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New comp build, thoughts?

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Tak

Tak

Grizzled Veteran
Jan 10, 2006
1,848
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East Coast, USA
#1
I'm putting together a list of compatable parts and such and things that are currently top-notch, so by the time I get around to ordering it all (Feb of next year or so) they'll be a tad lower in price, and will have been around long enough that if something ****s I'll know to take it out, and if it's already super outdated by that time, I'll look at something else. I know DX10 cards will be coming along soon, but I will most likely avoid them to avoid driver issues and the extreme prices for marginal benefits that always occur with the 'first of the new' stuff. (and I don't plan on getting Vista until it is absolutely necessary, but I'll try Wine/Codega and Linux before Vista, so DX10 has no real appeal to me :p)

CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819115001

CPU Cooler (heard the one with Duel Core Extreme is a bit loud and only just adequet) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835101001

MB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131071

RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145034

PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817703002

Sound - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16829102005

Video (x2, SLI system) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814150199

Drives - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822136062


The other stuff is pretty standard stuff. NEC DVD ROM/burner, and some thermal paste and fans. Undecided on the case, as almost everything on newegg looks like it's trying to be either SUPAR XTREME PWNZORZ!!one!! or is out of stock! :)


So what do you folks think, any caveats?

​
 
#2
Tak said:
I'm putting together a list of compatable parts and such and things that are currently top-notch, so by the time I get around to ordering it all (Feb of next year or so) they'll be a tad lower in price, and will have been around long enough that if something ****s I'll know to take it out, and if it's already super outdated by that time, I'll look at something else. I know DX10 cards will be coming along soon, but I will most likely avoid them to avoid driver issues and the extreme prices for marginal benefits that always occur with the 'first of the new' stuff. (and I don't plan on getting Vista until it is absolutely necessary, but I'll try Wine/Codega and Linux before Vista, so DX10 has no real appeal to me :p)​



CPU Cooler (heard the one with Duel Core Extreme is a bit loud and only just adequet) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835101001​








The other stuff is pretty standard stuff. NEC DVD ROM/burner, and some thermal paste and fans. Undecided on the case, as almost everything on newegg looks like it's trying to be either SUPAR XTREME PWNZORZ!!one!! or is out of stock! :)​


So what do you folks think, any caveats?​
Click to expand...
Case, shmase! Who gives a rats ass if its pretty? Like people, its whats on the inside that matters. Of course, you will want good airflow, durability, accesibility to the parts(not cramped quaters) so parts are easy to reach/remove.
 
Upvote 0
#4
If you want to get a good case, get the Antec P160. You can order it with the TrueControl/TruePower PSU which blows your mind.

Or if you really want to, buy one with a window in it aswell.

It's anodized aluminium so it's like a second huge cooling surface and it's pretty designed so it has a good airflow. Unless you stuff it with 10 HDD's and like 8 slot cards. :D
 
Upvote 0
#5
Tak said:
I'm putting together a list of compatable parts and such and things that are currently top-notch, so by the time I get around to ordering it all (Feb of next year or so) they'll be a tad lower in price, and will have been around long enough that if something ****s I'll know to take it out, and if it's already super outdated by that time, I'll look at something else. I know DX10 cards will be coming along soon, but I will most likely avoid them to avoid driver issues and the extreme prices for marginal benefits that always occur with the 'first of the new' stuff. (and I don't plan on getting Vista until it is absolutely necessary, but I'll try Wine/Codega and Linux before Vista, so DX10 has no real appeal to me :p)

CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819115001

CPU Cooler (heard the one with Duel Core Extreme is a bit loud and only just adequet) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835101001

MB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131071

RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145034

PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817703002

Sound - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16829102005

Video (x2, SLI system) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814150199

Drives - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822136062


The other stuff is pretty standard stuff. NEC DVD ROM/burner, and some thermal paste and fans. Undecided on the case, as almost everything on newegg looks like it's trying to be either SUPAR XTREME PWNZORZ!!one!! or is out of stock! :)


So what do you folks think, any caveats?

​
Click to expand...

You're wasting a lot of money here. The Conroe 6400 can be overclocked to 3.1GHz with the stock fan: http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/10/10/cheap_thrills/

It's also about $700 cheaper than the Extreme:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115004

You don't need a 800 watt power supply for SLI. Especially one that costs 450 dollars. This OCZ will provide more than enough power for your setup:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817711001

Here is the same sound card, but $30 cheaper because it doesn't say Fatal1ty: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102188


I would also do more research on SLI. The benefit of having that setup is really not worth it. Especially if you plan on upgrading to the DX10 cards.
 
Upvote 0
#6
WHOA, wrong PSU! I didn't notice that, LOL


Sorry, I linked the wrong thing. Must go and edit that.


Wowsa :p


About the CPU though, you're right that it is expensive, but remember that I don't plan on buying this until further down the road. Ideally, the CPU has come down in cost at that point. Do you think that OCing the 6600 woul still be a better bet in three months time?


And thanks for pointing out the soundcard ;)
​
 
Upvote 0
#7
Tak said:
WHOA, wrong PSU! I didn't notice that, LOL


Sorry, I linked the wrong thing. Must go and edit that.


Wowsa :p


About the CPU though, you're right that it is expensive, but remember that I don't plan on buying this until further down the road. Ideally, the CPU has come down in cost at that point. Do you think that OCing the 6600 woul still be a better bet in three months time?


And thanks for pointing out the soundcard ;)
​
Click to expand...

No problem. The 6600 is a nice processor. I just wouldn't waste the money on the extreme version of the conroe. If you're not in a hurry to upgrade, you could wait and see how much the quad cores (kentsfield) are going to cost. I think they are going to be released before the end of the year. Here's a preview article: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2846
 
Upvote 0
#8
While in the past I've been reluctant to overclock, it seems that the hardware has become much more tolerant to it, and that high returns on the risks taken are possible (with less risk, too). So after surfing around a bit I am seriously considering going with the 66 or 6800 and pumping it up a bit, as it looks to offer a much longer life out of the hardware with only a few nominal downsides.

That said, however, most of the systems I see overclocked to such extent are water cooled systems, something that I am entirely clueless on. I've seen a few systems that have external resevoirs (as in not attached to the case) and a few that have it some how mounted to the system. I won't be able to use an seperate resevoir, but I do want to use a watercooled system (the idea of only one exhaust fan on whisper mode is incredibly attractive!). Would you ahve any suggestions on what is a good watercooled-friendly case that either has a built in resevoir/pump system, or accepts modding to take one fairly easily? Or a website or such that has such information would be much helpful.

SLI on the tests that I've seen does manage to pump out more power in most cases, but I admit that other than research on the web I'm pretty clueless about it. I'll be doing further research but if anyone has any articles or opinion pieces about it that they feel worth reading they're welcomed :)

And a final quick note till next time, I thought most of DX10's 'extra stuff' was going to be Vista only? Has this since changed/been disproved?

Thanks for the replies, I have quickly realized how far behind I've fallen on computer hardware/software since I graduated. The little geek deep inside me cried when he realized he wasn't hip anymore :)
​
 
Upvote 0
#10
Tak said:

And a final quick note till next time, I thought most of DX10's 'extra stuff' was going to be Vista only? Has this since changed/been disproved?

​
Click to expand...

DX10 is a vista only feature. I wouldn't worry about vista for at least a year after it's released. At this time vista performs worse than XP in games:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2850&p=3

This could just be a driver issue. As for the 64bit version of Vista, I've heard it's horrible for performance. A guy in our IT department at work tried it along side XP-64 and he said the Vista machine was much slower.

I tried the 32bit Vista (beta 2) on my current rig. I didn't have any problems. Still, I'm not going to go out and buy it until I have to. It's bloated.

Here's a chart comparing video cards:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

In many cases, the difference in running SLI vs a single card is only 5 to 10 frames/sec.
 
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#11
Ok, that's what I wanted to avoide Vista for (I had just assumed that it would be worse than XP immediately after release) so thanks for confirming that. I'll just dodge DX10 cards until the time comes when I have a reason to upgrade to Vista, or it actually performs better.

You've been most helpful Err, thank you. Still reading up and digging into some stuff, but once I have stuff ironed out, I'll edit the first post with some changes.
​
 
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#12
Upvote 0
#13
For a case, get this beast http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase/armor/va8000swa/va8000swa.htm

at 33lbs unloaded, you could kill someone with it. :D (Ive got it in black and love it, So much room to do whatever I want in there, lots of customization potential, good airflow, has a window, and it has easy detaching side with a lock :cool: )

For the processor, If you can only get that intel 6600 thing up to 3.1 ghz, and your thinking of doing some watercooling, get an opteron 170 (ive got one as well :D , but they OC amazingly, its AMD, they run very cool [at 2.4 right now, at 70F room temp, I idle at around 29C and load at 34C], and with water cooling you could get it up to 3.0 [your comp would be blazing]). It is dual core, and it has the exact same architecture as the X2's

For the Power supply, Ive got a fortran 700w, and have had no problems 6 months after building my comp.

if your still thinking about using air cooling, go with a much bigger Heatsink, like a scythe ninja (Im using that one :D ) or something that can make use of a 120mm fan.

Ram looks good

you can never go wrong with Asus (got one as well)

sound looks good

As for the drive, get the 320 gb one of the same type (im using it as well), youll thank yourself later for that extra room. OR you could get the raptor 10000 rpm drive, if 150 gigs is good enough http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136011



Heres a list and links of my comp as a reference:

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103586
CPU HS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835185122
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104015
HS fan: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835220015 (nothing better than a delta fan :eek: )
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146970 (ive got ddr 500, same type, just couldnt find the 500 version)
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540 (mine is the passive cooling version)
Hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136003
Graphics Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102037

And the BEAST CASE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133154



P.S. just looking at my case, they came out with one that not only has all its chassis fans, but a 25cm (CENTIMETERS ZOMG1) side fan http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133021
 
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