Q6600 Upgrade/New Build

S

SuperShoe

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 8, 2002
Messages
64
Hello All,

Been a little while since I have done a build, but I have been getting that itch again. First a little trip down memory lane (Need to work on my cable management haha), my last build:

- Intel Q6600
- Western Digital 640GB SATA 3.0Gb/s WD6400AAKS
- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA
- ZEROtherm Nirvana
- ABIT IP35 Pro
- ASUS 4890 1GB
- G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR2 800
- Corsair 550w power supply
- Antec 300

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming: Aion, BF3, Diablo 3, MWF3, Skyrim (Possibly),

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Flexible, but would like to keep it around 1,000 last couple builds have been around that and have lasted me a while. Would be willing to go up to 1,500 if it is worth it.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

San Luis Obispo, California

So, Amazon is usually a little nicer since they don't charge CA tax, but Newegg has been very good to me over the years so if it is close I'd still probably opt for Newegg.

Also, normally I wouldn't have access to a Microcenter since it is 3hrs away, however with Thanksgiving coming up I will be visiting my folks and driving by one around 11/23 so if there is a worthwhile deal there and it is worth waiting I could do something with that. I don't think I would really be up for trying to hit it on Black Friday though, unless it is an absolutely amazing deal.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU
HSF (Possibly?)
Motherboard
RAM
Video Card
SSD
Secondary HD (Possibly?)
Case (Possibly?)
PSU (Possibly?)
Optical Drive (Possibly?)
*Possibly? Could what is in my current build be used and not hinder performance?

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
This I am a little unsure on and would like some feedback. I have what is up above available, but not sure if any of it is worth bringing forward into the new build. I was thinking at the very least the HD (Not sure where the performance is at now, but could probably tide me over till the prices from flooding go back down as I will mainly be using the SSD to start) and the Optical Drive.

The Case I have read some people dislike unfortunately I bought it as a quick fix (Best Buy) as the new place I moved into wasn't too accommodating to the large Cosmos case I originally had (which was great), Should have done my research. Oh well.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Samsung Syncmaster XL2370, 23" 1920x1080

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
I am ready to buy however if there is a good reason to wait a bit I am not in a huge rush.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
Not too picky, just whatever will help this build. It hasn't seemed like I have ever really had a reason for SLI/Crossfire.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Nope, would also like to get a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. Is the main difference between home and pro still domain support? Anything come worthwhile with Ultimate?


Additional Info:
As far as using parts from my current build goes, if there isn't much I can really use from it I am inclined to just leave it as is and focus on a complete build and just leave this one as it is and eventually use it as a secondary computer for company, etc. After researching some it seems like this will be more the path people will suggest, but figured I would try to give as much info as I could.

So far this is sorta what I have been leaning towards after reading most of the current threads:
Intel i5-2500k
Cooler Master Hyper 212
Crucial M4 128gb SSD
XFX HD-697A-CNFC Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case (Close to the size of my current, and I like the idea of the i/o on top)

Anyway, I'll stop typing now :) Look forward to hearing some advice. Gotta say it is amazing to still see the same names around every time I get ready for a new build or pop in to just try to keep up to date in between builds. I don't always post much, but I love to read the suggestions. Thanks Guys.

Update 11/8/2011 - First Order:
Crucial m4 128GB
Cooler Master Hyper 212
( Kingston Hyper KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8gb 2x4GB DDR3 1333 RAM ) x 2
SilverStone Bay Convertor
Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Arctic Cooling MX-4
----
$433.30 shipped.

Update 11/9/2011 - Second Order:
Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
----
$96.51 shipped. (Didn't seem like I could get around paying tax or shipping for this one, went with Newegg)

Update 11/10/2011 - Third Order:
XFX HD-697A-CNFC Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit
----
$349.99 shipped.

Update 11/23/2011 - Fourth Order: Microcenter
i5 2500k
MSI P67A-GD65 B3
----
$292.25 after tax.

Grand Total: $1,172.05
 
Last edited:
The ZEROTherm Nirvana can be reused if you can find a LGA 1155 bracket for it for cheap. If that bracket costs more than $10 to $15, you're better off buying that Coolermaster HSF that you've listed.

You can reuse the PSU, HDD, and optical drive as well.

Actually there is a worthwhile deal at Microcenter even with CA taxes: The Core i5 2500K is currently $180 + CA tax at Microcenter. However, if you buy an Intel Z68 or P67 mobo when you buy the 2500K, they'll knock off $60 off the motherboard's cost. Grab either any of these mobos from Microcenter (Prices reflect the $60 off taken into account):
$80 - MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$105 - MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$130 - MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard

The rest of the parts you chose are solid so far. Oh and I recommend this RAM:
$44 - Kingston Hyper KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
 
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Damn, 9.3 years with 51 posts.

What Danny said.
 
Awesome, thanks for the feedback.

Danny Bui said:
Actually there is a worthwhile deal at Microcenter even with CA taxes: The Core i5 2500K is currently $180 + CA tax at Microcenter. However, if you buy an Intel Z68 or P67 mobo when you buy the 2500K, they'll knock off $60 off the motherboard's cost. Grab either any of these mobos from Microcenter (Prices reflect the $60 off taken into account):
$80 - MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$105 - MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$130 - MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity any suggestion on which would be better Z68 or P67? Tried to look up a bit about the differences and it seems the big ones are the onboard video option and the RST configuration for SSDs.

If I understand correctly, the benefit of having the onboard video is so when you are performing tasks that don't require the full support of your graphics card it uses the onboard to conserve energy/resources? Any issues with this?

RST seems like it is mainly used when you have a smaller SSD and you want the utility to manage what files get stored on the SSD, but with having a larger one (128gb) are many people even using this or do they mainly to it manually? Seems like it could cause some issues where what you would expect to be on the SSD isn't.

Anything else I am missing?

Skillz said:
Damn, 9.3 years with 51 posts.

What Danny said.
Click to expand...

Haha, definitely more of a reader than a writer :)

Thanks.
 
SuperShoe said:
Awesome, thanks for the feedback.

Just out of curiosity any suggestion on which would be better Z68 or P67? Tried to look up a bit about the differences and it seems the big ones are the onboard video option and the RST configuration for SSDs.
Click to expand...
Personally I'd recommend Z68 simply becasuse the onboard video can be used as a backup in case your video card dies.
More or less:
IntelEnthusiast said:
There are really 3 differences between the P67 and Z68 chipsets.

Z68:
-Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) SSD caching. You can use up to a 64GB SSD.
-Support for IGP (Intergraded Graphics on Processor). There are a couple things that play off from this including the Lucidlogix Virtu software and the ability to overclock the IGP (about half of Gigabyte’s Z68 boards don’t support this feature.
-Intel SATA III controller (better performance)

At least as far as the chipset goes there is around a $6 dollar cost difference.
Click to expand...

SuperShoe said:
If I understand correctly, the benefit of having the onboard video is so when you are performing tasks that don't require the full support of your graphics card it uses the onboard to conserve energy/resources? Any issues with this?
Click to expand...
The main issue is that you take a 10% performance hit. Not to mention that you really don't save that much power or heat considering how relatively energy effienct video cards are these days.

However, note that you can used the onboard in one of three ways: The way you've described it, as a seperate video output, or disabled. As a seperate video output, you basically can use the onboard video to power another monitor in addition to your video card. Then there's the backup video that I mentioned earlier.
SuperShoe said:
RST seems like it is mainly used when you have a smaller SSD and you want the utility to manage what files get stored on the SSD, but with having a larger one (128gb) are many people even using this or do they mainly to it manually? Seems like it could cause some issues where what you would expect to be on the SSD isn't.
Click to expand...

It's SRT, not RST. Although your explanation of RST isn't exactly correct. HardOCP has an excellent article on Intel's SRT so I recommend reading. But IMO, SRT really isn't needed because you're better off with seperating the SSD and hard drive.
 
Perfect thanks for the clarification.

Blah thought I had got the acronym right RST is for the raids we have at work. :)

Just to confirm with the case, Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case I would need to buy the bay converter for the SSD?

Also, what (if any?) thermal compound are people using now? Still Artic Silver 5?
 
Updated the original post with some purchases.

Still need Case/Video card and then will be trying to get Mobo/CPU from Microcenter in 2 weeks.

Not completely sold on the Case I originally linked and just came across this case: Fractal Design Define Mini Black Micro ATX in another persons build thread and was curious what people's thoughts were about it.

Don't have much experience with microATX would I be losing much if I went with a microATX motherboard? How difficult is it to fit everything in the case would I be short on space with my current build?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
SuperShoe said:
Updated the original post with some purchases.
Click to expand...
Did you order those parts from Amazon.com?

The main thing you would be losing would be those three extra expansion slots. And you would basically need to buy a new modoluar PSU as space is a premium in those kind of small cases. Not to mention the higher temperatures due to that case's sound proofing. And yes, it will take a bit more time and effort to fit everything in the case.
 
Yep, Amazon. Something seem off?

Thanks for the info on the Micro, think I'll stick with the original plan then for now.
 
SuperShoe said:
Yep, Amazon. Something seem off?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the pricing of that Kingston RAM: How much did you pay for that RAM? If it was more than $88, you overpaid since the 2x4GB set I recommended is the same RAM used in the 4x4GB set but just packaged with two sticks of RAM rather than 4.
 
Danny Bui said:
Yeah, the pricing of that Kingston RAM: How much did you pay for that RAM? If it was more than $88, you overpaid since the 2x4GB set I recommended is the same RAM used in the 4x4GB set but just packaged with two sticks of RAM rather than 4.
Click to expand...

I got 2 of the 8gb packs you recommended priced at $42.99 each. Sorry for the confusion.
 
Just wanted to bump this thread up again. I updated the original post with what I have purchased so far and will be heading to Microcenter on Wednesday to get the CPU & Motherboard so I just wanted to make sure nothing had changed.

Think one of these motherboards is still the best option? Was leaning a little more towards the z68 below, what do you think?

Danny Bui said:
Actually there is a worthwhile deal at Microcenter even with CA taxes: The Core i5 2500K is currently $180 + CA tax at Microcenter. However, if you buy an Intel Z68 or P67 mobo when you buy the 2500K, they'll knock off $60 off the motherboard's cost. Grab either any of these mobos from Microcenter (Prices reflect the $60 off taken into account):
$80 - MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$105 - MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$130 - MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
Click to expand...

As always, thanks for the help. Looking forward to getting this thing built! :)
 
Well it is looking like the microcenter I am planning on going to is out of those MSI boards. Would any other boards be a good replacement? I would prefer not to compromise quality for a deal, so if it turns out ordering a motherboard online is the better option I will just pick up the 2500k for 180.

Would either of these be good bundles?

$244.98 P8Z68-V

or

$269.98 Gigabyte GA-Z68x-UD3H
 
Go for the bundle with the Asus P8Z68-V. It's a very solid mobo
 
Had a little bit of luck tonight. Was able to snag the last P67A-GD65 off the shelf, even though they said they were out. $292.25 w/ the 2500k after tax.

Can't wait to get this built.

Thanks for all the help Danny!
 
Just wanted to pop back in post build and say thanks to everyone for the help. Really loving this computer so far. Build went fairly smooth for the most part, but thought I would throw out a few of my experiences to hopefully help some others that are thinking about a similar build.

Case
Really like the new case, was really nice to have some cable management features as it really made me want to spend time to keep things clean. There wasn't a whole lot of space behind the motherboard tray and the case door so it took some time and re-positioning to get everything to run behind and not prevent the door from closing, but overall it worked pretty nicely. Pretty happy with the final product, probably could have spent a little more time with it, but definitely got most of the cables out of the way. :) Lets not even talk about how my old build looked in that Antec 300 I replaced.

25iowtg.jpg


Motherboard
Really happy with it overall, like the new bios and everything seems to be working well. A few notes:
  • The first memory slot winds up right underneath the fan of the CM 212 so I think with some of the other memory out there with more intense looking heat spreaders it probably wouldn't fit, but with the ones I got there is just enough clearance.
  • Had a bit of a scare thinking I bricked it by trying to update the BIOS, was a sad panda for a few hours trying to figure out. What started happening after I updated every time I started the computer everything would power up but then it would restart after about 5 seconds and that would just continue until I forced it to turn off. Long story short, for some reason for me using the 1.15 bios wouldn't allow me to use all 4 slots of memory. I was able to use up to any combination of 3, but as soon as I put the fourth one in the restarts would occur again. i was able to flash a previous version and then everything worked again, phew.
  • Using the Video Card in the top slot it gets a little tough to access the sata ports and if you use the bottom you can't use the adapter that comes for hooking up the front panel cables it wouldn't have clearance to go over the top so you would need to hook the cables directly to the board instead of using the nice adapter they give you to make it a little easier to plug everything in.

Video Card
Good lord these things are getting huge. :) Can't imagine having two in there.

Haven't had too much free time to spend overclocking yet, but am looking forward to revving this thing up a little and seeing where it can go. Haven't gotten around to trying any of the newer graphic intensive games yet, but I can run Aion at the highest settings and still get a higher FPS than I could before with lower settings.

Thanks again, really appreciate the help you all give out on these forums. I always know I will end up with a quality result after reading posts on here.
 
Good to see that your build is now working relatively fine!
 
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