CPU and Mobo

[CSQuake]

Hi,

If money was no object, which CPU and Mobo combination would you guys suggest I go for on a new gaming rig?

Bear in mind that this rig will be my only upgrade for at least 2 years, so would you upgrade now or go for something due out soon?

 

[CSQuake]

Still looking for your advice here guys

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: CSQuake
Still looking for your advice here guys

give us a $$ amount to work with. No object is usually not true. Everyone but bill gates has a limit...LOL.

So what do we REALLY have to work with, does it need speakers, monitor etc.? What are we talking about?

 

[o1die]

Depends on what you have now. I would personally wait for nehalem, and I still use 939.

 

[DSF]

A good P35 motherboard and an E8400 will be just fine for gaming for two years. No need to spend more than that unless you're planning to run dual graphics cards or somesuch.

More information about the setup you have planned would be helpful.

 

[CSQuake]

Righty, don't forget its for a gaming rig (I'm not sure how mega bucks server cpu's affect gaming rigs).

Let's put the price tag at £1.5k or $3k (this is a one off dream pc for me, so once I've spent the cash, in 2 years my next upgrade will be more conservative!). The cash is only for CPU and mobo, the rest will be bought with extra cash.

Would you guys spend it now, or wait for the next best? And which would it be either way.

 

[DSF]

You want to spend between 1.5 and 3 thousand pounds on the CPU and motherboard alone? For gaming? Did I read that right?

 

[CSQuake]

No I want to spend up to £1.5k, and for the americans, that equates to $3k.

 

[Burrich]

Personally I'd take an E8500 with a 780i motherboard. I'm sure you could go quad-core with that amount of cash, but it doesn't interest me at the moment.

 

[thegisguy]

Not to be rude, but that seems like an absurd amount of money to spend on a MB and CPU for a gaming rig. I could see a 3K total budget, but 3k just for MB and CPU? What is your total budget then? 10K-15K?

 

[CSQuake]

£1.5k for mobo and cpu. I've set aside the biggest parts of my budget for the cpu, mobo and gfx.

What would you spend it on?

 

[Burrich]

Graphics card could run you $599 if you choose the 9800GX2. I know if I was slinging around a huge card like that I'd want a rock solid power supply ... time to look at PC Power & Cooling. They aren't cheap, but I'm sure they'd fit into your budget.

 

[DSF]

Honestly CS, there isn't any reason to spend that much. $600 would be more than enough to get you a top notch CPU and a top notch motherboard.

 

[CSQuake]

Ok, last time I'm saying it.

Budget.

£1.5k for CPU and mobo
£500-£750 HDD's
£1k GFX

Happily stretch teh budget if I can get great extra performance

 

[Martimus]

If money is no object than I would get this: Intel QX9650

With this: ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA

I have a spreadsheet made up of different components to help make these types of decisions: Computer Building Spreadsheet

 

[v8envy]

Skulltrail, 2x QX9???, 8G of FBDIMMs, 2x 9800GTX or 9800GX2, 4x 750GB hd from your favorite vendor. Congratulations, enjoy your obscenely overpriced, fastest of what's available today rig. Rest secure in the knowledge that in less than 6 months lower end mainstream PCs built on a ~$500 budget will match its performance, and in 12 months will obliterate it.

Go cheap, upgrade more often. Seriously. If you want pure, unadulterated godzilla-sized e-peen go with my suggested parts. You'll have to dial the CPUs to 4 ghz, of course.

 

[CSQuake]

Awesome advice, thank you