Spec for Gaming and 3D software?

Erazor_2008

Erazor_2008

Erazor_2008

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5 Sep 2008
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11
Hi,

Been looking at some specs for a while now, nothing I have seen exactly fits me so it would be great help if someone can recommend me some specs.

Firstly I just want Tower specs, other peripherals don’t matter, no OS too.

I want to do both Gaming and use of 3D software (3Ds Max2009)
Should be able to run today’s games and at least next years games smoothly.

The most important factor for me is a good buy; an example of this would be something like an extra £50 to buff up a 512mb graphics card to 1024.
A bad buy would be an extra £50 for a CPU cooler that makes little difference to temps.

The “Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz Guaranteed to run at 3.30GHZ” for example looks like great buy but I’m not sure if I want to be OCing if the CPU will end up dying after a year or 2 , and without OCing the Buy seems pretty average.

To be precise, I’m not buying to show off my specs, I’m just trying to buy the best for what I need while saving as much as possible.

I sound a little picky, but any help will be greatly appreciated,

Budget about £700, can stretch lower or higher.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!
 
Overclocking should be done carefully. Unless you are going for extreme, bumping the q6600 up to 3ghz shouldn't kill the chip as long as you aren't excessive with voltages and make sure the temps stay within reasonable ranges. Edward's spec is good and I would only suggest a cheaper motherboard, perhaps the asus p5q-e or the gigabyte ga-ep45-ds3 if you aren't considering crossfire, if you are then stick with the x38 chipset as it has proven to give better crossfire performance to the new ati cards over p45
 
I'd go with Edward's spec with a 640GB F1 drive, and a cheaper Asus P45 board.
 
Def a 320 or 640gb drive. Personally, I'd stick with the x38 mobo but I guess it really does depend on whether you may want to add another 4870 to crossfire later on down the line :)
 
If you're going to be using the likes of 3DS Max I'd strongly recommend getting a Q9550 CPU in place of the Q6600, it'll perform a million miles better when rendering. With a little overclocking it should perform near enough on a par with the QX9770 :eek:

More expensive but worth doing if you're going to be using 3DS Max, the 12Mb cache for the Q9550 will be invaluable. I'm getting one myself in a couple of weeks for the exact same purpose. :)
 
Hmmm the Quad Q9550 is much more expesnive for the small difference i see on specification, Anyone second thesnowdogs advice?

Also i found two places where the motherboard was much cheaper, one was at £110, the other £122, the other things on the list were pretty much similar.

How is those Quad graphics cards for 3Ds max? They only good for AutoCad?
Don't forget i want both gaming and 3ds max.

Oh and how the does the 4870 compare to gtx 280? Would it be worth the an extra £70 for 1gb gtx 280, not sure what exactly how GDDR5 compars to GDDR3.

Thanks guys.
 
There's a big performance difference between the Q6600 and the Q9550, hence the difference in price. If you overclock it to 3.2GHz you'll end up having a CPU that should perform more or less the same as a £900+ CPU (the QX9770) as far as I understand it. :eek:

If you're going to be using any 3D software package such as 3DS Max or Maya you'll find the 12Mb L2 cache a godsend...it'll be worth spending the extra cash. And as you can see from page 10 of the review it'll also urinate all over the Q6600 for gaming. :D
 
3dmax is cpu power.

I have a quad, tbh if your new to 3dmax or not "that" great (not professional..), you wont be needing more than a q6600.
 
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