I have a couple of questions

[shalpin]

First one is what is the real difference between a Conroe 6400 and the 6600 in regards to playing games?

Second is using two 3.0gb's hard drive really worth it in a RAID format for gaming?

Third one is can you find any problems with the system I plan to build. I have a DVD-ROM that I can slip in this case. Please let me know if I'm barking up the wrong tree. I plan to mildly overclock this system:

COOLER MASTER Centurion 532 RC-532-SKN1 Black Aluminum bezel, SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811119094

Thermaltake A2018 120mm 1 Ball, 1 Sleeve Blue LED Light Case Cooling Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811999122

Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813128012

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (May purchase 2 of these for RAID)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822144701

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820231065

SFC Silent SF-650A12 ATX12V 2.0 650W Power Supply 150 – 120Vac / 200 – 240Vac UL, CE, CB, CSA, FCC, TUV, Demko, Nemko, SEMCO - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817203004

MSI RX1900XT-VT2D512E Radeon X1900XT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814127206

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 1066MHz FSB 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115004

 

[ches111]

First question is answered really in the CPU charts that were just updated by THG:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=432&model2=433&chart=169

This is a link to the fear benchies where you can see the E6600 test system clearly outpaces the e6400 by a full 9 frames per second. Given that both are posting results at or above 55 frames per second that may not be that big of a deal (some will argue differently).

With similar results in the COD2 Time Demo:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=432&model2=433&chart=165

In this case the E6600 bests the E6400 by 15 frames per second (again frame rates for both are extremely high).

It appears for an enthusiast gaming processor the E6600 is the sweet spot since in its unaltered form it bests an FX-62 in most of the gaming benchmarks.

Please do not beleive me and check out the CPU charts for yourself as you have not mentioned your favored game. I do not think they have an Oblivion demo for instance but it is easy to extrapolate from the other gaming benchmarks a somewhat accurate understanding of performance.

As far as the dual SATA II drives with 3.0 enabled in RAID goes.... This is only a plus in gaming where level load times are concerned... If you loke being the first guy in with maps loaded and ready to go then that will help. Especially on the larger maps. When working with larger files you will notice a difference. Daya to day activities may be quicker but will you notice (not sure)?

On your third question I have not had time to research each individual piece and therefore will not comment.

 

[ches111]

Also,

To be fair some of these demos are are done in resolutions as low as 1024x768 and up to 1280x1024. I "think" these test were perforrmed at lower res to showcase the CPU and not the GPU. To find out how each game fares at the heavier resolutions you will need to find some other benchmarks. I would tend to "think" that it will still show somewhat similar results.

Notice I quoted the "think" part of my above statements. Since these are nothing more than my thoughts.

 

[battousai831]

Also,

To be fair some of these demos are are done in resolutions as low as 1024x768 and up to 1280x1024. I "think" these test were perforrmed at lower res to showcase the CPU and not the GPU. To find out how each game fares at the heavier resolutions you will need to find some other benchmarks. I would tend to "think" that it will still show somewhat similar results.

Notice I quoted the "think" part of my above statements. Since these are nothing more than my thoughts.

yeah your totally right, as the rez goes higher the fps drop not because of the cpu but because of the gpu. this is not to say that a better proc won't help even more its just that it would be a waste to get a 6800 and not get a better gfx card... ya know?

 

[sailer]

Question one: The Conroe 6600 is probably worth it compared to the 6400, in my opinion. Generally, the faster the cpu, the better. Ultimately what matters more is how much money you have to spend. Speed costs money, how fast can you afford to go?

Second. Using two 3.0 gig hard drives may or may not be worth it in RAID. Then again, I haven't heard of 3 gig hardrives in a very long time. Did you mean 30 gig hard drives? Whichever, Raid will give you faster loading, but has the disadvantage that if one drive fails, all the info on the other is lost as well. I wouldn't bother with RAID, but that's my opinion.

Third. The only thing that sticks out as a possible problem to me in your proposed setup is the psu. It may be good, but I'm not familiar with it.

 

[Doughbuy]

He meant SATAII transfer rate, not the size. He has 2 * 250 gig SATA drives. Yes, RAID 0 will help a bit, although people might argue this point. Raid basically boils down to, do you care if you lose all the stuff you have. If not, go for Raid and hope neither drive fails. If you do, then the performance benefit is probably negligable and safety is more important.

You might want to look at the new Asus P5B mobo, it has got some real nice reviews and has turned out to be a beast of an overclocker.

Haven't heard of the powersupply you chose... but 650W should be enough... only 2 12V rails... I would go with a better PSU. Maybe a GameXStream or a Corsair modular PSU...

Everything else looks fine to me. That case doesn't have enough fans for me, but then again, the case I'm looking at has 3 *120mm fans and 2 * 80mm... meh

 

[DaveUK]

I'd most definitely put the E6600 in that system, increased cache gives it more in common with the higher Conroe CPU's but it has the best price/performance ratio in the Mid-High End bracket.

...not to mention that you can overclock it like a beast, or even conservatively to E6700 speeds and save yourself the price difference.

And I second the idea of getting a better named PSU. Antec NeoHE 550w would suit you just nicely if you want something quiet. It would even handle a 7950GX2 and an overclocked CPU - you shouldn't need anything higher than that unless you're planning on a true (2 card) SLI rig.

As for RAID, personally I'd spend a little extra cash to get a 74GB 10,000RPM Raptor for OS/installation drive (performance will be very similar to 2x7,200RPM drives in RAID 0) and get an ordinary larger-capacity 7,200RPM for storage.

You can quite comfortably 'ghost' a copy of the Raptor onto the storage drive in case it goes down.

The advantage of this setup is that you have speed (raptor) akin to 2x 7.2k in RAID 0, but you also have a certain degree of redundancy (backup on a second drive). If your only drive setup is RAID 0 then if one of those drives fails you're fucked, you'd lose everything.

 

[shalpin]

Guys thanks for your input.

I do have an old 74gb raptor drive in my current pc. Think that will do the job? I also have a even older 30some gb raptor as well. I guess I could use them both for gaming and grab the 250gb for files.

I liked the reviews that people were giving for the PSU but ill look into an Antec

Thanks again.

 

[sailer]

He meant SATAII transfer rate, not the size.

Yeah, I realized that just after I posted the message. A blank moment or something, I guess.