Mobo Ram and Cpu

[CHOPS123]

OK Im looking to upgrade my system.
Right now I have a An8 Sli board.
Athlon 64 3500
2 gigs of value ram.
2 6800gt in sli mode.
My system runs pretty good but there are some good deals out there now and Im wanting to take advantage of them.

First question is the Asus Striker board worth the money? I dont do alot of OC.

Second question......Does SLi really do any good? Seems like if I pull one of my 6800gt out I dont notice much of a dif in games.

Third Question AMD or Intel? Ive been a huge fan of AMD but it looks like intel has taken the lead. What about the Amd quad core out? Anyway if someone wants to post some good upgrade options for me that would be cool. Good ram, Board, cpu and Gpu. Thanks in advance
Chops

[alpha]

what budget are you looking at approximatly

generally for CPU go with intel dual core 6850 or quad 6600
for the GPU, the 8800 GT (512 mb) is looking to be a very good option
Mobo typically a P35, 650i or 680i
RAM go with 4 gigs of DDR2 PC 6400, with low OCing you don't need top end RAM
Unless you have money to spare, don't go SLI/Crossfire

[WalkinTarget]

This kind of open ended question could take hours to complete properly, so I'll make it short and sweet:

Budget build:
Intel C2D 6750 2.66ghz - $185 (why is it that this chip is $40 less than an e6600 ??).
P35 mainboard - you choose the brand based on what is priced right or brand loyalty.
RAM - find the best deal on 4 GB and buy it I've found 4gb deals on Crucial Ballistix, Corsair Dominator and G.Skill in the past two weeks.
eVGA 8800GT - not always the cheapest, but ... bah, just read my post on EVGA RMAs to get an idea why I recommend them.

The important part that usually gets left out is the Power Supply, so I'll say go with a Corsair HX520 and that's the end of that.

[juneau]

This kind of open ended question could take hours to complete properly, so I'll make it short and sweet:

Budget build:
Intel C2D 6750 2.66ghz - $185 (why is it that this chip is $40 less than an e6600 ??).
P35 mainboard - you choose the brand based on what is priced right or brand loyalty.
RAM - find the best deal on 4 GB and buy it I've found 4gb deals on Crucial Ballistix, Corsair Dominator and G.Skill in the past two weeks.
eVGA 8800GT - not always the cheapest, but ... bah, just read my post on EVGA RMAs to get an idea why I recommend them.

The important part that usually gets left out is the Power Supply, so I'll say go with a Corsair HX520 and that's the end of that.

Looks good to me. Just shooting an idea for the motherboard here. Abit IP-35Pro no questions. The best Intel board ever created. :D

[darth_nevus]

This kind of open ended question could take hours to complete properly, so I'll make it short and sweet:

Budget build:
Intel C2D 6750 2.66ghz - $185 (why is it that this chip is $40 less than an e6600 ??).
P35 mainboard - you choose the brand based on what is priced right or brand loyalty.
RAM - find the best deal on 4 GB and buy it I've found 4gb deals on Crucial Ballistix, Corsair Dominator and G.Skill in the past two weeks.
eVGA 8800GT - not always the cheapest, but ... bah, just read my post on EVGA RMAs to get an idea why I recommend them.

The important part that usually gets left out is the Power Supply, so I'll say go with a Corsair HX520 and that's the end of that.

+1 to ll the above. except, go with the e6850. cost difference is because the e6600 has the same multiplier as the e6850, where as the e6750 is just a e6400 with a fsb boost to 1333.

Gskill has a SWEET deal on 4gb of ram atm on newegg. check out the deals page.

and i second juneau on the board. that, or a GA-p35-DS3R.

EVGA FTW.

[juneau]

This kind of open ended question could take hours to complete properly, so I'll make it short and sweet:

Budget build:
Intel C2D 6750 2.66ghz - $185 (why is it that this chip is $40 less than an e6600 ??).
P35 mainboard - you choose the brand based on what is priced right or brand loyalty.
RAM - find the best deal on 4 GB and buy it I've found 4gb deals on Crucial Ballistix, Corsair Dominator and G.Skill in the past two weeks.
eVGA 8800GT - not always the cheapest, but ... bah, just read my post on EVGA RMAs to get an idea why I recommend them.

The important part that usually gets left out is the Power Supply, so I'll say go with a Corsair HX520 and that's the end of that.

+1 to ll the above. except, go with the e6850. cost difference is because the e6600 has the same multiplier as the e6850, where as the e6750 is just a e6400 with a fsb boost to 1333.

Gskill has a SWEET deal on 4gb of ram atm on newegg. check out the deals page.

and i second juneau on the board. that, or a GA-p35-DS3R.

EVGA FTW.

No no no no! :D I've completely stopped recommending the P35C now. OcUk have had over 100 RMA requests with this board in the past month. It starts with random boot problems that are fixed with a reset after about 4 months of usage. Then it fails to post and finally a complete death. Hearing rumors it could be linked to a bad capacitor. It was my board of choice too, and was planning to get one when i upgrade next year. :( IP-35 Pro is what's going in my case. Only problem is that it's a fair bit more expensive.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17806396
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17802853

[random_id]

Here's a nice recent guide for you:
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/13660

[Ghost_Rain]

I have the Q6600 cpu and 8800GT and I only have a 650i mobo and it still it ass big time in my other rig I have the Asus strike mob with the same cpu and card above and they not much between the boards.

[darth_nevus]

see, i heard of problems with the p35C(thats the version that takes ddr2 OR ddr3) but not the vanilla P35. mine's been rock solid. everying i've heard is that the P35C's usgae of ddr3 is whacked out. and its not just GB, everyone seems to be experienceing this.

for clarification, the GA-P35 takes ddr2 only. the GA-P35C takes either ddr3 or ddr2.

i won't recommend the P35C based based boards because in a way its not cost effectivfe. they are 10.00 more, crash alot, only offer 2 channels of each type where as the p35 offers 4 of ddr2. the X38 based boards are ddr3 only.

[CHOPS123]

Thanks for the Info guys :2thumbs:

[juneau]

see, i heard of problems with the p35C(thats the version that takes ddr2 OR ddr3) but not the vanilla P35. mine's been rock solid. everying i've heard is that the P35C's usgae of ddr3 is whacked out. and its not just GB, everyone seems to be experienceing this.

for clarification, the GA-P35 takes ddr2 only. the GA-P35C takes either ddr3 or ddr2.

i won't recommend the P35C based based boards because in a way its not cost effectivfe. they are 10.00 more, crash alot, only offer 2 channels of each type where as the p35 offers 4 of ddr2. the X38 based boards are ddr3 only.

Can't believe i didn't notice you said P35 and not P35C. I thought you had the latter too. :? :D