Building a Gaming Cube

pinksoir

So I recently bought an x1950 pro card to put inside my relevantly old system. I was running an Asrock 775 Dual Vsta mobo, Pentium D 2.8Ghz, 1Gb DDR2 Ram, 80Gb & 400Gb HDD, x1950 Pro, all inside a horrible cheap case. The system was grand for what it was, the mobo was capable of running either AGP or PCI-E GPU's and I had been running a 660GT AGP up until I got the new card.

Anyway, I'd been putting off upgrading for a good while, but I decided to spend some Xmas money on a new system. I'd quite like to get an m-ATX mobo as I only really have a need for one PCI slot at this stage. I've also been looking at a few cube cases and have found a pretty nice one I'd like to stick it all into. I'd appreciate a bit of advice on a nice motherboard, CPU, PSU, RAM, in fact everything I'm gonna need bar the GPU. I have a budget of about 500 smackers, which could stretch a bit if needs be, and I'd like to make it as future proof as possible as I intend to upgrade whenever it's necesary. I'm not looking for a terribly high end system, but at least someting that can run new games competently. I play most of my games through my LCD tv, so the highest res available is 1280 x 768. I'm also gonna stick with Windows Xp as I can't be bothered taking the plunge with Vista just yet.

So here are some of the components I've been looking at so far. Any help would be greatly appreciated...

Case:
Aerocool "M40"
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V5-rtiz3ThOf5/2/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=9849&agid=635&apop=1

PSU:
Corsair VX550W 550 Watt
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V5-rtiz3ThOf5/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=17793&agid=240

Mobo (haven't decided yet. need help):

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Tray 4096Kb, LGA775, 64bit, Conroe
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V5-rtiz3ThOf5/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=17447&agid=398

or

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Tray, 4096Kb, LGA775, 64bit, Conroe
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V5-rtiz3ThOf5/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=17968&agid=398

Although I have listed Intel CPU's I'm not adverse to AMD, I'm just not that knowledgable of how they compare to the Core2Duo. I ran an AMD 64 system before my latest one.

CPU cooler:
Scythe Ninja Mini Sockel 478,775,754,939,940
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V5-rtiz3ThOf5/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=17488&agid=669

HDD:
WD Caviar WD2500JS, 250GB 7200, SATA-II
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V5-rtiz3ThOf5/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=5795&agid=689

RAM:
2048MB-Kit OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum Revision 2 Dual Channel, CL4
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V5-rtiz3ThOf5/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=8407&agid=599

Obviously I'm gonna need to get some fans etc and a fan controller, but that seems to be the bulk of it.

Like I say, any help or hints would be greatly appreciated.

cheers,
Karl.

Anti

Firstly, nothing amd has out at the moment can compare with the c2d or c2q's So you are right in picking the intel chips. As for your kit it looks good, you have picked a great psu, ram, hdd and cpu. For the board i would reccomend a x38. Anyone will do really, unless you plan on overlcocking dont bother withthe really expensive asus or abit ones.

What you will need is a good cpu cooler, the stock one is cray, and the two version of the chip you have picked are oem, so come with no cooler. Zalman make a very good low profile cpu cooler. Cant remember the model number though,

pinksoir

No, I don't think Id be overclocking. Though I wouldn't mind learning in the future, but not with this particular build.

It appears that hardwareversand don't have any x38 boards in mATX formfactor. Any other suggestions?

Also, do you know if that PSU has a pci-e power cable?

cheers,
karl.

pinksoir

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/8VXrzKPqclp33I/2/articlelist.jsp?agid=440

any of these the low profile cooler?

Anti

The corsair psu can use up to 4 pci-e cables. it comes with them in the box ( well for my corsair 620w )

And this is the cooler i was on about:

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6Vmc6cKZOzTDZM/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=7624&agid=669

pinksoir

After a brief look around it seems that the x38 chipset is only available in ATX boards. Ideally I'd be looking for an mATX board so I'm left with a few different options. Bearing in mind that I'll need a max bus speed of 1333mhz to accommodate the C2D 6750, hardwareversand have the following available:

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/7V3xauZTuyPYZb/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=18381&agid=667

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/7V3xauZTuyPYZb/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=18373&agid=667

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/7V3xauZTuyPYZb/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=18370&agid=667

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/7V3xauZTuyPYZb/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=18309&agid=667

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/7V3xauZTuyPYZb/2/articledetail.jsp?aid=19155&agid=667

Which would be the best out of these to go for?

Again all help is much appreciated.

cheers,
karl

TerrorFirmer

MSI are OK boards but pretty sparse on features usually, I think I'd go for the gigabyte personally. But if you're sure you won't be overclocking, then any of the MSI boards should be ok, as I said they're basic but fairly reliable and of course cheap. Though not a day goes by without me regretting using an MSI board in my build!

and that's a sweet price for the ram...

RuggieBear

Intel are making awesome products at the moment...only problem with intel at the moment is as soon as you buy one of their chipsets they release a new one .

How long will the x38 be used for?

Anti

RuggieBear wrote: »

Intel are making awesome products at the moment...only problem with intel at the moment is as soon as you buy one of their chipsets they release a new one .

How long will the x38 be used for?

x40 is already made.

RoyalMarine

im building one aswell and using this
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=336471

cant fault it and its loaded with features.

pinksoir

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

im building one aswell and using this
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=336471

cant fault it and its loaded with features.

Yeah, think I'm gonna go for the Gigabyte board, unless something newer and better pops up on the site before I order. Seems a pretty close comparison to yours there too...

cheers guys.

extra-ordinary_

I built last system with http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=337835 - eSATA, FSB1333, HDMI, Integrated Graphics, PCI-ex, etc. And it overclocks!

pinksoir

Brilliant. Thats the one I'm goin for too. Can't wait to get building...

pinksoir

I have some pc5300 ram, a gig of it (2x 512), already. would i be better off to get a 2gig kit of 5300 therefore having 3 gigs of 5300, or buy a 2 gig kit of 6400 and only have 2 gigs?

here.from.day.1

pinksoir wrote: »

I have some pc5300 ram, a gig of it (2x 512), already. would i be better off to get a 2gig kit of 5300 therefore having 3 gigs of 5300, or buy a 2 gig kit of 6400 and only have 2 gigs?

Id say your better off with the 2 gigs of faster Ram, especially if your sticking with XP as it wont use as much memory as Vista does.

pinksoir

I figured as much. Don't see myself movin to vista anytime soon anyway, and my current computer runs competently on 1gig, so 2 should make the new one fly along.

cheers again.