My new Core 2 Duo rig!

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Zambini

Also, how does this heatsink look;
KINGWIN TD-9225C 92mm Ball P4 Copper CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811999999

I think you would be better off spending another $9 for the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

[JCLW]

For the last ten years, Asus has arguably made the best intel boards.

But first of all...

The C2D processors can be divided into two (or three, including the EE) groups: The 2MB cache lower multiplier 6300 & 6400, and the 4MB cache higher multiplier 6600 and 6700.

Now there are two chipsets that you should be looking at: the (older) i975, and the (newer) i965. The i975 supports crossfire, and uses the (older) ICH7(R) southbridge (4 SATA ports). The i965 does not support dual video cards, but overclocks (FSB) higher, and is usually paired with the newer ICH8(R) southbridge (6 SATA ports).

BTW, an "R" means the southbridge supports RAID.

As the i965 overclocks better (FSB-wise), it is a better choice with the lower multiplier C2D chips (6300 & 6400). And a perfectly good choice for any of the other C2D chips as well, as long as you don't want dual video cards.

Personally I don't think the 6400 is worth the $$$ over the 6300. The next real jump over the 6300 would be the 6600, as it gives you double the L2 cache. But it's considerably more $$$.

So I'd suggest:
$182 intel E6300 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115005)
$185 Asus P5B-Dlx (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131045)
$54 Zalman CNPS-9500 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118003)
$78 SE16 WD2500KS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144701)
$78 SE16 WD2500KS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144701)
--------
$577

$228 OCZ 2x1GB DDR2-800 4-5-4-15 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227089)
--------
$805

Case, power supply, and optical drive tend to be personal options. But you should be able to find them for less then $200, which brings you to your $1000.

edit:
BTW, the P5B-dlx supports both DTS connect and DDLive! real time encoding, so you can just run a digital audio line to your home theater amp for sound. It also supports dual video cards, but only in 16x + 4x mode. Or use the 2nd physical 16x PCIe slot for a high end RAID controller or something later on.

[Zambini]

Originally Posted by stinger608

Looking good so far!!!

Here is a great power supply, and if you read reviews on these, you will see that for the money they are top of the class.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817128003

P.S. they are modular as well.

When I first looked at that I thought it was a Guitar Amp or something.
But then i found it on their website,and I literally said "SH*T" out loud. That is the most bamf psu I've ever seen. Its definitly going in my rig.

Originally Posted by gvblake22

I think you would be better off spending another $9 for the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

I looked at that one, but there is very little copper in that, and isnt copper the best thermal conducer out there?

[edit] After reading the reviews and seeing how weaksauce it is compared to the ACF7, I changed my mind.


I still need an Optical drive and some ram. I think since I'm already at 648, I will get just a Medium range 1gb stick.
As for the optical drive, I like lightscribe, so I just need it to burn dvds and have lightscribe on it.
I am clueless as to what to look for for both of these last two items.

Actually, now that I think about it, I'm going to keep my current CDR/DVDR/Lightscribe drive and get my mom just a cd-r/dvd-r for like 20 bux. She doesnt know how to use / wont like to use lightscribe.



As for the case, I will be going to Fry's to look at cases, and my friend said his dad would definitly cut me a side panel, which is going to be so ub3r l337 ^^ I just need to think of something awesome to put on it. maybe a giant tux.....
[speaking of which, its time to get my avatar on :P]





[edit#2 (I started my original post before JCLW's was in, so I wont x2 post and include it in an edit]

Originally Posted by JCLW

a)......

Personally I don't think the 6400 is worth the $$$ over the 6300. The next real jump over the 6300 would be the 6600, as it gives you double the L2 cache. But it's considerably more $$$.

......

b)So I'd suggest:

$185 Asus P5B-Dlx (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131045)
$54 Zalman CNPS-9500 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118003)

......


c) $228 OCZ 2x1GB DDR2-800 4-5-4-15 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227089)

I divided ur post into sections so its easier to organize my thoughts, hence the a,b,c in ur post, heh



a) I just devised a plan, should my original budget be shot down. I ask for the 6600, but if he doesnt want me to get that one I can chop off a big chunk and get a 6300. That seems like it will work, right?


b) I might be able to apply the same drop down theorem to this board. the only problem I can see with the p5b is that the PCI slot just below the top PCI-e 16x is rendered useless, because thats where a fan goes for the card, and I want to keep that open. However it does have a 1394 on it, which is a big plus, which releases the need for a 3rd PCI slot, negating the effect of the aforementioned problem. [lol]

This warning is on the details of the p5b, and i just wanted to double check that the OCZ ram you posted will work for this.

Notice: Only DDR2-800 memory supporting JEDEC approved 1.8V operation with timings of 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 is supported on Intel Desktop Boards based on Intel 965 Express Chipsets.

also, that fan is probably gonna be one of those I take off and switch if the cost is over budget.
I read a lot of the reviews for the Zalman and it seemed to take 10-20 degrees off stock, which is crazy-go-nuts good. Also, it is 100% copper, which I like, and it is almost the same one that i've heard great things aboot.



c) as long as it works, and its the best for its value, I'll take it. If it puts me over-budget, I'll get 1 gb.



Now, one final thing that really pisses me off is WINDOWS XP HOME - $89.99, but it says it comes with a Vista upgrade coupon....
I could sell that to someone. hehe.

[JCLW]

b) And you'll probably find the onboard HD Audio is just as good if not better then whatever soundcard you have, freeing up another PCI slot.

c) As long as the memory SPD includes those timings, it will work.
Here's a guy with a P5B and that very same memory: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum...fm/574599.html
Here's a post from OCZ getting into some techinical stuff on a P5B: http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23803

[Zambini]

b) doesnt using onboard audio slow down ur entire rig?

I have an SB Audigy 2z from june '04


c) ok, just wanted to make sure I didnt spend 250 for nothing :P

[stinger608]

Yea Zambini, that Hyper R is one awesome PSU!!! Very coooooool looking also.

[Quakindude]

Hiper PSU's must be fairly new as I've just started hearing about them within the last 6 weeks or so. Has anyone done a review on one of them?

I got the OCZ GamerXstream 700W for $113 from ZZF, after $25 MIR. The 600W version can be had for $97 after $15 MIR.

I just got in an Antec 550W NeoHE modular and it has been very stable. I had an Ultra X-Connect 500W (Pioneered the modular cabling system), that wasn't very stable once you got within 5% of its top end. If I kept it at 450W, I was fine. As soon as I got to 475W, the 12v rail would go down to 11.25 and I'd get a BSoD.

I personally didn't care for the Gigabyte DS3 motherboards. Now don't get me wrong, they are great boards with some decent attributes, but ultimately, the Ram pissed me off. I'd built a computer for one of my buddies based on this board, he HAD to have it!, and the OCZ Ram he got for it wouldn't post. Then I read up on it, found out about the timings issue already noted here, and we ordered some Corsair XMS memory. Thing is, the second you tighten the timings up a little or the moment you up the voltage, the board became unstable. He had a E6600 CPU and wanted to overclock. So we could overclock the snot out of the CPU on that board. Using air only, a trusty CNPS9500LED doing the cooling duties, we got a stable 3.2Ghz. But we couldn't touch the ram so the CPU overclock beyond that point was, well, pointless. We could push the CPU higher, but it wouldn't make a bit of difference in benchmarking or games due to the ram. As soon as I went to 2.0V on the Ram, BSoD.

So while I've offered a counter-point to DS3 ownership, you have stated you won't overclcok. I think you will enjoy having the DS3 as it's performance with good overclocks of the CPU is outstanding. Just don't expect to overclock the ram much, if at all.

Get the Zalman CNPS9500LED for a CPU cooler. Some water cooled systems can't keep up with it's performance and most water systems that do perform better than the Zalman are only by a degree or two under load. Not only that, that sucker is friggin SWEET looking and VERY quiet.

As for a case, I LOVE my Enermax Chakra case. It has a massive, and very quiet, 250mm side fan that can be set to intake or exhaust air. It works best set to intake and the case is just $69! I bought two Thermaltake 120mm fans that are fairly quiet and move 78CFM of air. One is in the front as an intake and one in the back to exhaust. They're only $10 each and well worth it. Here's a pic of my case:



The top two drive bays are actually hidden drive bays for optical drives:



The handle you see mounted on the front was added by me. There's a 7in1 card reader and digital fan controller under there.

Anyway, there's my thoughts/suggestions.

[Zambini]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

Hiper PSU's must be fairly new as I've just started hearing about them within the last 6 weeks or so. Has anyone done a review on one of them?

.........

So while I've offered a counter-point to DS3 ownership, you have stated you won't overclcok. I think you will enjoy having the DS3 as it's performance with good overclocks of the CPU is outstanding. Just don't expect to overclock the ram much, if at all.

That PSU will definitly help my cable management. Its worth the price IMO.

Didnt even consider doing any RAM oc'n

As for the case, I'm just gonna buy one from Fry's


And I was thinking today that I dont need to get the P5B Deluxe. It's got too much stuff for me to use, and ~$200 is too much


I'm gonna stick with the
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

I need to start scraping up some money for my case.

Not to mention the monitor and mouse that my mom's pc will require...
lol







Okay, FINAL BUILD

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail $220.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115004
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $142.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128012
ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118003
HIPER HPU-4S580-MS ATX12V 580W Power Supply 100 - 120V - Retail $99.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817128003
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $77.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144701
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $77.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144701
OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $257.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227089
Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2b 1pk w/Upgrade Coupon for Vista - OEM $139.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116175




Total:
$1,016.94

[Quakindude]

Looks good. I just hope your memory will boot in that mobo. The DS3 is well known for only booting/loading Windows with 5-5-5- or 6-6-6 timings. You could always go into the Bios and manually set them for 5-5-5.

[JCLW]

The P5B-E is only $155: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131070.

It still has FireWire and RAID, but not the higher end onboard audio.

Quick review of a E6300 and a P5B-E here: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=2851