Is this a decent gaming system? any Improvemnets?

[NL__Fool]

I want a new computer and I have done a bit of research.
How does this rank as a gaming system?

Any impovements or suggestions that you have?

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHZ
Inetl D975XBX2
Coraise 3 GB DDR2-800
Western Digital Raptor X 150GB Serial ATA150 (10,000RPM)
Nvida Geforce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 Video Card

Some questions

How much of a difference will I see if I upgrade my RAM to the DDR2-1066? It will cost around $100 more

How much of a speed difference will I notice between a 7,200 RPM or a 10,000 RPM Hard Drive?

[SirFelixCat]

[ QUOTE ]
I want a new computer and I have done a bit of research.
How does this rank as a gaming system?

Any impovements or suggestions that you have?

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHZ
Inetl D975XBX2
Coraise 3 GB DDR2-800
Western Digital Raptor X 150GB Serial ATA150 (10,000RPM)
Nvida Geforce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 Video Card

Some questions

How much of a difference will I see if I upgrade my RAM to the DDR2-1066? It will cost around $100 more

How much of a speed difference will I notice between a 7,200 RPM or a 10,000 RPM Hard Drive?

[/ QUOTE ]

I assume you're going to be gaming w/ this rig, hence the monster vid card. I just ordered my new rig and Click here for what I got.

First off, I'd suggest a Q6600. It future proofs you more and more cores = less CPU usage when multitasking poker client, PT, PAH, AHK etc.

I'd also suggest getting a eVGA 8800GT video card. It's w/i 5% of the performance of an 8800GTX for $200-$250 less. Plus, by going w/ eVGA, if when the new 8800GTS's come out w/i the next month or 2, you can use their step-up program and get one of those!

And why the 975 board? Do you need 3 PCI xpress slots? I would suggest a P35 board more.

And is there that big a difference between 1066 and 800 RAM? Not in real world applications, no. DDR2 800 RAM is SUPER cheap right now, so I'd look that route.

As for the HDD's...I have a Raptor as well and while it's quick to boot up etc. meh, if you have the money to spend, why not. But if you're all about bang-for-the-buck, the 500GB drives (7200RPM) is the current sweet spot.

HTH and lemme know if there are any other ???'s u have.

[VINNY VT]

hardforum.com, you can sell trade vid cards from respectable people rly. think 2p2 for computers, get a beastly vid card for cheap and prolly gonna be brand new.

above recommendations sound good

[Josem]

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Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHZ

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this will be better than the quad core q6600 if you're doing one thing at a time (higher clock speed, etc.)

however, if you're running multi-threaded games (which are becoming more common and will be even more common in the future) or multi-tasking (poker + pahud + pt + mth + ahk + web + etc.) the q6600 is better.

really, it depends on your use.

[ QUOTE ]
Western Digital Raptor X 150GB Serial ATA150 (10,000RPM)

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one of these will only be good for your programs - i'd suggest getting the little 36gb version, and using the money saved for one or two (raid 1 if you get two) 500gb disks.

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How much of a difference will I see if I upgrade my RAM to the DDR2-1066?

[/ QUOTE ]
you'll need to check your motherboard chipset, but one of them (P35?) has a bottleneck that limits the data throughput.

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How much of a speed difference will I notice between a 7,200 RPM or a 10,000 RPM Hard Drive?

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compare seek times.

[Beavis68]

i think it looks pretty sweet. The 975 may let you overclock it too.