Take a look at this.

christophicus

Ok so i am going to do my first build from teh ground up and I was hoping some of you guys could go over what I have specced out and suggest alternative , better price/ performance components. I'd also like any comments you have about the different components.


CPU:Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 G0
RAM: 2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800)
MOBO:Gigabyte GA P35C-DS3R, iP35 Express
HDD:500 Gb Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB
Case :Antec 900
PSU :720W Enermax Infinity EIN720AWT Modular Quad SLi Quad Core
DVD Drive:Asus DRW-1814BLT, DVD±R x18, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM
GPU:256MB Power Color RX1950Pro Arctic Cooling
CPU HSF:Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

Does anyone know the ram will limit the max ( stock) clock of the CPU?


All oppinoins and suggestions are much appreciated.

Cheers
Chris

Hendrix89

Yeah just get the 'energy efficient' version of the Q6600 from OcUk when they are in stock on the 23rd (Thursday). They will be G0's!

Wait scratch 23rd they're in stock now! That was a hell of a surprise!:D

Anti

Nope, the ram will not limit the cpu, as you can unlink them. I personaly would drop that ram and get either geil, a-data, mushkin or ocz. The xms stuff isnt that great. I have the geil black dragons, and i find them great. As for the psu, its a bit overkill dont you think? The corsair 620hx is a awesome psu, and supports 8pin pcie connectors for the next generation of cards, as well as a shed load of sata and molex connectors. and why not go for a 8800gts 320mb. Its a bit more expensive then the x1950pro but alot more powerfull. Also do you really need a quad core? will you be doing alot of encoding, or using heavilly multi threaded allpications?

christophicus

Anti wrote:

Nope, the ram will not limit the cpu, as you can unlink them. I personaly would drop that ram and get either geil, a-data, mushkin or ocz. The xms stuff isnt that great. I have the geil black dragons, and i find them great. As for the psu, its a bit overkill dont you think? The corsair 620hx is a awesome psu, and supports 8pin pcie connectors for the next generation of cards, as well as a shed load of sata and molex connectors. and why not go for a 8800gts 320mb. Its a bit more expensive then the x1950pro but alot more powerfull. Also do you really need a quad core? will you be doing alot of encoding, or using heavilly multi threaded allpications?

Well that ram was one off the cheapest thats the only reason I went for it. Those specs are on the very limit of the amount of money I can spend. So I dont think I can go for better ram. I want this system ( or at least the bulk of it ) to last for a long time, to try and future proof it as much as possible. Thats why I have gone with that PSU which has an 8 pin connector too. I cant go for the GTS , even though I would really love to , its too expensive,its about £80-90 more then the x1950 pro. No I will be doing little to no encoding , and I dont think I will be using many apps that are multithreaded, but again I want to try and future proof this system so that s why I went for quad core.

Thanks for the suggestions keep them coming .

Toolbag

You may want to reconsider going with a e6750/8800 gts combo over a q6600/1950 pro, you'll see better performance in games. Besides, intel are releasing true quad cores coming out for that motherboard in a while, so the e6750 would easily fill the gap (with no noteable drop in performance) until the whole "benefit of quad core in games" question is answered.

uberpixie

CPU cooler: You may want to reconsider.

The Artic cooler is good, I have it on a quad at the moment.
(I will be replacing it shortly however)

With this cooler, you will be hitting into the 60's in temp under load.

I would look at getting a scythe ninja plus, scythe infinity, tuniq tower or a Thermaltake ultra 120mm Extreme. Especially if you want to overclock.

PSU: Go for a corsair 620X (its a rebadged seasonic, therefore teh mutts nuts) save some money and put it towards an 8800GTS 320mb.

600W is overkill and is plenty future proof.

CPU: I agree with you, I am gambling on the fact more cores Vs higher clock speed will be more important in the next year or so.

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=676
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=672

The benchies here show the difference in clock speed between the different core2duos makes very little real difference in most games.

I do think multi core will become more important as time goes on, high end game now are looking for a dual and are optimized for it, quad will only be a matter of time.

If you fancy a quad, go get one.

However I do agree with the previous post that a E6750/8800GTS Vs Q6600/1950pro would be better in games, due to the better gfx card.

Anti

I hope the gamble pays off lads, i personaly think for the time being a high clocked c2d will be better then a moderatly clocked c2q. My thinking is that there are hardly any games out there that can take advantage of dual cores, let alone quads.

So a c2d+8800 will cost the same, or there abouts as a c2q+1950pro. And changing the psu for a corsair will allow you to get slightly better ram.

And go with what the pixie says about the cpu hsf. For overclocking you will need one of the ones he has listed.

christophicus

I'm thinking of sticking with the 720 watt PSU seeing as even gts is recommended to use a 600 watt PSU , so I want some headroom incase components become more power hungry in the future [cough] ATI [ /cough].

I think I will however get the e6750.

Now here is the crazy bit. If I can get an x300 cheap off of adverts I whink I will use the X300 untill teh new year. By that time the nvidia 9800 should be out , hopefully causing the 8800 gtx to drop quickly in price and I might pick one up in teh new year sales . This should give me some money to get decent overclocking ram. Does anyone have any oppinions on which is the best to get? Preferably not crazy expensive as I am not going to be doing an extreame overclock. Also which CPU HSF is the best ?

uberpixie

Anti wrote:

I hope the gamble pays off lads, i personaly think for the time being a high clocked c2d will be better then a moderatly clocked c2q. My thinking is that there are hardly any games out there that can take advantage of dual cores, let alone quads.

We are already into dual core gaming.

Bioshock uses two cores, as does DiRT as will any future joint Xbox/PC release you can pretty much bet on.

In fact both games specifically state they are optimized for dual core in their respective readmes. (games I have just played recently)

My mate just tested his new build which has an X2 4200 in it, just played the bioshock demo.

His keyboard is a logitech gaming key board, G15, the one with the LCD display and he has a handy app for it that displays CPU and ram usage.

Bioshock was using 50-75% of both core simultaneously and a good 71% of 2 gig of ram from what we could see off the display in the middle of the game.

We are already in the era of dual core gaming:D.

I think at this stage a dual core is a min requirement if you want to game over the next year and a half with what ever is coming up on the horizon.

Anti

christophicus wrote:

I'm thinking of sticking with the 720 watt PSU seeing as even gts is recommended to use a 600 watt PSU , so I want some headroom incase components become more power hungry in the future [cough] ATI [ /cough].

I think I will however get the e6750.

Now here is the crazy bit. If I can get an x300 cheap off of adverts I whink I will use the X300 untill teh new year. By that time the nvidia 9800 should be out , hopefully causing the 8800 gtx to drop quickly in price and I might pick one up in teh new year sales . This should give me some money to get decent overclocking ram. Does anyone have any oppinions on which is the best to get? Preferably not crazy expensive as I am not going to be doing an extreame overclock. Also which CPU HSF is the best ?

Well it has been proven already a good 500w psu is what will handle a 8800gtx setup so i think it would be best for you to get the 620w, but at the end of the day it is your decission.

The best hsf out there is easilly the TT ultra 120 extreme. Just get a good fan like a 1600rpm scythe s-flex for it.

@pixie

Now you mention it we are seeing a lot more dual core optomized games. And its about time really.

And about the ram, thats the only reason i decided to go with 4gb, as i noticed games in vista were using huge amounts of ram.

Toolbag

I was looking into CPU coolers and found a good CPU cooler roundup. It deals with many big names and rates them in numerous categories and is a good guide. It's always best to look at a couple of reviews though as cpu fan performance can vary with base profile and installation.

If you can live with an X300, by all means go for it. But bear in mind you'll be restricted to flash games and maybe cs 1.6 . You can always sell whatever card you get now when the 8800 refresh comes along, though there hasn't been much word on when exactly this will be? Anyone have any updates?

Anti

Im afraid i would not trust that link at all. How on earth it can list the zalman first, and a aksa evo blue as better then the TT ultra is beyond me.

Seriously go with the TT ultra extreme 120. So many of us in these forums use it simply because it is the best. If you go into the Tweaking and modding forum and have a look there there is a proper test of the hsf's

ah no wonder, its testing a p4 840.

uberpixie

christophicus wrote:

I'm thinking of sticking with the 720 watt PSU seeing as even gts is recommended to use a 600 watt PSU , so I want some headroom incase components become more power hungry in the future [cough] ATI [ /cough].

Currently running a quad 6600 and a 8800GTS 320mb very well on a 600W.

I could have this running fine on a 500W. My old shuttle rig which was a AMD64 3500+, X800XT PE (A very very power hungry gfx card) and 1 gig of ram all ran on a 240W PSU.....

The fact is manufacturers always well overstate their power requirements.

A 620W quality PSU would be more than enough.

christophicus wrote:

I think I will however get the e6750.

Now here is the crazy bit. If I can get an x300 cheap off of adverts I whink I will use the X300 untill teh new year. By that time the nvidia 9800 should be out , hopefully causing the 8800 gtx to drop quickly in price and I might pick one up in teh new year sales . This should give me some money to get decent overclocking ram. Does anyone have any oppinions on which is the best to get? Preferably not crazy expensive as I am not going to be doing an extreame overclock. Also which CPU HSF is the best ?

Unless you are gaming on a very large screen i.e. 22" + a GTX is a huge waste of money.

I am gaming on a 17" screen, hence I got a 8800GTS 320mb as it will play any game at the moment at high detail @ 1280 x 1024.

Hell look at my mate rig, its a socket 939 X4200+, 2 gig of ram and a X1950XT. He managed to slap it together for €600, his "tie me over for a year rig", I paid over €2000 for mine and both rigs will play Bioshock to the same level of eye candy as smooth as silk.(who is the bigger fool:D)

I piss myself laughing any time I think about this as it just goes to show how much being close to the bleeding edge really is a waste of money unless you are gaming on a 24" monster screen, where you need to upgrade every year to play at native resolution.

Unless your monitor is bigger than a 19", getting a GTX is just daft, especially as you can pick up a 8800GTS close to €260 if you look hard enough.

Look Chris, don't go and spend all that money to put together a machine that will barely play solitaire or pong because you put a manky X300 in it.

There is zero point sitting on that level of tech bottle necked by the gfx for 6 months if you are not going to be able to game on it. It's just retarded, you will not be getting any gaming value for all the money you spend.

you either:

(a)Buy a dacent Gfx card and build now and really enjoy 6 months of high end gaming. (buy a 8800 GTS!)

Or.

(b) postpone your build for 6 months until you can afford to put it all together properly with the gfx card you want, taking advantage of all future price cuts and tech advances.

Anything else is half assed stupidity. No point building a rig if you can't fully enjoy it the way you want to and get the full use out of it.

Anti

uberpixie wrote:

Currently running a quad 6600 and a 8800GTS 320mb very well on a 600W.

I could have this running fine on a 500W. My old shuttle rig which was a AMD64 3500+, X800XT PE (A very very power hungry gfx card) and 1 gig of ram all ran on a 240W PSU.....

The fact is manufacturers always well overstate their power requirements.

A 620W quality PSU would be more than enough.




Unless you are gaming on a very large screen i.e. 22" + a GTX is a huge waste of money.

I am gaming on a 17" screen, hence I got a 8800GTS 320mb as it will play any game at the moment at high detail @ 1280 x 1024.

Hell look at my mate rig, its a socket 939 X4200+, 2 gig of ram and a X1950XT. He managed to slap it together for €600, his "tie me over for a year rig", I paid over €2000 for mine and both rigs will play Bioshock to the same level of eye candy as smooth as silk.(who is the bigger fool:D)

I piss myself laughing any time I think about this as it just goes to show how much being close to the bleeding edge really is a waste of money unless you are gaming on a 24" monster screen, where you need to upgrade every year to play at native resolution.

Unless your monitor is bigger than a 19", getting a GTX is just daft, especially as you can pick up a 8800GTS close to €260 if you look hard enough.

Look Chris, don't go and spend all that money to put together a machine that will barely play solitaire or pong because you put a manky X300 in it.

There is zero point sitting on that level of tech bottle necked by the gfx for 6 months if you are not going to be able to game on it. It's just retarded, you will not be getting any gaming value for all the money you spend.

you either:

(a)Buy a dacent Gfx card and build now and really enjoy 6 months of high end gaming. (buy a 8800 GTS!)

Or.

(b) postpone your build for 6 months until you can afford to put it all together properly with the gfx card you want, taking advantage of all future price cuts and tech advances.

Anything else is half assed stupidity. No point building a rig if you can't fully enjoy it the way you want to and get the full use out of it.

Now thats a QFT! if i ever seen one.

uberpixie

Anti wrote:

@pixie

Now you mention it we are seeing a lot more dual core optomized games. And its about time really.

With a lot of developers making Xbox360/PC cross platform games, we will be seeing a lot of dual core games.

When they finally figure out a use for the third core in the Xbox 360, a quad core will come into it's own;).

Look at bargin bucket PCs now, it's very hard to buy one without a dualcore CPU, only a year ago a dualcore was the bleeding edge.

It won't be too long, maybe a year and a half to 2 years before quads become common in bargin bucket PCs.:eek:

With the price cuts Intel are making at the moment on quads, they probably will be giving them away in boxes of cornflakes soon anyhow:D.

Anti wrote:

And about the ram, thats the only reason i decided to go with 4gb, as i noticed games in vista were using huge amounts of ram.

For Vista you need every bit and a little bit more!

I am on still winxp 32bit and I still got 4 gig even though i don't get the full use of it.

I will be going Vista in a while and I couldn't be arsed buying 2 gig now and trying to find a matching 2 gig in a years time when I needed it.

An extra 2 gig of ram is usually an extra €200 or so on the cost of a build and it does save a lot of future hassle.

It makes sense.

awhir

uberpixie wrote:

With a lot of developers making Xbox360/PC cross platform games, we will be seeing a lot of dual core games.

When they finally figure out a use for the third core in the Xbox 360, a quad core will come into it's own;).

Look at bargin bucket PCs now, it's very hard to buy one without a dualcore CPU, only a year ago a dualcore was the bleeding edge.

It won't be too long, maybe a year and a half to 2 years before quads become common in bargin bucket PCs.:eek:

With the price cuts Intel are making at the moment on quads, they probably will be giving them away in boxes of cornflakes soon anyhow:D.




For Vista you need every bit and a little bit more!

I am on still winxp 32bit and I still got 4 gig even though i don't get the full use of it.

I will be going Vista in a while and I couldn't be arsed buying 2 gig now and trying to find a matching 2 gig in a years time when I needed it.

An extra 2 gig of ram is usually an extra €200 or so on the cost of a build and it does save a lot of future hassle.

It makes sense.

wow man you type to much to lazy to read it

go with a gts and a dual core.

go for this ram(try dabs.ie its cheaper off there) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-090-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813

christophicus

Taking the leed form Offalycool I was thinking about getting an e4400 and overclocking it , because then when i upgrade my cpu I will have decent ram to overclock with.

So I am wondering is the speed of pc8500 worth the the drop in latency over pc 6400? Basically how much of a performance increase does pc 8500 give over pc6400?

awhir

na if you get good pc6400 it will do pc8000 which is all you need.

reccommend cruical balltix or g.skill 4-4-4-12 hz's

christophicus

OK so I am going to post a list of what I am thinking of now.

CPU: Core 2 Duo E4400
MOBO:Gigabyte GA P35C-DS3R, iP35 Express
HDD:500 Gb Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB
Case :Antec 900
PSU :720W Enermax Infinity EIN720AWT Modular Quad SLi Quad Core
DVD Drive:Asus DRW-1814BLT, DVD±R x18, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM

And I'm looking at Either getting the OC UK branded 8800 320 GTS or the Leadtek 8800 320 GTS. They are both the same price so I dont know which I want to go for.

Also I am looking at getting either teh ballistix that was pointed out earlier , or this G skill,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=8&subcat=813

Although it will probably have gone up in price by the time I get everything in order to buy the pc.

Do you think that the ballistix would be able to take the E4400 up to 3 Ghz on stock cooling?

Also is there any point in going for pc 8500 over pc 6400?

Would PC 6400 still be good over clocking ram for penryn? I'm assuming that will run at at least 1333 MHz

daveharnett

also worth a mention is the ocx platinum rev.2 4-4-4-16 http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=324460

christophicus

Thanks dave, but the last timing on that is really late. Normally with 4-4-4- its 12. Will the fact that its 16 make much of a difference?

Anti

I would personaly go for tighter timings on ram. As it means you can start overclocking and then loosen them up. But it wont make hardly any difference to be honest.

daveharnett

christophicus wrote:

Thanks dave, but the last timing on that is really late. Normally with 4-4-4- its 12. Will the fact that its 16 make much of a difference?

No. this figure refers to the how long a line of memory must wait after an access before it can be re-accessed. this is almost never an issue with the large cache on new chips

awhir

g.skills:http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-013-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813

probly the best pc6400 drr2 kit you can get they are mena be monstors and theve got pritty cheap and also you cant beat g.skills customer support.

christophicus

Ok , and what do you guys think of the revised spec for my pc? Is the MOBO good for overclocking?? I read in one review that they nearly reached 500Mhz FSB, I would have thought that is really good, but other reviews that I read say its not a good overclocker.

Anti

It depends, somepeople say they are great, others say they are crap. Its hard to tell, but i would imagine its decent .

christophicus

Which speed ram is the stock for core 2 duo? is it pc 6400? Will it be the same for penryn (spell?)