"Budget" quadcore system recommendations

[orangezero]

I haven't built a computer in a while and after some nights of reading I've come up with the following:

Q6700
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L
4GB (2x2GB)

I've read the 6700 and EP45-UD3L are pretty decent overclockers and the prices seems good if you can find them in stock. Q6700 runs slightly hotter than the newer Q9xxx, but also may overclock a bit better? I do not need raid, sli or crossfire so I think that board would work good. As a bonus it is on the list for hackintosh boards which I may experiment with at some point in the future.

After that I am less sure:
4gb (2gb x 2) Not sure what I need to not limit my overclocking, without breaking the bank. I think I should be searching for ddr2 1066 with some heatspreaders: OCZ? Kingstonhyper? I've seen some sets around $45-65 that have decent reviews. Are timings that important for overclocking? It seems I can spend a lot more money to maybe get a 1-3% increase, which is not what I'm going for at all. Also, I'm not so sure I'd need more than 4gb at this point since I mainly use XP and 32bit ubuntu. And, I can always add more later. 2x1GB seems too low at this point.

Graphics: probably go a few generations back, 9800 or 9600 nvidia maybe. Can't remember right now who has better linux support. Both of my older cards seemed to work fine in Ubuntu and mint. Probably won't game much, but might use this as an excuse to start again.

PSU: What do I need for the above, without being excessive? I will probably only have one or two hard drives, and maybe a dvd drive. Is 700w like the OCZ silentxstream too much? Could I get by with a quality 550 with enough on the 12V rails? What is enough?

Heatsink: Not sure, saw the Arctic Freezer pro 7, but I seems to run loud. Scythe are good? Any to avoid?

Already have the case, drives, etc. Might spring for a 30gb SSD drive, but I'm not sure if it would be a ton better than a 74gb 1st gen raptor in normal everyday tasks.

My goal is to get the Q6700 to over 3ghz without much effort, and perhaps to 3.2-3.5 if possible. I'm not as concerned with upgrading in the future, and i7s are out of my price range for now. I've always gone amd, but want a intel quad for some reason.

Thanks for any insight.

 

[risqu3]

go for the q6600, its cheaper and performs the same as the q6700
ram doesnt really matter, im currently using g-skill, but i have used OCZ, and Patriot before, and have heard great things about corsair.
im currently also using a TRU120E, but you could also use the Cooler master V8 (another amazing heatsink)
i can't really suggest anything for graphics cards, since i don't use linux. but if you are planning on a budget graphics card, you cant go wrong with a radeon 4770.
for this kind of PC a 450-500W PSU would be ideal, even thou your pc wont use more then 250 during load, it would leave room for you incase in the future you want to upgrade some components.

OH btw, ssd's aren't the best at sequential writes, their read times are amazing, so remember that when you want to get a hard drive.

 

[flak-spammer]

Please note that you may not be able to find a new Q6600 or Q6700 because they are now discontinued.

 

[orangezero]

Thanks for the comments. I found a few places that had the Q6700 for a decent price, cheaper than the Q6600. I thought the slightly larger multiplier might allow a larger Ghz speed on the cpu without overstressing the memory.

I found the Q6700 for around $175 oem new. Seems most of the Q9300 and Q9400 are well over $200, and the few that have the Q6600 sell if for way more than it is worth. Is the Q9450 worth an extra $50 over the Q6700? I guess I could look used also, but it is going to be a business expense so I don't mind buying a new one if I can find it. I figured I should stay away from the Q8xxx series since they lack some virtualization functions, potentially.

I'll have to look at the 4770

 

[Forceman]

You can probably find a deal on a used Q6600 if you look around the for-sale thread.

 

[Dangman]

RAM: Timings aren't that important.

PSU: Wouldn't recommend the OCZ SilentXStream since it's based off the FSP Episilon PSU design which has out of spec ripple, or voltage fluctuations, at high loads that can damage or kill your system. Granted, you may not reach such high loads but why pay for a PSU that can kill your system? A good quality 550W PSU will be enough for your needs as long as you're not planning on upgrading to a very high-end video card. I recommend this PSU:
$69 - BFG Tech LS-550 550W PSU

HSF: One of the best cooling HSF out there:
$42 - Xigmatek Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm HSF

 

[Impulse]

If you're going budget, get a Q8400 or Q6600 for $180-190 imo, no sense in spending extra for the Q6700 unless you're getting a deal on it or something. The Q6600 might be slightly easier to OC due to the higher stock multiplier but as you said, it'll run slightly hotter. Timings aren't terribly important, nor is the speed rating unless you're dead set on OC'ing your RAM for kicks as well. Just get a good DDR2-800 or 1066 set between $50-65, no more. I'm partial to Corsair/G.Skill, pretty happy with the set in my sig.

You could very easily get by with a quality 500W unit given the specs you're listing, go 600W at most... Again, I'm partial to Corsair units though they're overpriced at Newegg. BFG has had some very nice models as of late as well. The LS-550 already mentioned in the thread is probably the best budget buy, the MX-550 is the same thing but modular for like $10-20 more (and probably $5-10 less than Corsair's HX520W). For heatsink, see above post, easily best bang for the buck, there's other good options but they're all mostly gonna be costlier or perform the same (or slightly worse).

Any quality SSD is definitely gonna outperform your old 74GB raptor, by a huge margin, even with the most mundane tasks (opening apps, bootup, etc); but quality SSDs are still pretty darn pricey... $130 for a 30GB unit? Meh, might as well spend $200 on a 60GB at 'least. As for video cards, I'm not up on who has the best Linux driver support either so I can't help ya there. The 4770, 4850, and GTS 250 are pretty decent budget cards tho ($100 or less), if you think you'll be gaming at a high res you might wanna spring for something like a GTX 260 or 4870 1GB for $160 though.

I'm itching to upgrade to an SSD myself but I'm waiting prices out 'till the end of the year or Sept/Oct at 'least, by the time Window 7's out I'll definitely grab one though. Hoping to go w/an 80-120GB unit for my OS (they're already down to $300-350-ish), I hardly ever like to spend that much on any single part but I think it'll be worth it.

Edit: The deal you mentioned for the new Q6700 sounds good, odd that they're selling it so cheap since they're kinda scarce by now but I'd go for it if it's from a trustworthy vendor. The multi on the Q6600 is already high enough for more than a decent OC tho, wouldn't worry much about that. Definitely not worth spending another $50+ for something only slightly better on a budget build imo, 'specially not if you're gonna OC it anyway.