Conroe Gaming Rig For $3K

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EROEIone2one

Member
Jul 8, 2006
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I posted an intriem build about 2 weeks ago - many people here had good suggestions. Most suggested waiting for the release of Core 2 before buying. Now that we are much closer to buying (hopefully sometime today), I'll post another build to check for compatibility issues.

Intel E6600
-Scythe Ninja/Tuniq Tower 120/Zalman 9500
OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI ATX12V 600W Power Supply
ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe
-XFX PV-T71F-YDF9 GeForce 7900 GTX/SAPPHIRE 100150TWSE TOXIC Liquid Cooled Radeon X1900XTX
-OCZ Titanium Alpha VX2 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
-Seagate 3.0Gbps 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Barracuda
HP L2335 23" LCD
Silverstone TJ06 Silver
AuzenTech XPlosion 7.1 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card
Klipsch PROMEDIA ULTRA 5.1 470 watts 5.1 Speaker

All items are still up for debate, especially the last two. Hence the reason I listed more than one component for some things, like the GPU. Some paring down may have to take place to get everything under $3k, which is pretty close to being a hard cap at this point.

Also, if there are any Optical Drives/Keyboard/Mouse/other not mentioned components to recommend, I'd like to hear them.
 
S

Suspicious-Teach8788

Lifer
Feb 19, 2001
20,155
23
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Lame power supply. If you're spending 3K, you better get a Seasonic S-12 600W.

Tuniq Tower hands down. Scythe doesnt come close. Zalman is retarded. Pick a 120mm fan for your TT and then you can go as loud as you want or as quiet as you want. Why let Zalman choose the fan for you? =). You can volt it up and down too if you get a fan controller. Furthermore, the Tuniq Tower with a good exhaust will give you teriffic airflow. The Zalman is a little too low IMO.

Bottom line Tuniq Tower will be your best bet for good air cooling.
 
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EROEIone2one

Member
Jul 8, 2006
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Originally posted by: DLeRium
Lame power supply. If you're spending 3K, you better get a Seasonic S-12 600W.

Tuniq Tower hands down. Scythe doesnt come close. Zalman is retarded. Pick a 120mm fan for your TT and then you can go as loud as you want or as quiet as you want. Why let Zalman choose the fan for you? =). You can volt it up and down too if you get a fan controller. Furthermore, the Tuniq Tower with a good exhaust will give you teriffic airflow. The Zalman is a little too low IMO.

Bottom line Tuniq Tower will be your best bet for good air cooling.
Click to expand...


Any fan suggestions? Do I just buy a case cooling fan for the TT? Lots of different 120s from Scythe, Aerocool, Silverstone, etc.
 
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w00t

Diamond Member
Nov 5, 2004
5,545
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It looks like a good build

get either the scythe ninja or Tuniq Tower 120

the psu is okay but I still suggest a seasonic s12 600W

motherboard is good

as for the video card that's up to you what res you run and what settings you want to be able to play your games at

good choice on HD same as I am getting

LCD is nice

case is personal preference

never heard of that sound card

and i've heard those speakers are good but i urge you if your not going to set them up correctly ur better off going with a 2.1 setup
 
Baked

Baked

Lifer
Dec 28, 2004
36,052
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For $3K, forget about seasonic and go for the 510W PC Power & Cooling.
 
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EROEIone2one

Member
Jul 8, 2006
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Btw, anyone out there who has experience with the Thermaltake Tide Water VGA Liquid Cooler?

Possibly going that route with the GPU.

(Using Nvidia GPU with Conroe - less optimal than similar ATI? Thought I read that on another thread here)
 
GuitarDaddy

GuitarDaddy

Lifer
Nov 9, 2004
11,465
1
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Originally posted by: EROEIone2one
Btw, anyone out there who has experience with the Thermaltake Tide Water VGA Liquid Cooler?

Possibly going that route with the GPU.

(Using Nvidia GPU with Conroe - less optimal than similar ATI? Thought I read that on another thread here)
Click to expand...

The only thing at this point is no mobos support conroe and SLI, while there are conroe/crossfire mobos available

 
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imported_goku

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2004
7,613
3
0
Originally posted by: Tsuwamono
a fans a fan IMO...
Click to expand...

I disagree. Some fans blow faster and are quieter than others. One example of this are the silverstone fans, 9 fins, blows tons of air and are friggen quiet.
 
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EROEIone2one

Member
Jul 8, 2006
72
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Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
The only thing at this point is no mobos support conroe and SLI, while there are conroe/crossfire mobos available
Click to expand...

I think there was one Conroe/SLI that this site reviewed, but the consensus was that the mobo wasn't that good overall.
 
T

theprodigalrebel

Lifer
Oct 4, 2004
10,515
6
81
OCZ GameXtream is perfectly fine.
LCD: Samsung SyncMaster 244T (I haven't seen ANY negative comments about this monitor yet). I also see this HP on Newegg. Never heard of it before. If you like HP's monitors (which I hear are great), maybe this has slipped under your radar and ought to be worth a close look.

Where did you find a Tuniq Tower 120 in stock?
That Sapphire TOXIC Water-cooled card doesn't seem like it's worth it. Regular X1900XT will do the job. Or the eVGA 7950GX2 that is now listed at $499. Is that compatible with the P5W DH?
 
DasFox

DasFox

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2003
4,668
46
91
I've never liked Asus, and until Abit dies I'll never buy one, they're support can't compare to Abit, and Abit boards are just as good if not better.

IMHO I think Abit makes a better board, and if more people used them more then Asus, then more people would see this to be the case.

Buy the Asus, as what most people would do, BUT if you don't want to be just like everyone thinking it's the best out there which it isn't then I HIGHLY suggest a better board, the Abit AW8D:

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=313

And for the money you are spending there is really only one hard drive the WD Raptor:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=189&language=en

I personally use this drive, and can swear by the difference in speed, it is well worth it.

And last, if you're going to buy a Nvidia card go with Evga, their warranty is the best out there, and they really support, and stand behind their product, and they are great cards.
 
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w00t

Diamond Member
Nov 5, 2004
5,545
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Originally posted by: Baked
For $3K, forget about seasonic and go for the 510W PC Power & Cooling.
Click to expand...

The Seasonic S12 600W is quieter and more reliable

Originally posted by: DasFox
I've never liked Asus, and until Abit dies I'll never buy one, they're support can't compare to Abit, and Abit boards are just as good if not better.

IMHO I think Abit makes a better board, and if more people used them more then Asus, then more people would see this to be the case.

Buy the Asus, as what most people would do, BUT if you don't want to be just like everyone thinking it's the best out there which it isn't then I HIGHLY suggest a better board, the Abit AW8D:

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=313

And for the money you are spending there is really only one hard drive the WD Raptor:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=189&language=en

I personally use this drive, and can swear by the difference in speed, it is well worth it.

And last, if you're going to buy a Nvidia card go with Evga, their warranty is the best out there, and they really support, and stand behind their product, and they are great cards.
Click to expand...

ummm too bad that motherboard isn't supported by conroe

and that drive is a waste of money may be faster but there is no real world performance in speed
though it will win in every benchmark :)

Asus makes stable motherboards with good overclocking features that's why people buy them

The Abit AB9-Pro does support conroe though but the max FSB is like 370 :-( Abit is working on 450+ I am waiting for more conroe motherboards before I buy one as the current ones are basically all expensive and i don't need a board that supports Crossfire/SLi
 
P

Pabster

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
16,986
1
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Originally posted by: Baked
For $3K, forget about seasonic and go for the 510W PC Power & Cooling.
Click to expand...

QFT. I'll never understand people willing to spend the bucks for a high-end cutting edge machine and then skimping by on THE most critical component of the entire system.

PC P&C is expensive, but worth even damn penny.
 
DasFox

DasFox

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2003
4,668
46
91
Oh yeah Conroe, sheesh my bad, forgot. :(

But that drive is not a waste of money, I use one, and I know for a fact there IS REAL world performance, because of comparisions with other drives, so taken from your statement, you are obviously not using one, because if you where, you'd know the benefits.

The PC P&C Silencer 610 isn't expensive:

http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=S61EPS
 
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hutch1ns

Member
May 24, 2006
29
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Don't waste your time with air cooling. Get the Corsair Nautilus 500 WCing kit for $149.99 on newegg. This kit is pretty much just as easy to setup as air cooling. You don't even have to uninstall the mobo to install it. You can also get a gpu block and the pump has more than enough power to handle it.

You won't have a heat barrier at all with this kit. I've maxed out my 805 to 4.6ghz on the P5W DH and couldn't get the cpu over 52*c.

Get the 7950GX2. It won't be long before the P5W DH has SLI support. You could have 2 of these babies in there. And to answer your question it is compatible with your mobo.
 
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EROEIone2one

Member
Jul 8, 2006
72
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Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
Where did you find a Tuniq Tower 120 in stock?
Click to expand...

I'd like to know too...


Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
Or the eVGA 7950GX2 that is now listed at $499. Is that compatible with the P5W DH?
Click to expand...

I think that requires a mobo with SLI support, which only one mediocre conroe board provides for now.

ADDED: Wait nm, reply above.

This Corsair Nautilus 500 WCing, does it work with the GX2? I've seen it posted on various other sites about how it isn't compatible with a lot of currently available coolers.
 
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EROEIone2one

Member
Jul 8, 2006
72
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So... 7900 GTX or 7950GX2?

I've seen one place that carries an eVGA 7900, but no eVGA GX2 that I've seen.

EDIT: Nm, found it.
 
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