I was wanting a quad core 2.4 with gigs and gig of ram with a nice 512 gfx card, but I was told by a guy I talk to regularly at the local pc shop that the quad cores run hot and only use 2 of the cores 80% of the time so the other 2 are sitting there. he said everything is written around single and dual core.

so my question is do I build a quad core with 8 gig ram and a kickass gfx card with sli capabilities and wait for programming to catch up to it?

or do i build like a dual core 3.0 with 4-8gig ram?

I play a couple online games, and I like moving files around, downloading, gfx and some video editing.

fill me in guys

What the guy told you is wrong.

Quad core processors don't just use 2 cores 80% of the time. If you are using vista it will balance the load on all 4 cores 100% of the time. If you use XP forget about it, it will never balance the load because its not threaded for quad core of even dual core.

about 99% of programs are written for single core and that will just about never change because most apps don't need to be threaded. Only things like Photoshop, Premier Pro, 3D Max, etc. need to be. With vista you can have 4 apps open and it will use a processor for each app, you do not have to worry that its not threaded.

Quad Cores don't run that hot. I have a Mac Pro here with 2 quad core xeon processors and it runs cooler then some dual core systems. I have a dual xeon dell here as well and it runs cooler then that as well.

But with what you are going to do, (unless your talking HD video) you don't need a quad core, save the money and get a core 2 duo.

You also don't need anything close to 8GB of ram. Go with a max of 4. and do it in 2, 2GB sticks so you can upgrade later.

ok...but do killer NIC cards really do that much to be worth the extra $$$

thanks dlewis...i didnt think so. just makin sure. 

how do you know this?

if you set it up right i assume it would do alot..or am I assuming wrong?

i don't know

less lag, ping, sounds awfly good

you spend $220 on a nic so you can have a few MS shaved off your ping time, big deal. How about you just join a server thats closer to you.

It doesn't make that big of a difference in your ping time. If you have a good solid connection with a good upload and download speed, this nic is then a complete waste of money

Since its all done on your processor it doesn't matter which one you get.

Nic's are all just about the same.

what are you talking about 8800gt hard to get and amd cards more rare?