Feedback on Build Please

[Resh]

I'm an experienced builder, but since Core2, I have totally lost track of all the options so with possible upgrade staring me down, I'm begging for your help. Here's the skinny:

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

- lots of Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom work (amateur photographer)
- email, surfing, office apps, coding websites
- ripping, encoding, and listening audio to and from FLAC and AAC
- editing MPEG2 video and transcoding to DivX
- gaming (mostly driving sims like rFactor and GTR2, but some FPS, too)
- generally plenty of multi-tasking
- sometimes heavy disk activity when moving large TIF files around

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$600 - $750CDN is ideal, but could go to $800.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

Canada. Main local retailers are www.oemexpress.com, www.shoprbc.com, www.pccyber.com, www.sprintcomputer.com, www.bmtnet.com. Online options are www.ncix.com, www.canadacomputers.com.

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.

Not a fan boy, but have had great experiences with DFI and AOpen and ABIT, good experiences with Asus, and suspect experiences with MSI. Similarly good times with OCZ SDRAM, DDR, DDR2 and OK times with Corsair DDR.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Would recycle my Seasonic 500W S12, eVGA 7800GTX, Seagate SATAII drives, and Antec P150 case.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

read reviews and a number of threads, but having a hard time getting an apples to apples comparison. Wish AT would post that motherboard round-up already!

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

No overclocking interest! Want stable, quick, and all resources used to highest potential. For example, the notion of a P35 Board running with PC2-8500 at 1066MHz with 1066FSB Quad sounds appealing and elegant, which has led me to this proposed config

Current Thinking - constructive criticism please

CPU: Quad Q6600 2.4GHz 8MB/1066FSB for $285CD at shoprbc.com. Also considering the E6850 Dual Core at 3GHz 8MB/1333FSB

RAM: 2 x 2GB OCZ Titanium DC PC2-8500 Kit *Intel Optimized* for $286 at shoprbc.com (thinking 4GB to help Photoshop, but tell me if I'm being dumb to put this much RAM in 32-bit Windows)

Where I'm stuck - what should I do?
MOBO: [where I'm stuck]

I really need dual monitor support and ideally, two Dual-Link DVI ports as I would like to buy at least one 30" LCD in the coming months. I can achieve this in two ways:

1) Have to video cards, with at least one Dual-Link DVI per card. This scenario allows me to keep the 7800GTX, but requires a mobo with two PCI-E graphics-compatible slots.

2) Keep the 7800GTX for now, but sell it only when I need the second Dual-Link port. Allows me to go with a board with only one slot. Don't know what the 7800GTX could fetch. Also makes the case for a newer chipset with PCI-E 2.0.

Comments and suggestions greatly appreciated.

N

 

[Resh]

bump! Help please!

 

[MarcVenice]

Doesn't the 7800gtx have dual dvi ports ? The ram is kinda whacked btw Dunno what led you to believe you the ram to equal the FSB of the qaud, but it's whacked The FSB of the q6600, of all intels chips right now, is qaudpumped, so it's in fact 266*4=1066. The ram is double pumped, it's actual speed is 400mhz for example, but it get's sold as ddr2 800mhz. Now, to give the CPU the bandwith it needs, the ram has to run at least 1:1 with the CPU's FSB. If the FSB of a cpu is 266, then you need ddr2 533mhz ram to supply enough memory bandwith. More then that, and you'll see speed increasements ranging from 0-2%. The ram you mentioned is VERY expensive, you can buy 4x1gb for about 100$, so that's what you should do.

Depending on your videocard, you will only see 3.2-3.5gb of it in Windows XP, but it still be worth it for the applications you run. You should buy a qaudcore btw, since it will save you a lot of time in the applications you are going to run. Pair it with a p35 chipset mobo, for 100-130$, and your golden. Not sure what the problem is with the motherboard tbh. Most newer videocards, like my 8800gts 320mb, have two dvi ports, so I could run two monitors if I wanted to. Nothing to do with the motherboard. PCI-e 2.0 is nothing but a fancy name so far, pci-e 2.0 videocards will be backwards compatible with pci-e mobo's, so no need to go for a pci-e 2.0 mobo if you ask me.

 

[Resh]

Thanks MarcVenice. Your point on the RAM is well-taken and certainly one of the dimensions of the overall part selection that had me stumped.

So is overclocking the only reason one would want PC2-8500 (DDR2 1066)?