Try this neal.:up:

http://compare.intel.com/pcc/default...&culture=en-US

http://compare.intel.com/pcc/showcha...&culture=en-US

Left one is the one I have with my new rig and the two others are the one your questioning.

I think I am narrowing the search down now, thanks. Looking at a E8400 with a nVidia 980... still learning and reading.

Hi Neal!

I have a E4700, 4gb ram (dual 2gb 800mhz), Geforce 9600GT, 500gb sata 2 and a 19" wide.

I must say that this machine is a bullet! I can run Crysis on high settings and flowing like a river. Loading times on SH3 decreased substantially. With 4gb of ram I can alt+tab instantly at any game, at any time. I can even run 5 games at the same time, alt+tabbing between then!

I recommend more ran and more hd. I thought 500gb would be enough, but after 2 months, the hd is already full, and I'm having to delete and backup stuff.

:up:

And I once had a Commodore VC-20 with 3.5 KB :-?

Actually, the AMD 9950 Quad seems to be the sweet spot for only $170 or less these days. The E8400 will beat it for gaming 2 out of 3 times, but overall, the 9950 is better for an all around CPU such as compression, etc.

The ATI 1GB 4870 also is the gaming card for those on a budget. Do not buy a 9800 - that is a 'last' generation board. The 260 and 280 are NVidia's current gen.

Some articles on the subject:
ATI 4870 1GB vs Nvidia - http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3415


Some stats on the CPU's:

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/a...5125/17174.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/a...5125/17173.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/a...5125/17175.png

Here are some compression stats:

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/a...5125/17160.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/a...5125/17161.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/a...5125/17165.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/a...5125/17162.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/a...5125/17158.png

Oh man, you could do some amazing things on the vic-20. :p
Did you have the tape recorder also, for storing and loading programs ?

Some perf #'s on what the $250 4870 1GB performs at on 2 of the most GPU hungry games there is:

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/1...1853/17393.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/1...1853/17397.png

Yours must have been broken.. mine had 5kb. :up:
Good ol' datasette times and software trading using an anonymous P.O box.. :arrgh!:

whoops.. I didn't say that!

Many ViC-20 emulators still abound!

-S

Actually he's right.
I had a vic 20 and once booted you had the on screen message "3150 bytes free" or something like that.
Not 5kBytes thats for sure.
Maybe in a later revision they added 2kB :rotfl:

If I had to guess, you had 5K total, but the OS ran in the top portion leaving you with 3150 bytes. Remember, the OS has to run in some portion of memory.

-S

I can't comment on submans Phenom figures, but the 4870 run too hot. With the 4850 you get very good performance for a lot less money and heat.

Submans CPU charts were interesting to say the least. I would however consider that the E8400 overclocks really good. Mine runs 3600 Mhz (a 20% increase) without any ceremony, and would probably go higher, if I push voltages / cooling.

Don't know about dollars, but E8400 are priced at 120€, E8500 at 160€ and E8600 at 220€. So with the E8600 just 666Mhz / 20% faster it's fairly obvious that the E8400 is the price/performance champion among the Core2's.

In addition there are very mature and cheap boards based on the IP35 / IP45 chipsets, like the Abit IP35-E I'm running (really fast & stable board without unnecessary features for just 75€).

Tip: save some money on the CPU and video and invest in a really good
PSU. I personally recommend something like the Corsair 650TX, high quality cables / voltages for <100€. Loose cables were the number 1 stability issue with my last build! So I'd rather not get cable management, it will only create problems.

P.S. I copied you the list of what I got (prices from two months ago but have not moved):

Mainboard: Abit IP35-E
RAM: Crucial DIMM 4 GB DDR2-800 Kit BL2KIT25664AA804 ~95€
CPU: E8400 ~125€
Heatsink: Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme ~50€
Video: Sapphire HD4850 1024MB ~170€
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-650TX ~100€
HD: Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640 GB ~60€
Fans (CPU, Case): Scythe Slip Stream 500upm

And everyone should have a look at those WD 640AAKS. Almost the optimal HD, with a two platter high data density design. In practice nearly as fast as Raptors, but cool and quiet, and for half the price! I got two of them, the second one for images and backups.

Subman, thanks. I sm thinking the video card will be replaced in a year anyway, but I will look into the ATI card you suggest.

GE, yeah, I think the 8400 is the CPU for me, from all I've read I feel comfortable with that choice, plus I always use Intel. What are the components you listed? MB, CPU, ram, etc... you should have labeled them, now I have to look them all up :lol:

Thanks and keep it coming, I know there are others here who will appreciate your expertise.

Neal

One thought comes to mind though - if you go Intel, get a quad. Don't go with a dual core. You may not need it right off, but a lot of games coming down the pike are claiming to use the third and forth cores for better physics, and environmental effects. You won't get that if you only have dual cores, or it will be reduced. Get one of those Intel Quads if you want to go Intel. They don't cost really that much more.

The length of time you seem to keep a gaming system, it would be worth it.

-S

... or stick with a good dual core cpu like the 8400 and buy a mobo that supports quads. (Most do nowadays)

Oh, and if you are looking at the HD 4870, do NOT buy the one from Sapphire. World of hurt.