Looking into building a new machine
 

I'll probably be buying a new machine at the end of the summer - a super high end gaming rig. Before I do this I have some questions that I'm hoping to get some help with.

1 - What's a good site for video card reviews? I would like to be able to compare the performance of a wide variety of higher end graphics cards with each other. I know of Tomshardware.com - but searching for reviews there is a pain in the ass. Are thre any other good sites?

2 - DDR vs DDR2? Can somebody explain the various levels of quality of RAM?

3 - AMD64 Dual Cores are the best for gaming ATM right?

4 - What's a good site for motherboard reviews? Tomshardware I guess?

I'll probably be shopping at this store - it's got the cheapest prices in Montreal (they're the closest to newegg.com prices that I can get in Montreal) - http://www.sigmawave.com/eng/main.aspx

If you're going to get an AMD chip, then avoid DDR2 mem like the PLAGUE. AMD doesn't support DDR2, since they figured that DDR3 will be around by the time DDR2 support is widespread on AMD chips.

You could also try www.hardocp.com for reviews.

If you aren't buying until then, your best bet is to not think about it until then. The new Intel chips will be out, or very close to it, and then you'll be able to make a good comparison of the latest tech. Also, price/performance numbers can change between now and then with regard to video cards. So your best buy now, might not be your best buy then.

When you are ready to look at reviews, I like Anandtech, Extremetech, SilentPCreview (not for your purposes), HardOCP, and ARSTechnica.

If I wanted to buy a top of the line gaming machine right now (which is never a good value), It'd be an Athlon FX60 machine (yes it's dual core). 2GB of Ram, a top of the line Gefore card (I can't bring myself to consider SLI etc.), a nice nForce motherboard (Gigabyte, Tyan, etc.). But this has no bearing on what would be 'best' in several month's time.

I wasn't planning on researching now, I was just hoping to get some info to help me do the research later. When is DDR3 coming out? Also, it is probable that I won't even upgrade my machine until the next generation of video cards comes out in six months or so. However, if I were to buy a system now it would probably be something like:

AMD65 Dual Core 4200+
2 Gigs DDR 400
Radeon X1900 XTX (or slightly less powerful, but much less expensive card)
Antec True Power 550W
Antec P180 Case
A8N-SLI PREM nForce4 SLI

I'd be salvaging my 120 GB and my 300 GB SATA drives from my current computer.

I might just end up buying this same system in a few months after the prices drop.

by the time you build this pc, amd's "am2" socket will be out, which supports ddr2 with their memory controller (ddr2-800mhz). that should be a good deal; i'd check either tomshardware.com or anandtech.com for reviews on am2 when it comes out.

amd dual-core processors don't help games very much, but overall your computing experience will be smoother with a dual-core than with a single core (and i'm sure it won't be too long until games start using dual-core technology more).

take that radeon x1900xtx and change it to either a x1900xt (less expensive and it's just a little slower... overclock a little and you've got the same card!) or go for the nvidia geforce 7900gt (at 300 bucks, it's a steal).

you may want to get two of the geforce 7900s since you are getting an sli board. if you get an ati card, there's no point to getting an sli board... more money for no reason there.

really, anandtech.com is a good site for reviews in general, and it's easy to find reviews there. also try hardocp.com, but i don't like it as much. sometimes their reviews are sound, other times it seems like they do stupid things... but it's still worth a mention.

Double Post:
also, this deserves a mention. intel's "conroe" chip will be out by the end of the summer (or it should be), and, if the benchmarks are accurate, it smokes anything out by amd right now. i don't know how much this will change with the "am2" socket, but we will see.

also, conroe looks to be well-priced (the chip that beat the fx-60 in many benchmarks was a 400-500 dollar chip), so be on the lookout for that when it comes out. that will probably support ddr2 only.

I think that I'm just going to wait until Windows Vista is released before upgrading. By then, prices should be way down on the newer tech and I'll trule be able to build a good machine - the only question is will I purchase a legit version of Windows Vista?

Or will you use Vista at all? Remember, it was fairly worthless to upgrade Windows when you had 98 until XP came out (2000 was fine enough, but no step up from 98).

i've been using windows vista at work a bit, and aside from the new interface (which a quadro fx 500 card can't even render very well), there's not a whole lot that's new.

oh yeah, the system is a 1.8ghz p4 with 1 gig of ram, with the quadro fx 500. it runs dog-slow. things like clicking links in ie or changing display settings are painfully slow to execute. i hope they fix this before the final build, but seeing as the requirements are something like a p4 ~2.5ghz processor, i'm thinking not so much.

also, by the time vista comes out, not only will the new tech be cheaper, but newer tech will be out that makes this tech look bad, probably.

Is there any good sites detailing the process of hooking everything up? Like I've mentioned in previous threads, I havn't built a computer in many years, so I'd like to make sure that I'm doing everything right :P

I'm pretty sure that all of the equipment comes with detailed instructions for setting it up - assuming you don't buy it OEM. If you don't trust yourself though, just get a shop to do it for you. They usually don't charge very much for assembly.

Also, there usually isn't more than one way to plug things together anymore. Instead of being allowed to put components in the wrong way, they just don't fit anymore.

Nod - that's what I thought, I was just worried about some new sort of connector that I won't know what to do with :P

As long as it's idiot proofed enough that things only fit where they are supposed to go, I should be fine :)

Idiot resisitant really. You should be fine, and any specific issues will likely be readily available online when you do a query, or someone on GFF will have a hand for you.