How-To Geek

this is the first time iv looked in to making my own computer. i have an ibm laptop but if finding its not enough for games and auto cad/solidworks so hear is wt im looking at

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz - 1066FSB - 8MB Cache)
GIGABYTE GA-EP35C-DS3R Core 2 Quad Intel P35 DDR2&DDR3 A&GbE ATX DES Motherboard
4GB - PC2-6400 (DDR2-800) (Dual Channel Memory Kit)
Western Digital 160GB 7200 RPM SATA2 Hard Drive
GeForce 9600 512MB PCI Express Video Card

i wont go over the other parts like power supply, tower, and stuff like that

my 2 big questions are did i make a good motherboard and graphics card choice?

im using smksuperstore.com to make the computer for me if anyone has a better suggestions as to where to buy the computer let me kno

what should i be looking for in a mother board... is there better then that?
and if 8800 GT is better then 9600 what would be better then the 8800?

thanks in advance

ya im look to spend around 1000$ so ill stick with those...

thanks a bunch

unless you are planning on running two video cards in SLI mode, then not really... and there's not a ton of benefit to that anyway since most games don't properly support it.

This is the best site I've found for direct spec comparisons between almost all video cards on the market:

http://www.gpureview.com/show_.....;card2=544

iv had nothing but issues with amds so ill never buy one again

@whs, that's the last time you call the Q6600 slow without a challenge. Here is a benchmark showing the Q6600 is not slow -- it's faster than the AMD 4800+, 5600+, even the 6400+. I've got nothing against AMD, nor am I an Intel bigot but a benchmark means more to me than your opinion.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html

Please post a benchmark that shows the Q6600 is slow or stop saying the CPU is the problem. I know you are disappointed with *your* Q6600-based computer, but a computer is more than just a processor. Also, let's take this discussion to a new thread so we don't hijack this one.

EDIT: new thread => http://www.howtogeek.com/forum.....s-amd-cpus

is there a big difference between ddr2 800 and ddr2 1066?

is it worth the money difference?