03.10.2008, 05:00
I'm not a huge fan of Intel motherboards. They usually work ok, but don't allow for much tweaking or overclocking. Basically, they are good for office machines, not so good for gaming rigs.
I'm still not convinced that a quad core CPU has any advantage over a dual core CPU for the average user. A fast (E8400) will do what most of us need it to do while using less electricity and generating less heat than a quad core.
The Nvidia 8600GT is an "ok" card, but the 8800GT and 9600GT are far better and will easily handle Il2.
The RAM selected will be running below the BUS speed of the motherboard. Your motherboard and CPU will run at 800 MHz, the RAM at 667 MHz, that's a serious mismatch and bottleneck. Perhaps your builder is using this cheap RAM and trying to overclock it to approximately 800 or 1300 MHz, but overclocked RAM is not always stable (go ahead, ask me how I know :roll: ). You need RAM that will be a match to the BUS speed of the CPU for best performance.
Make sure the power supply is a high quality unit, none of this "no-name" generic stuff. And 510 watts is light by today's standard and may struggle to keep up. A power supply that is pushed to its limits will not last long.
These are my recommendations.
I'm still not convinced that a quad core CPU has any advantage over a dual core CPU for the average user. A fast (E8400) will do what most of us need it to do while using less electricity and generating less heat than a quad core.
The Nvidia 8600GT is an "ok" card, but the 8800GT and 9600GT are far better and will easily handle Il2.
The RAM selected will be running below the BUS speed of the motherboard. Your motherboard and CPU will run at 800 MHz, the RAM at 667 MHz, that's a serious mismatch and bottleneck. Perhaps your builder is using this cheap RAM and trying to overclock it to approximately 800 or 1300 MHz, but overclocked RAM is not always stable (go ahead, ask me how I know :roll: ). You need RAM that will be a match to the BUS speed of the CPU for best performance.
Make sure the power supply is a high quality unit, none of this "no-name" generic stuff. And 510 watts is light by today's standard and may struggle to keep up. A power supply that is pushed to its limits will not last long.
These are my recommendations.