building 3 PCs from used hardware...

[EricFX1984]

I have decided to restructure my hardware... i need to build 3 PCs out of the hardware I have...

Box A: Mine, gaming and video encoding

Box B: Wife's Box, World Of warcraft and Starcraft II, it also doubles as our Home Theater PC and will be connected to a HD projector, as a result it would need to be rather quiet

Box C: My buddies box, this should be the slowest of all the machines, he will be providing his own hard drives and optical drives


CPU / Motherboard combos

Abit IP35 Pro / q8200 @ 3.15GHz
(it will not go higher and runs warm)

MSI 890GXM-G65 / Phenom II 965 Black Edition
(hits 3.8GHz on air, undervolted to only 1.325v, hits 4.0GHz with a little work, 4.4GHz with a chiller at 0c or less, board is on its way back from RMA

Gigabyte P55M-UD4 / Do not have a CPU for this, need to decide what I should put in it

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RAM

Adata Gaming Series 4GB (2x2gb) DDR3 1600 CL9, hits a solid 2000MHz and will even drop to CL8 (so long as I have a fan on it, lol)

Geil DDR2 1066 4GB (2x2GB)

I will need another 4GB kit as 2 of the boards listed use DDR3

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PSU

COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M700 RS-700
this go great reviews and has very low noise/ripple
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171037

Cooler Master eXtreme Power Duo 650 (not as very good PSU)

PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 510 SLI (does 650 peak)

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Video Card

EVGA gtx260, overclocks like mad

HD4850 1gb, with Accelero s1 and a pair of 80mm fans, hits 825/1100 and is silent

HD4850 512MB, does not works quiet right, hits a solid 725 on core but the memory maxes out at 960(underclocked) any higher and the ram artifacts

as for the other stuff like cases and HSF, that is already decided

 

[Dangman]

For the A-Data RAM, can you tell us what's the rated voltage for it?

Also you will need a new PSU as well since that Coolermaster is pretty crappy. Also, how old is the Silencer 510? And finally, for future reference: The peak wattage does not matter whatsoever. It's just pretty much bullshit.

 

[tiraides]

Tell us what you've decided on regarding the cases, CPU coolers, and other parts for each of these machines.

As for the builds themselves; I suggest that you go with the following....

Box A: Core i5 750/760 (whichever you can find for less); Gigabyte P55M-UD4; (New 2x2GB DDR3 1600 CL9 kit that runs between 1.5V and 1.6V); EVGA GTX 260

Box B: Phenom II 965 Black Edition; MSI 890GXM-G65; Adata Gaming Series 2x2GB DDR3 1600 CL9; HD 4850 1GB

Box C: Core 2 Quad Q8200; Abit IP35 Pro; Geil 2x2GB DDR2 1066; HD 4850 512MB

For safety's sake, you might as well buy new power supplies for Boxes A and B. (I'm assuming that your friend is buying his own, correct?)

 

[EricFX1984]

For the A-Data RAM, can you tell us what's the rated voltage for it?

Also you will need a new PSU as well since that Coolermaster is pretty crappy. Also, how old is the Silencer 510? And finally, for future reference: The peak wattage does not matter whatsoever. It's just pretty much bullshit.

1.55V - 1.75V

as for the Coolermaster 700 watt modular its a good PSU, way better than an OCZ but not as good as a Corsair, the Coolermaster 650 is terrible... the PC Power and Cooling is a 510 SLI, not a silencer... it is old but has almost 0 use

 

[EricFX1984]

what is the issue with going higher than 1.6v on memory?

 

[Dangman]

as for the Coolermaster 700 watt modular its a good PSU, way better than an OCZ but not as good as a Corsair, the Coolermaster 650 is terrible... the PC Power and Cooling is a 510 SLI, not a silencer... it is old but has almost 0 use

I was referring to the Coolermaster 650 when I said "that Coolermaster is crappy". Flip a coin as to whether or not to reuse the PC P&C. I personally wouldn't despite the lack of usage but there's sufficient cause to reuse it. I would get this PSU for Box B of Tiraides' suggestion:
$70 - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W PSU

1.55V - 1.75V
...
what is the issue with going higher than 1.6v on memory?

Well Intel has stated that the max RAM voltage supported by their CPUs is 1.65V. Any higher than that and you risk early CPU death. As such, we tend to not recommend RAM rated at 1.65V and higher. So use that A-Data RAM with the AMD setup as Tiraides noted. I recommend this RAM for Box A:
$80 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM

If overclocking past 4Ghz or so, get this RAM:
$92 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM

 

[E4g1e]

Well Intel has stated that the max RAM voltage supported by their CPUs is 1.65V. Any higher than that and you risk early CPU death. As such, we tend to not recommend RAM rated at 1.65V and higher.

Actually, this refers to the actual RAM voltage, not necessarily the set RAM voltage. Most motherboards, due to VDroop, actually undervolt the memory slightly. However, the 1.5V RAM voltage setting on one of the mobos I tested actually measured only 1.1V - which is so low that stability is severely affected. It needed a 1.9V to 2.0V setting just to even output 1.5V. (This might have been due to its capacitors and VRMs going bad on that mobo.) As such, that particular mobo sample should have been RMA'd - but its owner did not want to send it back.

 

[EricFX1984]

as for cases

Box A: the open air test bench I built


Box B: Silver stone full sized HTPC case (looks like a home theater receiver, and is about the same size)

box c: my buddy plans to reuse his TT Armour case

 

[EricFX1984]

Danny that Ripjaws looks crazy! great price for suck low voltage aswell

 

[EricFX1984]

so for box A you guys would pair it with a i5 750/760 and not an i7?

the i5 760 is $170 + tax @ Microcenter and the i7 860 is $230 + tax

 

[Dangman]

so for box A you guys would pair it with a i5 750/760 and not an i7?

Well IIRC, according to your last thread, you only had a $200 budget for the CPU. So a Core i7 CPU is basically out.

A Core i7 doesn't provide that much of a performance increase over a i5 750/760 to justify the higher costs in gaming. However, there's a pretty decent performance increase over a i5 750/760 in video encoding with a Core i7 860 CPU.