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New Conroe Build ... What Do You Think?

L

LasombraB

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 10, 2004
Messages
306
I'm finally getting around to building a new gaming computer. Below is what I'm looking to our. I'm getting via my works computer loan program so I have to get everything from TigerDirect. I'm kind of torn on the video card between a 7900 GTX or a 7950 GX2. Let me know what you think.


New Parts
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40Ghz 4MB Cache - Retail
ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe
2GB Corsair XMS PC6400 DDR2 (TWIN2X2048-6400C4)
eVGA GeForce 7950 GX2 w/1GB
Seagate 320GB 7200.10
OCZ GameXStream 700W



Parts I Have
SilverStone TJ03 Case
Western Digital SE16 400GB
Plextor 16X DVDRW SATA
LiteOn 16X DVDROM
 
Instead of 7900GTX or 7950 GX2, how about a 7950GT. You can use 7950GT for awhile and then upgrade to DX10 card when they come available. It would be less painful(money wise) going from 7950GT to DX10(just something you may want to consider)
 
Are you looking to do any overclocking?

Even though the P5N32-SLI is amazingly stable and fast, it's known to be faily weak in the OC department. I was able to take an E6600 up to 2.8 or so on mine, which is well under what the intel boards are running.

Unless you need/want SLI, I recommend going with an intel 965 or 975 solution over the board that you have chosen. The rest of the components you selected look good :cool:

~Aux
 
Make sure your Plextor SATA drive is compatible with the new mobo, I've read it's very picky.
 
AuxNuke said:
Are you looking to do any overclocking?

Even though the P5N32-SLI is amazingly stable and fast, it's known to be faily weak in the OC department. I was able to take an E6600 up to 2.8 or so on mine, which is well under what the intel boards are running.

Unless you need/want SLI, I recommend going with an intel 965 or 975 solution over the board that you have chosen. The rest of the components you selected look good :cool:

~Aux
Click to expand...

I was thinking about the Intel D975BX and an ATI X1950XTX video card. Not really looking to OC, I mainly want a stable system.
 
I'm with Loststorm here. Find a mediocre card to get you through until the DX10 cards come out. I don't know when that will be though(guessing January, around the Vista release date).

I just built a Core2 system this weekend, and upgraded just about everything, except the videocard. Buying a high end video card right now is almost silly.
 
Doesn't eVGA still have that Trade Up Policy? I believe it is like 90 days after purchase. If so I could buy just about any of their cards and then trade up when the DX10 card comes out.
 
The only advantage between getting PC8500 over PC6400 is the overclocking headroom?
 
cirial said:
The only advantage between getting PC8500 over PC6400 is the overclocking headroom?
Click to expand...

I thought that there was a little bit of performance gain from a fast DIMMs without Overclocking the CPU.
 
LasombraB said:
I thought that there was a little bit of performance gain from a fast DIMMs without Overclocking the CPU.
Click to expand...

NOPE, not really. You could use a higher ram ratio, but the performance would be basically the same. You start getting more bandwidth from raising the FSB, and thats where the fast ram helps. (taking advantage of that higher FSB)

With Conroe, (& even P4 before it) the dual channel dram already saturates the FSB. You don't get much more performance increase from running the ram at a faster ratio. And with the Conroe the timings are less important b/c of the large L2 & great prefetching.
 
LasombraB said:
Not really looking to OC, I mainly want a stable system.
Click to expand...

Blasphemy!!! :p

i'd change mobos, even a modest overclock is as stable as stock ...more performance for free ....why not? ;)
 
mouawad said:
Blasphemy!!! :p

i'd change mobos, even a modest overclock is as stable as stock ...more performance for free ....why not? ;)
Click to expand...


Well, I've never had good luck overclocking. I don't have a lot of time to spend to figure it out.
 
Another vote for getting a less expensive GPU now and then getting a top-end DX10 card.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
Another vote for getting a less expensive GPU now and then getting a top-end DX10 card.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm getting a eVGA 7950GX2 card. And eVGA has the Step-Up program where I can trade up the new video card within 90days of purchase. That should pretty much cover that base. And I'm pretty good about selling my old stuff if i need to get new.
 
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