card that outperforms two lesser cards in SLI for a better price.

I dunno two GeForce 8600GT's in SLI mode for $120 which will get mid 8000's in 3DMark06 and well over 30000 in 3DMark03. It's about 5x better than the machine I have now. What is a comparable $120 card that will do that?

Also check out YouGamers -- The 2008 Guide to Gaming PC Specs.