Comments and suggestions?

H

HondaCop

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 12, 2008
Messages
239
I am planning on building my new machine in the upcoming weeks and I would like to know what you guys think of what I have listed so far:

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=5570385

Stuff I already have and will be re-using:

  • Dell 2405FPW 24" LCD
  • X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card
  • Danger Den D5 water pump
  • Danger Den reservoir
  • Apogee GTX CPU water block
  • Swiftech radiator
  • Logitech Z-5300 5.1 speakers
  • Sony DVD-CD recorder

Suggestions and opinions are welcomed!
 
Danny Bui said:
First of all, ditch the Dominator RAM. They are VERY overpriced and even with overclocking in mind, ANY cheap set of DDR2 800 RAM will be fine for your rig. I recommend this set:
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $90

Second, drop the GTXs. The new 8800GTS 512MB performs on par with the 8800GTX and is significantly cheaper. So pick up a pair of those instead:
EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS 512MB PCI-E Video Card - $290

Third, do a little bit more research on 780i mobos.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice, Danny!

Ok, as you can see, I am going with the 6600 so I can do some serious overclocking, so indeed, I need a good set of memory to allow me to do so. I will look into the memory you pointed out.

As for the videocards, the new GTS 512MB are the ones based on the new G92 GPU? I believe these are also PCI-E 2.0, right? So these in fact are up-to-par to the GTX, even though the GTS has a smaller memory bus and less shaders?
 
Alright Danny, checkout my wish list now. Taking into account your suggestions, I was able to swap out the 6600 for the QX9650!!!!!! :D

I was able to fit in the QX9650 and even bump up my memory to 4GB while staying below my $3,000 budget!! SWEET!!!

What you think? Any other changes?
 
HondaCop said:
As for the videocards, the new GTS 512MB are the ones based on the new G92 GPU? I believe these are also PCI-E 2.0, right? So these in fact are up-to-par to the GTX, even though the GTS has a smaller memory bus and less shaders?
Click to expand...

Yes to all questions:
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQzMSwzLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Anyway, Extreme Edition CPUs are NEVER worth the money. It's mainly for e-penis. If that's what you're going for, then go get it. In terms of price to performance, the QX9650 is a seriously bad buy at $1000. Every Extreme Edition CPU has been outperformed in less than a year by a significantly cheaper CPU. As such, buying an Extreme Edition CPU is a total and utter waste of money.
 
Danny Bui said:
Yes to all questions:
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQzMSwzLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Anyway, Extreme Edition CPUs are NEVER worth the money. It's mainly for e-penis. If that's what you're going for, then go get it. In terms of price to performance, the QX9650 is a seriously bad buy at $1000. Every Extreme Edition CPU has been outperformed in less than a year by a significantly cheaper CPU. As such, buying an Extreme Edition CPU is a total and utter waste of money.
Click to expand...

So you think I should go for the 6600 instead? I really want to make the right choice. The reason why I considered going for the QX9650 is so that I wouldn't have to worry about overclocking and thus trying to keep my system as quiet as possible. If I go with the 6600, I would need to do some heavy overclocking in order to bring it up to par with the QX9650. This also means that I have a chance of making my system more unstable.

If I could just go ahead and get the QX9650, then I would ensure that I wouldn't need to jeopardize my system's stability by overclocking.

I am not trying to say that your advice is wrong, don't get me wrong, I am just trying to explain my reasoning and help you in giving me the best advice. What you think?

Thanks Danny, I really appreciate your help. :)
 
Q6600 G0 chips are known to be widely ROCK SOLID STABLE at around 3.6Ghz. While it won't be easy reaching those speeds, its not that hard nor will it make your system that much louder if you choose the right cooler. Though, as always, performance is never guaranteed, so YMMV. Wait, you're even water cooling... hell, don't bother with the Extreme chip unless you want to break some world records (which you probably won't do without a Vapochill or similar).

Here's why you don't need anything faster than DDR2-800 with a Q6600...
/*------------- <cut n paste> -------------*/
Formulas for Intel platform @ 1:1 settings: (base FSB speed is SDR, or single data rate)
c x [Base FSB speed] = CPU speed (c = CPU Multiplier)
2 x [Base FSB speed] = RAM speed (DDR: double data rate)
4 x [Base FSB speed] = FSB speed (QDR: quad data rate; Effective FSB speed)

On Intel platforms, running the RAM higher than a 1:1 ratio with the CPU is, for the most part, useless, so don't bother trying to do so. If the BIOS does it for you, just let it. All you need is a 1:1 config, though. Here's some possible clock speeds (as always with OC'ing, your results will vary):

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 for B3 stepping on good air
Q6600: 9 × 400 = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-800 << Great OC, near max for G0 stepping on good air
/*------------- </cut n paste> -------------*/

Clubit.com guarantees the G0 Q6600. I'm not sure if newegg has all G0's by now or not.
 
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