micro gaming pc

[jman1310]

hi

i thinking of building a new gaming pc. something small that i can take to LANs.
i would like to put a intel quad core in it and run folding on it when i'm home (already have a gaming rig at home but it's not very portable at 70+ pounds)

so has anyone had a great experience with a micro-ATX that has some OC potential?
OCing isn't a priority but would be nice...
what ram did you use?
and what's a decent graphics card for $200ish?

oh yeah, the MB has to be 9.6" x 9.6" or less to fit in my case

thanks

j

[ben333]

Well for the video you could spend a little more and get the 8800GT. You know, you can build some compact full ATX rigs and those would have much better OC potential I think. The ram I would say get the ballistics 2x 1GB DDR2 800. Its cheap and really good. Whats in mind for cooling?

[jman1310]

thanks for the input

air cooling - probably a zalman or something
already did water on my desktop but it adds so much weight...

my price range is flexible, do you think the 8800 is worth the extra dough?

i like the micro atx but i'm not committed to anything except that it should be small and light

j

[ben333]

Well Scott Wasson (owner of the tech report) told me that now that the 8800GT is out there is no reason to get the GTS. I plan to get one and I don't even game much. I do want go get into gaming more though. They say those things can hit 800MHz on stock cooling.

[jman1310]

anyone else have thoughts?

[ben333]

I'd say look into gigabyte mobos. Too bad we don't have more active members here. I think I spend more time deleting scams than posting.

[jman1310]

yep, there used to be so much activity here, damn shame

[Brians256]

For low price and power, the ATI cards seem to be doing well. But for pure affordable power, you can't beat the 8800GT. That's what I've been reading.

For me, I am just fine with the 7600GS that I bought. That should tell you something about what I play, though. I prefer quietness over a new game.

[ben333]

Now the GT has a $200 version too Honestly I'd be fine with the 9250 I have had the past four years (oh nvm i sold it last week but honestly did forget ) but the new mobo has PCI-E. The most I play is Doom 3 and mostly Unreal Tournament 98, 99 demo and 99. I might get more into games but I have always prefered CPU over GPU so this new card will be some good future proofing for me. For the CPU get an x3210 over the q6600 I think. It is cheaper and a only few MHz less as it is (so I have been told) lower voltage and clocks just as well as a 6600. But I think they do not make a G0 stepping x3210 so that may be bad for overclocking but again I'm not sure. I'd go on newegg and use the side bar to customize a board for your needs and then look at reviews for a few of them. Good luck!

[jman1310]

well, i like the q6600 for it's folding potential
i'm not too worried about the money

[ben333]

I know but I think they use the exact same core. They are both kentsfield and maybe the x3210 is just an underclocked q6600. The xeon also comes with SSE4.

[jman1310]

but doesn't the q6600 have 2 of the exact same cores?

[ben333]

It has two dies but I think the xeon dose also

[jman1310]

my mistake
is there any advantage to the xeon besides price?
seems like it works just fine in MBs that accept the q6600, but i am suspicious of that
what is SSE4?

[ben333]

Yep, the core 2 quad and the xeon quad both use the kentsfield core but I think that the x3210 dose NOT have the GO stepping so it may not OC quite as well as a Q6600 but is the same as the non GO Q6600s. Then again I think I also remember hearing that some of the x3210s are G0 and some are not. I was not totally clear on this so sorry if I confused you as much as I did myself lol