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First new build in 5 years - Am I on the right track?

N

Nyanga

Junior Member
Hi all you tech-wizards 🙂

I need a little feedback on what I hope will become my new super-PC. I finally scraped up the money and the time to retire the old box of pcb's thats currently sitting under my desk. But before I waste all that time and money, maybe you would be kind enough to comment on the proposed setup:

CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz BX80557E6600
MB: EVGA nForce 680i SLI 122-CK-NF68-AR
RAM: OCZ Platinum 2 x 1 GB OCZ2N10662GK PC2-8500CL5
GPU: EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS KO ACS3 640MB 640-P2-E827-AR
HD: WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150 GB
Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS 9500 LED
Case: Antec Performance One P180B
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower Cable Management W0116 750W
Monitor: LG L2000C-SF 20" (4:3) 1600 x 1200

I would especially like to hear if you have had any problems with a similar setup.

Johnny / Denmark
 
Going to overclock ? Otherwise you really dont need that ram. Also, 1600*1200 seems to be the cutoff for 8800gts 320mb vs 8800gts 640mb. Get some more opinions on it, and you might be able to save yourself some money. The PSU is overkill, you really don't need 750W, I suggest getting a 520w Corsair, people seem to love it, and a friend of mine thanked me for suggesting that psu. Not a big HD btw, do you really need that raptor? Can't really comment on the mobo, don't know what it costs, the chipset should be fine though, might wanna look into the bearlake mobo's, the p5 from asus seem to be just fine. Nice case as well. And, if you know even 2 things about oc-ing, you could get a cheaper CPU, change the FSB, and the FSB only, and your e6320 will run at e6600 speeds.

Btw, you do know Intel is cutting prices in 1 month, and AMD is cutting prices in about 10 days or so ?
 
Originally posted by: Nyanga

CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz BX80557E6600
MB: EVGA nForce 680i SLI 122-CK-NF68-AR
RAM: OCZ Platinum 2 x 1 GB OCZ2N10662GK PC2-8500CL5
GPU: EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS KO ACS3 640MB 640-P2-E827-AR
HD: WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150 GB
Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS 9500 LED
Case: Antec Performance One P180B
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower Cable Management W0116 750W
Monitor: LG L2000C-SF 20" (4:3) 1600 x 1200
Click to expand...
CPU - Wait until late July to get a better price.
MB - Ditch the nVidia and get a P965 or P35 Intel chipset MB.
RAM - PC2-8500 is overkill, get some good PC2-6400
GPU - If it floats your boat.
HD - Get the 74GB Raptor and add a 400-500GB WD or Seagate for storage.
Cooler - Master-Blaster if you want.
Case - Ditch that coffin of a box and get an Antec Nine Hundred or a Cooler Master Stacker (any version).
PSU - Out with that Thermaltake, in with an Enermax, PC P&C or Seasonic.
Monitor - Whatever lights your fire.
DVD burner - ??

 
Originally posted by: Nyanga
Hi all you tech-wizards 🙂

I need a little feedback on what I hope will become my new super-PC. I finally scraped up the money and the time to retire the old box of pcb's thats currently sitting under my desk. But before I waste all that time and money, maybe you would be kind enough to comment on the proposed setup:

CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz BX80557E6600
MB: EVGA nForce 680i SLI 122-CK-NF68-AR
RAM: OCZ Platinum 2 x 1 GB OCZ2N10662GK PC2-8500CL5
GPU: EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS KO ACS3 640MB 640-P2-E827-AR
HD: WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150 GB
Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS 9500 LED
Case: Antec Performance One P180B
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower Cable Management W0116 750W
Monitor: LG L2000C-SF 20" (4:3) 1600 x 1200

I would especially like to hear if you have had any problems with a similar setup.

Johnny / Denmark
Click to expand...

CPU - There's no point in getting the E6600 unless you don't plan to overclock in which case there's no point in getting that RAM and cpu cooler. Get a E6320 and OC it.

MB - While that mobo is indeed good, i'd go with the ASUS P5K3-Deluxe which is seeing nice performance gains thanks to intel's Bearlake chipset.

RAM - Good if you plan on overclocking. Otherwise, just get some cheap PC2 - 6400
GPU - Fine.

HD - Kind of small and the performance agains aren't worth the price imo. just get a seagate 500GB drive and be done with it.

Cooler - if you plan on seriously OC'ing that monster of a chip, i'd get this. The Zalman cooler is good, but if you don't plan on OC'ing at all, the retail heatsink from Intel is quite enough.

Case - While it's a good case, i prefer Cooler Master's offerings.

PSU - go with what MarcVenice said. that PSU is overkill. the corsair is great.

Monitor - whatever rocks your boat.

How about a dvd burner? samsung makes great drives. quiet. plus, this comes with software, has lightscribe, and uses the SATA interface.
 
Originally posted by: Blain
Originally posted by: Nyanga

CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz BX80557E6600
MB: EVGA nForce 680i SLI 122-CK-NF68-AR
RAM: OCZ Platinum 2 x 1 GB OCZ2N10662GK PC2-8500CL5
GPU: EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS KO ACS3 640MB 640-P2-E827-AR
HD: WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150 GB
Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS 9500 LED
Case: Antec Performance One P180B
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower Cable Management W0116 750W
Monitor: LG L2000C-SF 20" (4:3) 1600 x 1200
Click to expand...
CPU - Wait until late July to get a better price.
MB - Ditch the nVidia and get a P965 or P35 Intel chipset MB.
RAM - PC2-8500 is overkill, get some good PC2-6400
GPU - If it floats your boat.
HD - Get the 74GB Raptor and add a 400-500GB WD or Seagate for storage.
Cooler - Master-Blaster if you want.
Case - Ditch that coffin of a box and get an Antec Nine Hundred or a Cooler Master Stacker (any version).
PSU - Out with that Thermaltake, in with an Enermax, PC P&C or Seasonic.
Monitor - Whatever lights your fire.
DVD burner - ??
Click to expand...
Definitely great advice :thumbsup:

 
I just wanted to add that you are getting a CPU right ahead of price cuts and before the launch of the K10 processor by AMD.

It may "hurt" a little to wait but it might be worth it.

BTW, the last time I did some research on DVD-RW, I found the LG H22N was a good drive, but hard to find. Some obscure place in Quebec, Canada has some (microinformatique.ca) I bought one from them and found them through shopbot.ca
 
Originally posted by: Roguestar
Originally posted by: Blain
Originally posted by: Nyanga

CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz BX80557E6600
MB: EVGA nForce 680i SLI 122-CK-NF68-AR
RAM: OCZ Platinum 2 x 1 GB OCZ2N10662GK PC2-8500CL5
GPU: EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS KO ACS3 640MB 640-P2-E827-AR
HD: WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150 GB
Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS 9500 LED
Case: Antec Performance One P180B
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower Cable Management W0116 750W
Monitor: LG L2000C-SF 20" (4:3) 1600 x 1200
Click to expand...
CPU - Wait until late July to get a better price.
MB - Ditch the nVidia and get a P965 or P35 Intel chipset MB.
RAM - PC2-8500 is overkill, get some good PC2-6400
GPU - If it floats your boat.
HD - Get the 74GB Raptor and add a 400-500GB WD or Seagate for storage.
Cooler - Master-Blaster if you want.
Case - Ditch that coffin of a box and get an Antec Nine Hundred or a Cooler Master Stacker (any version).
PSU - Out with that Thermaltake, in with an Enermax, PC P&C or Seasonic.
Monitor - Whatever lights your fire.
DVD burner - ??
Click to expand...
Definitely great advice :thumbsup:
Click to expand...
I don't agree with the suggestion to get an Antec 900 or Stacker. The P180 is fine (though why you would want to go with that instead of the P182...)

What is a Master-Blaster anyway?
 
CPU: I disagree that there's no point in getting an E6600 unless you don't plan to overclock (in which case you may be better with AMD.) Until the price drop in July, it's still the upper-range best-bang-for-buck chip. With good cooling and a little luck you can get one to 3.6ghz on air. If you wait until July, the Quad Q6600 becomes a much more enticing buy.

MoBo: The 680i is a great motherboard, and if you get the eVGA A1 version, you at least have confirmation that it will support Penryn CPUs. However, if you don't plan on SLI, you'll be better off with a P35 board such as the Asus P5K/Deluxe. So, if SLI, then 680i, if not, then P35.

RAM: Agreed that you don't need RAM that fast, especially for an E6600.

PSU: 750W is overkill unless you're going SLI.

Good luck,

Mark.
 
Originally posted by: Howard
Click to expand...
I don't agree with the suggestion to get an Antec 900 or Stacker. The P180 is fine (though why you would want to go with that instead of the P182...)

What is a Master-Blaster anyway?[/quote]

You'd presumably get the P180 because a) You don't think the P182 is worth substantially more and b) A lot of the P180s out there right now are essentially silver or black P182s- they've switched over manufacturing, so many of them now have the WC holes and the cable management, cause it's cheaper for Antec to do that.
 
Originally posted by: theYipster
CPU: I disagree that there's no point in getting an E6600 unless you don't plan to overclock (in which case you may be better with AMD.) Until the price drop in July, it's still the upper-range best-bang-for-buck chip. With good cooling and a little luck you can get one to 3.6ghz on air. If you wait until July, the Quad Q6600 becomes a much more enticing buy.

MoBo: The 680i is a great motherboard, and if you get the eVGA A1 version, you at least have confirmation that it will support Penryn CPUs. However, if you don't plan on SLI, you'll be better off with a P35 board such as the Asus P5K/Deluxe. So, if SLI, then 680i, if not, then P35.

RAM: Agreed that you don't need RAM that fast, especially for an E6600.

PSU: 750W is overkill unless you're going SLI.

Good luck,

Mark.
Click to expand...

One of the reasons that I've decided on the 680i MoBo is because I want to keep the SLI option.

As for the RAM, why wouldn't I want the faster RAM as long as the MoBo supports the speed? Am I missing some basic RAM-knowlegde here? If so, please teach me the errors of my ways ;-)

The common opinion here is that my chosen PSU is overkill... But then how much is enough for this kind of setup, keeping in mind that I might upgrade to either a GTX or a second 640MB GTS in SLI?

Thanx very much for all your help so far, its been really helpful. I properly am going to wait and see what kind of price cuts Intel makes in a month or so, but I dont want to wait forever... It's been five years and my fingers are starting to itch for something new :-D
 
Hi,

First, I highly advise against getting two GTS 640 cards in SLI. It's a waste of money. SLI is only beneficial if a) you're gaming on a resolution of at least 1920x1200 and b) you have two of the fastest cards available (not counting the Ultra, which is silly.) In other words, if you're going SLI, you'll only see a worthwhile investment if you have a big monitor (24inches or more) and have two GTX cards. The performance increase of two GTS cards over a single GTX card is negligible, and furthermore, adds to the complexity (and heat output) of your system. If you don't ever see yourself getting two GTX cards then go P35, not 680i.

You don't want faster RAM because you're never going to achieve the RAM speed with a 6600 at default multiplier (and there is really little reason to lower the default multiplier on a 680i board, assuming you don't get a lemon overclocker.) To understand why, you have to understand how Intel Core 2 Duo processors overclock. In brief, a processor's clock speed is determined by your base FSB speed (which is the rated FSB speed / 4) times your processor's multiplier (which on an E6600, ranges from x6-x9, with the default at x9.) Your RAM speed is also related to FSB, as it's double your base FSB speed.

Therefore, at stock settings, a PC with an E6600 will run at the following values:

- base FSB: 266 Mhz (rated quad pump is 1066Mhz)
- processor: 2.4 Ghz (266 * 9)
- RAM: 533Mhz (266 * 2)

Therefore, if you're not going to overclock, all you need is 533Mhz RAM.

Now, everyone here is saying to get 800mhz RAM (PC-6400.) This speed tends to support the max you'll be able to OC your E6600 on air. Let's say you end up with good components and a good air cooler. If you run your RAM at 800Mhz at a standard 1:1 divider, you'll have:

base FSB: 400Mhz (quad pump rate is 1600Mhz)
cpu: 3.6ghz (400Mhz * 9)
RAM: 800Mhz (400Mzh * 2 -- the default rating for PC-6400 RAM.)

This is a relatively quick explanation, leaving out some minor details. For more information, I suggest you review one of the excellent guides found around the web (one of which exists here -- visit the CPU and Overclocking forum.)

Good luck with the build,

Mark.
 
Originally posted by: theYipster
Hi,

First, I highly advise against getting two GTS 640 cards in SLI. It's a waste of money. SLI is only beneficial if a) you're gaming on a resolution of at least 1920x1200 and b) you have two of the fastest cards available (not counting the Ultra, which is silly.) In other words, if you're going SLI, you'll only see a worthwhile investment if you have a big monitor (24inches or more) and have two GTX cards. The performance increase of two GTS cards over a single GTX card is negligible, and furthermore, adds to the complexity (and heat output) of your system. If you don't ever see yourself getting two GTX cards then go P35, not 680i.

You don't want faster RAM because you're never going to achieve the RAM speed with a 6600 at default multiplier (and there is really little reason to lower the default multiplier on a 680i board, assuming you don't get a lemon overclocker.) To understand why, you have to understand how Intel Core 2 Duo processors overclock. In brief, a processor's clock speed is determined by your base FSB speed (which is the rated FSB speed / 4) times your processor's multiplier (which on an E6600, ranges from x6-x9, with the default at x9.) Your RAM speed is also related to FSB, as it's double your base FSB speed.

Therefore, at stock settings, a PC with an E6600 will run at the following values:

- base FSB: 266 Mhz (rated quad pump is 1066Mhz)
- processor: 2.4 Ghz (266 * 9)
- RAM: 533Mhz (266 * 2)

Therefore, if you're not going to overclock, all you need is 533Mhz RAM.

Now, everyone here is saying to get 800mhz RAM (PC-6400.) This speed tends to support the max you'll be able to OC your E6600 on air. Let's say you end up with good components and a good air cooler. If you run your RAM at 800Mhz at a standard 1:1 divider, you'll have:

base FSB: 400Mhz (quad pump rate is 1600Mhz)
cpu: 3.6ghz (400Mhz * 9)
RAM: 800Mhz (400Mzh * 2 -- the default rating for PC-6400 RAM.)

This is a relatively quick explanation, leaving out some minor details. For more information, I suggest you review one of the excellent guides found around the web (one of which exists here -- visit the CPU and Overclocking forum.)

Good luck with the build,

Mark.
Click to expand...

What can I say? I now see the errors of my old RAM-ways :-D

Mark, if you ever come to the top of Denmark, I owe you a beer!
 
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