Finalizing parts for overclocked budget Intel gaming rig.

[HawkeyeRecon2]

Hello Guys,

I had been looking at an AMD 5000+ BE, but after reading these forums for hours have decided on an Intel choice. I have read most of the first 10 pages of General, CPU and Motherboard threads.

I am in Florida and will be using the machine for gaming (BF2, BF2142 and maybe Crysis), watching and possibly editing video, and for limited recording/mixing MIDI audio.

I have already purchased an Antec 900 case and a Sigma Shark 635.
http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?item=N82E16811129021
(bought for $69.99 not including a $25 rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?item=N82E16817226002
($99 minus $50 rebate)

I will be using either a 19inch LCD or put to use my 42inch LCD that I never seem to use for TV.

My budget for CPU, cooling, MOBO, HD, DD, RAM, GPU and Keyboard/Mouse (I'll probably wait on soundcard for MIDI) is roughly $600-$700, though I can go over if there is a good reason. Not sure about OS.

Intel Chip choices. Not sure if the higher multiplier, higher voltages and double L2 is worth the ~$50 difference
E2160 - 1.8G 800fsb 9X multiplier 1MG shared L2 $74
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819116036
(some say L2, some say MO. Not sure of difference or which would be better)

E2180 - 2.0G 800fsb 10x multiplier 1MG shared L2 $83
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819116052

E2200 2.2G 800fsb 11x multiplier 1 MG shared L2 $94
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819116063

E4500 2.2G 800fsb 11x multiplier 2MG shared L2 $125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115031

E4600 2.4G 800fsb 12x?multiplier 2MG shared L2 $140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115032

Will I need the thermal compound paste and this fan?
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro
http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?item=N82E16835186134

I will be overclocking and my main concerns are an easy overclock to 3-3.4G. Is it worth the extra money for the E4xxx series extra voltage and doubled L2 size?
What is the "best/easiest" multiplier for the motherboards I'm looking at? Am I looking at the right motherboards?

These seem to be the best consensus budget mobo choices for solid budget overclocking:
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 1333/1066MHz fsb $90
http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?item=N82E16813128059

ABIT IP35-E LGA 775 Intel P35 1333/1066MHz $90
http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?item=N82E16813127031


GPU:
I'm pretty set on G92 8800GT 512. I have a bias towards eVGA but this card is on sale lots of places:
MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800GT 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127329

Would the double slot it takes be a concern on either of those motherboards? Should I just bite the bullet and get the eVGA oc'd one that is about $40 more?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130319

anyother 8800GT's I should look at? Do you think these GPU's will play BF2 maxed out with AA on at 1920x1080?

RAM
I've heard this is what I should get:
G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?item=N82E16820231122

For the price, is this my best option, to go with my mobo and chip? I will be overclocking chip and want mobo and RAM that easily support OC'ing.
Are there better OCZ or Mushkin options? I've read a lot of people supporting
G.Skill. Is DDR2 800 at PC2 6400 my best option for the $?


HD
what is my best ~$100 500GB option? Quiet and fast would be nice but the most important factor is proven RELIABILITY. I don't want to have problems down the road and won't be using RAID. I really would be disappointed with a DOA which I have seen lots of people getting with some brands. With those mobo's should I be using SATA, SATA2 or eSATA?

DD
What is my best $30 disc drive option? Should I use IDE or SATA?

OS
What should I be using? I don't want to leave XP unless I go to Vista 64bit (in order to get full memory capacity). I'm just worried about problems with Vista and the $$$ for the 64 bit version.

I appreciate everyone who reads and replies with some constructive suggestions. In some ways this is a rehashing of similar threads, but I really want to make sure I get this right. I'll probably have help putting this thing together.

Thanks guys!

 

[MarcVenice]

Welcome to the forum, looks like you did your homework. If you feel comfortable with overclocking, then you should get a e2180 or e4500. Yes, I'd also pair it with a arctic freeer 7 pro, it'll be easier to go for 3.4ghz with that cooler instead of the stock HSF. Right now, I'd go with the DS3L over the ABIT ip35-e. I'd also get the MSI 8800GT, and the ram is fine too. Hd I'd say this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822152052

For DD, of course you use SATA. No clue what the best one is though, lite-on, lg, asus, all should do just fine, I never really bothered looking into those. Don't worry about Vista 64x, only really old printers and such have no driver support, but besides a few of those, pretty much everything works just fine, and you can see 4gb of ram, nice for video-editing. Nice pick on the case btw, as for the PSU, no idea how good it is.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Pretty good choices, although I haven't heard of that PSU.

I'd go with the E4500 (extra cache). It probably won't make much difference, but just in case it won't hurt.


The HS will help with noise and cooling, so good call there.

I wouldn't spend the extra money on a OC'd VC, especially since you are only running at 1280x1024. Are you planning on getting a bigger LCD soon?

RAM is OK, any DDR2-800 will be fine. Check the sales, usually you can get 4Gig for $70-80, so you could save a few bucks there.

For HD, I like the Hitachi P7K500. It's a 2 platter design (older ones had 3), so less heat and noise. SATA/SATA2 doesn't make a difference. eSATA is for external drives, so you don't need that. Just to note, Hitachi, WD, Seagate are all about the same in reliability. Any company can give you a bad HD, most of the time it's due to abuse during shipping, or something outside of the manufactures control.

For DVD, go with a SATA burner (smaller cables), the Samsung 203b is one of the best out there right now.

For OS, that's up to you. I am running 64bit Vista, so I could get more then 4Gig RAM for when I do some photo editing.

 

[DSF]

As I imagine you're aware, the E2xxx and E4xxx CPUs start with low FSB speeds of 200MHz. Any DDR2-800, which is rated to run at a frontside bus up to 400MHz, is going to be fine for your uses. You don't need any special OCing RAM.

 

[HawkeyeRecon2]

Thanks MarcVenice for the reply.

Is there a reason you prefer the DS3L over the Abit ip35e? Do you generally prefer Gigabyte to Abit or is there a particular functionality of one board over the other that you prefer?

I guess I should probably do a side by side comparison of reviews of the boards.

Here's a review of the PSU:
http://www.overclockersclub.co...views/sigma_shark_635/

Once I've got it all set I'll post how it turned out.

I had my eye on the Antec 900 for awhile and when I saw the price drip I had to grab one.

Thanks!

 

[HawkeyeRecon2]

Hi Garfield, thanks for the reply.

I'll probably end up using my 42 inch LCD, which is why I was considering an OC'd graphics card.

Everyone seems to agree that the Artic Freezer is good.

Has been Vista 64 worth it for you? How much did you pay?

Thanks!

 

[HawkeyeRecon2]

Hi DSF, thanks for the reply.

I thought the ddr2-800 would work, but wasn't sure.

Do you recommend a chip with a specific multiplier that might be more stable for overclocking? Is there any reason to think that a 10x multiplier might be better or worse than a 9x or 11x multiplier, or does that not really matter? I there a multiplier that might work best with 1333/1066MHz motherboard or ddr2-800 RAM?

Is an extra 1MG of Ram and higher voltage worth going from $83 to $125-$140?

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply!

 

[MarcVenice]

I think the DS3L is of slightly better qaulity, and a bit more stable/easier to overclock then the abit ip35-e. It doesn't really matter though, if the abit ip35-e was still going for 70$ I'd definately recommend it over the ds3l. As for the PSU, that's a crappy PSU review, and means nothing. It's probably plenty good enough to power your rig though, but there are better choices out there for sure.

I'll try and answer the other questions too, Vista 64 is worth it, if you plan on using more then 3gb of ram. I have had no issues with it, and I do run a lot of applications/games. Mostly mainstream though, so if you have any specialized software, doublecheck if it's Vista 64x supported. DDR2 800mhz will be just fine, and no certain multiplier works best, but the higher the multiplier, the lower the FSB has to be to reach high overclocks. Meaning, that with higher multipliers, it's easier to overclock. 83$ e2180 vs 125$ e4500. Hmmmz, I'd probably go for the e2180, or a e8400 for 190$, but I wouldn't really consider the e4500 when overclocking, unless you are deadset on hitting somewhere north of 3.0ghz.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: HawkeyeRecon2
Hi DSF, thanks for the reply.

I thought the ddr2-800 would work, but wasn't sure.

Do you recommend a chip with a specific multiplier that might be more stable for overclocking? Is there any reason to think that a 10x multiplier might be better or worse than a 9x or 11x multiplier, or does that not really matter? I there a multiplier that might work best with 1333/1066MHz motherboard or ddr2-800 RAM?

Is an extra 1MG of Ram and higher voltage worth going from $83 to $125-$140?

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply!

A CPU's overall clock speed is calculated by the front-side bus (FSB) speed times the CPU multiplier. In the case of the E4xxx series, you have four chips with the same FSB, but each has a different speed due to its different multiplier.

E4300: 1.8 GHz (200MHz x multiplier of 9)
E4400: 2.0 GHz (200MHz x multiplier of 10)
E4500: 2.2 GHz (200MHz x multiplier of 11)
E4600: 2.4 GHz (200MHz x multiplier of 12)

Generally speaking, a higher multiplier is more useful for overclocking than a low multiplier, because the chip can run at higher speeds without putting too much stress on the rest of the system. (In other words, to run at 3GHz the E4300 needs a FSB speed of 375MHz (8x375=3000), whereas the E4600 only needs a FSB speed of 250MHz (12x250=3000). Also, the multiplier of any CPU can be reduced in the BIOS. An E4500 can run with any multiplier from 6 to 11 inclusive. Don't worry about matching multipliers with RAM speeds or with your motherboard, it's irrelevant.

The simple answer is that a higher multiplier is better when all else is equal, but the 11x multiplier of the E4500 is already fairly high, so I don't know that I'd pay the extra money for an E4600.

As far as the cache size issue, it depends on the application. Some are more greatly affected by cache size than others. As an approximation, I've seen some sites claim that the change from 1MB to 2MB of cache is worth about 200MHz of raw clock speed, and the same with the jump from 2MB to 4MB. That is to say, to match an E6600 running at 3.0 GHz an E4500 would have to run at 3.2GHz and an E2200 would have to run at 3.4GHz.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Originally posted by: HawkeyeRecon2
Hi Garfield, thanks for the reply.

I'll probably end up using my 42 inch LCD, which is why I was considering an OC'd graphics card.

Everyone seems to agree that the Artic Freezer is good.

Has been Vista 64 worth it for you? How much did you pay?

Thanks!

Remember that your 42" LCD still is only 1280x1024 or 1080p (basically the same number of pixels eiter way). Either is a lot less pixels then a 21" 1600x1200 or 24" 1920x1200. So any 8800 series should be fine.

Vista 64 has been fine for me, I ran into my first game that won't run yesterday (LoTR:BME2), but all my other games work fine. It's different then XP for sure, but just as stable from what I have seen. Getting used to everything is the biggest problem. Of course, all my stuff is pretty modern, so I don't have the problem of finding drivers for old stuff.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Originally posted by: HawkeyeRecon2
Hi DSF, thanks for the reply.

I thought the ddr2-800 would work, but wasn't sure.

Do you recommend a chip with a specific multiplier that might be more stable for overclocking? Is there any reason to think that a 10x multiplier might be better or worse than a 9x or 11x multiplier, or does that not really matter? I there a multiplier that might work best with 1333/1066MHz motherboard or ddr2-800 RAM?

Is an extra 1MG of Ram and higher voltage worth going from $83 to $125-$140?

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply!

DSF has it right. Pretty much any multi over 9X is fine, given that most mobo's will hit 400-450FSB. All will probably OC to roughly the same speeds.

 

[HawkeyeRecon2]

Hi Garfield,

My 42inch is 1920x1080. I have run BF2 on it at that resolution with my 6800GS at very low levels, and have played 1920x1080 short 2 minute demo videos on it.

Thanks for the info on Vista and the RAM!

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Originally posted by: HawkeyeRecon2
Hi Garfield,

My 42inch is 1920x1080. I have run BF2 on it at that resolution with my 6800GS at very low levels, and have played 1920x1080 short 2 minute demo videos on it.

Thanks for the info on Vista and the RAM!

I'm an idiot (totally forgot what 1080 resolution meant!)

Sorry about that.