...that's why I'm asking some advices!

I'm planing to buy a new workstation (medium class). It should be able to deal with all major 3d tasks (not superhighpoly cinematic stuff) and it'll be nice if it could run next-gen games fluent enough.

I was thinking about a Dell Dimension 9200 with an Intel core duo (quad core E6600) 2.4, 2 Gig RAM, 256MB Nvidia G-Force 8600 GTS (PCI-e), 2x250 Gig SATA RAID 0 HD's.

I know...the graphics accelerator is not the best but it should do...no??

...Or would it be more clever to homebrew my PC? If yes, wich main components would you recomend (medium price/performance class!)?


Thanks for helping!

Why not the E6850 it's sometimes cheaper than E6600 and run faster on 1333 fsb. The 8600GTS is a good card and also Vista ready. I have both 8600 and 8800, the 8600 seem to work the same as my previous AGP 7600 GS though. Only tested with Swat4 for now.

Dell computers are not bad or anything. Only I think they are more for people that don't want to go trough all the trouble of selecting compatible hardware and tweaking evertything into detail to their personal needs.

The E6600 is a Core 2 Duo, not a Core 2 Quad D3D.

I'd definitely go for a Core 2 Quad in a new PC, since you can buy the Q6600 starting at about 260 (!) Euros already (at www.azerty.nl , www.alternate.de etc. ..). I would advice not to buy a Dell PC, but instead buy all your parts in online stores like Azerty or Alternate.de using their 'pc-builder' thing. It's not just way cheaper, but you'll get really good hardware and service too in online shops nowadays. The only downside I can currently think of is that you will lack some pre-installed software. You'd have to buy a Windows Vista and Office 2007 for example. I'd recommend the OEM systembuilders version which can also be ordered at shops like azerty.nl . Vista Ultimate costs only 170 Euros or so and depending on the normal shop you'd buy your things this would be exactly the Windows version you'd normally get anyways.

As for specific parts, I'd consider a 3D card like ATI's HD2900XT or perhaps even a Geforce 8800 GTX, but needless to say both are quite expensive. You could also go with the Dell PC and buy a next generation 3d card by the time Nvidia's 9800 series comes out or ATI's R700. Both are expected to come quite soon already, supporting DirectX 10.1 (the 8800 and HD2900 can't handle DirectX 10.1, but then again I don't expect games to use it this soon anyways).

Ultimately it comes down to your budget and whether or not you'd like your PC to be good for another year or good for another 4 years or so.

Cheers

Ok but i read E6600 ^^ Although Quad core is cool, how many applications/games are make use of this cpu? Maybe it's good to have a mobo that supports QC and wait with buying one now until newer released and price will be lower. I mean will you really notice difference between E6850/Q6600 right now?

In the store I mistakenly asked for quantum core, but think we must wait another 30 years for it to come with nano technology and AGI AI

Thanks for your replies! Now I'm even more confused

I composed a custom PC on alternate.de (taking a G-Force 8800GTS, without WindowsXP) that turned out to be the same than if I'd buy a complete system from Dell (taking a G-Force 8800GTX including WindowsXP)...well the Mainboard was probable a bit better than the one from Dell (does someone know what mainboard Dell uses in the Dimmension 9200??).

Hm...I might just replace the broken mainboard from my old machine and use it till the machine blows for good

I'm planning to go Quad Core within the next six months. However I am not being driven by speed as much as the ability to run a number of virtual machines and easily use them for software testing as well as providing a sand-boxed internet connection. I'll confess I also look forward to writing my own threaded programs to see if I can get speed advantages.

Its a shame that (so far) it is only possible to get a VM machine with software DirectX 8 emulation. Hopefully someone will work out a way to interface with graphics acceleration hardware without busting the VM concept wide open.

Ok...one last question to the experts:

would my old DIMM sdram (333Mhz DDR ...not DDR2) work on a ASUS mainboard designed for DDR2 667/533 MHz ram (of course only with 333Mhz!)??

Thanks for your help!

i do not know how the reputation of Dell is in your country.
Here it is known as a big firm that sells used parts in so called new pc's. Even cases are known where people found programs of previous users on their pc. If you get a good system it rocks but service and helpdesk there a mess.

Why don't you built your own pc. You could have a system like that for half the price. However i am not sure if hardware is expensive in your country.

BTW i am from the netherlands and i just read your aiming for alternate much better choice