Looking forward to this build.

V

Vague

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
253
I had originally planned this purchase over the summer when I was waiting for my stimulus package. It arrived and had to go to bills but my savings have allowed me to go through with building this machine now. Here's what I'm looking at:

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R 16GB memory support and onboard firewire

VisionTek 900241 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail Lifetime warranty.

Antec earthwatts EA650 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail 80+ Certified and cheap.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail

Already have an Antec 300 case and a 640AAKS WD drive already waiting. I also have 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 G Skill to add to bring the total up to 6Gb right now and as memory prices are continuing to drop I should be able to buy some 4GB sticks soon for fairly cheap. This is also my opportunity to go 64bit which I've been looking forward to for a while. I've read that's it's fairly easy to OC so I'm going to give that a shot, I do have an aftermarket heat sink and fan, the model # escapes me right now.

This computer will be used primarily for gaming and some video encoding.

Anyway, I post here to get some feedback. There is a little bit of leeway in the budget but I'd rather not spend too much more. Does this look like a fine build?

I'm currently running an SC420 with the mod to fit the video card. P4 3 GHz, 3 GB memory, Radeon x1300. So I'm looking forward to a big jump in performance. My upgrade cylce is about every 4 years so this build is going to last me a long time.
I know there are tons of rate my build threads, so I tried to flush this out with as much information as possible and to why I'm choosing each part and filling in all the details. I don't see there being anything wrong with this problem but my upgrade cycle is long and my budget is tight so I want to be sure. TIA for your input.
 
Budget?
Please find out what kind of aftermarket cooler you have.
Also be sure that your RAM are compatible with each other. Gotta be wary when buying two different types of RAM.
Oh, and what's your monitor size and native resolution? And do you love your eye candy or could you care less?
And do you need any peripherals like audio, mouse, keyboard?
 
Your build is pretty solid actually. But, need to answer Alais questions first on the budget, monitor etc. Also, will you need an O/S? Or, do you have one already?
 
Both the mobo and PSU are OOS. Not ETA on when those items will be back in stock. However there is an alternative to that motherboard:
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 Motherboard - $120
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P Intel P45 Motherboard - $137

The UD3P is the better overclocker. If the EA500 is not in stock for $50 by the time you buy, I recommend getting the EA650 for $70.

Also, in addition to Alai's questions, I have a few as well:
- When are you planning to buy this PC?
- What's model number of that 2GB G.Skill set you have? Or what color are they?
 
How much money do you want to spend?
wink.gif
 
Ooops! Forgot to give budget. Looking at about $600 right now for parts, would rather not go above that.

I have a retail copy of Vista Ultimate that I'll be using.
Monitor is a Samsung 226BW native resolution 1680 x 1050
the heat sink is an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. It's currently in my file server but will be swapped with the retail heat sink that comes with the q6600.

The RAM I already have G Skill DDR2 800

Audio is included in the motherboard and that's fine. I have 2 speakers but they're nothings special and they're often swapped for headphones when the wife is around.

Keyboard and mouse is taken care of for now, waiting on a deal for the Sidewinder x5 and x6.

Planning to start purchasing in the next week or so. Delivery is to Hawaii which takes about a week and I'm interested in starting the build around the 1st of Dec. I

The Asus P5Q board has an 8GB memory limit. I'm pretty interested in the 16GB expandability.
The Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P you linked seems a few dollars more but adds 2 more SATA ports which I really won't ever need. All my storage is on a seperate WHS machine.

My list of parts has been going in and out of stock for the last week or so, I'm not terribly worried.
 
The ACF7Pro isn't going to do very well with a Q6600... it really can't handle the additional heatload of a heavily OCed quad. Expect 3.0-3.2Ghz at the most.

There is /no/ reason to get 16GB support on a desktop board at this point in time. 4GB DDR2 modules are stupid-expensive. Stupid, stupid, stupid expensive. 4 banks, so you'd have to get 4 4GB modules... at around $500-600 for RAM alone. Unless you're running a mass of VMs you'll be hard pressed to use 4GB, much less 8. Even with a bunch of VMs... 4 cores, 4 VMs, ~2GB per VM with 8 GB.
 
Aloha HardwareGuru!

The GA-EP45-DS3L you linked has a much nicer price, that's for sure, but it only has one PCI-e slot and no firewire. Neither of those are deal breakers, especially the lack of firewire because I have a firewire card I could put in there but the extra pcie slot would be nice to have in a year or two when the 4850 comes down in price to where I can afford adding another one.
 
I know that 4GB memory modules are expensive right now, but in a year? 2 years? They're likely to be much more reasonable.

I'm not a big overclocker, this is my first time and I'm not really interested in pushing it too far, 3GHz will be plenty for me on a first time. Even if I can push it to 2.8 I'll have an improvement, right?

Will it be ineffective at cooling it or will it just run really fast? If I push it to 3GHz, will it run loud or have a high temp?
 
Vague said:
I know that 4GB memory modules are expensive right now, but in a year? 2 years? They're likely to be much more reasonable.

I'm not a big overclocker, this is my first time and I'm not really interested in pushing it too far, 3GHz will be plenty for me on a first time. Even if I can push it to 2.8 I'll have an improvement, right?

Will it be ineffective at cooling it or will it just run really fast? If I push it to 3GHz, will it run loud or have a high temp?
Click to expand...

It will be saturated. The fan will run as fast as it can and you'll still get high temps above ~3Ghz. Of course, this is assuming a 'standard' chip. If you get very lucky and get one of the exceptionally cool running Q6600s it may do better.

As for RAM coming down.... sure it will. A little. Not much. DDR2 is dirt cheap right now. If you look at original DDR prices.... it's not. DDR is actually /more/ expensive. Also, the relatively low production numbers of the higher density chips required for 4GB modules mean that they'll continue to hold a price premium for quite a while. That coupled with the almost certainty that by the time you need / can benefit from 16GB you'll /need/ a new CPU architecture (and thusly, board) to make any real use of it... it's just not a worthwhile feature. If it's not costing you anything? Sure. But here it is, in that you're limiting your options.
 
I probably would just do this if I were you.

Build 1 for encoding

CPU - Core 2 Quad Q6600 retail for $190
Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R for $120 ($15 MIR) has 2 x firewire ports on rear panel
*Single PCI-E but, no need to Crossfire for only 22" (1680 x 1050 res). Better to just sell the HD4850 and get another higher end video card later on. Besides, having 2 x 4850 in Crossfire blocks the PCI slots from installing any PCI cards.
RAM - G. Skills DDR2 800 for $50
Video - Sapphire Radeon HD4850 for $160 ($20 MIR)
*Visiontek has lifetime waranty which is good but, I would get Visiontek brand if I was buying a $500 Radeon HD 4870X2 video card. $160 for the Sapphire with $20 MIR is a great deal. Besides, it's gonna cost money to ship from Hawaii to the manufacturer. By then, if it breaks after a year, I would have already upgraded to a faster video card anyways.
PSU - Antec EA650 for $70 w/free shipping
*Might as well buy this over the Antec 500. The 34A on the +12V won't hold up for future upgrades. Especially when O/C the cpu and installing a higher end video card.

Total: $590


Build 2 for gaming

CPU - Intel Core2 Dual Core E8400(3.0ghz) + Asus P5QPro mobo combo for $255($15 MIR on mobo) Asus Mobo has 1 x firewire on rear panel + fire/e-sata bracket included.
*Not a Q6600 Quad cpu but, this will dust your single core P4 3.0ghz system by a longshot. Plus, you can drop in a Quad CPU later on when more programs/games utilize 4 core. By then, it would be pretty cheap since the Core I7 cpus will be released soon.
RAM - G. Skills DDR2 800 for $50
Video - MSI Geforce GTX260 for $240 ($40 MIR)
PSU - Antec EA650 for $70 w/free shipping
*Might as well buy this over the Antec 500. The 34A on the +12V won't hold up for future upgrades. Especially when O/C the cpu and installing a higher end video card.

BTW, the Antec 500 is no longer on sale for $50.

Total: $615. A little above your budget but, you have a faster gaming experience over the HD 4850 video card. You should see at least 1,000% increase over that Radeon X1300 video card. Try buying a rig like this at your local Best Buy or Circuit City.
 
I accept the argument that Silent circuit makes about the memory. By the time there actually a need for 16GB of memory it'll be about time for me to upgrade again or will be limited by the cpu at that point. If I'm going to 8GB and I don't have the need for Crossfire due to the size/resolutoin of my lcd, what board should I be looking at if I still want a Firewire port?

the EA650 sounds like a good upgrade.

I'm still interested in going quad. I've been frothing at the mouth for a quad for months.

I have a hard time justifying spending that much on the video card GeForce card, I think I'd feel a lot better with the more reasonably priced 4850.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359
Gigabyte UD3R retains the Firewire port and is recommended on every "WTF to Build" thread

If you want a Quad just to play with it then there's no convincing you out of it. The 4850 will be fine for you, though you did not list your games. If you primarily Crysis or FC2 then perhaps a beefier GPU is recommended..

I'm a big Silverstone PSU spokesperson after owning an OCZ and 2 Corsairs mainly for its modularity and silence. A ST60F can be had for $90AR, but if you don't care for it then go for the Antec.
 
Firewire? P5Q Pro, UD3R, or DS3R. FYI, the P5Q Pro can take up to 16GB of RAM since its using the P45 chipset -- the same chipset as the DS3R you originally listed in your OP. :p Its listed wrong on the newegg site. Always check the manufacturer's page to double check; the link is on the left column, under Manufacturer Info.

Try and fit a better cooler into your build. Its hot in hawaii. :p
 
Build 1. Do it! Do it! LoL. What the hell, get the Visiontek HD4850 if you choose, it's only $10 more anyways. I agree with you feeling bothered spending $240 for a video card. I wouldn't either. If a GTX 260 comes to like $150 upfront, then, I will decide to get one myself. We Hawaii people need it to be pretty cheap since shipping kills us. Wait, I take that back on the Visiontek card, get the cheaper Sapphire one. Hehe
 
OK I updated the OP build list with new motherboard and PSU.

Last thing I'm asking is the heat sink. I'm probably not interested in pushing this beyond 3 or 3.2. Hawai'i is hot enough to begin with, I do'nt want to fight that too much. If my arctic 7 won't cover it, what will?

Also how worth it do you think it'll be to wait for black Friday or technology Monday? I'm thinking I'll save a few bucks on memory and maybe on the video card, but do you think it'll be much better than that?

I've been absent for the last few years in this area, I'm guessing the deals will likely be on already assembled gadets like G1, iphones and netbooks.
 
Xigmatek S1283 or SD964. You can speculate all you want about BF and CM deals..I don't wanna get into that cuz I think it's a fkin' joke to stand outside for a day if not days to buy stuff.
 
If you work in a sweat shop in the middle of Mongolia and only earn $1 per month, then yeah, that might be worth it to go BF. Otherwise, I really really hope you value your time a little more than a few bucks.
 
lowteckh said:
Xigmatek S1283 or SD964. You can speculate all you want about BF and CM deals..I don't wanna get into that cuz I think it's a fkin' joke to stand outside for a day if not days to buy stuff.
Click to expand...

Who stands outside for Cyber Monday?! :confused: :p :eek: ;)
 
I assembled everything in the first post, the exception being that I got a Sapphire card instead of a Visiontek. Thanks everyone for their help.

Everything is assembled and up and running. Vista 64 Ultimate fully patched.
I pushed the cpu to 3Ghz easily, by just changing the bus speed.

But I'm underwhelmed. I thought I'd be seeing a night and day difference. I played TF2 and that certainly was much smoother and prettier, I was able to increase the resolution and the quality and that was fantastic.
But navigating windows and watching videos has been lackluster. I thought that unraring a file would be quick, that opening and closing things would be instantaneous but they're about the same. I find that opening a video in media player is sluggish, and that the windows grays out for about 5-10 seconds before the video shows.

I tried VLC and it stutters and freezes.

I was hoping that loading levels in a game would be much faster, single player. I tried HL2:EP2 and while the graphics were nicer, the loading times were the same.

I ran HD tune and it seemed on par with everyone else's for the 640aaks. I don't really know if it's me or the machine. Maybe my expectations were too high?
 
I'll stop resurrecting this thread, this is the last post; promise.

Turns out I needed to update the chipset drivers. Despite installing everything originally from the Gigabyte disc, installing the new chipset drivers really gave me the stability and responsiveness I was missing.

So a friendly reminder to update your drivers.

Again thanks for everyone you helped me put this build together.
 
I was actually going to respond last night with a bunch of suggestions (driver updates being one of them), but my DNS went out. :eek:

whoah... no pics?!? :(
 
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