New PC - Overkill?

[rybrx7]

Rather than start a new thread on advice for pc threads, this one is recent, so what do you guys think of these two options?

Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX6850 3.0GHz 8MB Cache 1333MHz FSB - Overclocked to 3.33GHz
NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard (not sure if this is fanless!)
Video/Liquid cooling
Dual 768MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800 GTX
Extreme Performance 800MHz Low-Latency DDR2 SDRAM - 4GB

OR

Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX9650 3.0GHz 12MB Cache 1333MHz FSB - Overclocked to 4 GHz
X38 Motherboard (Fanless)
Either Dual 512MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 3870
OR Dual 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 2900 XT
4GB Low Latency Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz

Will be running them on my Samsung 22" display for now, but may upgrade that.

Thoughts anyone?

[The IC]

again, why 2 graphics cards?

[tom120934]

Hehe, sounds like Area 51 ALX from Alienware. First one is ALX SLI, price's starting at 4168€. Second one is ALX CF, price's starting at 4582€.

Both configurations are top level.

My advice : buy the cheapest (#1) : it has better graphics cards. The CPU is a bit slower, but at this level of performance, it doesn't change anything.

Use the money you'll save for a extended warranty (3years : ~250€) or for a brand new LCD if you want.

[rybrx7]

You are correct, they're from Alienware (hence two graphics card, one isnt even an option!)

The only thing that concerns me is i dont know if the Nvidia Motherboard is fanless, whereas the X38 one states it is. I have an Alienware pc now, its got to be 4 years old, but even on day one, it was way way way way too loud for my liking, and if you do anything intensive or the room is warm, when the fans are on full it is ridiculous!

So now im thinking, would the fans of two graphics cards, a powerful processor, the motherboard be ridiculously loud? Im hoping the liquid cooling would keep the levels down....

And Tom are the 8800's definitely better? The 2900XT seems to do very well in these benchmark tests:

Alienware Benchmarking Tests

I've never had anything but Nvidia though haha

[tom120934]

the motherboard be ridiculously loud

Yes you're right : you'll don't notice it.

About 8800 vs 2900, you just can't trust a benchmark that's say the most expensive solution is better WHEN this benchmark is done by the vendor

The GTX are (with their great sister the Ultra) the best video cards available todays (I say available, because G92-based GTS is no yet in stores) I'm no NVIDIA fanboy, it's just the short summary of the tests published here and there.

[Dark Overlord]

Just my 2 cents worth here.......

I wouldn't call 8gb overkill. I work on machines with 16gb installed, and my home systems all have 8 installed. For home my philosophy was 2gb per core.

I've had a few times where even with 8gb, some scene files got real hard to deal with because of massive poly counts. Of course depending on what you do, 4 gb is usually fine for the average user.

[tom120934]

Thanks for your advice but this is a rather old topic. Please check the rules and please don't dig up old topics.

[dimaknight]

Ok heres a stupid question, and I Apologizie up front. But I'm think of getting a new setup myself and this one kit that I'm looking at offers 4gigs, (2x 2gig ram). Now if Vista or XP only regonize 3gig, whats the point them to supply people with 4gigs?

Seconly, it may not be relevant, but I have two graphic cards, due to the fact that I'm running 3 screens, and like tom said, it's the cpu that you need to look for rendering, because I attempted to do a detail car with engine, interior and and scene and I could not render it because of memory issue. So I'm putting in the cash for a duo-core, or amd.

Which dop you think is better for 3d max amd or intel.

[Catlin]

Dima you have to see if its vista 32 bit or 64 because 32 bit only recognises 3.5gb ram whereas the 64 bit i think can handle up to 16gb?

From personal preference i always liked amd but im on a quad core intel now and it seams to love max and render nice and fast so.

[dimaknight]

thanks, I'm actually running Xp, what the max I could do for memory