What are you talking about? Show me a 8 cent computer, "proprietary hardware" a mac uses, and why they are not good for gaming.
That statement is completely invalid without real facts.
I don't know why you want to bully people around that happen to be RIGHT, when you yourself have no facts, and have presented no knowledge yourself. I've built / worked on comps with my Dad since I was a little kid (5 years old, already good at comps). I own (and built) 7 computers currently, 6 of them are high end. I don't happen to be a total idiot. As iargue said, Mac parts are for Mac's ONLY, and they cost much more. For example its extremely hard to find a video card for a MAC compared to finding one for a PC, and finding one for a MAC costs WAY more, so I don't know where you got your ideas from. They aren't good for gaming, OBVIOUSLY because no games are coded to run on Mac. It couldn't be more well known that gaming is a strong point of buying a PC.
I was looking at the core 2 quad 8200 but for an extra 120 bucks the core i7 920 is definately better.
If I end up doing this i'll probably save the video card for later because I can only save up so much money each month.
Does the motherboard really matter and should I get 2x2g ram? I definately need to learn more about motherboards.
Remember, a Q8200 and a i7 920 use COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SOCKETS. There are NOT interchangable with each other. Q8200 uses LGA775 socket, i7 uses the newer, Socket 1366
Motherboard matters a bit. First, you need to make sure your ram and CPU are compatible with the motherboard you're purchasing. If everything is compatible, that's all that TRULY matters. If overclocking is important to you, then the motherboard matters A LOT and we will need to discuss it more to figure out which motherboard is best for you.
For ram, I'd use either 2x2GB, 3x1GB triple channel, or 3x2GB triple channel, depending on your setup and your budget $.
When using Windows 7, all programs that you use will automatically use all cores (This is because windows itself handles the opimization, rather then the program having to). So a dual core processor with faster cores doesnt compare to a quad core processor. Most people buy it simple for the price (Which isnt much of a difference).
This quote really got me thinking, as I know it didn't sound 100% right to me. I have made a thread on the forums to get a better answer for it. My current understanding is that it depends on the application, and there are situations where the higher clocked dual will win, but this is becoming less true day by day as multicore/thread support is increased.
http://forums.extrem...ad.php?t=335388From the thread:
Like all other hardware questions, hardware needs are determined by software needs. At this point, a limited number of programs implement algorithms that are run in parallel. Some of this is because the algorithms are serial in nature, and some is because they have not been converted. The simple answer is that a quad will be faster than a dual where the work load can be subdivided and processed simultaneously, which is a very small majority at this point.
Multitasking is another question altogether. If you run several CPU intensive apps at the same time, the more cores the better. Just ask a server the next time you are talking to one.
Fort straight up gaming, I think a overclocked dual will be better, but there are some exceptions in games like crysis and flight sim.
