Ended up with an E8500 and the EP45-D3SL mobo :)

[dug777]

Will be going into a P5QL-Pro or P5Q-SE (any advice on that would be good too), with 4GB DDR2 800, a 9600GT 512MB, 750GB 32MB Cache Samsung HDD, 22" Samsung LCD, and some variety of PCI HDTV tuner.

I'm even getting her a pretty case

http://www.antec.com/us/produc...ails.php?ProdID=15135#

She'll use it for work (office and maybe some autoCAD), email, net, Sims2, Simcity4 (and whatever replaces it, if ever), HDTV, DVD (maybe BlueRay one day) and it needs to last

No overclocking, before you ask

Thanks folks :beer:

EDIT: It's very quick indeed, but I still feel my quad is smoother

 

[mancunian]

Originally posted by: dug777
She'll use it for work (office and maybe some autoCAD), email, net, Sims2, Simcity4 (and whatever replaces it, if ever), HDTV, DVD (maybe BlueRay one day) and it needs to last

No overclocking, before you ask

Thanks folks :beer:

In that case, E8200.

 

[error8]

E8200 if overclocking is not allowed.

 

[soccerballtux]

why no overclocking, won't hurt it. It'll still last for 8 years.

 

[onedestinazn2]

+1 for the e8200 since no overclocking

 

[Lonyo]

E8400 unless there's a significant price difference (there doesn't seem to be in some places).

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
E8400 unless there's a significant price difference (there doesn't seem to be in some places).

That's what we decided last night after I posted this It's an extra $20 AUD here for quite a bit more raw clock speed.

No overclocking because she wants the machine to be as stable as possible, has no interest in paying for aftermarket cooling, wants a quiet machine with nice slow fans (and hence not particularly rapid airflow), doesn't want to void the warranty, and last but not least is unlikely to be doing anything that would meaningfully or noticeably benefit from a boost from 3Ghz to 3.4-3.6Ghz (which I'm guessing is the upper end of safe oc'ing with the stock cooler in a house that gets up to low 30'Cs ambient in summer, even on a nice cool 45nm 8x00).

Bottom line, she's not the least interested in the hassle, and to be honest, neither am I for her machine at least (I'll directly bear the grief for any instability ).

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: dug777

Bottom line, she's not the least interested in the hassle, and to be honest, neither am I for her machine at least (I'll directly bear the grief for any instability ).

With that being said, I WOULD get the E8400 and make damn sure its stable .

 

[faxon]

just an FYI the stock cooler is anything but quiet. you will need an aftermarket cooler just to have a quiet rig in the first place so unless the chip is bad to begin with or goes bad within the first month or 2 its a moot point anyway and you might as well invest in an aftermarket cooler since it will increase the life of the chip if anything. also, if you are running it in 30c+ temps regularly you might need an aftermarket cooler to keep the system from overheating, though you would do yourself better to invest in a 1 room AC since that will benefit the entire system. im currently in a similar dilemma if you look in this thread

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2220953&enterthread=y

 

[Qbah]

Yeah, what faxon said. I'd suggest a TRUE with a low RPM silent fan (like a Nexus ).

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: faxon
just an FYI the stock cooler is anything but quiet. you will need an aftermarket cooler just to have a quiet rig in the first place so unless the chip is bad to begin with or goes bad within the first month or 2 its a moot point anyway and you might as well invest in an aftermarket cooler since it will increase the life of the chip if anything. also, if you are running it in 30c+ temps regularly you might need an aftermarket cooler to keep the system from overheating, though you would do yourself better to invest in a 1 room AC since that will benefit the entire system. im currently in a similar dilemma if you look in this thread

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2220953&enterthread=y

My Q6600 intel hsf seems more than acceptable to me, I just use the Asus EPU-6 software to control the CPU fan speed and I can't hear it inside my Antec Sonata III with two 120mm case fans (one temp controlled, the other on the medium or low setting, I can't recall which) and the stock Earthwatts 500W PSU unless I'm stress testing or gaming (and then any game noise well and truly cancels it out).

Her machine won't be silent in any case, with another Earthwatts 500W PSU/a single 120mm case fan (probably set on low or medium), and the reference 9600GT cooler, although it should be plenty quiet.

As far as noise is concerned, these AT reviews suggest it should be fine, although clearly not silent:

http://www.anandtech.com/casec...howdoc.aspx?i=3357&p=5

http://www.anandtech.com/casec...howdoc.aspx?i=3268&p=6

This of course presumes that intel uses the same hsf that was tested there, and that is used for my quad, on the 8400. If I'm wrong about that then it could very well be noisier.

Will watch the temps as summer arrives very carefully both on my quad (which is heavily undervolted admittedly), and on her machine.

 

[aigomorla]

if you stress test the cpu well enough, there is no such thing as instability.

if i can run my programs overclocked, fine for almost 8 months (still ongoing) straight overclocked with no maintance, your GF can too with a bit more paitence in stressing testing at the final end.

And overclocking is fun.


Were not asking you to bam bam 4ghz+ on that puppy, but a nice little bump to 3.4-3.6ghz will go a VERY VERY long way.

 

[v8envy]

Well, an OC could become unstable later as stressed out components on the board start to fail. There are plenty of stories re: overclocks becoming unstable over time.

Two years is a very long time. And getting top shelf components to run at stock speeds is no guarantee you'll get perfection either -- I've had under warrantied production boxes built by major manufacturers crap out well under a year. Manufacturing defects happen.

If you want to do 0 tech support buy a pre-built box. If you're going to support the solution anyway go cheap and crank it up a notch -- E5200, P35 board, stock cooler and a mild 30% OC would be my vote.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Aigo, do you really have 8 month uptimes on your overclocked rigs???

 

[dug777]

Thanks for the comments folks, but I think the stock 8400 should do the trick for the moment.

Any advice on my choice of mobos? I'd tend towards the P45 rather than the P43 myself, since they're basically the same price, (that p45 board doesn't have the second PCI-E slot).

Either should be more than enough to push the 8400 to 3.4-3.6 in a few years time if it's getting a bit sluggish.

 

[dug777]

Ended up with an E8500 and the EP45-D3SL