Yet another Request for Advice on what to buy!

[devren]

I want to build a new computer that I will be able to get the most bang for my buck and have a very good upgrade path and the ability to overclock it. The new system must work with my dell 24" monitor, preferable at 1920 by 1080 and in hd.


CPU
I was thinking a E6400

Video Card (What should I do)
I was going to go with Nvida for the gpu but with the new 1950 pro out I'm considering going with one of those and later adding another in crossfire or ditching it and getting a dx 10 card (do you think I can get a dx10 compatable mb?) Or should I just wait on the system and buy a better video card?

MB (What Should I do?)
I'm really not sure which mb to buy, I only know of the Asus P5W DH Deluxe 975X P4/Celeron 1066FSB LGA775 DDR2 ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA and the MSI 975X Platinum Power Up Edition Advice here would be appreciated.

RAM
I was thinking
OCZ OCZ2P800R22GK DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum Revision 2 Dual Channel Memory

HD
2 Western Digital Raptor WD360ADFD 36GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer

PSU
I think I want to go with Thermaltake W0103RU Toughpower 600W Power Supply w/Active PFC But if you guys think I will need more power I was also thinking about Antec TruePower TRIO 650 650W Power Supply which is only $5 more.

Case I'm going to use my old antec 1080 server case

OS XP Pro (Already Have)

I'm geussing that it will cost about 1300 (Though I would like it to cost 1000 or less any suggestions?)

Thanks alot guys!

 

[mandraque]

well you don't really need raptors...TH made a mobo comparison article a while ago


http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/10/11/four_975x_motherboards_for_core_2_duo/

 

[The_Abyss]

Any PCI-e motherboard is Dx10 'ready'. Your copy of Windows XP is not however.

 

[mesarectifier]

Skimp on the Raptors, wait until DX10 for the GPU and apparently OCZ isn't very good for C2D (?? this is what I have heard, no experience).

 

[devren]

well you don't really need raptors...TH made a mobo comparison article a while ago


http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/10/11/four_975x_motherboards_for_core_2_duo/

I was only considering the raptors as I will be running in raid 0 and figued it would help out sys speed and load times a lot. If not the raptors what would you guys suggest?

As for the Mobo comp, ya thats where I got the name of the asus and the msi boards but I wasn't sure if any new info was out and it has been about 3 years since I looked at cpu parts so my confidence is very low at the moment, though I have been reading a lot the last few days and its slowly growing.

 

[devren]

Any PCI-e motherboard is Dx10 'ready'. Your copy of Windows XP is not however.

So to use a new dx10 card all I have to do is upgrade to vista when it comes out. Correct?

 

[dasickninja]

Yes.

 

[devren]

Skimp on the Raptors, wait until DX10 for the GPU and apparently OCZ isn't very good for C2D (?? this is what I have heard, no experience).

Any idea when the DX10 cards will come out?

So are you suggesting that I just buy one 1950 pro or that I buy an even cheaper board for the system? Or should I not even buy until the new boards come out?

What ram would you reccommend for use with a possible crossfire setup, and is the ocz slow or something?

Thanks

 

[devren]

Thanks

 

[dasickninja]

Quite welcome.
Expect DX10 cards sometime around December this year or January next.
If you plan to go with the C2D, I recommend either the OCZ 2 x 1GB PC6400 800MHz DDR2 with a 4-4-4-12 latency or the Corsiar XMS2 2 x 1GB PC6400 800MHZ DDR2 with a 5-5-5-15 latency for around $60 to $70 less.
If you are going to buy a DX10 card when it comes out, but still plan to use your system now, might I suggest the NVIDIA 7600 GT as a stop gap card that you can replace with DX10 once it comes out?

 

[devren]

Well after hearing what you had to say, I think whats going to happen is I will use my current system (Old) and buy all the parts for the new system this nov-dec (Probobly Dec as the prices will probobly be lower) and Just assemble it all after Christmas, What do you think?

Edit- oh what cooling solution do you think I should go with? I would like to learn how to oc this thing and pump it up a bit.

 

[dasickninja]

Alright, now we're talking my language. I was getting scared that a fellow Core 2 Duo user wouldn't OC. First off, I you want to know how to OC, you have to read this:
http://tinyurl.co.uk/6iin
Its basically the OC bible. Get the Corsair memory if you do plan to OC. The latency will work better. Also, if you do plan to buy around the holidays, make sure to do it at Newegg. They've got possibly the best prices anywhere.
As for a cooling solution, do you feel any bit intimidated by water cooling? Or do you still want to stay with heatsinks?

 

[devren]

Ill start reading the link now. While checking back on this to see what your saying.

Ok I will look into the Corsair Mem, but should I go with 800 or 1066? From what I read of the mb reveiws here at toms, it seems that having the faster ram didn't really seem to help and infact hurt on alot of the benches.

What about zipzoomfly? Thats where I purchased all of my stuff for my current comp 3 years ago. And accourding to a quick check I did they seem to be a couple bucks cheaper. Does newegg have some really good sales that I should wait for or something?

As for the watercooling, I would love to learn how to watercool. LOL I actually just graduated from collage with a Computer Science Degree so I really REALLY feel like a total newb by not knowing much about OCing. Up till now I wasn't really willing to risk anything as I didn't have time being in school and all, but now that I am out I have a ton of time to learn what I actually want to. So if you think Water is the way to go just ramble of whatever you think will be useful. Or if you think I shouldn't go with it. ANyway ill let you post and see what you have to say.

Thanks again.

 

[devren]

Oh, I only picked the stuff that I did for this system because I thought it would be good for oc and I would get the most bang for my buck.

Effectivly I am 90% open to any suggestions or changes and asside from the CPU being a core 2 I will probobly do whatever is reccommended to me by those who know better. So if you have an alternate build or would suggest other parts please let me know. I pretty much picked the psu ram and mb based on being told that ati currently has the best gpu and so I was building the system for that, as I will be using this system primarily for games and programming. Also my family and friends want to buy me parts for the comp for Christmas so now sounds like a good time, that and my current system is over 3 years old. and My 9700 pro is even older lol.
Anyway I await your advice.

EDIT- Oh I would be interested in ocing my current system but I'm pretty sure that any extra cooling I buy for it (478) will not work with the new chip (775) so it would be a waste of money for just a couple months.

 

[devren]

Ok I read the post about ocing.
Question
When the article stats

Part6. Finalising
-Lower vCore by one notch at a time until lowest possible while maintaining the same stableness
-Do the same for vMCH, vFSB, vICH after the above step is completed
-Record the BIOS settings which works (except DFI and ASUS owners)
-(Optional) Pull off a PCMark and/or SuperPi32M score and compare to stock to gauge performance increase

Do I need to run all the apps for 2 hours for each notch lowered on the vcore and then again for everything else?
Thanks

 

[dasickninja]

Sweet. A fellow CS student. I'm getting my degree at UConn. Where did you get yours?
As for the DDR2 1066, its quite useless to you unless you plan to push your FSB beyond the 400MHz mark. I have both a X6800 and a E6600 and the highest I've ever pushed the FSB is to 333MHz.
If you can get it cheaper at Zipzoomfly, then by all means buy from them. In my haste I foolishly forgot about them. My bad.
If you want to go for water cooling, I'd suggest this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118016
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835128015
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835108076

The Core 2 chips can OC with the stock cooler also so if you want to stay conservative, might I suggest this?:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835185038
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118003
If you are feeling really nuts, you could get what I have,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835702002

Do I need to run all the apps for 2 hours for each notch lowered on the vcore and then again for everything else?
Thanks

If you want to check for stability, and make sure that your OC went well, then yes.

 

[devren]

LOL
I graduated from Southernct

 

[dasickninja]

Small world ain't it?

 

[devren]

Ya lol.

You said

The Core 2 chips can OC with the stock cooler also so if you want to stay conservative, might I suggest this?:

Did you mean that if I buy the retail version of the core 2 due that the hsf that comes with the cpu is actually good enough to let me do a bit of oc safely?

After reading the reviews at newegg it seemed that the fan you have was actually competative or better then most of the water cooling kits. And one guy claimed that he was able to overclock it by ~ 1ghz and it ran at 28 C, does that sound right to you?

 

[dasickninja]

Yep. Sounds right to me.

 

[devren]

yup to both questions?

 

[dasickninja]

Thats right.

 

[devren]

Ok so after all of our talking this is what I'm thinking

CPU
I was thinking a E6400

Video Card
Wait for a dx 10 board this Dec

MB (Still not 100% but probobly)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe WIFI

RAM
I was thinking
OCZ2P800R22GK DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum Revision 2 Dual Channel Memory

HD
Guess Ill just find a sata 3.0 or throw an old one in.

PSU (Still not sure about this(
I think I want to go with Thermaltake W0103RU Toughpower 600W Power Supply w/Active PFC But if you guys think I will need more power I was also thinking about Antec TruePower TRIO 650 650W Power Supply which is only $5 more.

Case I'm going to use my old antec 1080 server case

OS XP Pro (Already Have, And Ill pick up vista when it comes out.)

And if I don't have the money ill just go with standard cooling and pop it up a bit, and then buy the VIGOR GAMING Monsoon II for some fun ocing.

Anything I should change?

 

[dasickninja]

Looks good to me. go with the PSU that will supply you with more power, esecially if you plan to use DX10. I'm not to up oon the specs, but I'm pretty sure they'll draw alot of power. Its better to over shoot then be left wanting.
But other wise, it looks great to me.

 

[devren]

Ok will do thanks, I wasnt to sure about the psu, cause the 600 had exta connectores for the video cards.
Should I get more power 700 or more?