Core 2 duo or wait for Core 2 Quad? what would you do?

godskitchen

Ok guys, im after some advice, i have been looking at a new system for some time now, i had made up my mind to order it tomorrow and then hear the news that Intel plan to have Core 2 Quad in the shops Q1 2007.

the system i had in mind is (from komplett.ie, they seem very fast to answer questions, how do you all rate them for price and service?)

Komplett shoppng list

What do you all think of the system and do you think the graphics card is OTT, i do plan to run games and HD-DVD/Blu ray and have a HDTV sat card running on the PC, i also do a lot of work with photoshop.

I am also planning to get this monitor when it comes out
BenQ FP241W 24in Widescreen Monitor

Thanks in advance guys!:)

JDxtra

You can end up never buying anything if you wait and wait for the latest...

Q1 2007 could mean next April by the time you get your hands on it.

PogMoThoin

Quad core gonna be mad expensive. Games don't fully utilise dual core yet (except for quake4), be ages before they use 4 cores.

godskitchen

jdempsey wrote:

You can end up never buying anything if you wait and wait for the latest...

Q1 2007 could mean next April by the time you get your hands on it.

I could not agree more with your first point, its just i was close to getting a P4 system before the core duo cam on the market, i would have been gutted as the core 2 duo was so much better, dont ant the same thing to happen with the quad's. i know i will have to jump at some point though!

godskitchen

I thke it DX10 is short for direct x 10? the pont you made there, would it be pointless getting the more costly card? or will none of the cards support dx10?

DemonOfTheFall

Core Quadro is pointless unless you do something that takes full advantage of it. EG. hardcore video encoding.

PogMoThoin

Yep, only a dx10 card will support directx 10, but the dx10 card will be backwards compatible with dx9 & a dx9 card will run a dx10 game but at lower settings. Dx10 will only run with vista.
I'm playing the waiting game here myself.

8T8

Direct X 10 cards are backwards compatible with Direct X 9 but DX9 cards will only be able to run games that have a DX9 code path in them just to point that out so if someone makes a DX10 only game, only a DX10 card will run it (such games will be few and far between though).

(That said some future games will be Vista only even if they have a DX9 and DX10 path)

There is a reason to wait for a DX10 card as they will simply be faster DX9 cards due to the enchantments in the architecture so even if you never touch a DX10 game or use Vista they will still be worth it.

NVIDIA will be launching the GeForce 8 series in November/December whether its worth waiting is a tricky one given the proximity, ATI are not due till next year to launch their DX10 card.

As for HD-DVD/Blu-ray you can playback such titles as long as you meet certain criteria;
*Over DVI or HDMI - GPU must support HDCP (the X1900XTX you have selected does not)

*Over VGA - HDCP support not required but you run the risk of coming afoul of the image contrast token should the studios ever invoke it (forces the disc to run at a lower resolution)

*Under XP you need a dedicated player that supports HD-DVD or Blu-ray, Cyberlink and Intervideo are the only game in town here at the moment.

*Under Vista all you need is a codec WMP and MCE both support the framework for HD-DVD so all you need is a H.264 codec it comes with VC-1 and MPEG-2 out of the box or so I've read.

*Blu-ray in Vista will still require a player but it should seamlessly work in WMP or Vista MCE.

The Quad Core 2's are very impressive but will be super expensive.

If you want a high end ATI card and HDCP compliant through DVI then you need to get the ATI X1950XTX card.

PogMoThoin

Feck quad core, i'm waiting for 16 cores for my next upgrade

godskitchen

8T8
Thanks, good lot of info there!
I did choose the Radeon X1950XTX partly because of HDCP, its also got good reviews. it was someone else that said the X1900XTX, for a good reason i might add, but i had pretty much made up my mind after a lot of research.

#Elites
Why will you be turning to laptops might i ask?

One more thing, how are komplett on price? from what u can find they seem pretty good!

8T8

godskitchen wrote:

8T8
Thanks, good lot of info there!
I did choose the Radeon X1950XTX partly because of HDCP, its also got good reviews. it was someone else that said the X1900XTX, for a good reason i might add, but i had pretty much made up my mind after a lot of research.

#Elites
Why will you be turning to laptops might i ask?

One more thing, how are komplett on price? from what u can find they seem pretty good!

My mistake there I swore I thought in your shopping list the 1900XTX was originally selected, darn NEC display is so bright it's burning my eyes out :cool:

Komplett are usually pretty good on price, Pixmania arent half bad either for some things.

godskitchen

Now thinking i will wait for Quad core.....................

Have a look at this


Water in real life does not look this real! this clip is amazing!

http://www.gamescheatcodes.co.uk/Movies/intelquadcore.htm

Water in real life does not look this real! this clip is amazing!

Stephen

PogMoThoin wrote:

Quad core gonna be mad expensive. Games don't fully utilise dual core yet (except for quake4), be ages before they use 4 cores.

Once a game supports more than one CPU core it should be a piece of piss to scale it up. I'd imagine for dual core game devs would just have a bunch of different threads doing different jobs, then just allow the threads to run on as many cpu cores as possible concurrently, thus it should support any number of cores.

Psycopat

PogMoThoin wrote:

Quad core gonna be mad expensive.

I would wager a 2.66ghz quad core cpu will be less than 800 euro when it comes out

Stephen wrote:

Once a game supports more than one CPU core it should be a piece of piss to scale it up. I'd imagine for dual core game devs would just have a bunch of different threads doing different jobs, then just allow the threads to run on as many cpu cores as possible concurrently, thus it should support any number of cores.

As a games developer in training I know its not gona be as simple as that, many games, namely CSS and Need for speed get confused with even 2 cores :eek: it will be interesting to see how the PS3 will deal with its 8 core cell processor (i think its 8 core) but yes developers are goin to have to make more apps and games multithreaded to keep up with the tech

unklerosco

http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2006/09/27/idf_fall_2006_content_index/1.html

Loads of info here on quad core n whats to come over the next few years..

That game is the new Max Payne, well its a follow on from the series anyway.. Certanly looks the business.... Im waiting for Vista/DX10 to settle in and true quad cores to become mainstream along with dx10 cards.. The Kentsfield is 2 dual cores on the one package, it'll be mid-late 2007 before intel release native quad core cpus, amd will have there's out first....