Ground up new rig, suggestions please.

N

Nanan

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 29, 2007
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Ok so my Dell 9300 has been a good laptop for the last gen of games but now stuff like UT3 and Bioshock make my computer groan on the lowest settings and usually cause it to go into thermal shutdown protection.

So I need a new computer, after reading the boards I think I have a good idea of what I want but I am still hesatent as I have not built a new ground up computer for myself sense the p4's first came out. I will not just be playing UT3 but I will also be doing mapping and creating static meshes via Maya and textures via Photoshop CS2 so I figured a quad core is my ticket. I will be going with XP64(already have) and maybe Vista down the road.

I will likely OC the Q6600 to 3.2ghz.

My tentative list:

SAMSUNG 245BW Black High Glossy 24" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver Aluminum Bezel...

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping Kentsfield 2.40GHz 8MB L2 LGA 775 Processor

ASUS P5K-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX ATX12V / EPS12V 650W Power Supply

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000)

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler

Scythe S-FLEX SFF21D 120mm Case Fan

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

EVGA Geforce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB 256bit GDDR3 PCI-Express 2.0 HDCP & SLI


I have set my budget at $1500 and so far this spec comes in just under it. I will likely split the order between Newegg and Clubit depending on avalability and price.
 
You don't need DDR2 1000 memory... get the 4GB DDR2 800 kit from NewEgg for $110.

Here's an OC primer, courtesy of enginurd:

enginurd said:
Multiplier x FSB, RAM Speed = CPU Speed

Q6600:
Multi x FSB, RAM Speed = Clock Speed
9 x 266Mhz, DDR2 533 RAM = 2.4Ghz <== Stock Speeds
9 x 333Mhz, DDR2 667 RAM = 3.0Ghz <== Good OC
9 x 400Mhz, DDR2 800 RAM = 3.6Ghz <== Excellent OC
Click to expand...

Since you plan on getting a 24 inch monitor, you may want to consider getting an 8800GTX instead.

You may also want to look at ZipZoomFly as a third (shopping) option.
 
vsrdan said:
Drop that Asus board. Go for a Gigabyte (or something else).
Click to expand...

Any reason why? It seems highly rated on these boards... Do you have another suggestion? specific model? I am not a huge fan of Gigabyte due to issues with a board and RMA a few years ago.
 
There's nothing really wrong with Asus or Gigabyte, everyone manufacturer has some bad boards, but both are considered fairly reliable at the moment (their P35 boards at least). The Asus board might be overkill features-wise for what you need, although I'm pretty happy with mine overall. Let us know what kind things you might need such as RAID, Firewire, number of SATA drives you are looking to someday use with this computer, etc.

Cases are a bit subjective, but I think you might find a few other models a bit nicer than the Centurion 5, which is still a decent case. The 534 though seems like a pretty straight update without much of a price difference. The RC-690 is a good looking choice too. Both let you get away from the 80mm intake on the Centurion 5.

The ram is pretty cheap either way, but yeah you probably don't really need the DDR2-1000 ram, and it is 20 bucks cheaper to go with the DDR2-800. I might up the Scythe to an E model, but I guess that depends what you are looking for airflow/noise ratio-wise. Looks pretty good overall, you may or may not want to pick up arctic silver 5 or arctic mx-2 for your thermal compound, although you can test with the provided grease if you want.
 
I do not have any plans for doing a Raid setup.

I might incorporate my 72gig Raptor drive into the computer as I currently use it as an external for my laptop(relic drive from my old P4). I currently have the raptor in a firewire/esata case so I might just keep up with that.

I might upgrade to a Geforce 9 series graphics card in the future.

I only went with the higher speed rated ram because I have seen several other people do the same with good results on OC, higher overhead and better timing was the reasoning I believe.

I liked the looks of the Centurion 5, I actually have that case on my work computer but I am open to other cases but I am not willing to drop $200+ on a case, its a freaking box... I would love to design my own case really... but atm I do not have the time(I am an engineer and sheet metal casings and enclosures are one of the things I do on a regular basis with work).

Ah yes thermal paste, ill just get that locally if I do not already have some laying around.


/edit

I just looked on Newegg at the " COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case" and I think I will go with it.

As for the monitor vs graphics card, with my laptop I got use to the 1920x1200 native desktop resolution, it just provides so much space. But I will likely not be running games that high any time soon and in most games where I can I turn the bump-maping and texture quality down as it gives me a headache. Both Oblivion and Vanguard at max settings would make my eyes/head hurt after 20ish mins but when I turned the settings down a step the problem went away.
 
Your choices of parts look great. My nitpicking would sound like tiraides' and Anchen's posts. :p
 
Well I have had the rig up and running for a bit over a week now and overall it runs great, I have it setup to dual boot Vista64 and XP64 but I have found myself using Vista 99% of the time.

My only real problem is the North bridge chip run really hot, fanspeed says the North bridge chip is 97c at full load via prime95. Could anyone recomend a good hsf setup for this?

Secondly I need a good fan speed controler, I picked up a musicool(sp?) one locally and it burned up in less then 2 hours trying to control the 3x 120mm Yates Loon fans I had hooked up. I can't leave these things running full blast off the 12v line, they are loud as hell and the computer is in my bedroom.

Thanks for the help thus far.
 
For the NB, check out the Thermalright HR-05 and HR-05-SLI IFX models.

pics?
 
Yea I looked at the HR-05 but I was wondering if it would clear the ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme that is cooling the Q6600.

I had the q6600 ramped up to 3.4ghz but the north chip shot up to ~110c.
 
Are you absolutely positive those are your Northbridge temps? (97C, 110C) Your northbridge temps should be more in the 40-50 (under 60 at least) range I think...
 
The HR-05-SLI IFX should offset any clearance issues you may have since it offsets the heat sink a few inches. Check it out and you'll see what I mean. Thouugh I would try reapplying the thermal paste on the NB HS first and see if it does anything. If you have a small fan (40mm to 60mm) lying around somewhere, glue, screw or tape it to the NB and see if it drops down temps some.
 
Fanspeed, Coretemp, and Intel TAT, they all show about the same +/-5c, I do have a problem with TAT crashing tho, I don't think it gets along with Vista64.

I decided to go with a second wave of parts to help with cooling, this is my newegg basket atm.

Arctic Silver ASTA-7G (2-PC-SET) Premium Silver Thermal Adhesive
Thermalright HR-05 SLI/IFX Copper Chipset Cooler
Thermalright HR-03 Rev A VGA Cooler
4x AeroCool Streamliner-Black 140mm Blue LED Case Fan


I have some AS5 left over from the Q6600 install.

I picked the ASTA-7g as it is recomended by several due to the TIM not sticking well with the face down cards and it has a better thermal transfer.

I picked up a Thermaltake XCONTROLLER 5.25" Drive Bay Kits - Fan Controller w/ LED Light controler from the local computer parts shop last night, even on the lowest setting the CM690 case fans are annoyingly loud. They will be replaced with the AeroCool 140mm's.

Any other suggestions?


I do not have a digi-cam personally for pics, ill see if one of my friends has one.
 
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