28.04.2008, 19:54
No, I purchased 9600 GTs in SLI and they are not worth it. Absolutely not worth it. One 9600 GT is almost worth the price until you consider the 8800 GS which costs LESS than the 9600 GT and is quite a bit faster. Read up about it the thing is a massive overclocker (the EVGA one, not the XFX one). All things considered the 8800 GT (the g92 core revision) is the best card available. Do not bother with SLI, it is absolutely not worth it. I've owned 3 SLI setups, they all sucked. Pointless, the only time you ever get framerate increases is when you've already got high FPS, they rarely ever help when you really need the extra help. There are tech articles about this, as well.
For CPU definitely Intel's Core2Quad Q6600 2.4ghz. By far the best cpu on the market for just about everyone and every game you can imagine. Even games that don't take advantage of multiple cores (like il2) will love the insane clock speed you can get with this thing. 3.0-3.2ghz is EASY to get without much fuss or bother and the thing is just incredibly fast.
For motherboard I recommend the ABIT IP35-E if you are on a budget or the ABIT IP35-PRO if you have enough to get the best. I've used Q6600 boards from EVGA, MSI, and Gigabyte, and none of them come close to the quality of ABIT's IP35 series. Avoid the new ABIT IP35-V (I think thats the designation, it replaced the IP35-E at newegg recently) and hit ebay if you want the IP35-E. If for some strange reason you are averse to abit the next suggestion would be the Gigabyte DS3L. Avoid SLI boards, I can't stress this enough. My biggest mistake was trying to go SLI. Fortunately I got resale value of my stuff so i didn't lose anything in the deal except a lot of time.
For the Q6600 you need a new power supply as well. Make sure it has an 8PIN dual 12v connector and is at least 500-600 watts, minimum. Adapters to give you the required motherboard interface 8 pin connector are an ABSOLUTE NO-NO. If it doesn't fry your system immediately it will eventually. You have been warned.
For Q6600 cooling your best options are the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (easy to install, great temps, dynamic fan that works very well, exhaust flow design to push hot air directly to your back case fan and out, keeping temps in case very low), Tuniq Tower, or ThermalRight 120 (any specific 120 is fine).
Edit: Memory. Testing has shown that DDR speeds exceeding around 666 are totally minimal. Even 533 is within 5-10 percent as fast as 1066. My recommendation is GSKILL, PATRIOT, KINGSTON, GEIL, CORSAIR, etc, DDR2 800. This way you can set the memory to 1:1 with the FSB of the mobo for the cpu at 8 or 9x multiplier depending how much you want from your cpu (8x yielding 3.2ghz and 9x yielding 3.6). This will give you an insanely fast setup with 400mhz FSB on the motherboard and I can personally attest that both the IP35-E and IP35-PRO can easily hit 400 without even changing the voltages for the mobo. CPU will require a small voltage bump (usually) to hit 3.2 but not too much.
For CPU definitely Intel's Core2Quad Q6600 2.4ghz. By far the best cpu on the market for just about everyone and every game you can imagine. Even games that don't take advantage of multiple cores (like il2) will love the insane clock speed you can get with this thing. 3.0-3.2ghz is EASY to get without much fuss or bother and the thing is just incredibly fast.
For motherboard I recommend the ABIT IP35-E if you are on a budget or the ABIT IP35-PRO if you have enough to get the best. I've used Q6600 boards from EVGA, MSI, and Gigabyte, and none of them come close to the quality of ABIT's IP35 series. Avoid the new ABIT IP35-V (I think thats the designation, it replaced the IP35-E at newegg recently) and hit ebay if you want the IP35-E. If for some strange reason you are averse to abit the next suggestion would be the Gigabyte DS3L. Avoid SLI boards, I can't stress this enough. My biggest mistake was trying to go SLI. Fortunately I got resale value of my stuff so i didn't lose anything in the deal except a lot of time.
For the Q6600 you need a new power supply as well. Make sure it has an 8PIN dual 12v connector and is at least 500-600 watts, minimum. Adapters to give you the required motherboard interface 8 pin connector are an ABSOLUTE NO-NO. If it doesn't fry your system immediately it will eventually. You have been warned.
For Q6600 cooling your best options are the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (easy to install, great temps, dynamic fan that works very well, exhaust flow design to push hot air directly to your back case fan and out, keeping temps in case very low), Tuniq Tower, or ThermalRight 120 (any specific 120 is fine).
Edit: Memory. Testing has shown that DDR speeds exceeding around 666 are totally minimal. Even 533 is within 5-10 percent as fast as 1066. My recommendation is GSKILL, PATRIOT, KINGSTON, GEIL, CORSAIR, etc, DDR2 800. This way you can set the memory to 1:1 with the FSB of the mobo for the cpu at 8 or 9x multiplier depending how much you want from your cpu (8x yielding 3.2ghz and 9x yielding 3.6). This will give you an insanely fast setup with 400mhz FSB on the motherboard and I can personally attest that both the IP35-E and IP35-PRO can easily hit 400 without even changing the voltages for the mobo. CPU will require a small voltage bump (usually) to hit 3.2 but not too much.