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On the verge of hitting the buy button - looking for last minute comments...

A

AndyD2k

Senior member
Asus Maximus Formula Mobo - $259.99
Corsair 520HX - $119.99
Q6600 - $279.99
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme - $64.99 (this may be a problem with my case / mobo - taking a chance)
G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2gb) DRR800 4x4x4x12 - $129.99
eVGA 8800GTS 512 - estimate of $360. Waiting for the card to hit NewEgg

Housed in a...

Lian Li PC-A10B - $245

Total $1459.95

So, just hoping to get user feedback on the specs above. Not sure much on what I can switch out for a better price but more about finding out any technical issues or "better" components that you might be aware of.
 
That's going to be one kick A$$ computer once you're done with it. If the Ultra-120 is too large, I think the Tuniq Tower has a smaller footprint, or I know the Thermalright Ultima-90 is definitely smaller but still offers excellent performance (link).


AT Maximus review:
For single GPU systems, we think a sub $175 P35 motherboard like the abit IP35 Pro is an excellent purchase while tweakaholics will have the superlative DFI LP UT P35 T2R, fulfilling the upper-end enthusiast role. However, considering the quickly maturing BIOS releases and the additional performance gains that come with them, we are no longer adverse to recommending an X38 DDR2 board. If we had to make a choice today, the ASUS Maximus Formula SE would be at the top of our X38 DDR2 list.
Click to expand...

If you want to trim some money go with the abit IP35 Pro for ~$150 (after MIR) or the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P for ~$160. Both boards offer 2 x16 PCI-E slots so Crossfire is still an option and they are fully featured like the Maximus.

Also, you could consider the Antec Earthwatts 500W for $50 (after MIR) as a lower cost alternative for that Corsair power supply.
 
1. Basic tasks, video conversion (currently thinking about backing up all my dvds to a drive for streaming playback), gaming

2. $1,500 budget - already mentioned

3. US of A

4. Nvidia / Intel Fanboy

5. Parts I'm using from Current build...

2 SATA Hard Drives = 750 gig
Plextor 16x DVD Burner
LG DVD Drive

6. I've checked through other posts but I already have my specs set - looking for comments on what I have currently selected for my build

7. Will maybe overclock the cpu by a slight amount if only because I've read it that I can do this with very little concern temps wise
 
Originally posted by: Denithor
That's going to be one kick A$$ computer once you're done with it. If the Ultra-120 is too large, I think the Tuniq Tower has a smaller footprint, or I know the Thermalright Ultima-90 is definitely smaller but still offers excellent performance (link).


AT Maximus review:
For single GPU systems, we think a sub $175 P35 motherboard like the abit IP35 Pro is an excellent purchase while tweakaholics will have the superlative DFI LP UT P35 T2R, fulfilling the upper-end enthusiast role. However, considering the quickly maturing BIOS releases and the additional performance gains that come with them, we are no longer adverse to recommending an X38 DDR2 board. If we had to make a choice today, the ASUS Maximus Formula SE would be at the top of our X38 DDR2 list.
Click to expand...

If you want to trim some money go with the abit IP35 Pro for ~$150 (after MIR) or the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P for ~$160. Both boards offer 2 x16 PCI-E slots so Crossfire is still an option and they are fully featured like the Maximus.

Also, you could consider the Antec Earthwatts 500W for $50 (after MIR) as a lower cost alternative for that Corsair power supply.
Click to expand...

Thanks Denithor!

For the board, I'm pretty set with the Maximus unless there are issues with the board itself. Comparable P35 boards seem to cost around $150-75. Honestly, if I'm spending close to $1,500 already, it really won't hurt me if I go with a premium board.

For the heatsinks, I read about the 90 but also saw there was about 10C difference between that and the two current top heatsinks - the tower and the 120. I was thinking about the tuniq as well but it sort of looked larger in the pictures. I'll have to check the measurements



 
Originally posted by: Capitalizt
I hope you mean 8800GT, NOT GTS.
Click to expand...

Because? I'm referring to the new G92 512mb GTS which should be better (and it is in initial benchmarks) and not officially out till tomorrow
 
As with the GT and 3870, you might not be able to get your hands on a new GTS unless you're lucky. If all else fails you could go with an old GTS.
 
I'm not too concerned about it. Either I get it this week or the following week - going to use the same core specs and I currently have a PCIE card I can use to hold me over. Though, considering that it's still in stock at ewiz, I'm not too concerned about whether I'm going to be able to find it. Trying to hold off till Newegg has it in stock as I rather just buy everything from one source
 
Was hoping for more feedback but oh well. Went ahead and placed the order since Newegg now has the GTS in stock. The only modification I made was switching out the RAM to a kit with more aggressive timings
 
A nice build.

Let me give you a tip about mounting the thermalright (both the 120 and the 90) CPU cooler on that mobo. It requires a support backplate on the underside of the mobo, make sure you orient it so that it doesn't interfere with the mobo's copper heatsink on the underside. Also, if you have them, put some fibre insulating washers (the kind you use with mobo standoffs) between the mobo and the four thermalright contact points on the upper side of the mobo. I got a minor short on my board, from the stress of the metal cooler mounts exposing a tiny bit of copper on the upside of the mobo. The board would not post, it would get stuck on "INIT CPU" message on the handy little ASUS lcd that you plug into the board. It took me two days of googling and a magnifying glass to track down the problem, but the short disappeared when I insulated the four contact points between the cooler and the board.
 
Thanks! The only problem is that I'm not exactly sure where I can get the washers. I would think that Thermalright would include them. They include it for the bottom only?
 
You don't have to worry about the underside... there are rubber standoffs on the thermalright support plate that keep it insulated from the board. It is the upper side of the mobo that you need to worry about. Sometimes your new case will come with a bunch of washers, standoffs and screws that you use to mount your mobo onto the mobo tray. Even if you don't have any of these fibre washers, you could simply put some electrical tape on the underside of the cooler mounts (sticky side to the cooler, not to the mobo) around the holes where the four mounting screws penetrate the mobo. Just remember, the idea is to prevent any cooler support metal from making contact with your mobo. See the picture in "step 5" of the ultima90 installation guide (see link) - I'm talking about isolating the two brackets (one on each side of the CPU).


http://www.thermalright.com/a_...tallation_Ultima90.htm

P.S. I know you went for the 120 Extreme, which has different mounting brackets, but the theory is the same for both. Avoid metal contact to the mobo.
 
Originally posted by: Build it Myself
you spent too much money 🙁 Could've had the same performance for $1000

...it is a nice build though, i'm not saying you won't be happy
Click to expand...

I think I probably did overspend some but I don't think it would have been by $500 though? Consider the money I spent on the case as something I wouldnt have changed - I've dealt with a lot of different cases throughout the years and the only case I ever fealt it was a joy to work with was a older Lian Li case I owned. I currently have a antec p180 which I pretty much detest and regret I didn't spend the extra $80 at the time for another Lian Li

Then the only other thing that stands out is the board - another $80 makes no difference to me if I'm already spending around $1,500. I spend over $80 on food alone every week 🙂

I don't think I went premium with any other item in the list
 
Originally posted by: Nurn
You don't have to worry about the underside... there are rubber standoffs on the thermalright support plate that keep it insulated from the board. It is the upper side of the mobo that you need to worry about. Sometimes your new case will come with a bunch of washers, standoffs and screws that you use to mount your mobo onto the mobo tray. Even if you don't have any of these fibre washers, you could simply put some electrical tape on the underside of the cooler mounts (sticky side to the cooler, not to the mobo) around the holes where the four mounting screws penetrate the mobo. Just remember, the idea is to prevent any cooler support metal from making contact with your mobo. See the picture in "step 5" of the ultima90 installation guide (see link) - I'm talking about isolating the two brackets (one on each side of the CPU).


http://www.thermalright.com/a_...tallation_Ultima90.htm

P.S. I know you went for the 120 Extreme, which has different mounting brackets, but the theory is the same for both. Avoid metal contact to the mobo.
Click to expand...

Alright, I'll see how things turn out this weekend. Parts should all be here by Friday. I'll definitely be asking questions then if I need to. Appreciate it!
 
Originally posted by: AndyD2k
Asus Maximus Formula Mobo - $259.99
Corsair 520HX - $119.99
Q6600 - $279.99
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme - $64.99 (this may be a problem with my case / mobo - taking a chance)
G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2gb) DRR800 4x4x4x12 - $129.99
eVGA 8800GTS 512 - estimate of $360. Waiting for the card to hit NewEgg

Housed in a...

Lian Li PC-A10B - $245

Total $1459.95

So, just hoping to get user feedback on the specs above. Not sure much on what I can switch out for a better price but more about finding out any technical issues or "better" components that you might be aware of.
Click to expand...

read anandtech's new review of the 8800GTS, it's only about 10% faster than the 8800GT and it's something like $70 more (closer to $80) I got my 8800KO for $270 from EVGA directly, check their website.
I like my abitPro mobo. it's still premium, you can go with an ip35-e, but the pro just won the editors choice on anandtech, it's around $150
That cooler is ok if you want high end.
No reason to spend that much on DDR800, you could probably get something from the hot deals section for around $90 (crucial comes to mind, though I don't know why) still 800mhz

Why buy a 6600? that's $280, save $100 and get a 6750 if you want high performance. it's overclockable and will compete with anything a quad can do (check out the benchmark results between quads and duals)

Corsair is ok, but you could get an antec 500 that will be more than enough for you $80 no rebates.

for a case, that's really a preference, but i've heard good things about GIGABYTE 3D Aurora 570 from people over in overclockers.com and what have you. We'll say it's $140

So there it is, so far you've saved $80 on the GPU, $100 on the CPU, $100 on the mobo, $30 on the ram, $40 on the PSU, and $100 on the case and you still have a full size tower. Grand total = $450 IN SAVINGS 🙂 You can go buy yourself a new OS and some cookies 😎 :cookie:

LOL

not too bad if you ask me and you're getting the same performance.
 
ah what can you do. I budgeted $1,500 and I'm happy I kept it within that. It's too late now to consider I spent several hundred more as the items are already being shipped. Should be here by Thursday. I'm more concerned about getting the best performance while not spending $2,000+ and I think I accomplished that. What I needed to know is if I went with hardware that may be an issue or if there was better out there for the price

I'm also comparing this to my last build...

Antec p180 - $175
AMD 370 - $325
Asus A8N-SLI - $184
EVGA 6800GT - $345 (plus count in another $100 i spent on stepping up since new cards were announced literally the week after I built my pc)
Corsair XMS 3200 2gb (1*2) = $226

I feel like I saved money this time around if anything!

Anyway, I got my compensation meeting tomorrow - promotion, raise and bonus - I'm not going to be too concerned about it 🙂 Plus, should have some money coming in from my sis/bro that they owed me that I had written off already - that's like free money right there! 🙂
 
like i said, i'm sure you'll be happy with the build, you bought a good computer...i'm a college student on financial aid and scholarships, so every dollar counts as far as i'm concerned. 😀
 
I hear that. I remember those days. Well, think about it this way - when you're working full time, you'll eventually be able to splurge without that much of a guilty conscious 🙂

anyway, thermalright ultra 120 was a mistake. that thing is definitely huge. i haven't tried installing it yet but i can tell I will have clearence issues in my case. I just ordered a ultima 90 to takes it place.

Everything sure does look nice before putting it together 🙂

Pic of parts

 
That is a nice setup. Very similar to mine, I have the older Lian Li 65, and I love it.

Some tips:

Don't forget to order up a good quality 90mm fan with good airflow to go with the Ultima90 cooler. Go to the Arctic Silver website to see the best way to apply the thermal paste that comes with the cooler.

Update your bios to 802 (not the 0900 series, which is causing some people problems) after everything is running. Use the flash memory method if you have a flash card that is formated in FAT32.

Don't jump the gun and put everything together before you get the Ultima90... you need to bolt the cooler thru the board.

If you're running Vista, don't install the ASUS AI suite that comes with the mobo, it will cause your keyboard to lock up any apps you are running. Download the latest version from ASUS website - it works OK.

Go into bios after first boot, and make sure your ram is getting the proper amount of voltage.

Use CoreTemp not speedfan to monitor temps. Even better, download Lavalys Everest UE trial version for combined stress testing and temp monitoring.

9 x 333 is an easy overclock, sometimes not even requiring a change from the default CPU voltage. Give it a try, watch your temps to make sure the cores stay below 70 degrees Celsius during a 2 hour load test of Prime95.

If you've got a week off at Christmas and nothing better to do, you can read the massive (more than 4000 posts) Maximus Formula thread at

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...ad.php?t=160945&page=1

or the "readers digest version" at:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...ad.php?t=160945&page=1

Enjoy.


P.S. Did you get a GO stepping Q6600? Look for "SLACR" on the box label. 70 degrees max allowable core temp would be for the GO stepping, not sure what the max allowable B3 temps would be, but if I had to guess, I would say 10 degrees less.
 
Thanks Nurn!!! Definitely helpful info.

Well, I won't be building anything this weekend. I didn't notice the motherboard was sort of damaged. If you look at the box on the lower left in the picture, you'll see it's crunched up. I didn't think much of it but after opening the box today I regret not looking into it further last night. Apparently, the box was dropped on it's corner. Enough that it affected the corner of the board - some pins were bent and for some reason the top part of the heatsink around the cpu has some fins bent as well. Considering how much I paid for the board, you can bet I got Newegg on the phone to request a replacement. While they gave me an upgrade to next day shipping, I should have made the call sooner as it looks like it won't ship till tomorrow.

For the Ultima 90, can't I just use a 120mm fan? I read in reviews that it comes with 120mm clips and I've seen pictures of 120mm fans mounted. And yeah, I'm used to Thermalright heatsink installations. I've used Thermalrights in two older builds so I know what to sort of expect besides the fact that these new heatsinks are taller

As for Asus apps, I always seem to have issues with them. I do usually install for curiosity sake when I finish with a new build so I'll definitely keep this in mind as I have intentions to continue using Vista Ultimate 64bit

I plan to overclock the cpus a little but not right at the start. I want to make sure the build is running ok for at least a few weeks before I even delve into that.

Also, I don't have a week off as I used up all my vacation days (some great vacations this year 🙂 ) but I'll definitely be going through those links!

And yep, I use Lavalys and I've confirmed that I have a GO revision Q6600
 
You're correct, you can use either 92mm or 120mm fan with the Ultima-90 (assuming you have enough space for clearance of the bigger fan).

Enjoy your build, that's going to be a monster of a machine when it's done (even more so once OC'ed properly).

😀
 
Thanks! I'm thinking it will fit but I'll have to see when I get the new board and heatsink in. Good thing is that I get pretty quick shipment from some shops even with standard shipping so I'll get a 92mm fan if needed. I'm hoping I can just use a 120mm Yate Loon that I'm currently using now though
 
Andy, the 120mm will work OK, but if you had clearance problems with the 120 extreme cooler, the added height of a 120mm fan on the Ultima90 cooler may be an issue. I use a 120mm fan my Ultima90 cooler, and with my Lian Li 65, I have to remove the fan and bend the wire retaining clips on the cooler when I slide the mobo tray in or out of the case. No big deal, except sometimes the wire clips actually come out of their holes on the hard-to-get-at underside of the cooler, and it is a pain in the ass to get them back in.

WIth a 90mm fan, you should be able to slide the mobo tray in and out without removing the fan.
 
The clearance issues had more to do with the top part of the case - the side is far too close to the top fan. I won't know for sure what I'll have to end up with till I get the replacement board. I'll definitely report back 🙂
 
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