Best performance per pound

[wither2000]

Building a gaming rig on a tight budget and can't decide on getting either
A) 8800GTS graphics card and Q6600 CPU = £340

or

B) 8800GTX graphics card and E4300 CPU = £375

Aready bought Abit IP-35E mobo, 2gb Crucial pc6400 ram and corsair HX520 PSU.
Got case, monitor keyboard etc.

So which would give better performance - would like to play bioshock, crysis etc.

[staffsMike]

All depends on your screen size really.

I'd personally have the Q6600 and the GTS.

The E4300 should overclock well in that board, circa 3.0GHz which coupled with a GTX would be good on a 24" screen.

Anything less than 24" (1920 x 1200) and the GTS is in it's element plus you have all the extra grunt of the quad core for CPU intensive games and more demanding future realeases

[Mithrandir]

Id go q6600 and x2900pro

[crazy]

option A
just go with a super overclocked GTS- the new fatal1ty edition GTS looks pretty fast (if your not gonna overclock the card yourself)
just so you can be sure it will handle future releases

[staffsMike]

option A
just go with a super overclocked GTS- the new fatal1ty edition GTS looks pretty fast (if your not gonna overclock the card yourself)
just so you can be sure it will handle future releases

whats option B? you're right though. GTX is good but Q6600 is worth it imo.

[kungpo]

E4300 and GTX. The E4300 will overclock nicely to 3Ghz, and the extra grunt of the GTX over the GTS will be more apparent than the E4300 over the Q6600. And you can always get a quad core later.

[wither2000]

Thanks for the suggestions - 2 for option A on one vote for B so far - and one for none of the above

Mithrandir - I've not really looked at the ATi offerings - everyone seems to be on the 8800 bandwagon at present. I found a comparison here:
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=680&p=1
which shows 8800GTS and X2900pro each are better on certain games. One game I've bought recently that my current PC really struggles with is world in conflict. Lokks like the 2900 also struggles here.

[silentvoice]

'tight budget' and 8800GTX seem like a strange combination to me but to answer your question in most games a E4300 and 8800GTX would provide better performance. However, is this the most cost effective option? Probably not. If you plan to overclock, then a E4300 / E4400 is fine but otherwise I would go with something like a E6750 and 8800GTS (at a cost of £280) and when this set-up starts showing its age (which it won't for a while), drop in a quad core penryn and next gen video card.

The resolution and quality settings you intend to have may also play a factor in your final decision though.

[Mithrandir]

Thanks for the suggestions - 2 for option A on one vote for B so far - and one for none of the above

Mithrandir - I've not really looked at the ATi offerings - everyone seems to be on the 8800 bandwagon at present. I found a comparison here:
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=680&p=1
which shows 8800GTS and X2900pro each are better on certain games. One game I've bought recently that my current PC really struggles with is world in conflict. Lokks like the 2900 also struggles here.

The 2900pro can overclock to 2900xt or higher (basically an underclocked xt) some folks have even flashed it to a fully fledged 2900xt
'Everyone will be getting off the 8800 bandwagon and jumping on the 2900pro bandwagon soon'
also note they come in 512mb or 1gb flavours rather than 320mb/640mb. Also the cheapest starts from £165.

[ScottY_]

What resolution, if over 1680x1050 get the GTX for decent frame rates. IF 1680x1050 or under then go with the Q6600 and GTS

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Option B as my early production E4300 could reach 3ghz easily although I not certain about later ones though as I have heard they are not as good!!?? My E4500 reaches 3.1ghz easily though.

Even though some games will support quad core the fact that most people will either have a single or dual core means that a reasonably fast dual core will still do the job a while still.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The 2900pro can overclock to 2900xt or higher (basically an underclocked xt) some folks have even flashed it to a fully fledged 2900xt
'Everyone will be getting off the 8800 bandwagon and jumping on the 2900pro bandwagon soon'
also note they come in 512mb or 1gb flavours rather than 320mb/640mb. Also the cheapest starts from £165.

I heard that there will be an update to the 8800GTS soon which will increase the number of stream processors from 96 to 112!!

http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/Nvid..._SKU/5311.html

If this is true perhaps a 8800GTX is not needed??!!

The single slot 8800GT seems interesting too!!

http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/GeFo...Good/5312.html

[s_kinton]

An E4300 at 3GHz will be more than enough power for gaming on. I would go with the GTX and a E4300. The graphics card will make much more difference that the Q6600.

[derchris]

8800 GTS and Q6600.
I'm going for this aswell

My other option was a E6850 and a 8800 GTS, but the Q6600 has more power.

Go for Quad

[Blitzen]

Option A 100%

There is nothing the GTS cant handle at full throttle when the monitor is 22" or less so why compromise on the CPU.

[Salazaar]

'tight budget' and 8800GTX seem like a strange combination to me but to answer your question in most games a E4300 and 8800GTX would provide better performance. However, is this the most cost effective option? Probably not. If you plan to overclock, then a E4300 / E4400 is fine but otherwise I would go with something like a E6750 and 8800GTS (at a cost of £280) and when this set-up starts showing its age (which it won't for a while), drop in a quad core penryn and next gen video card.

The resolution and quality settings you intend to have may also play a factor in your final decision though.

I agree, I've got an E4300 and a GTS and I've have no problems playing anything released so far. As said before the GTS is more than capable for anything less than 22" and an E4300 can be upgraded to a quad core once it's necessary (which it certainly isn't now unless you're using some serious multithreaded apps or multitasking) and by then the quad cores will be even more affordable!