Q6600 Build Advice

[rottweiler]

It's been a while since my last build (6/2004) and you can see some of it's stats in my sig (Main).

What I basically use my system for is:
Personal web site, not much traffic.
FTP server, almost no traffic.
Some gaming, but not much and nothing too new. I bought Hellgate London a few weeks ago, but haven't opened it yet.
Backup DVDs and Xbox/360 games.

After looking around I have decided that I'd like to get a Q6600. It just seems like a good all around CPU that should be good for another 3 years, with my usage, while apps start to take advantage of more cores.

I saw [H]ardOCPs review of the Asus Maximus Formula and that looks good. Any other suggestions?

I would like to overclock just for the hell of it, but won't try to break any records. Just air cooling. What should I look for in terms of a CPU fan. Also what are decent brands for RAM? I saw OCZ had 4GB DDR2-800 for $55. Would that be good enough? These ram prices are still just amazing to me.

For a video card, is a 512MB 8800 GT overkill? They seem to have a good price/performance ratio.

My current power supply is a PC Power & Cooling. I assume I'll need a new one since the motherboard pins are probably different and I don't even have a PCIe video card. I like PCP&C and will probably stick with them unless someone has a good reason not to. It looks like pricing is not yet out for their new turbo-cool line. Is a Silencer 750 good, I like red, or should I wait until the turbo-cool 860 is available? How many Watts do I need? I know with PCP&C it's usually less than others.

I already have 3 1tb WD green drives on the way to replace my 6 320s. One thing I think I need to upgrade is my raid controller. I might ask specifically about this in the Disk Storage Systems thread. If I want to take advantage of SATA 2 do I need a PCIe controller? I don't think I need a hardware based controller having 4 cores so that should open my options up and hopefully lower price. I still want 8 ports so I can add more drives later when needed.

I'm not looking for a budget system, but don't want to spend $3K which is about what I spent on my last system. Although I don't need a monitor this time, and those 24" were not cheap when they came out. I've already put down $700 for the hard drives. If there are expected price cuts in the next few weeks then I can wait, I'm in no rush. But since prices will always drop I'm not going to wait 4 weeks to save $100 on the whole setup.

Thanks for any help.

 

[gesicht]

8800gt is great , i have a 24inch monitor too i wouldn't want anything less, with everything maxed in COD4 and UT3 i rarly drop below 60 FPS 1920x1200. but you are not get to gaming something like 8600gt can had be had for less then half of a 8800gt. if you want something in between i would suggest ati 3850

motherboard is overkill you can get one for half the price that will do everything you need and more. i just built my system last week , my last build for myself was 2003. so the option to upgrade isn't a big deal to me because by time i want to upgrade i will get a whole new computer. i went with gigabyte p35 ds3r

my q6600 is at 3.2ghz 8x400 with just a tiny vcore bump to 1.35 in bios and in windows it shows up as 1.33 so that is only .01 over rated

750 is going to be plenty of power.

 

[Outrigger]

I'm also doing a build and the components are in my sig below. I always like just a little bit of overkill to have some cushion.

I'm not a hardcore gamer but since I'm running 1920 x 1200 resolution, I would need a little bit of power to drive it. I was going to wait for the Q9450 and 9xxx series nvidia cards, but for what I do with it, I would notice no difference at all, and my last system was build just in late 06, so we're talking less than a year and half.

I think right now, the Q6600 is such a great cpu and for the cost/performance, you really can't beat it. For the kind of games you play, the 8800gt 512MB is more than enough especially if you're running lower than 1920 x 1200.

I have Crysis and COD4 and still play BF2 and some GRAW 2 and I believe the Q9xxx will make no difference at all playing games. I'm not into OC, but rather more into stability and low heat output and quiet.

Even though there are cheaper mobos out there, the one you pick (the same one I picked) is a great choice as it gets awesome reviews.

 

[rottweiler]

Thanks for the info.

I decided to stick with the Maximus Formula but did go with the 3850. The following are my choices thus far:

Motherboard: Asus Maximus Formula
CPU: Q6600 OEM (hopefully a G0)
HSF: Xigmatek HDT-S1283
Video: Diamond Radeon 512MB 3850
RAM: OCZ DDR2-6400 4GB(2x2GB)
PSU: PCP&C Silencer 750
TIM: AS5

All together this will cost about $1000 shipped, with everything but the ram coming from newegg.

I still need to decide on the raid controller.

Are there any other suggestions or comments on what I've chosen? I know it's more than I need now, but hopefully it'll last me a while and allow for a good upgrade path.