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My Q6600 Build

S

seithon

Gawd
Joined
Oct 11, 2000
Messages
736
Hey folks so after some input from elsewhere on these fine forums, I've picked out some bits, so now i'm going to list whats all in my system..

Abit IP35 Pro
Q6600 CPU
2gb of Crucial Ballistix Memory (1066mhz)
7600GT PCI-E card
Xi-Fi Elite Pro
DVD-RW
3 SATA HDD's (400gb, 250gb, 80gb)
500Mhz Enermax PSU (fairly high quality version..)

All that and a fairly nice case..
(3 120mm fans)
Soo is their any obvious problems here?
I've noticed some people pairing their CPU's with 800mhz ram.. I thought the FSB on cpu's and ram had to be the same am I missing something with the new Quad's?
 
Not going to be gaming?
Seems like a capable gaming rig except that video card

and as far as intels go, FSB of cpu and ram speed arent linked like when i had a Athlon xp 3000, that had to have 333 mhz ram to get its full 2.1 ghz
 
Yah, seconding dudeyourlame, that's a great rig if you aren't gaming, if you are, look for a more powerful video card. To answer your question, different parts/buses run off multipliers of the external clock of the system (I don't know if that's the correct terminology, please correct me if I'm wrong). You're buying a Q6600 that runs at 2.4GHz. It runs off an external clock of 266MHz with a 9x multiplier, or 266x9 = 2400MHz. The FSB on the intel chipset is "quad pumped," so its 266MHz x 4 = 1066MHz. RAM also runs off this bus. DDR2-533 would run at the same stock speed of the bus, or 266MHz, but being that DDR works on the up and down (and hence it's called Double Data Rate RAM), so its effectively running at 533MHz (hence the name). There is a slew of multipliers and dividers available on enthusiast boards to configure your hardware to run as close as possible to its maximum speeds (for example, at stock FSB, DDR2-800 RAM can be run on a 3x multiplier, or 266MHz x 3 = 800).

Now the benefit of getting faster RAM means that not only will it run faster at stock (via a higher multiplier), it has more "head-room" when one overclocks because on these intel chipsets, the lowest multiplier possible for RAM is 2x. While the external clock/FSB usually overclocks well (up to 500MHz with some voltage), RAM is a little more difficult to get up there (especially if you didn't get performance chips). Hypothetically however, if one wanted to overclock to 400MHz on the external clock (so say your CPU did that and you used the 9x multiplier, you could get your CPU to a possible 3.6GHz if it could handle it), however, using a 2x multiplier for the RAM, the RAM is only at 800MHz. If you bought DDR2-800, you haven't even overclocked your RAM yet, and still can pump the FSB more if your CPU can take it. Therein lies the benefit, sorry for the long post, but I hope it helped :D.
 
o_O
Not going to be gaming!!
Ye gods.. basically i'm putting a new heart in my machine and getting one of the 9X series later on next autum, the current card isnt "bad" persay. its just that the 8600, which is the card i was thinking of getting wouldnt be much of an upgrade given the resolution i game at.. so the 9600 (geee anyone remember the Raedon?:p) would be a better choice for me.. though we'll see how it goes :)

Thanks for the info on the ram.. its really bloody confusing o_O
 
everything looks good except like others have said the videocard is kind of weak & doesn't support DX10.0 in case you wanted to go with Vista (puke).

Other than that everything looks fine.

Memory is probably overkill.

FSB & memory DO NOT need to be the same.

ex:
your stock FSB
1066 QFSB = really 266 FSB @ "1:1 ratio" = ddr2 533
1066 QFSB = really 266 FSB @ "5:4 ratio" = ddr2 667
1066 QFSB = really 266 FSB @ "3:2 ratio" = ddr2 800

1333 QFSB = really 333 FSB @ "1:1 ratio" = ddr2 667
1600 QFSB = really 400 FSB @ "1:1 ratio" = ddr2 800
2000 QFSB = really 500 FSB @ "1:1 ratio" = ddr2 1000
2132 QFSB = really 533 FSB @ "1:1 ratio" = ddr2 1066

Many people run at other ratios that 1:1, but some boards 1:1 is the slowest option, so if you plan on going higher than a 1600 QFSB / 400 Mhz FSB, then you need faster than ddr2 800.

With a Q6600, I doubt, you'll be going faster than 9x400 = 3.6Ghz. So no need for more than ddr2 800.

That said, I'd probably go with some G.skill ddr2 800 cas 4, its usually the cheapest stuff for what you get.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231087

I have that stuff, & have gotten it up to like 900Mhz @ cas4 & like 1Ghz with looser timings. (cas 5, don't remember all the sub-timings)
 
Like everyone else has said, a better video card would be a good idea if you're going to game. An 8800GT would be the least video card I'd recommend, or perhaps even the Radeon 3850.
 
The Reaper is a great kit, but overpriced. There are lots of kits that are very close for half that, mostly with 4-4-4-15 timings. Memory isn't linked with Intel, and, to get the memory speed that you need, you need to divide the FSB speed by four, and the memory speed by two for DDR2.

As for the graphics card, even though you are trying to hold out for the next generation cards, you could still get a great card now, for instance, the ATI HD 3850.

A few other things, first of all, the motherboard. A bit expensive. Why don't you get the Asus P5K-E instead. There isn't really a reason to go for a more expensive board.

Also, the power supply. You say that you are going for a 500MHz power supply. By that, you mean 500W. Anyway, which model exactly? They are all great power supplies, but chances are that the Corsair HX520 will be cheaper.
 
I'll second the P5K-E mobo. I have it and I think it's a sweet board. I just started overclocking last night on my new Q6600 system. Got it to 3.2Ghz so far. I'm pretty sure there's a little more headroom, so I'm going to try for 3.4Ghz. 3.6Ghz was a bust though, so I know that's my limit. That wouldn't even load Windows, no matter what I tried. That's fine by me though, even if 3.2Ghz is my limit I'll be happy.

I also agree a 3850 and corsair PSU would be great additions. You'll have a great little gaming system once you get it all together... :D
 
Argh... I feel so noobish.. thanks for pointing that out.
I'm kinda posting in a hurry since i'm at work and on lunch breaks.
Its an Enermax 500W modular PSU I got it a year ago.
I was actually looking today and I saw a fairly nice 8800GT from MSI for 250 which didn't seem TO bad to me.. Also while I am a gamer.. I dont have many of the newer games mostly playing NWN2, Witcher, Supcom, CoH etc.

I dont have the exact model of the PSU at this point and i'd have to open my case to find out but its in a PSU cage.. so thats a real pain.
Thanks for the input btw and yes the ram is expensive.. I might go for the 4-4-4 ones then..

------
And 5 mins on google finds my PSU go figure, its this fella :)
http://www.enermax.com.tw/english/product_Display1.asp?PrID=4
 
seithon said:
Okay so I was looking about at memory, and i found this stuff..
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=341703

I don't know OCZ very well but the latency's seem very low which as I recall is a good thing, so would it be a good choice to go for this ram ?
Click to expand...

OCZ is a good brand and yeah low latency does help. When you're running the ram at anything faster than 1:1 it usually doesn't make a big difference having fast ram so its often better to run at a slower ram ratio with tighter timings, especially if you can crank the FSB up, even by reducing the multiplier on the chip.

ex:
q6600 had 9x multiplier

you could run possibly
at: 9x355 = 3.2Ghz with ram at "5:4" ratio = ddr2 888 (might need to loosen timings)
or 9x355 = 3.2Ghz with ram at "1:1" ratio = ddr2 710 (tight timings)
or 8x400 = 3.2Ghz with ram at "1:1" ratio = ddr2 800 (stock memory speed + tight timings)

While all 3 would be fast, the last combo would probably be fastest b/c of the fastest FSB & being at a "stock" FSB (266, 333, 400) and none of them you need super fast ram (anything close to 1066 memory)
 
So just an update..
Found this kit for sale about 100euro less then the normal price.. so what do you guys think ?
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338524

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan
Asus P5N-E SLI, nForce-650i SLI, ATX, Socket-775, GbLAN, DDR2, 2xPCI-Ex16
A-DATA DDR2 PC6400 4096MB CL5 Kit w/two matched DDR2 800 2048MB CL5
 
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