Which Motherboard and CPU for Intel Wolfdale 3.06 / Crysis

[dionroy]

Hello,

I am currently using an Athlon 64 x2 4400+. 4GB Ram and a new MSI ATI 4870 Video Card.

My CPU is killing me in crysis, Im sure of it.

SO I want to just build another system

CPU,- Im thinking Wolfdale 3.06 - 189 at zipzoomfly (heard that Intel CPU's are better than AMD right now price performance wise.

MOBO - CONFUSED. I want to be able to go CrossFire down the road, but I also dont want to spend 300 on a mobo.

POwer Supply and Case - Bare Minimum to run the 4870 Crossfire.

RAM - Im not plannong on overclocking a lot. I want to spend as little as possible to have a working system without buying sh!tty components. G. Skill has been awesome.

So basically if anyone can make an educated suggestion about which MOBO Case and Power supply Id be appreciative. I cant figure out which one to run with - Havent seen too many Crossfire on LGA775.

Thanks a lot for any help.

Dion

dionroy DOT Com

[WC Annihilus]

For the motherboard and CPU I would definitely look into getting the ASUS P5Q + E8400/E8500 combo off Newegg.

In terms of case, honestly that's a bit of personal preference really. Perhaps give us some ideas of features you want and we can give suggestions. PSU, look into Corsairs, such as the VX550 and HX520

[dionroy]

Hey there,

IN terms of a Case, I just need to have room for a hard drive, DVD burner, and the 4870 card.

I dont really need much more than that. I would say just enough power for Crossfire 4870 down the road.

Thanks for the mobo suggestion. Is it worth it for DDR3?

Thanks,

Dion

[°TheMadDutchDude°]

DDR3 is not worth it, performance gains are very small and not noticable to the every day desktop user.

I would get a higher end X38 motherboard if you're planning on using CrossFire.. simply because you will have two 16x PCIe lanes.. where as on the P5Q Pro, only one 16 and one 8x.

As for the CPU, lovely.. I wouldn't mind one myself

The PSU.. I would strongly recommend any good known brand over 600w, the TT is a brilliant performer though for £68 I think (off the top of my head) you can get a 730w Hiper, which is a brilliant PSU and I would recommend it to nearly any one

The case.. Antec Three Hundred is what the doctor ordered!

[Phoenix]

I bought a Cooler Master Centurion 534 case for my latest build (gf's budget build), and I'm very satisfied with it, both looks good and is big enough for all the essential components (there's plenty of room for crossfire/SLi) and it's dirt cheap. As for a PSU I would maybe go for a 600w (don't ask me 'bout what make, cause I don't know the primary differences, but I would go for a modular one, just to keep it nice and tidy).

[WC Annihilus]

Originally Posted by name='°TheMadDutchDude°'

DDR3 is not worth it, performance gains are very small and not noticable to the every day desktop user.

I would get a higher end X38 motherboard if you're planning on using CrossFire.. simply because you will have two 16x PCIe lanes.. where as on the P5Q Pro, only one 16 and one 8x.

As for the CPU, lovely.. I wouldn't mind one myself

The PSU.. I would strongly recommend any good known brand over 600w, the TT is a brilliant performer though for £68 I think (off the top of my head) you can get a 730w Hiper, which is a brilliant PSU and I would recommend it to nearly any one

The case.. Antec Three Hundred is what the doctor ordered!

Just to say, he mentioned ZZF which implies he's in the US. In regards to the two 16x, many tests have proven that today's cards still don't even come close to filling PCIE 1.0 16x, and PCIE 2.0 8x slots have more bandwidth, so P45 would be perfectly fine.

[lamboman]

First of all, are you sure that your system is too slow? Crysis very much graphics card limited, rather than CPU limited. While your framerate would go up with a new processor, by how much is questionable. What settings are you running the game, and at what resolution?