Please Look Over this C2D build before i buy today

[london_prophet]

Does this build seem sensible, particularly the Mobo, any suggested changes, want to buy today

Core 2 Duo E6600 Retail - BOUGHT (£160 inc p&p, new ebay ... thank you buy-it-now)

Asus P5B Deluxe Wifi - £122.67 inc. p&p
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=113963

2GB Geil Ram PC6400 (800mHz) - 4-4-4-12 - £170.66 inc. p&p
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL

This is to fit in:
ATI x1900xtx (so I have crossfire potential on the mobo)
Tagan 480W-U01 PSU
2 x 250GB SataII (wanted at least 4 SATAII slots)
1 x 160GB IDE HDD (Wanted 2 IDE slots)
2 x DVD-R IDE Drive (Hence 2 x IDE slots)
1 x PCI X-fi Soundcard
1 x PCI Wireless Card (Do I need this with the onboard wireless)?
Case with 2 front and 2 back fans.

 

[mr_fnord]

The WiFi/AP mobo will handle wifi connection, so you don't need the wifi card unless you wanted to do wireless bridging or something else unusual. This mobo can also act as a wireless AP/router, hence the name. Were you planning on using wireless networking with this system? If not you could save a few pennies and get the plain Deluxe instead.

Is this a RAID 0 + your existing ATA drive?

 

[london_prophet]

It's nice to potentially use wireless connections to routers (though I have a linksy PCI card), however I usually get irritated with the router's wireless and hardwire myself in (god bless the 10m cat cable)

I'm not presently using RAID (my mobo only has one SATAII slot, so the second HDD is unformatted waiting for me to install windows on for the new mobo (assuming I'm likely to have to do that).
However perhaps one day RAID will be a nice option.

Can this motherboard act as a router?!?! If so that'd be excellent since I do a bit of lan gaming with friends.

Does the basic deluxe to Crossfire?

 

[london_prophet]

Quite expsneive RAM, what about then Corsair XMS2 Dominator?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-124-CS

How does the DS3 compare with the DQ6?
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/123452
Would it be betetr to spend a little more on the mobo?

I can't afford new raptor drives, I've got the 2 250gig Sata II's already, as well as the IDE drive, so I may as well use them (I use a lot of HDD space)

The Tagan's got pretty good performance, and it's not like the C2D draws much power.

 

[london_prophet]

I don't plan on overclocking now. Although It'd be nice to be able to overclock a little later on when the hardware is becoming dated.

Even if I do overclock now it won't be on liquid cooling (at most I'll get a replacement fan and heatsink).

Given that bit of information, what do you think? Worth going for the Geil, Corsair, or still the Cellshock?

and DS3 vs DQ6 ? The DQ6 have the Crossfire advantage...

 

[jsc]

As far as overclocking is concerned, why wait. You should be able to reach 3.0 Ghz with the stock Intel HSF and with stock voltage settings.

john

 

[london_prophet]

First off huge thanks for your help so far

1. Won't PC6400 ram geneally outperform the PC, How does the RAM you suggested match up, unclocked, to the RAM I suggeted in the first post (which was supposed to be somewhere between quality and price).

2. How does the DS3 and the DS4 gigabytes compare. I notice the DS4 appears to have a lot better heat dissapation unit.

3. How do I know which revision of the DS3/4 I'm buying?

JSC - overclocking the CPU would reduce lifespan, however I might make a slight out-of-the-box overclock.

 

[london_prophet]

Ok, settled on the DS4 (£100 inc. p&p from ebuyer)

What is IC (guilty look of noobness)

 

[london_prophet]

That's a great explanation.

So is there 6400 Micron Ram, not overly expensive? I'm looking to have something futureproof, hence the desire for 6400

 

[slavadon]

ATI x1900xtx (so I have crossfire potential on the mobo)

Didn't read the thread but in case no one has pointed out to you, the x1900xtx is more expensive than an 8800 GTS, which outperforms it, and the G80 cards support direct X 10. Of course, in about a month or so, the R600 series from ATI should be coming out. These cards support DX10 as well, may outperform everything else on the market, AND will probably reduce the price of all other high end graphics cards.

 

[BUFF]

Probably too late but

The asus does not support crossfire,

yes, it does in the same way that other 965 mobos with 2 X16 slots do.

the ds3 and dq6 use the same bios, and with the revision 3.3 release, they should both have support for the 1333fsb

the latest BIOS states that support for 1333 CPUs is only for rev. 3.3 mobos.
As I don't have a 1333fsb CPU I can't check on my DS4 (rev. 1).

& the new king of the castle for 965 mobos seems to be the abit AB9 QuadGT - it's doing 500fsb whilst staying on the 1067 strap. 8)

 

[london_prophet]

ATI x1900xtx (so I have crossfire potential on the mobo)

Didn't read the thread but in case no one has pointed out to you, the x1900xtx is more expensive than an 8800 GTS, which outperforms it, and the G80 cards support direct X 10. Of course, in about a month or so, the R600 series from ATI should be coming out. These cards support DX10 as well, may outperform everything else on the market, AND will probably reduce the price of all other high end graphics cards.

I bought my x1900xtx brand new off ebay for £181 a few months ago. I sold my 7800GT for £141 ... I'd say it was a pretty good £40 upgrade considering it was pretty much the best card on the market when I bought it.

 

[london_prophet]

not really any more, there used to be tons, but with ram getting faster and faster and ddr2 hitting it's limits at a bit over 1300mhz, companies are getting ready for ddr3 and have stopped putting in micron chips since the release of conroe basically.

but this has some very high binned chips in it (micron owns crucial)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Crucial-Ballistix-Tracer-DDR2-PC2-8000-2GB-2x1GB-No-R_W0QQitemZ130074185996QQihZ003QQcategoryZ172QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I say buy it if you can get it at a nice rate, of course, it's ebay and already has 8 bids, so you never know how high it will get

I didn't think the DS4 could take PC8000 memory, only PC6400...

 

[london_prophet]

Ok. Settled on:
E6600 + Gigabyte p965-DS4 (which according to the gigabyte website has Crossfire - which I'm pretty sure it doesn't)

Just need to finalise RAM decision.

Anywhere up to £200

I would prefer PC6400RAM (800mHz), Low latency, decent quality

 

[london_prophet]

not really any more, there used to be tons, but with ram getting faster and faster and ddr2 hitting it's limits at a bit over 1300mhz, companies are getting ready for ddr3 and have stopped putting in micron chips since the release of conroe basically.

but this has some very high binned chips in it (micron owns crucial)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Crucial-Ballistix-Tracer-DDR2-PC2-8000-2GB-2x1GB-No-R_W0QQitemZ130074185996QQihZ003QQcategoryZ172QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I say buy it if you can get it at a nice rate, of course, it's ebay and already has 8 bids, so you never know how high it will get

I didn't think the DS4 could take PC8000 memory, only PC6400...
All mobos can handle 8000 memory as long as they support ddr2, though the memory will run in relationship to your fsb, so you won't get 1000mhz out of the box (well, if you left the 6600 as is, you'd actually get 1066mhz instead). But I suggest you get some value ram, because with 1:1 and even the highest monster oc on that 6600 without watercooling, you're very unlikely to go much over 400fsb, which means 800mhz ram

Bad experience with value (corsair) ram means I'd rather not go too cheap.

Geil - PC6400 - 4-4-4-12 = £170
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL

or

OCZ - PC5400 - 4-4-4-8 = £170
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/114722

or

Corsair - PC6400 - 4-4-4-12 = £190
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119738/rb/24828879566

or

OCZ - PC6400 4-4-4-? = £155
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?OCZ-P642GX

Any of these provide good value?

 

[london_prophet]

Would that cheaper Geil ram you mentioned be better:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-034-GL

On the other hand would I really see a visible performance improvement if I bought that cellshock ram?

 

[london_prophet]

£280 is just too much for RAM. Well the final question would be bwteen the Geil (above) and the Ballistix Ram you mentioned

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-088-CR at £180

 

[london_prophet]

Thank you so much for all your help (that goes for everyone but particularly Taco).

Cheers for your patience Taco.

I have my E6600 (Still chuffed at the £160 deal), P965-DS4 and Geil 5300 2GB RAM arriving in the next couple of days.

Is it likely I'll have to reinstall windows from scratch (I have an unformatted 250GB drive ready for this if needs be), or can i just swap out the old hardware.

Cheers everyone

Tom

 

[rwpritchett]

wtf are you talking about, none of the intel chipsets support sli or xfire just because they have 2 pci_e x16 slots, you have to use hacked drivers to do that, which is a bad idea, they usually aren't stable and you never know what else might be written on the drivers such as spyware and such if it's made by an unknwon orginization

Not quite true taco, here's straight from Asus' P5B-Deluxe FAQ:

Question: Can P5B Deluxe series motherboard support CrossFire? Since it comes with dual PCI-ex16 slots?
Answer: Yes, but only with ATI Catalyst 6.9 or later driver.