Suggestions on new rig

E

Escher

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 9, 2000
Messages
496
I'm looking to finally upgrade my 3500+, x800xt system and think I've found what I want to get, but I've gotten out of habit in my tech readings. The parts I'm looking to get are:

Lian Li PC-60BPLUSII Mid Tower $140
MSI P35 Neo2-FR $120
Q6600 CPU $280
XFX PVT88PYDF4 GeForce 8800GT 512MB $250
Corsair CMPSU-620HX $170
G.Skill 4GB (2x2GB) Kit F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ $110
WD Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB $150
Samsung 226BW 22" LCD $310
Lite-On 20x DVD Burner $33
Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 70SB104000000 $66

Grand Total - $1629

I wouldn't mind lowering this down a bit, but want to keep it as a pretty powerful box as it'll be a few more years till I upgrade again. Primarily used for gaming, coding, and general apps (i.e. Office, web surfing, etc), but thinking I'll also want to consolidate my web and ftp servers onto this one machine.

I appreciate any and all help you guys can provide.
 
You might seriously consider a much less expensive processor -- even one of the E2xxx series at $80-100 -- and OCing for a few months until 45nm quads go mainstream and get to a reasonable price. Saves you $150-200 or so in the short term, you get a cooler running, higher clocking quad in the long term.

$170 is /way/ too much for that PSU. You could get a Silencer 750 Quad for that. Get the 620HX or one of the 520HXs, but wait a bit and look around for a better price; shouldn't be but $100 or so AR. The HX520 would be plenty for that machine, and shouldn't cause a problem in the future as you have a single card board.

You probably don't need a sound card at all, and the current Xtreme Audio cards are worthless. Check out the onboard sound with current drivers before bothering to spend $50-75 on a dedicated card. If you decide to, you need at least an Xtreme Gamer version or one of the Fata1ity cards, of the current set, or one of the older Xtreme Music cards used.
 
Well, I shaved the PSU down to the 520HX (newegg listed at $110 after $10 MIR) and took off the sound card completely. So now the total is down to $1513 or so.

My speakers can use a digital hook up and I don't think the on-board sound has a digital connector, but I've also got an Audigy or two (and even a Monster MX) lying around that I can co-opt if need be. I'm no audiophile, but I also don't feel like changing my wires if I don't need to.

As for the Q6600 ... is it a real hot running chip? It seems like it's a real good deal right now as it's cheaper than some Core2 Duo chips. I really don't have much flexibility in downgrading the chip now and picking up another in 6 months, so I want to get something now that'll be good for a few years.

Also, I've noticed some suggesting to get a different heatsink than the retail packaged one. I'm not really planning on overclocking this chip, which I realize is a sin here, but I've done my OC'ing (Celery 300a was first) and now I have kids so I can't really afford to fry chips anymore. Any suggestions on this? Do I need one if I don't OC? I've had some good boxed HSFs and some real crappy ones in the past, how do Intel's rank these days?

I also noticed that I kind of screwed up by having the DDR2 800 RAM with a CPU and board that does 1066, but the price of DDR2 1066 is over twice the price! Is this a great cause for concern?
 
Schweeeeet! I wish I could go for the 8800GTX, but I gotta limit myself somewhere so I don't completely freak my wife out.
 
The stock Intel heatsink is perfectly, especially since you aren't OC'ing.

Also don't even for one second entertain the idea of getting 1066 memory. It's a waste for Intel chips. Even if you were going to OC it still makes little sense, since the only way you'd get a Q6600 to that speed would be run phase or LN2 for cooling. Something tells me you aren't going to be doing that.
 
Oh ... I thought the Q6600 was a 1066 part ... no? Maybe I've been out of the loop too long.
 
The Q6600 has a FSB rating of 533 which = 1066 after the double pump.
 
In response to:
anime4u said:
The Q6600 has a FSB rating of 533 which = 1066 after the double pump.
Click to expand...
and
Escher said:
Oh ... I thought the Q6600 was a 1066 part ... no? Maybe I've been out of the loop too long.
Click to expand...

1066 Mhz is the "Quad Pumped" rating. Yes, the Q6600 is a 1066Mhz Quad Pumped FSB rated part. Divide by 4, you get ~266/267Mhz, which is real FSB speed at stock, 2.4Ghz.

266x2 for DDR2 speed, you get 533Mhz, so you only need DDR2 rated for 533Mhz if you're going to run stock (doubtful). Most even if running stock tend to get DDR2-800 cause there's little if any price premium over the ultra-budget stuff, though some end up with DDR2-667 to save a couple of dollars.

It's a 9x multiplier chip (266x9 = 2.4Ghz, stock speed). 400x9 = 3.6Ghz. 400x2 for DDR2 speed, you get 800Mhz, so DDR2-800 will be plenty unless you plan to go above 3.6Ghz. That's fairly rare and requires very good cooling. These things, even the G0s, can run hot. Really hot. If you're planning a substantial OC one of your first projects will likely be replacing the stock heatsink with something like a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, Sunbeam Tuniq Tower, or Scythe Ninja. If running stock or a very mild OC the stock heatsink should be fine, though, so it's not an immediate need.

To the point: for most running a Q6600 the cost of DDR2-1066 is a total waste. Good, fairly OCable DDR2-800 will get you to or near to the chip's limits on most cooling, and should generally cost less. There's also no real performance benefit to running RAM out of a 1:1 ratio with FSB speed, so running your chip at 2.4Ghz and your RAM at DDR2-1066 gets you nothing. Your DDR2-800 is pretty much ideal for that chip, so don't worry about it.
 
See, that's why I love you guys. I feel retarded now for not figuring that out, but at least you didn't thrash me. I really need to keep current with things a bit more than I have.

Thanks!
 
I'm also considering getting the Shuttle SP35P2 Pro instead of the mobo/PSU/case listed above. Any reason not to go that route? I've always toyed with the idea of going SFF, but with the Quad Core and 8800GT wasn't sure if it would work out well or not.

The price comes out a little bit higher, but not by much. Thoughts?
 
Escher said:
I'm also considering getting the Shuttle SP35P2 Pro instead of the mobo/PSU/case listed above. Any reason not to go that route? I've always toyed with the idea of going SFF, but with the Quad Core and 8800GT wasn't sure if it would work out well or not.

The price comes out a little bit higher, but not by much. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I've built a couple of Shuttles. I hate them. Proprietary, expensive boards. Very little expansion space. Difficult to find replacement PSUs. Horrible airflow and cooling. One of the two was really loud. I don't plan to make that mistake again, ever. If I want a HTPC I'll hook up a 360/PS3/media share box and use that along with a standard tower somewhere.

ATX forever, baby.
 
Escher said:
See, that's why I love you guys. I feel retarded now for not figuring that out, but at least you didn't thrash me. I really need to keep current with things a bit more than I have.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

No worries there. Me and enginurd have variations on the post 3 above ready to copy and paste, it's such a common issue. Intel's stupid terminology isn't any help, either. Claiming the FSB is 'effectively' 4x faster just so you can quote a higher number when that number means... nothing, really. Yeah. Go go marketing department.
 
silent-circuit said:
I've built a couple of Shuttles. I hate them. Proprietary, expensive boards. Very little expansion space. Difficult to find replacement PSUs. Horrible airflow and cooling. One of the two was really loud. I don't plan to make that mistake again, ever. If I want a HTPC I'll hook up a 360/PS3/media share box and use that along with a standard tower somewhere.

ATX forever, baby.
Click to expand...


Hate? Wow, I don't think I've ever heard that about a Shuttle box before. Wasn't really interested in the HTPC aspect of it, just wanting to clear the clutter off my desk ... hmm ... ok. Well I guess I'll now have to seriously consider this box or not.
 
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