Building a conroe system

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Uninvited Guest

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Aug 9, 2006
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I have compiled a list of parts that appear to work well together in a system. I plan to be running a E6600 cpu with all of this. This will be a gaming computer, and I'm hoping it will serve me as well as the one I'm using now, which a friend built for me (lasted 5 years now). All prices in CAD.

Motherboard
Asus P5B Deluxe/WIFI-AP i965 Motherboard
Price: $265.00
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1179&l1=3&l2=11&l3=307

I would be buying this motherboard locally. It sticks out because it's reasonabley priced and has everything I need. I'm passing up the SLI capabilities of the nforce 590, as I only plan to run 1 video card. What I don't know, is how to work with RAID (or even what it does outside raise data transfer), but it has been recommended to me. If there is a better motherboard, or one more reasonabley priced, please recommend.

Hard Drive
Seagate ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 16MB SATA
Price : $109.00
Technical Specifications
Size: 250GB
Type: SATA3G
Memory Buffer: 16 MB
Speed: 7200 rpm
Warranty: 5 Year

Buying this locally as well. What really sold it to me was the warranty, and a 16 mb buffer is always nice.

Video Card
I have a hard time with video cards, because manufacturers, retailers, and the like never include all the same specifications in their descriptions. I am looking to get a 7900 GT, but beyond that I don't know a great deal. What strikes me most is the brand names. Asus' quality I am familiar with, but BFG I've never heard about, and only seen it being pushed by retailers.

Asus EN7900GT 256mb DDR3 PCI-E
Price: $375.95
Technical Specifications
On-Board Memory: 256mb DDR3
GPU Core Speed: 450MHz
Memory Speed: 1.3GHz
Bus Standard: PCI-Express 16x
Additional Features
· sVideo and HDTV Outputs
· DVI Connection
· Dual Monitor Support
· DirectX 9.0 Support

BFG GeForce 7900 GT OC 256MB PCI Express Video Card
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/prodde...gid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10075242&catid=
At NCIX.com, it is being sold for 299.99 after a mail in rebate.

I can't see much of a difference between the two, besides mhz higher clock speed on the BFG, and s-video on the Asus. There is also an XFX card I can buy locally for $365 that has the same specs as the BFG, with the s-video.

Memory
OCZ Gold XTC PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL5-5-5-12 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit
$213.66
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?...Z2G8002GK&manufacture=OCZ%20Technology

6400 ram at this price caught my eye, even though the warranty expires tomorrow, I may still get this ram. That is, unless someone can explain a few things to me. The latency 5-5-5-12 means absolutely nothing to me. On one of its forum comments, someone recommended the 5-5-5-10 ram at the same price, and I tried half heartedly to find it but with no luck.

OCZ Platinum XTC PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL4-5-4-15 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit
$218.29
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?...Z2P8002GK&manufacture=OCZ%20Technology

Platinum over gold and a higher price usually gives the impression that it's better ram, but I don't know. The latency numbers seem all of the place compared to the gold, 4-5-4-15. Someone in the forum mentioned that platinum is only better if you don't plan on overclocking, which I do intend to do eventually, once I learn the tricks of the trade.

Monitor
Samsung Syncmaster 19" LCD Monitor (931BF)
$329.99
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/prodde...gid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10073771&catid=

So sweet. This costs as much as my clunky 955DF Syncmaster did 5 years ago.

What I have no idea about: Cases and power supply, and cooling. I do plan to overclock it, so I realise it's a given I'm going to need to purchase some sort of extra cooling system. To everybody, thanks in advance.
 
nipplefish

nipplefish

Senior member
Feb 11, 2005
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if i were you i'd get an X1900XT instead of the 7900GT. You can find one on newegg for around $320 US. They have much better performance than the 7900GT.

Newegg also has a benq 20" widescreen LCD going for $284.99 US right now, that's a pretty good one from what i hear.
 
G

gobucks

Golden Member
Oct 22, 2004
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another good choice for video is the x1800XT - about the same price as the 7900GT, and at stock speeds it is faster (although since the 7900GT is smaller and runs cooler, it overclocks much better).

Also, that mobo may be a bit more than you need. The Gigabyte ga-965P-ds3 is under $150 US, and it has a $25 rebate if you buy a core 2 from newegg. It's an overclocking monster, although apparently it works better with the 2MB chips than with the 4MB ones. In fact, most P965 mobos have this problem from what i've heard, so you might actually have better luck overclocking with an e6400 rather than an e6600. Abit also has their AB9 Pro for around $150 US, which has some nice features like dolby digital live support.

also, i bought that exact same OCZ ram with my DS3 and it crashed all over the place. apparently they use cheap micron knockoff chips and they are incompatible with lots of mobos, especially with P965 ones. not sure about 975X mobos though. I had much better luck with Corsair XMS. try these:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=85025-5
at 2.1V, i got DDR2-800 4-4-4-10 and DDR2-963 5-4-5-10, which are much better than rated timings.
 
G

gramboh

Platinum Member
May 3, 2003
2,207
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The Seagate 7200.10 series is what you want, much much faster than previous version (7200.9) not sure if that is what drive you are buying locally. The 320GB version is about 90-95 bucks on Newegg.
 
C

CrimsonChaos

Senior member
Mar 28, 2005
551
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Seems like you've done your homework. Just a couple comments.

Motherboard: The type of motherboard you buy depends on if you plan on overclocking, and if you want to future-proof (i.e. eventually going to SLI/Crossfire). If you answer no to both of these, I'm guessing you can get a lot cheaper board than $265.

Hard-drive: There are numerous types of RAID. Most typical for home-users are RAID-0 and RAID-1. RAID-0 slightly increases data transfer (though allegedly is less stable and more prone to failure), while RAID-1 creates a mirror drive so if one fails you have a backup (but doesn't increase data transfer). I believe the general consensus is, if you're looking for increased hard-drive speed, buy a Raptor for your OS and programs, and another hard drive (like the one you listed) for data. Personally, if you're on a tight budget, I don't think this is worth the upgrade.

Video-card: I agree with nipplefish, I'd get the ATI x1900xt -- better bang for the buck. Regarding comparing cross-brand same-GPU video cards, I don't think there are huge differences between them. As you noticed, the only difference is usually the clock speed they're running at. Of course, there's the whole quality and warranty issues, but assuming you're choosing between two solid brand-names, it shouldn't matter much performance-wise.

Typically the specs you want to look at for a Video Card are benchmarks. If you really want to get detailed, you can start looking at pipelines, pixel shaders, memory buses, etc... but it's probably just easier to check out some benchmarks and do a comparative analysis of price-to-performance ratios.

RAM: It's my understanding that you shouldn't pay a much higher premium for slightly lower latencies. In general, the performance increase isn't significant enough to justify the added expense. But of course, if you can get much lower timings for only a slightly higher price, go for it. I believe it's more important to have 2GB of slower RAM than 1GB of super-fast RAM.

Case: A lot of this is personal taste -- what size you want, how many case fans you'd like, how many extra bays, what color, what style, etc... I believe airflow is probably the major consideration when looking for a case.

PSU: There's two approaches here: 1. You can buy a high-wattage well-known brand name PSU that others recommend. For example: PC P&C, Seasonic, Antec, Enermax, OCZ, etc..., or 2. If you want to get into the specifics of PSU's, I highly recommend you check out this great post by jonnyGURU.

Hope this helps.
 
U

Uninvited Guest

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Aug 9, 2006
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Thank you for all your comments guys. The problem for me is I live in Canada, and everything I've quoted is in CAD, and it seems you're quoting USD. Also, though I haven't looked in the recent weeks, I don't believe newegg ships to Canada. I've been price shopping locally, on ncix.com, tigerdirect.ca, and futeureshop/bestbuy for any deals they might have.
 
U

Uninvited Guest

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Aug 9, 2006
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This was the motherboard I was looking at originally, for $189 CAD http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1178&l1=3&l2=11&l3=307
However the response I received was that I should look into something with more potential for overclocking, and with RAID capability. The Deluxe was the next step up. Firewire connections and the like I'm not too fussy about, I don't plan on using an external hard drive, and yeah, as I said I don't plan on using SLI... though I didn't think that the deluxe supported it.

However, maybe SLI is a good idea, because instead of upgrading to a new video card I could just buy another of the same type (which by then, will be older and cheaper). However, benchmarks I've seen at tomshardware have concluded that SLI sometimes reduces framerate, and never really gave enough of a performance boost to warrant it. I think I would like to stick with the 7900gt, as I just read the benchmarks on anandtech for the mid ranged GPUs, and while the 1x1900xt did take the cake it carried a pretty hefty price premium, wqhich translated into CAD, might just be too much. I will take a look at it, though. (Another reason for choosing nvidia, is because I plan to use neverwinter nights 2 extensively, and they have had compatability issues with ati in the past)

I looked up the hard drive on the seagate website, and it is a .10. With you saying that there is a huge performance increase over .9, this has me very happy :)

And I suppose I will look into another RAM. With the rebate over, and the problems I've hear people are having with it, it doesn't appear to be a good option.

With the case, I suppose I can just buy it locally, as deciding based on size and looks will be difficult online. Thanks for the article about the psus crimson, I'll read it next.
 
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