Azalea13

I'm NOT a gamer.

I'm building my pc and I'll be running intense simulations on it ... so need POWER, I'm getting a Core2Quad, Q6600 and 2G DDR2 for now but would be nice if I could upgrade to a DDR3 sometime in da future. I will most probably make a dbl monitor setup but haven't decided on the Video Card yet.

as for the OS I've decided to make it a dual boot running both win vista 64bit and linux (probably ubuntu 64bit).

I have an overall budget of $CAD1300, before tax, i.e. $CAD1500 after tax. Q6600 already costs $330 and a dbl monitor setup will cost around $400. so I have a total of $570 to spend on a mobo, Video Card, RAM ,HD, cooling sys. CD/DVD Drive, mouse & keyboard ... and ... am I missing something?

if anything I won't sacrifice on the mobo, I'm willin' to pay a lil' more $ on da mobi is it's wort it, even if I have to give up the dbl monitor setup and stick to a single monitor.

thnxxx

ThatGuy16

I would say the "Gigabyte DS3R" or a 650-680i mobo, but if your not into gaming i would get the ds3r.

One of the top two, im not sure the difference but maybe someone else will know.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=gigabyte+ds3r

__________________
CPU: C2D E8400 @ 4Ghz 1.23v
HSF: Apogee GTX
MB: Gigabyte X38-DS4
Ram: 2x2GB G. Skill DDR2-1068
HDD: 320GB Seagate
PSU: OCZ GameXStream 700w
OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit
GFX: HD3870 @ 837/1152
LCD: LG 22" L226WTQ
My Old 3DMark06: 20008 =(

holdenssx

I think the main difference is that one of them supports DDR3 and the other doesn't, not sure if thats the only difference though.

ThatGuy16

Your right, the $160 one supports DDR2 and DDR3..

__________________
CPU: C2D E8400 @ 4Ghz 1.23v
HSF: Apogee GTX
MB: Gigabyte X38-DS4
Ram: 2x2GB G. Skill DDR2-1068
HDD: 320GB Seagate
PSU: OCZ GameXStream 700w
OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit
GFX: HD3870 @ 837/1152
LCD: LG 22" L226WTQ
My Old 3DMark06: 20008 =(

Azalea13

thanks a lot
and what do you think of Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 Matched Pairs 2GB kit (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240-pin Dual Channel Memory ?

ThatGuy16

Very good memory, i don't think i would ever buy any other than corsair memory IMO

__________________
CPU: C2D E8400 @ 4Ghz 1.23v
HSF: Apogee GTX
MB: Gigabyte X38-DS4
Ram: 2x2GB G. Skill DDR2-1068
HDD: 320GB Seagate
PSU: OCZ GameXStream 700w
OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit
GFX: HD3870 @ 837/1152
LCD: LG 22" L226WTQ
My Old 3DMark06: 20008 =(

Azalea13

I like the nVidia nForce chipset better ...

Now given that I'll be making a dbl monitor setup, and that I'll forget about upgrading to a ddr3 sometime in the future I don't know if EVGA nForce 680i SE SLI (TR Version) NVIDIA Socket 775 ATX Motherboard / Audio / SLI Ready / PCI Express / Dual Gigabit LAN / S/PDIF / USB 2.0 & Firewire / Serial ATA / RAID, is a good choice ... or if I should spend some more for

an EVGA nForce 680i SLI NVIDIA Socket 775 ATX Motherboard (New T1 Version) / Audio / PCI Express / SLI / Dual Gigabit LAN / S/PDIF / USB 2.0 & Firewire / Serial ATA / RAID