My Intel Rig Wish List - Thoughts, concerns?

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Cmustang87

Supreme [H]ardness
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So over the course of the past few weeks I have been finding the right prices and parts to piece together my quad core rig due to the extremely inexpensive cost of the Q6600. I am interested in doing a little overclocking, nothing too major; maybe get it around 3 ghz or so. Here is what I have come up with so far, lemme know if I should be aware of any compatibility issues, I have done a bit of research on the parts:

Intel Q6600
P6n Sli-Plat, or the Gigabyte P35
EVGA 8800 GTS 640 (May get the 320 to save some bills since my native is only 1280x1024)
G. Skill DDR2 800 2 x 2 Gb Kit (4 gigs total)
OCZ StealthXStream 600w
Antec 900 Case (Already have it)
Aftermarket Heatsink - Either Zalman 9500 or the Thermalright 120 Extreme

Any help, comments or concerns I should be aware of please let me know. I am new to the forums on Hardocp today, so give me a nice welcome! :)
 
Cmustang87 said:
So over the course of the past few weeks I have been finding the right prices and parts to piece together my quad core rig due to the extremely inexpensive cost of the Q6600. I am interested in doing a little overclocking, nothing too major; maybe get it around 3 ghz or so. Here is what I have come up with so far, lemme know if I should be aware of any compatibility issues, I have done a bit of research on the parts:

Intel Q6600
P6n Sli-Plat, or the Gigabyte P35
EVGA 8800 GTS 640 (May get the 320 to save some bills since my native is only 1280x1024)
G. Skill DDR2 800 2 x 2 Gb Kit (4 gigs total)
OCZ StealthXStream 600w
Antec 900 Case (Already have it)
Aftermarket Heatsink - Either Zalman 9500 or the Thermalright 120 Extreme

Any help, comments or concerns I should be aware of please let me know. I am new to the forums on Hardocp today, so give me a nice welcome! :)
Click to expand...

Welcome to [H]ard Forum. ;)

I've not heard good things about that psu. I would look into one of the very popular Corsair HX620W PSU - 149.99 w/20$ MIR.

The heatsink would be okay, but I would like to suggest a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme ~ $55

Other than that, looks good.
~FIDS.
 
FIDDYOWNZ said:
The heatsink would be okay, but I would like to suggest a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme ~ $55

Other than that, looks good.
~FIDS.
Click to expand...

Yea, that was the second heatsink on my list. I hear that it's very good and easy to install on an LGA 775. As far as wanting to overclock a little bit the P6N should be a good board to go with aye? And as far as the RAM goes, I won't need to overclock it or what? I'm what some would a "noob" when it comes to overclocking and knowing the right type of RAM to get.

Kinda sucks that the Corsair PSU is 149 bucks... the OCZ was $89. I just really liked the idea that OCZ was making replies on comments on their products, they seem to be involved. I will look more into it.
 
Cmustang87 said:
Yea, that was the second heatsink on my list. I hear that it's very good and easy to install on an LGA 775. As far as wanting to overclock a little bit the P6N should be a good board to go with aye? And as far as the RAM goes, I won't need to overclock it or what? I'm what some would a "noob" when it comes to overclocking and knowing the right type of RAM to get.

Kinda sucks that the Corsair PSU is 149 bucks... the OCZ was $89. I just really liked the idea that OCZ was making replies on comments on their products, they seem to be involved. I will look more into it.
Click to expand...

Well you know that was just a suggestion. And if you do decide to get the OCZ PSU, you'll probably be okay...though it is a good idea to shell out a good amount for a PSU because (And I'm sure you know this) if you psu dies, it could take your other hardware with it.

The reason I don't suggest that psu is because I've heard that
1) Goes bad somewhat often
2) Wattage fluctuation? (Can anyone confirm this?)Not totally sure on the last point - but if I remember right that was an issue with this PSU.

I don't really know a whole lot about Intel boards, as you can see in my sig I use AMD. So I can't offer any wisdom there, sorry! :cool:
 
FIDDYOWNZ said:
Well you know that was just a suggestion. And if you do decide to get the OCZ PSU, you'll probably be okay...though it is a good idea to shell out a good amount for a PSU because (And I'm sure you know this) if you psu dies, it could take your other hardware with it.

The reason I don't suggest that psu is because I've heard that
1) Goes bad somewhat often
2) Wattage fluctuation? (Can anyone confirm this?)Not totally sure on the last point - but if I remember right that was an issue with this PSU.

I don't really know a whole lot about Intel boards, as you can see in my sig I use AMD. So I can't offer any wisdom there, sorry! :cool:
Click to expand...

Yea, I do know you get what you pay for with PSU's. I was originally looking at OCZ's 700w Xstream but it was 140 bones. I figured with my rig I wouldn't be using that much, so I don't wanna "overpower" my system per-se. So I figured a downgrade from the same fellas to a 600 would be okay. I did decide against the Modular Kingwin Mach1. I just have a fear with buying cheap offbrand PSU's ya know (as in the Kingwin, NOT the Corsair.)? I will keep my eye on the Corsair, I will snag it up if it's price changes at all.


Thanks for your help. Hopefully I can get an Intel person in on this thread to help me out with the board and CPU information. Oh, and thanks for the warm welcome :)


**EDIT**

I just realized that Corsair 620 is a modular PSU. MINE! lol
 
For quadcore OC'ing, I'd go with the P35 board over the nForce. Also, the nForce chipset runs hotter, making it slightly harder to OC (must get cooling for NB). The DS3L or DS3R should suffice. If you don't need legacy ports, you can get the Abit IP35-E instead, for less.

$89 - ABIT IP35-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ($20 MIR)
$100 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
$130 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX

All you need is DDR2-800 RAM, at most. If you can find some cheaper DDR2-667 sticks, go for it, since your OC goal is only 3.0Ghz, lol.

$175 - G.Skill 4GB(2x2GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

Here are some formulas to help you out...

(CPU Multiplier) x [Base FSB speed] = CPU Clock speed
2 x [Base FSB speed] = RAM speed
4 x [Base FSB speed] = Effective FSB speed

On Intel platforms, running the RAM higher than a 1:1 ratio with the CPU is useless. Keep it linked at 1:1. These are some common possible speeds. Keep in mind that OC'ing is never guaranteed:

Q6600: 9 × 266 = 2.4Ghz, DDR2-533 << STOCK speeds
Q6600: 9 × 333 = 3.0Ghz, DDR2-667 << Nice OC
Q6600: 9 × 378 = 3.4Ghz, DDR2-756 << Good OC, near max on good air for B3 stepping
Q6600: 9 × 400 = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-800 << Great OC, near max on good air for G0 stepping

You wont notice much difference between CL4 and CL5, so don't pay a huge price premium for lower latency sticks.

Stick with the Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme and pickup an S-Flex fan for it. The Tuniq Tower 120 is also a good alternative, if you want to save some money.

The OCZ supposedly has ripple at high loads. Though, OCZ claims any problems with ripple on the +12V rail have been fixed. I would still go for a different PSU. If you want the Corsair, don't buy it from Newegg... its WAY overpriced. Check clubit.com, buy.com, or zipzoomfly.com instead. All you really need is the 520W model, though.

$100 - Corsair HX Series CMPSU-520HX 520W Modular PSU ($10MIR)
$140 - Corsair HX Series CMPSU-620HX 620W ($20MIR)

And this is on sale, if you're interested:
$120 - Antec TruePower Trio 650W TP3-650 ATX12V PSU ($160 - $40IR; $50MIR)

Oh, and for your screen size, the 320MB will do just fine.
 
enginurd said:
For quadcore OC'ing, I'd go with the P35 board over the nForce. Also, the nForce chipset runs hotter, making it slightly harder to OC (must get cooling for NB). The DS3L or DS3R should suffice. If you don't need legacy ports, you can get the Abit IP35-E instead, for less.

$89 - ABIT IP35-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ($20 MIR)
$100 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
$130 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX

All you need is DDR2-800 RAM, at most. If you can find some cheaper DDR2-667 sticks, go for it, since your OC goal is only 3.0Ghz, lol.


$175 - G.Skill 4GB(2x2GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

Here are some formulas to help you out...

(CPU Multiplier) x [Base FSB speed] = CPU Clock speed
2 x [Base FSB speed] = RAM speed
4 x [Base FSB speed] = Effective FSB speed

On Intel platforms, running the RAM higher than a 1:1 ratio with the CPU is useless. Keep it linked at 1:1. These are some common possible speeds. Keep in mind that OC'ing is never guaranteed:

Q6600: 9 × 266 = 2.4Ghz, DDR2-533 << STOCK speeds
Q6600: 9 × 333 = 3.0Ghz, DDR2-667 << Nice OC
Q6600: 9 × 378 = 3.4Ghz, DDR2-756 << Good OC, near max on good air for B3 stepping
Q6600: 9 × 400 = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-800 << Great OC, near max on good air for G0 stepping

You wont notice much difference between CL4 and CL5, so don't pay a huge price premium for lower latency sticks.

Stick with the Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme and pickup an S-Flex fan for it. The Tuniq Tower 120 is also a good alternative, if you want to save some money.

The OCZ supposedly has ripple at high loads. Though, OCZ claims any problems with ripple on the +12V rail have been fixed. I would still go for a different PSU. If you want the Corsair, don't buy it from Newegg... its WAY overpriced. Check clubit.com, buy.com, or zipzoomfly.com instead. All you really need is the 520W model, though.

$100 - Corsair HX Series CMPSU-520HX 520W Modular PSU ($10MIR)
$140 - Corsair HX Series CMPSU-620HX 620W ($20MIR)

And this is on sale, if you're interested:
$120 - Antec TruePower Trio 650W TP3-650 ATX12V PSU ($160 - $40IR; $50MIR)

Oh, and for your screen size, the 320MB will do just fine.
Click to expand...

Now that I do the math in my head... no reason to stop my O/C at 3.0 ghz if I'm buying DDR2 800. Your post was so full of win it was ridiculous. I will agree with your 320 MB suggestion as it's a 19" LCD. Save me about 70 bucks there. I was hoping corsair had a tad smaller PSU for a less price in the same model series. I will order my CPU from Clubit to guarantee my G0 stepping. I think with the information on the overclocking will help a bunch.

That G. Skill kit I was looking at, looks like a perfect price. This post helped me a bunch! Thanks a ton!

Oh and by the way, I'm upgrading from:

AMD 64 3000+
1 GB Corsair XMS 3200
BFG 7800 GS OC (AGP - lol)
430 Watt Antec TruPower

Can't wait to see the results.
 
No prob. Are you selling that 7800GS? ;) BTW, you will notice a huge difference, lol.
 
enginurd said:
No prob. Are you selling that 7800GS? ;)
Click to expand...

Yah, if I can't exchange it from best buy. I am going to run a file server off my old parts.. Still undecided though, I may just sell my whole machine. Do you know anyone that would be interested in a dated AGP interface card? But my file server def won't need a 7800 GS lol.
 
Also there is another concern. Do you or anyone else know that's reading this will the thermalright 120 extreme fit in the Antec 900?
 
I already own the case. Being an employee at a certain retailer (I will avoid the name drop to reduce the amount of flaming I would most likely get due to my employer). I buy items at 5% above their cost. So the case was like 78 bucks lol.

Repiecing my wishlist together. Seeing what price I come up with.
 
On those Abit motherboards... did they fix the dual boot issue on them?

** EDIT: I MEANT GIGABYTE**
 
I've used several of those boards, and none have the reboot issue. Even if it does, it just restarts itself, so nothing to really worry about.

Oh yah, I read that you already had it in the original post (thats why I left it out of my first post), but when you linked to newegg, it made me post the Fry's price, lol.
 
Well as of now I can get this rig up and running for right around a grand... sounds sexy. I'm scared to see what I've been missing in the dual core world ... sigh. Oh sorry... Quad Core:D. I think I'm going to go with that $99 Gigabyte board since I have no interest in SLi or RAID (the thought of losing 500GB or more data makes me wanna vomit lol).

Thanks for all your help... will look forward to overclocking my machine :).
 
Cmustang87 said:
So over the course of the past few weeks I have been finding the right prices and parts to piece together my quad core rig due to the extremely inexpensive cost of the Q6600. I am interested in doing a little overclocking, nothing too major; maybe get it around 3 ghz or so. Here is what I have come up with so far, lemme know if I should be aware of any compatibility issues, I have done a bit of research on the parts:

Intel Q6600
P6n Sli-Plat, or the Gigabyte P35
EVGA 8800 GTS 640 (May get the 320 to save some bills since my native is only 1280x1024)
G. Skill DDR2 800 2 x 2 Gb Kit (4 gigs total)
OCZ StealthXStream 600w
Antec 900 Case (Already have it)
Aftermarket Heatsink - Either Zalman 9500 or the Thermalright 120 Extreme

Any help, comments or concerns I should be aware of please let me know. I am new to the forums on Hardocp today, so give me a nice welcome! :)
Click to expand...

I'd go with the following


Q6600 G0
Asus P5K-Deluxe WiFi-AP or Abit IP 35 Pro
eVGA 8800GTS 320
Crucial Ballistix PC2 6400 4-4-4-12
Corsair HX520 or HX620 if you want lots of extra legroom
Thermaltake TRUE or HR-01+
If OC goals are lowish( 3.0Ghz)
All of it,in this case
 
I found Asus to be quite overpriced, and I've seen many, many issues with them. I'm trying to stay right around the 1k range.
 
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