New computer build, will it bottleneck? PCMARK, 3DMARK knockoffs?

mike8213: New computer build, will it bottleneck? PCMARK, 3DMARK knockoffs?
New computer build, was wondering where the bottleneck will be, and if it’ll be recognizable. Trying to build something that’ll last me another 8 years, this leaves me room too double up on memory and the MOBO supports both Dual Channel, and Crossfire so I can double up graphics at a later point. I will probably try overclocking the CPU at that point, but that’ll be when everything else gets beefed up.

Raidmax Smilodon Extreme Black
Antec EarthWatts 650W PSU
Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHZ, 1333FSB, 6MB L2 Cache
Asus P5q MOBO
Radeon HD 4870, 256 bit Memory Interface, 1GBGDDR5, 750MHZ CC
4GB OCZ DDR2 1200 Dual Channel RAM
Wester Digital 7200 RPM, 16mb cache

Also, any online documentation or youtube videos that show how this modern day computer stuff works? Like the crossfire technology or the dual channel memory stuff. Something that shows how the computer hardware “flows”?

Also, was wanting to bench current system with some actual ferocity, but pcmark and 3dmark require money for the full fledged bench. Any good free knockoffs?

Answers and Views:

Answer by MaskedMusketeer
>Trying to build something that’ll last me another 8 years,

No computer is going to last you for 8 years. The Pentium 4/D series are only 5 years old, lots of people are already have it in favor of the Core 2 Duo and Quad series.

The Core 2 series are also starting to show their age, some people have opted for the much faster Core i7’s and gamers are now going for AMD Phenom 2’s because a) it’s a newer socket and b) Phenom 2’s are much cheaper than Core 2’s.

>Core2 Quad Q9400

The LGA775 is a dying socket — I think for your build, you might benefit more from a Phenom 2 X4 CPU — you have a wider upgrade pathway. but otherwise, your build looks ok.

If you want your computer to last longer, skip the LGA775 completely and go straight to the Core i5 series (socket 1156: https://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,684827/Socket-1156-CPU-for-84-USD-to-be-released-in-early-2010/News/ )
However, the i5 doesn’t get released until 2010 — if you can fight back the temptation to upgrade for another 5 months, then good for you.

>Like the crossfire technology or the dual channel memory stuff. Something that shows how the computer hardware “flows”?

If you go to Toms’ Hardware, you can see the reviews and comparisons between different hardware setups, e.g Nvidia versus ATi cards, DDR2 versus DDR3 setups etc.

here is a list of free and non-free benchmarking apps:
https://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/Benchmarking/