New Setup about to order. Please advise (Dual or Tri-Box)

[ataylor20]

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=7941131

This is my cart. I will be purchasing in the next 24hrs.

Currently I have a AMD 3800X2, 256 6800GT video card 2gig ram, XP, Dual 17 wide screen monitors.

First consider wow is not my only purpose but the main one.

-My first thought was to go two GT cards but considering price and I have that dual video cards negates from FPS incrase i did not.
-I intend on loading Vista (32bit) if thats the case. I didnt like it when i used it before but it you guys recomend vista for performance then I will go that route. I have a free copy of Vista Business (32bit) advise on 64x? Any better?
-I am only ordering 4gb ram. Should I go for 8?
-The stand is for 3 montiors, I am going to use one of the two I have at home currently.

(I will not have more that 3 wow sessions going at a time so I dont know how much of this is over kill.)

All advise is welcome! :thumbsup:

-Drew
(PS: Heard about setting up the quad core for performance, id love info on that.)

[wowphreak]

I would suggest a minimum of 4 gigs of memory using vista32.

if yeh gonna get vista64 getting 8 gigs would be good

dont forget a heat sink for the cpu

[ataylor20]

Thx for the reminder. It was on there at one point.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223

I updated the wish list. Let me know if this is a good one or not.

[Bovidae]

The Q6600 is a better processor (especially for boxing 3 or more toons), and is cheaper.

[ataylor20]

Made a few changes.

Single Vid card, and Q6600 chip.

My real question now is the mobo? Considering im not using dual cards should I downgrade it a bit? Any options out there someone can recomend?

(Thanks for all the help)

Drew

[-silencer-]

Where to begin...
I personally wouldn't bother with 32-bit Vista - that immediately limits you to 4GB. Get 64-bit and at least 4GB of memory, and since it's less than $100 extra, get 8GB. Why $220 for a monitor stand that isn't needed? The monitors will have stands. If you want stacked monitors, then use appropriate stands, but for 3 horizontal monitors, I feel that it's a waste. 750i SLI board? SLI is for using multiple cards to one monitor, and for games that do well with SLI. You're doing neither. 8800GTS.. I'm an nVidia fan, but the HD4850 is simply a faster card for less money. 600W power supply for a quad core and 2 high-power videocards.. you might want to check the power requirements. As for Q6600 vs Q9300.. the Q6600 will save you some money and perform better when overclocked, but I'd probably go with the Q9300 at stock speed and lower power consumption. Better yet, step up to the Q9450 - increased clock speed and double the cache to 12MB.

For nearly $2000, there's no reason not to go with a Q9450, 8GB memory, and Vista 64. There's still plenty of cash for the rest of the machine.

[ataylor20]

Alright.

Switched to the ATI. I read up and ur right it is rated higher. I havent had one in years so I give it a try. Saved some money on the Mobo to.

Last check and purchasing Fri or Monday.

Thanks again!

Drew

[BobGnarly]

Here's my input:

Since you say:


First consider wow is not my only purpose but the main one.

I will go against what others have said and say that there's no way I would by a new m/b these days that isn't SLI capable. While wow doesn't really need SLI, and multi-monitors flat out don't support it, most games will benefit greatly from having another video card. Even if you don't get one now, having the option in the future is well worth a few extra dollars on the m/b, imo.

I don't agree that Vista is better performance. It's pretty close these days, and I would probably consider vista just for forward thinking, but I still think XP is faster overall. If you're looking for straight out performance, I think XP still takes it (CAVEAT: I don't know about dual-view in vista compared to XP. XP dual-view isn't to swift, and I've heard that vista is better, but I have no personal emperical evidence to support that supposition).

If you get any 32-bit OS, there is no reason to get more then 4G of RAM.

[ataylor20]

Yea ive been a fan of Nvida for the past say 4 years or so. I had a couple of ATI cards prior to that and I dont mind trying it again although SLI does seem to be the future. I have howerver been reading up on ATI's crossfire technology.

Still neither of them will I use when play WoW so Its hard to justify getting two cards at this point. I would like to have the second card option on the mobo for a possible 3rd monitor setup. Still not sure any other ways of doing this.

Monitor 1
Main Character

Monitor 2
Alt1 and/or Alt2

Monitor 3
Web surfing

So with that in mind I do like the SLI mobo option vs what I have now.

Thoughts? (delaying the purchase a bit...)

Drew