Building a new PC, What CPU????

[Manse]

i'm running a q6600 2gb ddr2 800 and a ATI 4670hd gfx and its runs great(stock cooler), on xp64bit at mo but waiting for another 2gb stick from play to arrive and might go back to win7 64.

video converting has gone from aprox 1.5 hrs down to 15-20mins on convertXtodvd with burn.
no probs with any game that i've tried on it

 

[baron]

have a look at aldi from thurs 5th feb
they have got a super pc on sale [nottingham area]

 

[little_pob]

Looking at it purely from an overclock potential the newer Q6600's don't seem as overclockable as the older ones. A quick google of 'Q6600 VID overclock' suggests you got to choose your motherboard and aftermarket cooler carefully should you loose the luck of the draw and end up with a high VID number.

To be honest for a new system this late in the LGA775 life cycle I'd either stick with the AMD Phenom 940 or go for a later Core 2 CPU (e.g. Q9550) or think about saving upwards of £700 for an Intel i7 920 based system.

 

[Erazor786]

Looking at it purely from an overclock potential the newer Q6600's don't seem as overclockable as the older ones. A quick google of 'Q6600 VID overclock' suggests you got to choose your motherboard and aftermarket cooler carefully should you loose the luck of the draw and end up with a high VID number.

To be honest for a new system this late in the LGA775 life cycle I'd either stick with the AMD Phenom 940 or go for a later Core 2 CPU (e.g. Q9550) or think about saving upwards of £700 for an Intel i7 920 based system.

Right then, I'll stick with the Phenom II for now. Because of the Q6600 being so old was the reason i initially left it out of the picture.


Now for the motherboard, I've always been a fan of Gigabyte but i couldn't find anything that was worth getting really, even though i would prefer one, and i have narrowed it down to 2 boards:

Asus M3A79-T Deluxe, AMD 790FX, SAM2+, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX - Scan.co.uk

DFI Lan Party DK 790FXB-M2RSH AMD 790FX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

They're both Crossfire ready, event though i won't be using that, i understand that the 790FX chipset with the SB750 southbridge is the way to go....??

 

[little_pob]

They both support AM2+ processors (although the OcUK website doesn't state this for the DFI), same FSB, same southbridge. The only thing of note is that the DFI supports upto 8Gb of DDR2, the ASUS 16Gb.

As the DFI is out of stock I think your decision may have been made for you?

As usual I'll point out that if going for more than 4Gb of RAM you want a 64bit OS, in fact you'll want a 64bit OS if going for more than 3.5Gb RAM + 512Mb VRAM (graphics).

 

[Erazor786]

They both support AM2+ processors (although the OcUK website doesn't state this for the DFI), same FSB, same southbridge. The only thing of note is that the DFI supports upto 8Gb of DDR2, the ASUS 16Gb.

As the DFI is out of stock I think your decision may have been made for you?

As usual I'll point out that if going for more than 4Gb of RAM you want a 64bit OS, in fact you'll want a 64bit OS if going for more than 3.5Gb RAM + 512Mb VRAM (graphics).

Yh i was planning on using Vista Ultimate 64bit.

I'm still pricing it up and will have the funds available in the next week or two, so the DFI might be a possibility.

Are there any other motherboards out there that u would recommend for the build or is what I've specified OK?

 

[little_pob]

Both will do you fine. Asus and DFI are popular overclocking brands.

 

[Erazor786]

OK, now its time for the GFx and the Ram, then is left the case and the Power supply.

 

[little_pob]

With a £200 CPU and £130-150 on the Mobo, you've got £100-120 of your original budget £450 left.

A 9800GTX/HD4850 alone is going to cost ~£120.

You should be able to get away with the 460W PSU in this case: Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU *SPECIAL OFFER* - Ebuyer

4gb of CL4 DDR2 800 is going to cost near enough £65: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB)

At a rough guesstimate you'll need to budget for nearer £550 - assuming you don't need to buy optical and hard drives too.

 

[shelle_manc]

this memory is better and cheaper, better cause it only takes up 2 slots leaving room for another 2/4gb

also for gfx consider a 4830 cost about 100 and supposed to OC very well.

this is a damn good am2+ cooler

 

[Erazor786]

With a £200 CPU and £130-150 on the Mobo, you've got £100-120 of your original budget £450 left.

A 9800GTX/HD4850 alone is going to cost ~£120.

You should be able to get away with the 460W PSU in this case: Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU *SPECIAL OFFER* - Ebuyer

4gb of CL4 DDR2 800 is going to cost near enough £65: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB)

At a rough guesstimate you'll need to budget for nearer £550 - assuming you don't need to buy optical and hard drives too.

That's what i've just realised myself. I've got a week or two to mull it over, if i can scrape the extra cash together - maybe near £600 - 650, then it should be all good. My god, it never ends up costing as much u think it would, always ends up being more.

i think ill carry on with this build and hopefully ill get the cash! (damn being a student:flame

 

[Erazor786]

Right, after having had a long think about this, i thought if i am going to free up some extra money and spend 650+ on the Phenom II, i mite aswell spend that little bit more and go for the Intel i7 920.

Here's what I've sourced so far :

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5, Intel X58, Sok 1366, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 1066/1600/2000, SATA II, ATX - Scan.co.uk

GFx - ASUS HD 4850 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

Memory - TR3X3G1333C9 - 3GB (3x1GB) CorsairXMS3, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24 - Scan.co.uk

Not sure whether to go for the tri channel or get some 2x2GB sticks. Need some help there.

and need some help with PSU. thinking of getting a 700Watt cooler master, would that be enough for this build. Been told to go for 850Watt min?

Thanks alot for the help

 

[little_pob]

Try this PSU calculator, you might be surprised at the result: eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite v2.5

I'd go for 3 'paired' sticks in tri channel over 2x2GB in single channel mode, but thats just me.

Next you need to decide hard disks... 2 words; Samsung Spinpoint!

 

[Erazor786]

Try this PSU calculator, you might be surprised at the result: eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite v2.5

I'd go for 3 'paired' sticks in tri channel over 2x2GB in single channel mode, but thats just me.

Next you need to decide hard disks... 2 words; Samsung Spinpoint!

Lol, i think HDD is a no brainer. Definitely going for the Spinpoint.

i used the above calculator and that was with one hardrive and 2 opticals.

Im most likely going to be adding extra hardrive or two later on and adding additional cooling in the event of looking to overclock which i may well do. so i think a 850W PSU should be alright.

Ive decided to go for this memory - OCZ 6GB PC3-12800 Gold Low-Voltage Triple Channel (3x2GB) - Aria Technology

What do u think?

 

[little_pob]

I'm a corsair man myself, but OCZ is a popular brand. Just remember with buying from multiple sources to factor in postage when comparing prices...

 

[ducati916]

built my new pc about 3 weeks ago, spec:-

Phenom 9950 Black Edition
MSI 790gx MoBo.
4 Gig (2x2) OCZ REAPER
ASUS EAH4850 graphics (1gig mem)
500 gig western digital hdd
2x 160 gig velociraptor hdd (the fastest hdd)(used from old rig)
arctic Freezer Extreme cpu cooler
antec 900 case
Hiper 1000w psu
most purchased online at EBUYER, and locally (@discount - cheers guys)CCLONLINE.

Runs smooth n stable @ 3.2Ghz simply by upping the multiplier to 16 & cpu voltage to 1.45v. so theres plenty in reserve.
didnt get much change from £600, but what an awesome machine, Crysis? has it for brekky.

 

[Munkey]

I'm using a Q6600 in my main PC and an old C2D in my HTPC. Both are fine for playing back 1080p video.

I do a lot of encoding from HD Digicam to PC but I find that by using a dedicated encoding card I get much better video than if I use a software solution that uses the CPU's power (less dropped frames etc)

Personally I'd spend the bulk of the money on the bottleneck of your system which is usually the HD's. I'd spend the money saved from getting a cheaper CPU, on an encoding card and possibly a dedicated raid card to power the HD's.

 

[daveleebond]

2x 160 gig velociraptor hdd (the fastest hdd)

mm, don't think so, how about a Fujitsu or Seagate SAS drive, bit more expensive than a raptor, most new high end motherboards have a build in controller for it.

 

[ducati916]

lol, point taken.
but for a home desktop/gamer rig, 'raptors are fookin fast, and more importantly, tho pricey, they are affordable and within reach of the average bloke on the street.

think i'll wait for the SAS drives to drop in price:JAWS1:

 

[terminator2k2]

Lol, i think HDD is a no brainer. Definitely going for the Spinpoint.

i used the above calculator and that was with one hardrive and 2 opticals.

Im most likely going to be adding extra hardrive or two later on and adding additional cooling in the event of looking to overclock which i may well do. so i think a 850W PSU should be alright.

Ive decided to go for this memory - OCZ 6GB PC3-12800 Gold Low-Voltage Triple Channel (3x2GB) - Aria Technology

What do u think?

is the price correct on that ram.??? id check first as its £200+ every where else