Help me with my C2D build: for chess engines!

SAmalathion

Member
Feb 16, 2007
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All right, I used to build my own computers but I have not done so in several years. It's time to admit that my once state-of-the-art P4 is obsolete. Since I haven't been paying attention my hardware skills are a bit rusty.

What I want to do with this system is mainly analyze chess games, so 64 bit and dual core is very important for me. I play some games, but not a lot of the newer ones (mainly Quake 3!) although I would like to be able to run Half Life 2 and that's about it. That's why I'm only interested in budget video cards (which I think is the weakest part of this build right now.) Since I'm upgrading, some parts like case, PSU and so forth are missing.

Questions: Are these parts compatible, and will this CPU overclock given the fan I am getting? About how high?

Mainboard: BIOSTAR TForce965PT LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $105
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813138037

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail $187.00
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819115005

CPU fan: ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail $47
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16835118003

Video card: BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $142.99 ($92.99 after $50.00 Mail-In Rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814143049

Memory: STT DDR2-667 2GB (2x1GB) CL5 S-RIGID Memory Kit $120.00
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=T6UX2G...1d373b23a76e3f97c8c2be2ce76a7430d7c27d


Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $139.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822136073

Mouse: Logitech MX518 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB + PS/2 Wired Optical Gaming-Grade Mouse - Retail $39.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16826104178
 

jkresh

Platinum Member
Jun 18, 2001
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you should get a pretty good overclock out of that chip (though some ddr2 800 instead of 667 might help with hitting higher fsb). What is your budget? Ie how close is that list to the maximum you want to spend?
 

SAmalathion

Member
Feb 16, 2007
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pretty close, but I'm open to suggestions if you think I could get a huge performance boost by dropping 50-100 more.
 

jkresh

Platinum Member
Jun 18, 2001
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actualy if your board can output 2.1v then try http://www.outpost.com/product/4815800 as its halfway inbetween in terms of price. Basicaly with the 6300 your mutiplier is 7 (7*266 = 1.83) so you overclock by increasing the fsb, with ddr800 you can reach 2.8 without overclocking the memory, with ddr2667 you have to overclock the memory from the beginning. Now you might not reach 2.8 either way but it will be easier with ddr2800 then with ddr2667. Going up to an e6400 will give you a multiplier of 8 which may help in overclocking. Whichever chip/memory/board you get make sure that your overclocks are perfectly stable (at least 24hours orthos with no errors) before you run anything where the results are important as just because it doesnt crash doesnt mean that the output is correct.
 

engiNURD

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2004
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The firestix would be worth the extra $60 because they use micron ic's, and can supposedly OC very well. Since you have a low multiplier, you'll need to be able to reach high fsb speeds on both the board and ram for a high OC. those firestix can supposedly reach 500, but again, no oc guaranteed.
 

SAmalathion

Member
Feb 16, 2007
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I ended up buyin the E6400, with a Gigabyte motherboard since the Biostar one has disappeared off the internet. Do I still need 800mhz memory?
 

bob4432

Lifer
Sep 6, 2003
11,719
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Originally posted by: SAmalathion
I ended up buyin the E6400, with a Gigabyte motherboard since the Biostar one has disappeared off the internet. Do I still need 800mhz memory?

which gigabyte m/b?
 

SAmalathion

Member
Feb 16, 2007
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Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 P965 Express Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Duo 1066FSB LGA775 DDR2 ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail
 

zagood

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2005
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Like StopSign said, No.

Question #1 when putting this system together...are you going to overclock? If you are, then please get the ram suggested above or another DDR2-800 equivalent. If you're not, your original ram is fine. Use this link though, for some reason it's cheaper.
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=T6UX2GC5

Oh, and don't get that OCZ EL Platinum from Outpost. That version doesn't play well with the DS3. I replaced mine with the Rev.2 and it was fine (but much more expensive).

-z
 

AliasX

Senior member
Jan 29, 2006
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If you don't need the 500gb hard drive, you could pick upa a 160-250gb one for $50 and use the extra $80 somewhere else.
 

SAmalathion

Member
Feb 16, 2007
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I'm confused. maybe I've not been clear about what I need here.

Q: Do I plan to overclock? Yes, eventually. But what I need more right now is a working system, since my old one died. If the DDR1 that I have will post, I will use that until I can order new memory. But I'm close to my budget limit so I'd rather not order new memory until later IF POSSIBLE. On the other hand, if my DDR1 will not post at all, I need to order some memory RIGHT NOW so I can get this system up and running asap.

So, Iknow that using DDR1 is ****** with a C2d system, but will it boot up?
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
4
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DDR is physically incompatible with DDR2 slots!

That Buffalo Firestix kit is superb if you wish to OC later.
 

CurseTheSky

Diamond Member
Oct 21, 2006
5,401
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Originally posted by: SAmalathion
So, Iknow that using DDR1 is ****** with a C2d system, but will it boot up?

No. DDR2 Slots are 240-pin. DDR slots are 187 pin. DDR2 averages around 1.8-2.1v. DDR was somewhere around 2.5-2.8 if I remember correctly.

DDR cannot be used in place of DDR2, and vice versa. There are a few select boards that have both DDR and DDR2 slots, but they're generally microATX and not geared toward overclocking or performance.
 

SAmalathion

Member
Feb 16, 2007
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It looks like the price of the firestix dropped by $20 since last I checked, so I went ahead and ordered them. That should do it, so big thanks to everyone who posted in this thread so far. I'll come back if I have any problems with setup :)
 

SAmalathion

Member
Feb 16, 2007
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The damn thing won't boot. I get the BIOS screen but it locks up and won't respond to any keystrokes. But the CPU fan spins up after a minute (when the CPU gets hot I think) and when I press the power key it turns off immediately, as if the bios is conscious of this, so I guess *something* in there is alive?

I suspect it might be a power supply problem, since this is a 4 year old old 350 watt psu from PC Power & Cooling. But I don't want to replace anything if I don't want to. what are the odds of its being a PSU problem?
 

vrbaba

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2003
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So everything is new except the PSU?

Make sure u have the minimum hardware in there...just the mobo, video card, cpu and try each stick of ram if u have 2. Let us know then.