This could be a useful thread for everyone thinking about upgrading. Please add your recommendation and comments.
So far I'm thinking of these specs (money not being a concern):
- CPU: Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad or Q6850
MB: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 ATX LGA775 P35 1333FSB 2PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard
RAM: 2GB DDR2 1066
Graphic: Nvidia 8800 GT
Sound: Hercules Digifire 7.1 PCI card
Disk: 1TB SATA2 with as little noise as possible
Monitor: 22 inches wide-format LCD at 1980 x 1050
Case: some beige box with the biggest power supply money can buy. As little noise as possible. Liquid cooling a possibility.
Discussion:
- After reading around, I'll avoid AMD because at the time I'm writing this, they seem to have missed the boat on a quad-core CPU.
- DDR3 isn't ready and there's little performance gain over DDR2 right now. I'll just buy a DDR3-ready Mobo, overclock the DDR2 and maybe upgrade the RAM later.
- I already have the Hercules sound card.
- I want the SATA speed so I'll get a disk, and I'll add my existing IDE drives.
- I already have the monitors. I'm hoping someday more games will support multiple monitors. <sarcasm>... and maybe even Blender someday </sarcasm>.
- I'll need a 2nd video card for my 3rd monitor. Anything will do, as this is mostly for text.
This is my current monitor setup:
- Now THIS is a progress bar Show Spoiler