Help Building New Computer PLEASE :)

[Desisuperman]

Need help building a new computer. Want to spend 12-1500 cdn MAX.
Last time i checked the conroe's were excellent overclockers, is that still the case? Are they still the best chips? Is it worth going for the 6600 or should i just stick with the 6400 and OC that?
What's the best MB without overspending?
How about memory? Last i checked with the amd's spending the extra money on "better" memory was a waste of money.
Video cards should be a no brainer, you get pretty much what you pay for. Anything i should be looking out for in particular?

Thanks In advance guys

 

[jpeyton]

Conroes are great overclockers.

I'd go for an E6400 or E4300; whichever fits your budget the best.

Good cheap overclocking motherboards: Gigabyte S3 and Biostar TForce (both have the Intel 965 chipset).

If you get the E4300, you don't need expensive RAM to hit 3GHz because it has a 9X multiplier (the E6400 has an 8X multiplier and might need better RAM).

With the new 8600/8300 cards coming out from Nvidia, and the R600 launch about a month away from ATi, you can either wait for the new cards or get great deals on older ones. The X1950 Pro is a great card that has seen some price drops recently (I've seen them for around $160-ish in the states.

 

[Roguestar]

Beat me on every point. S3, 4300, value RAM, x1950Pro. Bargain.

 

[Desisuperman]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Conroes are great overclockers.

I'd go for an E6400 or E4300; whichever fits your budget the best.

Good cheap overclocking motherboards: Gigabyte S3 and Biostar TForce (both have the Intel 965 chipset).

If you get the E4300, you don't need expensive RAM to hit 3GHz because it has a 9X multiplier (the E6400 has an 8X multiplier and might need better RAM).

With the new 8600/8300 cards coming out from Nvidia, and the R600 launch about a month away from ATi, you can either wait for the new cards or get great deals on older ones. The X1950 Pro is a great card that has seen some price drops recently (I've seen them for around $160-ish in the states.

So are you saying going for the E6600 is "pointless"and the E6400 will perform just as well once OC'd?

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: Desisuperman

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Conroes are great overclockers.

I'd go for an E6400 or E4300; whichever fits your budget the best.

Good cheap overclocking motherboards: Gigabyte S3 and Biostar TForce (both have the Intel 965 chipset).

If you get the E4300, you don't need expensive RAM to hit 3GHz because it has a 9X multiplier (the E6400 has an 8X multiplier and might need better RAM).

With the new 8600/8300 cards coming out from Nvidia, and the R600 launch about a month away from ATi, you can either wait for the new cards or get great deals on older ones. The X1950 Pro is a great card that has seen some price drops recently (I've seen them for around $160-ish in the states.

So are you saying going for the E6600 is "pointless"and the E6400 will perform just as well once OC'd?

Yes that is exactly what I'm saying. The E6600 has an extra 2MB L2 cache, but that doesn't make much of a difference performance wise in many applications; clock-speed is more important.

 

[trOver]

but with the 6400 you cant brag 4mb cache! go for the 6600!

 

[engiNURD]

AT had the 2mb cache question in their article: http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795&p=4

I agree with jpeyton.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: trOver
but with the 6400 you cant brag 4mb cache! go for the 6600!

No. Average Joe User and Average Joe Gamer will not notice the difference, and that's the main point. There's an appreciable difference between a high end and mid end graphics card, but not between 2 and 4Mb of cache at 3.2Ghz on a Core 2 Duo.