Need comments/suggestions on system build

[DuffmanOhYeah]

Ok, so I have been out of the game for a while and need some serious help putting together a rig.

What I think Im looking for is a budget rig (cant stress that enough) that I will lightly OC. Im not looking for a world beater, just solid performance at a good price.

What Im thinking is as follows (products linked at the Egg):

Intel e4300: ~120

DS3 Mobo rev 1.3DS3 mobo: ~120

Actually no idea on RAM, have heard going high end doesnt buy you much, but there is a pretty good deal on Crucial Ballistix PC2 8000 (micron d9s) over in hot deals: ~100

eVGA 7600GT: ~85

Samsung Spin Point 500GB: ~130

Either the RosewillR5717-P or the SpireSP-7090B: ~35


Already have Power supply and optical drives. ~0

Grand Total: 590

My thoughts are as follows: I think the 4300 will allow me to clock to 2.8 relatively easily and 3.0 if I push it (though if I want to go to 3.0 I think I might need extra cooling, hoping I can do 2.8 on stock air.).

With the DS3, Im hoping that the OC will be relatively straight forward and simple, just up system clocks and off I go. I dont want to have to mess with connecting pins or anything to make this work. Im placing a little premium on ease and reliability over going for all the speed I can. Im also unsure of the differences between the board revisions, though info I dug up suggests that the only real differences are the number of fan headers. Is this correct?

THe RAM is still a question. I've been out of the game long enough to not know what is needed here. I have heard that most basic 5400 will get me to 2.8 no problem and the only reason for higher speed stuff is to allow for an upgrade path in the future to say a quad core (though I havent any idea about that...like I said, out of it for too long)

The HD was picked as one of Eggs favorites, and it should provide plenty of storage space and speed with a not too hefty price tag.

The Vid Card isnt too important to me as Im not a gamer anymore. FOr me that stopped with Quake 2. All I want is something reasonably powerful should I want some video power to mess around with. ANd while I'd like dual DVI, I suppose I can always use an adapter (I run two monitors) If this card is way off, just tell me. It very well could be.

Lastly, Im not looking for anything special in the case. Just something classy and understated that is reasonably well made and hopefully quiet. I think both options I listed fit the bill.

So, how am I doing? It would be nice if one day I can just dump a quad-core in if I need to upgrade, but right now I think I'd be content if all the parts Im buying actually fit together. Should I go ahead and get the stuff or should I go back to the drawing board?

 

[SamzAthlon]

Hi,

I guess if you're making a budget pc those parts should be ok. I would recommend getting a good psu, because I have had a real bad experience buying cheap psu which burn out even if you slightly overclock. Get an antec or a silverstone psu. I've had a 2 year track record with them...no probs.

Dunno about that ram either. Just get a corsair value 667 ddr2.. should be cheap and efficient.

As for casing, it doesnt really matter as long as it breaths air.

rest looks fine.

 

[kmmatney]

Looks good for a budget system. I decided to go with this board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186108

I should get it on thursday. I plan on running my E4400 at lest at 2.8 Ghz or so - hopefully 3.0 Ghz.

The memory shouldn't matter too much - just get reasonable DDR2 800 memory. The Apida stick I have have worked fine in 3 different Core 2 Duo boards I've tried them on.

 

[DuffmanOhYeah]

ANyone else have ideas? Particularly regarding the RAM and an upgrade path to quad core in the future?

 

[yuppiejr]

I would seriously consider looking at a different mainboard, while I own 2 of the DS3's there are a LOT of quirks involved in overclocking them (12v droop issues, PCIe reverting to 1x when FSB is overclocked, etc..). Because the 4300/4400 are motherboard limited to the 800 mhz strap there are artificial limits imposed as to how far you will be able to O/C on a board that will not allow you to change the strap settings... unless youpin-mod to your CPU which is still iffy with the Gigabyte board. The Abit QuadGT and DFI Infinity P965-S "Dark" both allow manual configuration of the strap that should help you overclock further. You also get firewire + the ICH8r southbridge which adds Intel Matrix RAID features not present on the ICH8 southbridge used on the Gigabyte board.

If I had it to do over again, I'd spend a few extra bucks and get the DFI Infinity board for both of my recent C2D builds. It's hard to find right now (eWiz has them in stock on occasion, Newegg has it on auto-notify) though supposedly it will hit the US in numbers mid-May and is looking to be THE P965 board for C2D overclocking.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136034

 

[yuppiejr]

As for RAM, I've got 3x sets of the G.Skill DDR2/800 5-5-5-15 rated 2-gig kits from Newegg, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098 - $97 shipped without rebate hassles. Tons of good reviews, seems to do 4-4-4-12 without breaking a sweat at a 400 mhz FSB / 1:1 ratio, rated for 1.8v - 2v.

 

[DuffmanOhYeah]

Thanks for the comments yuppie. ANd this is where I have to say Im ignorant, but what does the "800MHZ strap" mean? DOes this mean that I will be headroom limited in as far as I can oc? If so, it might not be that big a deal for me as Im not trying to shoot the moon. But, if it has farther reaching implications, I may have to reconsider.

What I saw of reviews of that board made me like it, but Im not sure I like it for $50 more and delayed availability. How easy is this board to oc? Ive heard that (outside of the problems you mentioned) the DS3 is a breeze.

ANd you might have a better idea with the ram. DOnt have to mess with the rebate and it seems like good stuff. If I ever went quad core, would this limit me? OR should I be looking for to buy the extra headroom now?

 

[DuffmanOhYeah]

bump for anyone who has ideas/comments

 

[The-Noid]

800 mhz strap means you will be limited on the highend.

I explained the straps here http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=2041673&enterthread=y

BSEL Mod works on DS3 perfectly.

 

[DuffmanOhYeah]

Originally posted by: Yoxxy
800 mhz strap means you will be limited on the highend.

I explained the straps here http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=2041673&enterthread=y

BSEL Mod works on DS3 perfectly.

Interesting. SO as I understand it though, I should be able to do 3GHz with the strap limitation? If yes, then I dont think I'd have a problem as I'd not be inclined to go over that.

 

[yuppiejr]

Here's a good explanation of the "FSB" terms related to overclocking on the P965 chipset if you were interested:

(from http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/abit-in932x-max_9.html)

"FSB wall is the maximum bus frequency supported by the given CPU sample. This frequency cannot be exceeded by reducing the clock frequency multiplier even if the mainboard can run at higher speeds. For example, Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 CPUs that we had in our lab couldn?t go beyond 400MHz FSB no matter what we did.

FSB hole is a frequency interval when the mainboard doesn?t work properly including inability to boot the OS or even start at all. At the same time the mainboard is working fine at higher or lower frequencies. For example, 400-450MHz FSB frequency range on Asus P5N-E SLI or the 450MHz FSB frequency on our today?s hero - abit IN9 32X-MAX Wi-Fi with the older BIOS version.

FSB strap. In this case it is the frequency when the chipset switched to a different work mode. At the same time the latencies increase and the performance drops, however, the system can operate at higher FSB speeds. Asus mainboards on Intel P965 Express chipset switch FSB strap somewhere after 400MHz bus frequency. E4300 processor didn?t hit this value thanks to its relatively high 9x multiplier, while E6300 processor had to get beyond 400MHz FSB to overclock to the same resulting frequency. So, we witnessed a paradox: although E4300 supported lower memory and bus frequencies it turned out faster than E6300 that lacked overclocking potential to make up for the increased latencies. "


... So technically, the 800 mhz strap is faster than the 1066/1333 straps, however it also is the most sensitive to overclocking and will limit max FSB speeds. It's similar to the concept of "tight timings" for RAM - the faster you push the memory, the loser your timings have to get. The 800 mhz strap has the tightest timings, the 1333 the loosest... but you can push a higher FSB on the higher straps.

You may want to throw a small, low RPM fan on your northbridge to keep it within a reasonable temp range. Pushing a high FSB on the 800 mhz strap is going to be harder on the northbridge than starting on 1066/1333 so the extra cooling should help ensure stability.

As the previous poster said, the default 9x multi coupled with a 325 - 335 mhz FSB should yield a very acceptable 3 ghz-ish overclock on the 800 mhz strap without much trouble.

 

[pelikan]

The strap will change when you raise the FSB, regardless of which cpu you're using. While raising the FSB, if you hit a wall, just jump 30-50 MHz and see what happens. Lower the multi if necessary.

I just put together a system with an E4300 and DS3. It wouldn't go higher than 267 x 9. But was fine at 300 x 9 and above. Often there is another FSB wall in the high 300's which clears at 400 or 401.