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New, complete build **Done!**

B

bobsmith1492

Diamond Member
Howdy,

Ok, so this machine is going to be mainly for gaming (I like Oblivion, but the 9700 mobility in my laptop just isn't cutting the mustard.)

Also, I like to overclock. 🙂

Here are what I picked out so far (all from Newegg - including shipping):

Case:
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5, $61.20
- decent looking case with good cooling possibilities

HDD:
WD 250GB SATA 16MB, $75.63
- plenty for me (I'm used to a 60GB laptop drive)

Video:
HIS X1900GT, $256.40
- apparently it runs Oblivion better than the 7900GT, although I would consider that card as well

PSU:
Enermax EG365P-VE 350W, $64.63
- seems to be a very solid PSU despite "low" power rating (high 12V rail ratings, balanced between different rails)
CHANGED TO: Fortron AX450-PN (450W) since I hear Fortron is a good brand and it was only $56

Cooling:
80mm fan! $6.88 (for the front of the case)
Thermaltake Big Typhoon (yay!), $40.99
- great cooler from everything I've heard

RAM:
G.SKILL 2GB (2x1), DDR2 800 - $244.98
- cheapest DDR2 800 ram I could find, would like 2GB but willing to cut costs here if possible/practical
CHANGED TO: Patriot 2GB (2x1) PDC22G5300LLK 667MHz since I hear it'll do 8-900 MHz on default volts and was cheaper ($186)

Motherboard:
ASUS P5B Deluxe, $246.93
- read a great review on it here at AT, but it's really expensive... anyone know any better (cheaper) options?
CHANGED TO: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 since it apparently still OCs very well (>450FSB) and is cheaper ($156)

Processor:
C2D 6300, $185
- would like the 6600, but it's too expensive; will OC this as much as possible (hopefully ~3.5GHz)

ADDED: NEC DVD-RW drive, ~$35

Thoughts? The total comes to $1,164.85 with shipping, and I want to get it under a grand.
EDIT: The new total is $1045.82, just over what I was hoping for.

Thanks in advance!
 
Motherboard: Gigabyte 965P DS3 - Excellent overclocker, not to mention about $100 cheaper.

RAM: Go for 667, 800 is better if you're going for a hard overclock but if you have to save money...

There is no chance of getting 3.5Ghz with a 6300 without phasechange, even then it's going to be hard.
 
That was the deluxe they were reviewing... I don't know what the difference between the two is. I went with the cheaper Gigabyte, though.
 
Build is now done! I've been testing it, and am running at 3.08GHz, primed overnight.

I ran up to 3.15, but upon restarting, it would sometimes reset the FSB back to 266 instead of 450... I'm pretty sure it's the ram, since dropping the CPU multiplier to 6 doesn't do anything and bumping the RAM timings up helped a bit. I didn't expect the ram to be holding the OC back, though!

Whatever happened to RAM _dividers_? This thing only has multipliers, from 1 (2, DDR) on up. That means to run at 450 FSB the RAM needs to hit 900... given that it's DDR667, I'm surprised that it can, but it does need some crappy latencies (6-6-6-18), and even then it wasn't quite stable, though Prime didn't find any errors.

Anyway, it's now comfortably at 5-5-5-16, 880MHz, with the proc at 3.08 GHz. Super PI times were: 1M: 18s, 32M: 17:12.

I played Oblivion and it runs great with all settings maxed (HDR, no AA) at 1680x1050. That makes me happy, at least!

The Thermaltake Big Typhoon is certainly that - BIG! Holy schmoley... anyway, I strapped it on, and it sure is silent; I can't hear the computer at all, with 3x 120mm fans and 1x80 in the front, plus the video card. After priming both cores, it pushed up to 60C with the room being hot; when the AC turned on, it went down to like 52 (monitored using Core Temp). Strangely, though, the temp immediately dropped to 42C as soon as I closed Prime... I think that program is flakey. Also, this was without the rear 120mm fan running (it apparently died all of a sudden), so there were just the PSU fan and front fan going.

Anyway, I wish they had dividers so I could OC more... 🙁

Oh, and what are people using these days for video card OCing? Riva Tuner still?

And, how do you know which connectors on the Fortron PSU are from which supply rail? Thanks!
 
Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
Build is now done! I've been testing it, and am running at 3.08GHz, primed overnight.

I ran up to 3.15, but upon restarting, it would sometimes reset the FSB back to 266 instead of 450... I'm pretty sure it's the ram, since dropping the CPU multiplier to 6 doesn't do anything and bumping the RAM timings up helped a bit. I didn't expect the ram to be holding the OC back, though!

Whatever happened to RAM _dividers_? This thing only has multipliers, from 1 (2, DDR) on up. That means to run at 450 FSB the RAM needs to hit 900... given that it's DDR667, I'm surprised that it can, but it does need some crappy latencies (6-6-6-18), and even then it wasn't quite stable, though Prime didn't find any errors.

Anyway, it's now comfortably at 5-5-5-16, 880MHz, with the proc at 3.08 GHz. Super PI times were: 1M: 18s, 32M: 17:12.

I played Oblivion and it runs great with all settings maxed (HDR, no AA) at 1680x1050. That makes me happy, at least!

The Thermaltake Big Typhoon is certainly that - BIG! Holy schmoley... anyway, I strapped it on, and it sure is silent; I can't hear the computer at all, with 3x 120mm fans and 1x80 in the front, plus the video card. After priming both cores, it pushed up to 60C with the room being hot; when the AC turned on, it went down to like 52 (monitored using Core Temp). Strangely, though, the temp immediately dropped to 42C as soon as I closed Prime... I think that program is flakey. Also, this was without the rear 120mm fan running (it apparently died all of a sudden), so there were just the PSU fan and front fan going.

Anyway, I wish they had dividers so I could OC more... 🙁

Oh, and what are people using these days for video card OCing? Riva Tuner still?

And, how do you know which connectors on the Fortron PSU are from which supply rail? Thanks!
Click to expand...


Yep, the P5B deluxe is the only C2D board that offers a divider (5:4) as far as I know, guess thats why its so expensive

 
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Yep, the P5B deluxe is the only C2D board that offers a divider (5:4) as far as I know, guess thats why its so expensive
Click to expand...
Not even the P5B-deluxe has a memory divider to run memory lower than the FSB. It seems to be a limitation of all 965P based motherboards.

 
I like the eVGA 7900GTO, as far as high end video cards go. It's apparently a 7900GTX is disguise and reportedly has a better stock cooling solution than most.

I'd take Seagate over Western Digital (especially at the 250 GB level, as I've had a remarkable four 250 GB WD Caviars come DOA when I bought them). Seagate's 5 year warranty and comparable pricing make it stand a little higher above the rest, in my book at least.

Fortron is good from what I hear. I like Antec for PSUs, but this point is quite up to you. Their SmartPower series is quiet, rock-solid, and the warranty is nice.

G. Skill is great, Patriot is good, too. Whatever is cheap. Remember if you're overclocking, get the cheapest (but still quality) components and milk them for all they're worth.

Again, the processor should be the cheapest of the series. If you want to OC, have an OCing mentality!

The NEC ND-3550A is a great burner. Good choice.

450MHz FSB is great. Sounds like a good mainboard choice. Cheap is good, but don't skimp on the motherboard for OCing! The DFI LANParty Ultra-D comes to mind... (disregard that, hehe, just some wistful reminiscing).

Have fun!
 
I would have used the Enermax of the FSP, yes fsp is a great brand but mostly their high end psu's give them this reputation. The FSP AX models use fuhyiju (sp?) caps, but well, it should work fine lol.
 
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