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Hi guys,

I'm after a new pc, and was wondering wht sort of kit I'd need to run some of rthose system killer demos like track one and debris (and the few vids I've seen from breakpoin this year)

would SLI be overkill for a demoing pc?

Yes it would.

Debris runs just fine on 8-class nvidia cards, the higher end (8800) is only needed if you want to crank up the antialiasing and resolution.

Most people aren't 'extreme' when it comes to system specs. However, many demos aren't made for PCs : D so don't expect to be able to see everything. You'll still be watching videos of lots of stuff.

Any commodity 8300 / 8400 integrated nvidia chip will be able to run basically everything out right now, perhaps at a slightly smaller resolution and AA than full. You can always use kkapture to render out the full-rez, full AA version of the demo to video.

any dual core over 2.0 GHz and any 8600+ video card will work just fine.

Best bang for buck: 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo + 8800GT

dualcore, ps3, dx9 or dx10

What micksam7 said. Looks at tom's Hardware at the "best buy for this month" guide for graphis cards, it is usually quite decent.

track one is already over one and a half years old :P

My nVidia 6600GT which I bought as a mid-range card 2 1/2 years ago is still performing remarkably well. Most demos haven't been pushing the new hardware very much. If I were to buy a new card though, I'd go for something faster and newer to get some age out of it.

Arstechnica recently updated their buyers guide. Here it is:

http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/guide-200803.ars

I always take a glance at their guide when I need to upgrade something. That way I don't have to spend all day reading hardware sites.

What you will be looking for is probably their "Hot Rod" system. Their "budget box" is a tad small for demos and their "God Box" is cute but a tad expensive :)

Actually I think their 'budget box' would suffice for demowatching as well. Sure, I would problaby go for a Core 2 Duo instead of an AMD CPU, but the new 9600GT they put in should get the job done for all demos today I think.

I think debris is CPU bound by the batch count, so a powerful CPU is a must.

2gbs of ram or more would be recommended (shad 3).

Debris is sooooo last year. Seriously, who cares about that old piece of crap ;)
Oh, and I agree with sdw on core2-duo and a 9600GT (which just happens to be my new rig) - and with zefyros on 2Gig memory being enough.

so What’s the difference between the intel dual core and intel core 2 duo processors then?

I mentioned debris and track one as they were demos that wouldn't run on my old kit (amd 3400, geforce 6600, 1/2 gb)

caffeine_demon: dual core is 32bit, and core 2 duo is 64bit amongst other things. core 2 is also newer, obviously.

And I also agree on Core2Duo and 9600GT, they're cheap and get the job done.. ;)

Not quite; Pentium D also supported EM64T. Dunno about all models, but I know the 945 (Presler) did.

mic_ Sorry I got confused, I thought we where talking about the difference between "Core Duo" and "Core 2 Duo".

Looks like the scene is already bought by Nvidia and Intel...

Exin, even if it is we should be thankful that we were bought by the companies with the better products ;) (currently, that is)

Couldn't agree more. Fuck ATI and their useless drivers.

Yeah. Sure.

Fuck Windows too.

AMIGAAAAAAAAAAA!

KB: Yeah. And Windows is a good choice as operating system. ;-)

i was so waiting for the "AMIGAAAAAAAAAAAA" ...

TOOOOOOOS! Oh wait, nevermind..