Q6600 Pairing! What MoBo?

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Lord Gaebril

So far so good. I was really worried getting what I did with what I've heard about Vista (Not to mention the 64 bit version), but have had miniminal problems (None being drivers that I can tell). Most of them I believe are due to my **** status in the OC world. I am slowly learning with the help of everyone here. Only thing I can see needing to redo is my Heatsink. Temps jump up to 60c under load, but Capper gave me several good suggestions and when my funds allow think I will pick up the Zalman 9700 he suggested.

Heh. Most Vista issues seem to be driver or user related though.
Just last night I didn't sleep because I completely fubared my Vista 64bit installation after disabling GUI boot (loads with black screen, no moving bar (i was hoping to shave seconds of my abysmal boot times)), planning a system file defragmentation with Raxco Diskeeper 8 and rebooting in the middle of it because I wasn't seeing anything/thought my computer was froze...
Let me tell you one thing, Vista is a complete b**** to re-activate once it locks you out and says you're Vista installation needs to be re-installed to activate it....

So far, except my own foolishness, what has caused me the most problems in Vista 64bit would be audio and video drivers more precisely. Re-install after re-install, patch over patch, let's play switcharoo only to make one particular game working. Crysis wouldn't work (sound would stutter and skip, then crash the game) but it "fixed itself" I guess because I updated something at some point. There's still a handful of Ubisoft games simply not working or not working properly though.

Regarding your processor cooling, I'm not a big fan of Zalman processor coolers, however I've seen good results brought up by many review sites (specifically on the CNPS9500 and CNPS9700NT which perform more or less the same). I'm not exactly sure why I didn't have this luck/results confirmed by my own tests though, I guess results could be somewhat influenced by overall airflow.

[Lord Gaebril]

I've been so busy toying around with my PC I haven't installed any games really with the exception of WOW. I also only have onboard audio so maybe in the near future I too will experience the driver issues you speak of (God willing not). Capper also suggested the Scythe Ninja but I found that rather intimidating and being a ****** didn't think I could do it. Do you have any preferences on coolers Polo? (Or do you prefer Mr. Bunny?)

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Lord Gaebril

I've been so busy toying around with my PC I haven't installed any games really with the exception of WOW. I also only have onboard audio so maybe in the near future I too will experience the driver issues you speak of (God willing not). Capper also suggested the Scythe Ninja but I found that rather intimidating and being a ****** didn't think I could do it. Do you have any preferences on coolers Polo? (Or do you prefer Mr. Bunny?)

I know the feeling, new toy, you have to fiddle with it and get every tiny bit of performance you get out of it. Be scared of your new hobby, upgrading sometimes costs a lot once you get hooked. :)

Call me polo with a small p by the way. :P

As for coolers, I'm currently using a Thermalright Ultra-120 paired with a Scythe S-Flex fan. It's a great cooler, though somewhat expensive but it's one of the kings in air cooling as far as I can tell from the many reviews and personal experiences.
Don't be intimidated by the Scythe Ninja, if Capper mentioned it I'm sure it's a good cooler, even for the beginner in you. Rich has countless hours of benching behind the belt, his advice is more than worth it. ;)
Still on that topic, why are you "intimidated" by the Ninja?


Sounds and graphics issues were brought to you by Nvidia and Creative respectively, the first being responsible for over 30% Vista crashes, Microsoft survey says... Microsoft surveys to take with a grain of salt, though it's not unknown to many enthusiast that Nvidia drivers aren't exactly the most stable out there.

[Lord Gaebril]

Intimidated by the sheer size of it. The thing is huge and heavy. I can just see me not mounting it correctly and having the thing fall off in the case and smashing into my power supply. (As you can see my glass is half empty) However I never thought I could build my own PC so maybe I am up to doing it :)

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Lord Gaebril

Intimidated by the sheer size of it. The thing is huge and heavy. I can just see me not mounting it correctly and having the thing fall off in the case and smashing into my power supply. (As you can see my glass is half empty) However I never thought I could build my own PC so maybe I am up to doing it :)

Ah, Cosmos 1000, PSU at the bottom. I don't think it would be too hard to mount the Ninja. Double, or triple check if unsure

[One4yu2c]

That's the trend, my friend. For the most part, CPU coolers are getting bigger and heavier. But that also means, barring any critical design flaws, they're also cooling better.

[screwballl]

Originally Posted by polobunny

I haven't been following Gigabyte boards lately, but what exactly are energy efficient boards? ROHS or speedstep'ed, or both??

these are the EP35 boards that can be had at newegg and other e-tailers. They are a much more energy efficient board when compared to regular ones. Even the X48 boards have 3 settings in their bios to reduce power consumption.
GIGABYTE DES and ASUS EPU Tested :: TweakTown (refered from the gigabyte front page about DES)

[Capper]

Unless you are really overclocking the 680i's you should be fine......most of the issues I've encountered are when you are pumping 2.1-2.3V through the VDIMM and the board voltage fluctuates much higher than that causing the memory to fry.

[MontanaFX]

So am I right in thinking, Nvidia chipsets are a "NO NO" unless I dont mind spending a bit. And pretty much all Intel chipsets run with no problems.

On that basis, I will probably go for a Asus model with an Intel chipset, costing about £80-100 ($140-$160 coz every thing seems to be alot cheaper over there). SLI would be a nice extra for future expansion & a 1333 bus for up-rating could come in handy.

[screwballl]

nvidia chipsets are a no no unless you plan on using SLI, even then it is only suggested to use a board with the 790i chipset. Other wise the P35, X38 and X48 are strongly suggested over the nvidia based boards.