The XMEN Clan Forums

I am currently looking to update my system once again. Im moving up to dual core AM2 chip. ddr2 800 and a GF8800GTS.

Im looking for feedback on if AM2 AMD chip is the one to get? Also is the 590 cipset the way to go? Should i wait for the next wave of DX10 GPU? I can wait on the video as i have 1 of my 7800GT's sold and i will have the other one gone in about 4 weeks....

I am looking at a Gigabyte board with 3 PCI express slots.

Seen here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128011

I have read up some and beleive this is the best way to go.........

So any thoughts????...........

I've heard good things in general about the last round or two of Gigabyte mobos. I think you've got a solid choice there for an AMD board. However, the gaming performance crown has moved on to the Intel Core Duo CPUs. Not sure how visible a difference you'll find there between your selected CPU and a price-comparable Intel, but you may want to investigate.

The GPU is a little easier to answer: DX10 is only in Vista, so getting a GPU to do DX10 with doesn't really make sense yet. Those 8800s really rock, though, whether DX10 or DX9. Most of them are also two slots thick and way pricey.

Also, motherboards with the ati xpress 3200 chipset are solid. I currently own one and I like it a lot. You're good either way with the ati or nvidia 590 chipset, though if you want to run two nvidia cards in SLI, then go with the nividia chipset and vice-versa for the ati cards in crossfire and ATI chipset.

As for processors, you're good with about an athlon x2 4600. There are other chips out, and unless you want to go with an opteron, the x2 4600 is probably your best bet if you go with AMD.

If you are going for pure performance, then currently an Intel system is the way to go. But I'd read up on the Intel 680 chipsets so that you are aware of the problems that people have been having.

Overall pricing will show that the intel system is slightly more expensive, but it has slightly more performance. And there is currently no immediate need for DX10 capable video cards. Those games won't be coming out for a while, and Windows Vista would be the only reason to consider getting one of those.


In my opinion, if you get a new system now, then you will miss out on the incremental performance increases that are coming later this year.


And if I were to buy a complete system right now, I'd go with an AMD Opteron 170, at least 2 GB of quality ram, the xpress 3200 motherboard, and two radeon 1950s in crossfire mode. Then I'd OC the hell out of the thing until I was at the performance level of about an athlon x2 5000.

Those video cards are definitely nice though. Just be aware of potential problems if you go the intel route.

(HardOCP and Tomshardware have some articles on the problems with the intel chipsets.)