How's this budget C2D system

T

teken894

n00b
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
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I'm looking to do a system overhaul from my ancient Celeron-d system, so how's this setup from Tigerdirect look?

MoBo: ECS nForce 570 SLIT-A / SATA-300 RAID / PCIe SLI ($79)
CPU: C2D E6400 2.13 Ghz ($230)
GFX: XFX 7600 GT XXX ($130)
MEM: OCZ XTC Gold 1GB, DDR2-667 ($125)
CASE/PSU: Ultra Mid-Tower with V-series 500W SATA/PCIe PSU ($80)
HDD: Maxtor DiamondMax.10 160GB SATA-300 ($60) (to compliment my two IDE HDDs)
DVD/CD: Lite-on DVD+RW ($24)

For total w/tax and shipping and rebates: $771

Wondering if I should go with OCZ mem or Corsair (2x512). Is there any difference between one-stick 1GB and (2x512MB) ? Which is better for overclocking?

Also for the CPU, I don't know if I should choose the 1.86 GHz E6300 ($180) over the E6400 2.13GHz ($230). I plan on overclocking a bit, so which is better? Is the E6400 worth the extra $50?

And are there any cheap cases out there or good PSU (preferably with 2x SATA connectors) that I get get for less than the $80 I'm paying right now?

I was looking to downgrade to the E6300 and get a 7900GT for $200 after MR, but I only game casually. Looking for a system that'll last a couple of years without upgrades to GFX.

My bugdet is max $800 after rebates, etc.

Thanks
 
No real reason to go with an E6400 over an E6300 in my opinion. Save yourself a couple of bucks there, and take the extra cash and put it toward a better video card or more memory.
 
If you live near a frys you can get the 6400 with a ECS board (not sure which one) for 199 this weekend.
 
Well, overall it looks like a decent system, but these are the changes I would make:

First, Intel chipsets are always more stable in the long run than nVidia chipsets when paired with an Intel processor. I'd look for a cheap P965 board, as that chipset has shown to be a great overclocker so far. The Gigabyte S3 has been a well reviewed board, and can be had for $115 on newegg, more than the ECS, but worth the money. You lose SLI, but as you said you aren't a hardcore gamer, you will never need SLI anyway.

As for memory, I personally don't trust OCZ, their memory has been shown not to work with a couple motherboards so far due to voltage issues. Patriot makes excellent RAM that OCs well, and is very affordable, through Corsair is a great product as well.

Finally, if you don't have the cash to jump up to the E6600 (and get the extra 2mb cache) the E6300 is a better choice than the E6400 for an OCer. Both OC pretty much the same, and you save money with the E6300.
 
Oooska said:
No real reason to go with an E6400 over an E6300 in my opinion. Save yourself a couple of bucks there, and take the extra cash and put it toward a better video card or more memory.
Click to expand...

agreed. unless you are planning on OCing... from what I understand the e6400 over clocks way better than the e6300.

a gig of ram is all right for now, at a minimum, but you could always throw in another gig later I guess.

I was just building a budget system.. the e6400 was $10 cheaper at newegg... not a huge difference... just letting you know... lol
 
Any major reason you're goin with tigerdirect? just curious. The E6400 has a higher multiplier, so you won't need a board that can reach super fast fsb speeds... so, should you spend more money on the mobo or the cpu? lol... choice is yours.

OCZ Ram is good, but their GOLD DDR2 sticks have problems with AM2 and C2D systems. If you want OCZ, stick to their non-gold lines (platinum, titanium, value, vanilla, soe, etc). Corsair and OCZ make the highest performance ram. Though, since you're on a budget, I'd go for one of the cheaper kits. I'd also go for 2GB instead of 1GB since your budget is over $700.

Also, since you don't game that much, just go for a 7600GT instead of the 7900GT. You'll get better overall system performance from more ram or a faster cpu than a gpu since you rarely game.

$182 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775
$200 - Patriot Signature 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-667 PSD22G667KH ($210 - $10MIR)
$115 - GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
$115 - BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB ($145 - $30MIR)
$80 - Antec LifeStyle SONATA II ATX Mid Tower w/ 450Watt SP2.0 PSU ($100 - $40MIR + $20 Shipping)
$55 - HITACHI Deskstar 7K160 HDS721616PLA380 160GB 7200RPM SATA300 8MB Cache
$33 - LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ LightScribe SHM-165H6S
==========
$780 + tax and shipping (after rebates)

With stock intel HSF, the E6300 OC's to 2.59Ghz easily; and the E6400 reaches 2.88Ghz:
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2802&p=2

Also, I don't trust maxtor drives all that much. They seem to have a higher failure rate than other drives.
 
Thanks for your replies:
I go with Tigerdirect because I don't have to pay tax :D At newegg I have to pay the 8% CA tax
Also, they seem pretty cheap.

I'm going with the e6300 then.I plan on upgrading to dx10 card later, so should I keep SLI or not?

I've never heard that about nVidia vs Intel chipsets... you think the ECS mobo will last a couple of years with no probs. Is there any OC difference between intel vs nvidia? How long will this mobo last me, that is the connectors. What keeps happening to me is the mobo gets outdated really quick. Is Socket 775 going to stay for a while, and be compatible with newer intel CPUs, and are PCIe and DC-DDR2 be "in" for another three, four years?

Also, is 500W PSU good for this system, maybe with a dx10 card a year down the road?

And is there any difference between 2x512MB and a 1GB stick. Any speed/latency difference if the memory in each slot is smaller??

enginurd that's a good system. I might want to keep my case and still not sure about the mobo...I also plan on getting a the seagate 7200.10 320GB. Also, yours is 780+tax, etc...mines is 771 after all that...and since there is no Tax for me at tigerdirect all the better :D

My budget is $800 including all other expenses
 
I dont like the quality of ECS boards... I've had to replace many of them. LGA775 will be around for a while, and 975X and P965 Express will support Core2Quad CPUs (Kentsfield). PCI-Express is rather new, so it'll be around much longer. DDR3 won't be used until 2009.

500W PSU is fine. A Single 8800GTX will need at least 450W.

The difference between 2x512 vs 1x1gb is dual channel. Yes, you will notice a big performance difference, I think (cuz I do), between dual and single channel. You can only run dual channel, as far as I know (maybe this will change), if both sticks are "identical"... or paired. While the latency is higher with DDR2, the speed more than makes up for it.

Oh, I forgot, the current nForce chipsets 570/590 for intel cannot overclock much. They reach about 300Mhz FSB max, if that. So, you should definately look for a different motherboard, aside from the fact that you chose an ECS one :p

Have Tiger Direct's prices dropped? I used to only shop there for work stuff (cuz they were expensive). If I'm building a whole system, I usually get a majority of my parts from Monarch, since they don't charge tax and usually have lower prices than TD... but then again, I havent checked TD's prices lately. The only thing with MCS is that it takes a week for the parts to get to CA from GA, lol.

Oh, and mine was 780+tax with 2GB of ram.

Go with this motherboard instead:
$100 - Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
and your total will be $925 - $40(antec MIR) - $30(BFG MIR) - $10(PDP MIR) = $845 Shipped... thats with 2GB of ram...

go for 1GB instead if you can't find $45 extra bux...
$105 - CORSAIR VS 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2-667 VS1GBKIT667D2

and your total will be $815 - $40(antec MIR) - $30(BFG MIR) = $745 Shipped... NewEgg wins! Better mobo and hdd; and cheaper final price :D
 
OO..i didn't know that!
Thanks for the heads-up.


I think i'll go with the gigabyte s3 p965
 
Yes, the S3 is a better board for overclocking. However, the Foxconn board can overclock just as well, and its only $100 at the egg. So... here's the full builds:

$182 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775
$200 - Patriot Signature 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-667 PSD22G667KH ($210 - $10MIR)
$100 - Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
$115 - BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB ($145 - $30MIR)
$80 - Antec LifeStyle SONATA II ATX Mid Tower w/ 450Watt SP2.0 PSU ($100 - $40MIR + $20 Shipping)
$55 - HITACHI Deskstar 7K160 HDS721616PLA380 160GB 7200RPM SATA300 8MB Cache
$33 - LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ LightScribe SHM-165H6S
==========
$825 + $68(tax) + $32(shipping) - $80(rebates) = $845 Shipped

I think the extra 1GB is worth the extra $100, but its up to you... here's the build with a 1gb kit:

$182 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775
$105 - CORSAIR VS 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2-667 VS1GBKIT667D2
$100 - Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
$115 - BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB ($145 - $30MIR)
$80 - Antec LifeStyle SONATA II ATX Mid Tower w/ 450Watt SP2.0 PSU ($100 - $40MIR + $20 Shipping)
$60 - HITACHI Deskstar 7K160 HDS721616PLA380 160GB 7200RPM SATA300 8MB Cache
$33 - LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ LightScribe SHM-165H6S
==========
$723 + $60(tax) + $32(shipping) - $70(rebates) = $745 Shipped

The price of the Sonata is the same price (after rebate) as your Ultra case/psu combo, so go ahead and get the Ultra Case/PSU from TD. The sonata, however, is a better quality case than the Ultra case. As for the PSU, the sp2.0 450W isn't the greatest, but its good enough and it will get the job done.
 
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