Midrange advice sought

S

Slªde

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 8, 2003
Messages
114
I'm not really sure if I'm going to very minimally OC on stock cooling or delve into real OC'ing for the first time. Anyway here is what I have so far. No specific budget except that I'm a big bang for the buck guy. System should last at least 3+ years, with maybe a video card purchase 2/3 of the way through if I'm not satisfied. Usage is very all around, with gaming.


Already purchased:
$100 Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB 7200RPM 32MB SATA 3GB/S OEM
$60 Antec True Power Trio TP-3 650W ATX12V - $60
$75 4GB G.SKILL 800 MHZ DDR2 (2 X 2GB) F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
$45 2GB G.SKILL 800 MHZ DDR2 (2 X 1GB) F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ

TBD:
$200? Intel Q6600?
$75-135?Motherboard
$150? Ati HD4850 512MB
$60-80? Coolermaster 590 or Antec 300
$300? LG 227WTG 22" glossy TN, 1600x1050. Can't find online anywhere to even see a price let alone buy..
$110 Vista Home Premium 64-Bit
$10 Couple SATA cables
$25 DVD Burner

Optional:
? Heatsink
? Extra Fans?

Have:
Speakers, Headphones, Keyboard, Mouse


Total: $1250 or so


Good, bad? Missing out on opportunities for better value/synergy/performance/etc?
 
Heatsink: Xigmatek HDT-S1283 - ~$30-40
Extra fans: Whatever you prefer.

Aside from that, looks good to me :).
 
Some motherboard recommendations since you don't have a motherboard listed:
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Intel P43 Motherboard - $90
MSI P45 Neo3-FR Intel P45 Motherboard - $120
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R Intel P45 Motherboard - $145
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 Motherboard - $150
DFI Lanparty DK X38-T2R Intel X38 Motherboard - $185
Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Intel X48 Motherboard - $225

Just to help you out: Everyone of these motherboards have PCI-E 2.0 which may be useful for future upgrades. If you don't need RAID, more than 6 SATA ports and only need semi-decent overclocking, check out the DS3L. If you need 8 SATA ports, RAID, 4 PCI slots, and legacy ports, then get the Neo3-Fr. If you don't need more than 6 SATA ports but want RAID, firewire, a second PCI-E x16 port, a second gigabit port, support for 16GB of RAM, optional eSATA, and high overclocks, then get the DS3R. If you like the DS3R but need 8 SATA ports, want an onboard pre-installed fast booting Linux setup or don't need a second gigabit port, get the Asus P5Q Pro. If you want Crossfire with full x16/x16 bandwidth, get the Lanparty DK X38.

And you don't need to buy SATA cables since the motherboard comes with them.

Your other choices are fine. Definitely recommend getting a HSF now since you don't have to take apart your rig later on to add a 3rd party HSF for overclocking. I like the Coolermaster 590 a lot better than the Antec 300. However, the Antec 300 can be found on Amazon.com for $60 shipped.
 
If I go with the EP-43 DS3L and just semi decent overclocking, do I still need the heatsink or get by on stock?
 
I still recommend getting a HSF for even minor overclocking. The Q6600 runs pretty hot. The stock HSF is fine for stock speeds but start OCing that sucker and you're gonna have high temperatures. So definitely get the HSF Zero82z recommended.
 
Yeah, like Danny said, quad-core CPU overclocking is not a great idea on stock cooling. It's doable with dual-cores to a certain extent(generally to around ~3GHz is fine on stock with a dual), but quad-cores just run too hot.
 
I guess I'll go all out on first trek into overclocking then. Do I need any thermal or fans/heatsink/retention covers it?

Here is the updated build.. solid? Am I wasting money on anything?

Purchased:
Power Supply : Antec True Power Trio 650W - $60
Hard Drive : Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s - $100
4 GB RAM : G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - $75
2 GB RAM : G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - $45

Proposed:
Operating System : Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - OEM - $110
Case : COOLER MASTER RC-590-KKN1-GP CENTURION 590 STEEL TOWER ATX CASE - $72
Extra Fans : 4 of COOLER MASTER R4-L2S-122B-GP 120mm BLUE LED Case Fan - Retail - about $30
Processor : Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor - Retail - $210
Heatsink : XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail - $27 AR
Retention Bracket : XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket - Retail - $14
Motherboard : GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - $160
Video Card : MSI R4850-T2D512 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail - $160 AR, with The Witcher
Burner : SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD Burner - OEM - $28
Monitor : LG - 22" Widescreen Flat-Panel LCD Monitor Model: L227WTG-PF - $340

Total: $1431 (ouch)
 
Looks like the boys have it all covered here for ya :)

Only thing I'll add is that you can save an extra $60 by getting this instead of the monitor you chose. I've been using the LG Flatron W2252TQ for the last 3 months now and it's great.
 
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