Yukon Trooper Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 so i guess my final question is, given a heavy reliance on the CPU in game i play, will i have a better performance with a c2d platform with 2gigs of RAM or 1 gig of ram with a 170 opteron? From what was posted before, the games I play mostly on my PC are rts and they rely heavily on the cpu rather than the vid card… So now I’m a bit confused. C2D with 2 gigs of ram will outshine the Opteron system with 1 gig for the RTS genre. The Opteron would still be able to handle what you threw at it, but you would definitely see improvements in games that scale with the CPU. The C2D will also offer you greater headroom into the future. A graphics card is just as important, however, for newer RTS games. Supreme Commander is a good example of a game that requires CPU power for the multitude of calculations, and a GPU for the heavy geometry. A thorough GPU and CPU scaling test on Supreme Commander, done by Behardware: http://www.behardware.com/articles/660-1/s...-benchmark.html neither matters....it's more on the video card that anything....if you have a top notch video card you wouldnt tell a difference with either rig... For most games, yes, but the RTS genre is a niche of games that scale well with CPU power. Artificial intelligence, unit mapping, and projectile movement is all done by CPU calculations. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtrdude485 Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 Yes I do have my system OC'd. I can't remember what it was at exactly but it was pretty high for the components I have. I definitely go the cpu past 2.7 with the ram on a divider... As far as a c2d setup goes... should I be looking to go pretty basic? I don't have the money to go all out at the moment. Maybe go to a c2d and save up some $$$ for a vid card. I have read good things about the gigabyte P35's. What is some good RAM and which cpu should I be looking at? Remem... bang for the buck at the moment. thanks for everyone's input Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedEuphoria Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 for cpu's and bang for the buck , its 2160/80, E8400, Q6600 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yukon Trooper Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 The Gigabyte P35's are really good boards for the price. I'd look at the DS3R or DS3L if you choose the Gigabyte path. The R version includes RAID and a beefier NB heatsink, so that might be the one you'd be most interested in. You'd have to redo your RAID array, as it's on a different controller, so take that into account. Another strong candidate at that price point is the Abit IP35 Pro. As far as processors go, I wouldn't go with anything less than the E4*** series, as you'll want at least the 2MB of cache it provides. Low cache can cripple game performance on CPU intensive games. Basically try to avoid the E2160, E2180 etc., which only have 1MB of cache. I would strongly recommend a CPU with 4MB of cache, but most of those processors might be out of your price range if you buy retail. If you have no problem buying used, you could pick up a E6600, E6420, or E6320 for around $140, which is the same price as a brand new E4500. Those three chips all carry 4MB of cache. You could even pick up a used Q6600 on firesale, because the Yorkfield quads are just around the corner, so many enthusiasts will be selling their current quads to upgrade. With memory, I would just pick up the cheapest brand name DDR2-800 you can find at that time. The difference of performance in games between the cheapest and most expensive memory is negligible. DDR2-800 is REALLY cheap right now, so you can find high quality 2GB kits for under $50. Here is some G.SKILL on Newegg for $44.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231098 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtrdude485 Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 well I'll look around for what you suggested then. I guess if anyone is reading and wants to make some offers I'm open to that as well. EDIT:: found an E6600 for about 140 so I think I'm going to go with that. Any suggestions for mobo and ram combo that work well with that proc? Also, will I need a new PSU? Are these C2D systems power hungry? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_bowtie Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 your current PSU will work fine.... Gigabyte P35-DS3L for build with 4 sata slots and NO raid Gigabyte P35-DS3R for build with 6 sata slots and Raid options... as for ram..any ddr2-800 will work...it's not picky on ram...just get ram with 1.8v to 2.1v and it will be fine... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now