New Build Advice

zilog_jones

I was looking into getting a new PC over the summer, but got lazy and now I really have to get a new PC and I'm totally out of the loop regarding what's good.

I'm basically looking for something around €900-1,000, probably a Core 2 Duo E6300, 1GB RAM, and some cheap enough graphics card (not bothered really as long as it will do Source and GTA:SA well enough).

What I really don't know what to choose is the motherboard - last time I looked at this stuff the Core 2 just came out and there were feck all boards supporting it. So what's good now? Any recommendations/links to reviews? I'd prefer a mobo with passive cooling, and I need at least 2 PCI slots (for my wireless NIC and TV card). SLI would be handy as well for the future (cuz I know I'm gonna end up with the same PC for another 6 years :rolleyes: ).

Any recommendations for a case and PSU? Don't really need anything fancy.

I already have a cromulent monitor (free Trinitron FTW), DVD burner, keyboard and mouse. Will be buying off Komplett.

8T8

The two Intel motherboards that support Core 2 are the 965 and 975 series the difference between the two isn't much.

* The 965 series has guaranteed support for Core 2 CPU's.
* Not all 975 boards support the Core 2 out of the box though those that do tend to advertise the fact.
* The 975 & 965 support ATI Crossfire multi-GPU system, the 965 isn't quite as optimal as the 975 in this area though as it uses 16x4 instead of 8x8 PCI-e lanes.
* The 965 has a slightly better memory controller optimized for the Core 2.

Most Intel boards use passive cooling to begin with so that shouldn't be an issue.

As for graphics an X1650 Pro should do the job plus you get the option for ATI Crossfire down the road. If that does not appeal get a 7600GT best midrange card at the moment. ATI's 7600GT killer the X1650XT has been delayed, might show at the end of this month might not no knows for sure.

{Midrange ATI cards do not require a master card to work in Crossfire so another 1650 Pro will do}

This MSI 975 Platinum {MS-7246} has two PCI slots, two PCI-e slots and features support for the Core 2 Quad CPU which aren't even out yet & passive cooling. So a good all rounder with a lot of upgrade potential.



SLI is out of the question with Core 2 at the moment;

* nForce 4 X16 boards with Core 2 bios support will work but are rare
* Official Core 2 supporting nForce 5 boards were held back because of bugs.
* Word is bugs have been fixed and Core 2 supporting nForce 5 boards have been re-branded as nForce 6 boards :rolleyes:

November is the estimated time frame for those.

As for cases anything will do really, I have recently gotten an Akasa Eclipse-62 and I like it a lot even if it is a bit big, lots of room to work with & can take a lot of hardware but the price is a little high.

As for power supplies anything in the range of 400-500W is more than enough, Tagan, Seasonic, OCZ, Akasa are some of the better brands.

zilog_jones

Thanks for the help. Didn't know about the lack of SLI support - found it kinda weird looking at motherboards with 2 16x slots but they say neither SLI or Crossfire in the descriptions O_o

I think I'll go with the 7600GT, but which one? Dunno who's good, though I know someone who had bad experience with Gainward... then again that was back in GF4 days...

CPU: Core 2 Duo E6300 €193
Mobo: MSI 975X Platinum €209
Graphics: POV GeForce 7600GT €160
RAM: Corsair Value S. PC4200 DDR2 2x512MB €130
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB €105 (dunno who's best right now)
Case: Gigabyte Triton GZ-XX1CA-SNB Black €72
PSU: Tagan 2force 480W €110 (is this one noisy?)

So that's €979 alltogether - not too bad, but I was hoping to pay less, and knowing my luck I'm forgetting something!

What about the Gigabyte 965P-DS4 (€173)? I'd kinda prefer the i965 being the newer chipset, and I'm not *too* bothered about Crossfire (might end up never using it). Plus the heat pipes look pretty

Any recommendations with RAM? Is PC2-4200 even the right speed?! And does having pairs make a significant improvement in performance? Is it worth paying more for ones with shiny heatsinks and junk?

PogMoThoin

There is mod driver that allow sli on the xfire mobo's. These are older drivers that are modified to allow it. Drop us a pm with your email if you need it.

8T8

Doesn't really matter which 7600GT you go for they are all roughly the same, some may come with an alternative cooler or something extra in the box in terms of accessories.

The Western Digital SE16 is a good choice at the moment it a decent drive.

Tagan PSU's are very quiet not noisy at all

I wouldn't bother with the Gigabyte 965P-DS4 the better memory controller in the 965 will really only offer 1-2% improvement and it has no other major advantages over the 975, in fact the Gigabyte boards have dodgy memory compatibility that was fixed by a bios updates but if you didn't have a working DIMM to begin with you'd be in trouble.

As for RAM there isn't a whole lot of difference between the various speeds in real world tests.
DDR2-533 = PC2-4200
DDR2-667 = PC2-5300
DDR2-800 = PC2-6400

The DDR2-533 1GB pack Corsair you picked out will do fine.

As PogMoThoin mentioned there are hacked drivers that allow SLI on non-NVIDIA motherboards the only issue with these are that SLI is heavily reliant on driver updates so you are at the whim of those who hack the drivers. Plus if NVIDIA finds a way to completely lock them out which will probably happen eventually though through hardware more than software that will be the end of that.

zilog_jones

Cool, thanks for the help. I think I'll go for the MSI board then.

zilog_jones

I ordered all that stuff last week and it all arrived this morning - I'm very pleased (first *NEW* PC in about 5 years)!!

Haven't had an ounce of trouble with anything yet, except the BIOS at first moaning about me having no floppy drive ^_^

And surprisingly it's all quieter than my crappy old PC - a PIII-933 with a GF4 Ti!

8T8

Glad to hear it's running well, you should be able to kill the floppy drive nag in the bios by disabling the floppy disk controller some times referred to as the FDC in the bios.

And check the A: or B: designation and see if they are set to none as well.

zilog_jones

Yeah I did that - it assumed there was a 3.5" installed when i first set it up and after flashing the BIOS.

There is one problem though - the CPU temperature readings are completely insane! On the BIOS it looks OK - usually around 35 degrees - but on any other programs I've tried so far they've reported completely insane temp's - some MSI program says it's 125 degrees and attempts to shut down the PC, and SpeedFan reports anything between -110 and about 70 degrees O_o

I've checked the heatsink a few times and it has never been particularly hot (same can't be said for the northbridge!), so I have reason to believe the BIOS is the only one that's right.

Haven't tried any stress testing or overclocking yet, and I didn't have time to install any games - got Counter-Strike 1.5 running off an external HDD at 1600x1200 with like 16x AA and everything , but it still looked like crappy old Counter-Strike...

PogMoThoin

I find core temp beta 0.9.0.91 to be the most accurate as it reads from the sensor on the die. google is your friend

zilog_jones

Thanks for that! I guess the BIOS was somewhat right, then - seems to be around 35 degrees idle. Seems the second core is slightly cooler

Just running Prime95 to see how high it'll go - seems to be levelling out at about 45/46, which sounds pretty good. This is with the stock heatsink/fan.

PogMoThoin

Sounds about right m8, the second core is 1' cooler on mine idling also, could be different amounts of thermal compound or faulty sensor. Don't worry, every1 else is the same, even saw i guy had 4' difference