Gaming PC: Intel Core 2 Duo vs. Pentium D (dual-core) / AGP vs. PCI Express

[Sandman0170]

What are you looking to do with it?

[hippietim]

This is the machine I just got:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz CPU 4MB cache
2GB DDR-2 667MHz XMS II dual channel memory
18X DVDRW/CDRW Optical Drive with LightScribe technology
160GB SATA II system drive for Operating System and programs
320GB SATA II audio drive for recording and playback
2 Texas Instruments Firewire 400 ports
Ultra-quiet 450W 18 db (A) power supply
Compatible with Microsoft Windows X64 & Vista
28 db (A) ultra-quiet technology with digital fan speed control
Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s for LAN and Broadband connection
Microsoft Windows XP SVP2 tuned for audio recording and playback

http://www.shop-sonica.com/pd_r6600_workstation.cfm

[audiophile]

How is this set up...I want to buy today

Module Description Show Details
Dimension 9200 Intel ® Core™2 Duo Processor E6700 (2.66GHz, 1066 FSB)
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 4DIMMs
Keyboard Dell Bluetooth Keyboard and Optical Mouse
Monitor 24 inch UltraSharp™ 2407FPW Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
Graphics Cards 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache
Hard Drive 500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Floppy Drive and Media Reader 13 in 1 Media Card Reader
Mouse Mouse included in Dell Wireless or Bluetooth Package
Modem No Modem Requested
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
CD or DVD Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
Sound Cards Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Speakers No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Bundle Microsoft Office Basic - Includes Word, Excel and Outlook email
Security Software McAfee Security Center w/VirusScan, Firewall and Privacy, 90-day trial
Digital Music Musicmatch by Yahoo! Music - Basic music software
Digital Imaging Corel Photo Album™ 6 Starter Edition - Organize and Edit your photos
Hardware Support Services 1 Yr Limited Warranty with 1 Yr NBD Onsite Service and 1 Yr Tech Support
Internet Access Services Please select an ISP subscription
Upgrade to Windows Vista Express Upgrade to Windows Vista

ACCESSORIES
D-Link WBR-1310 Wireless G Router

Overkill, and definitely overpriced, unless you have $ to blow.
If you gotta have that, loiter on slickdeals.net and wait for a 30% off coupon opportunity.
But a new guitar with $ saved.. lol
Yeah, it's a smokin system, but depending on what you want to use it for, can't say how much overkill. I'd bet you could 1/2 that and never miss it. Crappy vid card for such a costly system as well. It's really only a 64mb or 128mb that leeches the rest from system memory. Nice monitor tho, I want one myself.

This is the machine I just got:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz CPU 4MB cache
2GB DDR-2 667MHz XMS II dual channel memory
18X DVDRW/CDRW Optical Drive with LightScribe technology
160GB SATA II system drive for Operating System and programs
320GB SATA II audio drive for recording and playback
2 Texas Instruments Firewire 400 ports
Ultra-quiet 450W 18 db (A) power supply
Compatible with Microsoft Windows X64 & Vista
28 db (A) ultra-quiet technology with digital fan speed control
Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s for LAN and Broadband connection
Microsoft Windows XP SVP2 tuned for audio recording and playback

http://www.shop-sonica.com/pd_r6600_workstation.cfm

still quite a bit of overhead costs tacked on. This same system at Dell would be maybe 1500 with no coupon. Easily had for 1200 with coupon.
including a 19" flat panel.


But seeing how the market works and how much saving can be had takes time to research, and time = money to many people. So in the end, you create your own overhead if you put your time in the equation.
Slickdeals.net will at least give you some cost benchmarks to compare by.
Hell, it's all just a dam $ pit in the end.

[sevser]

Yeah...I could definately trim some fat off that and make a huge diff in price.

I will be using it for everything....I take a ton of vid/pix and record lots of music.

I want the monitor for sure but I could trim the HD from 5000 to 350 and Memory to 2Gig instead of 4.

[sevser]

I wonder if going from a 2.66 MHz down to the 2.13 MHz would be a better idea as well. Is it the same mother board...As long as I know I can upgrade the chip if I wanted to.

[hippietim]

still quite a bit of overhead costs tacked on. This same system at Dell would be maybe 1500 with no coupon. Easily had for 1200 with coupon.
including a 19" flat panel.


But seeing how the market works and how much saving can be had takes time to research, and time = money to many people. So in the end, you create your own overhead if you put your time in the equation.
Slickdeals.net will at least give you some cost benchmarks to compare by.
Hell, it's all just a dam $ pit in the end.

Dude, I know all about Dell. I've personally owned several. My main machine at home right now is a Dell. Just about every computer I've used at work for the last 12 years has been a Dell. I love Dell.

One problem. My Dell is loud as hell. Dell does not offer a PC tuned for digital audio recording. They offer a quiet case option but not isolated hard drives, extra quiet fans, etc.

BTW, I did price out the closest thing Dell had to offer - it came to $1700 configured similarly. I couldn't get it precise because Dell doesn't offer the Lightscribe drive or all the quiet upgrades. The Dell I configured had a better video card but I could care less about that. But the Dell system had slower RAM - they offer the faster RAM but not in a quiet case. Etc.

I could have also bought components myself and built it myself and got the whole thing for about $1300-1400. And the only way to really get the rock bottom price is to order parts from 3-4 different suppliers. Screw that. That is such a hassle it's totally not worth it to me - finding the right combination of motherboards, memory, display adapters, etc. and finding board revisions that work with each other - that just sucks. I spend my life building software for computers - I have no desire to build and test the machines as well. I got over that phase years ago.

To me it was worth spending a few hundred extra dollars for someone else to build, test, and burn in a system optimized for audio that is quiet.

FWIW, if I want a general purpose machine I would buy a Dell.

[Budman68]

I actually said the hell with the dual core for now and upgraded my video to a xfx 6800Xt and maxed the ram out to 2 gig. I would also like to find a P4 3.06 ghz proc (max for my 845 intel board) but it's been discontinued and I'd love to find a retail box of that. Anybody know where I can find that? I'm only seeing used chips from ebay which is scary as hell

[hippietim]

Yeah...I could definately trim some fat off that and make a huge diff in price.

I will be using it for everything....I take a ton of vid/pix and record lots of music.

I want the monitor for sure but I could trim the HD from 5000 to 350 and Memory to 2Gig instead of 4.

FYI, 4GB of RAM will not likely do you a whole lot of good running 32-bit Windows XP. There are some real limits with applications and drivers. If you are going to run Vista or a 64-bit OS then you will realize the benefits much better.

[audiophile]

the 6300, 6400, 6600, 6700 should use the same or similarly upgradeable motherboards. and performance likely wont be noticable real time. Of course the 6700 will cut time doing intensive tasks like encoding video but not by extreme amounts compared to the 6400.

Of course when talking about upgrading the CPU, the opportunity to upgrade to something of noticable difference will likely require a whole new platform that isn't out yet and years away, I wouldn't consider that in the equation IMO.

Memory should be fine with 2Gig, altho 4 is delish. As long as there are 4 slots for memory, and only 2 used, so you can add another 2 later.

1 DVD burner should be fine, additional DVD-ROM if wanted for duplication but not necessary.

And follow suit of Tim with a small (80-160Gb) primary drive for O/S & Apps, add 2nd larger drive for all data. (Easy with aftermarket)

[Sandman0170]

I would say downgrade to the 6600 and save $250. Then cut it down to 2 gigs of ram. The performance difference will be very minor based on the tests I've seen on those. If you don’t mind the little extra noise, you could put that money to a 76gb Raptor drive for your system and grab a 300-500gb SATA cheap after rebates. Also, keep an eye on fatwallet.com Dell usually comes out with some good coupons on there, usually for the laptops, but sometimes you’ll see a good deal for their desktops.

[sevser]

This is what I bought last night

Processor Type Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
Processor Speed 2.13GHz
RAM 2GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM (Exp. To 8GB)
Hard Drive 500GB (2 x 250GB) SATA
Optical Drives 16X DL DVD+/-RW w/ Lightscribe & DVD-ROM
Graphics Card See The Features Section
Available Expansion Bays 1 HP Personal Media Drive
Available Expansion Slots No
Cache 2MB
Disk Drive No
Fax/Modem 56K Modem
I/O Ports See The Features Section
Included Software See The Features Section
Monitor Included? No
Network Card 10/100 Ethernet
Other Control Devices See The Features Section
Preloaded Operating System MS Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Sound Card See The Features Section
Speakers No
System Bus 1066MHz Front Side Bus
Warranty 1 Year Limited
I/O Ports: 2 x Firewire IEEE 1394 (1 Front, 1 Back), Wireless LAN, 6 x USB 2.0 (2 Front, 4 Back), 9-In-1 Memory Card Reader, Composite Video, S-Video, Audio Inputs

Sound Card: Intel High Definition Audio, 8 Speaker Configurable

Graphic Card: NVIDIA FX7300SE With Up To 256MB Shared Video Memory & TV Out

Other Control Devices: HP Wireless Keyboard & Optical Mouse With Extended Range (Up To 16’), HP Media Center Remote Control With IR Receiver

Software: Microsoft Works 8, Microsoft Money, Quicken 2006 (US Edition), HP Photosmart Premiere, Adobe Reader 7.0, Sonic DigitalMedia Plus, DVD Play, Norton Internet security (60 days updates), Microsoft Office Student & Teacher Edition (60 day trial)



WebID: 10078295
Mfr. Part Number: LS22DPWCBQ/XAA
Monitor Type TFT LCD
Analog vs Digital Analog & Digital
Brightness 300 cd/m2
Built in TV Tuner No
Contrast Ratio 700:1
Maximum Resolution 1680 x 1050
Other Height-Adjustable Stand
Product Dimensions 50.54(W) x 40.89(H) x 22.09(D) cm
Product Weight 6.9 kg
Response Time 5ms
Screen Size 22"
Speakers Included No
Warranty 3 Years Parts & Labour



The Logitech Z-5450 is a THX-certified 5.1 speaker system with dual wireless rear speakers for simple, clutter-free installation. It features patented dual-chamber subwoofer, wireless remote control, polished aluminum phase plug satellites and Digital SoundTouch Control Center that decodes Dolby Digital and DTS recordings and has multiple digital and analog inputs. More Info

WebID: 10069200
Mfr. Part Number: NTRATRS
4-Channel Sound Card Yes
Colour Black
Driver Size (Per Satellite) Info Not Available
Frequency Response 35Hz - 20KHz
Headphone Jack No
Included In Box See The Features Section
Inputs No
Location of Controls Remote
Microphone Jack No
Mute Button On Control Centre
Number Of Satellites 5
Product Warranty 2 Year Limited
Remote Yes
Subwoofer Yes
Subwoofer Construction Info Not Available
Subwoofer Power 116 Watts RMS
Total Satellite Power 199 Watts RMS
Total System Power 315 Watts RMS
Treble and Bass Control No
Volume Control Yes



I also upgraded to a Micrsoft laser keyboard and mouse.

Grand total is under $2500 CDN

Thanks for everyones help...Greatly appreciated!!!

[chrisgUK]

awesome rig. Id love to try a dual core comp.

Jst read the thread and too many people still think Mhz=more powerful. Clock speed means nothing unless you consider MIPS, instruction complexity, pipeline and hazard efficieny etc etc..
Also for gaming a fast single core will be better because most games still only use one processor at a time. Although soon more and more games will start utilising parallel processing technology.

[rjohnstone]

@ Sevser... you did good right up to the video card.
Graphic Card: NVIDIA FX7300SE With Up To 256MB Shared Video Memory & TV Out
Never use a shared memory video card. You will get poor response and frame jumping on graphics intense applications. The one you have is good for watching movies.
Love the monitor.

[sevser]

Yeah they did tell me if I was a big gamer I should come back and talk about a better card...That one came with the system.