As per my sad day post I have to do something to rebuld my box. After quite a bit of research i’ve come up with a few things:
1. I am not a huge gamer anymore. HIghly intensive, video card sapping games are not what i focus on.
2. Multiple threads are a must still…but i need to do them faster.
3. Power is quickly becoming a concern due to rising costs.
4. Windows 7 leverages the GPU more than i figured. I also do quite a few things that require more GPU performance than my hd3200 onboard GPU is really able to handle.
I decided to head back to AMD…only for the gpu. I am going specifically with the 6770. It gives me a significant bump in GPU performance over my 4830 AND draws 25% less power. The Nvidia equivalent draws about as much as my old card. i’ll take a hit on tessalation and of course physx(which Doug really loves..i agree it’s neat too.) but considering the power savings and the performance advantage i get elsewhere it is a tradeoff i have to take.
The cpu in an Intel core I3 sandy bridge. I’m going to get a dual core 3.3 ghz with HT that at full bore is going to draw 75W. My current cpu is a quad core 2.3 ghz that draws 95w at max load. I’m going to save significant power there.
I’ll take a 5w hit on the ram..but the cpu power savings alone more than makes up for that.
I’m gping to carry over my current hdd/dvd burner.
The case is going to be a shuttle case of some kind so everything else is contained there.
I’m going to be able to keep this build just a hair under $500…:)