building E6600 system with potential OC later

[Dakre14]

Hello
i recently decided to buy a new system, because my old one doesn't look good with supreme commander
my idea was to get a decent system (like a E6600) and if i need additional calculating power in about a year or two i still can overclock it ( for example if the warranty voided anyway )
is it a good idea? or should i stick to one way... either a nice system without OC or build a system with E6300 or E4300 completly relying on OC from the beginning?

here is what i thought of getting for now:

mobo: MSI P965 Platinum, S. 775 Intel P965, ATX, PCI-Express 118,07 €
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Box 4096Kb, LGA775, 64bit, Conroe 284,99 €
Cooler: Zalman CNPS9500 LED Sockel 478/775/754/939/940 37,96 €
RAM: 2048MB DDR2 Corsair TwinX CL 4, PC6400/800 306,80 €
Graphics: EVGA e-Geforce 8800GTS Superclocked, 640MB, PCI-Express 391,06 €
PSU: ATX-Netzt.BE Quiet! Straight Power 550 Watt / BQT E5 77,31 €

i am sorry that the prices are in euro, multiply them by 1,3 to get $, but probably the prices are not compareable anyway in europe and US

so i have a few questions left:
1. concerning the mainboard i thought of a Gigabyte DS-3 or DQ6, because they seem to have a good OC reputation, but the MSI has good reviews, too. What do you think?
2. the Corsair Ram is quite expensive compared to other DDR2 800Mhz RAM... there are modules for half the price and less... a friend told me to take this one, because it is reliable when increasing the FSB for OC. Is it worth it or am i able to go this way with cheaper RAM?
3. concerning the PSU... i thought 550 Watt would be more than enough for me... i am not going to use any SLI nor do i have many harddrives or other demanding stuff beside the one GF 8800... BUT for OC i was told that i need a reliable and constant powersupply and so i was choosing this one, but i don't really now if it's good... maybe the OCZ GameXStream 520 Watt is a good choice, too?

i really don't know if i should build an OC system from the beginning or stick with something probably more expensive but more reliable, too... the way in between may not be a good choice, i guess.

Thanks for your time and thoughts in advance

 

[jeff_2087]

MSI Platinum sucks for overclocking. Go for the Gigabyte 965P DS3.

That RAM is ridiculously expensive, you don't need that at all. Just get DDR2-800 from a reputable brand like Geil, G.Skill, Corsair, OCZ, Mushkin, Team Group, etc.

I don't know that PSU so I don't trust it. I'd say the OCZ.

 

[Dakre14]

thanks for the fast reply...

ok, then the MSI if i go the non OC path and the Gigabyte for in between and OC only, i guess...

and you think 520 Watt are sufficient?

another question if i decide not to OC, is the boxed cooler enough or should i get the Zalmaan anyway? and how about the cooling paste? :>

 

[GSTe]

Get the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.... way cheaper, comes with good paste pre-applied, and because it's cheap if you decide not to OC then it won't hurt as much The stock cooler will be fine though with no OC.

As far as the PSU goes, you need a good quality one than supplies enough amps.... have a look here:

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1491422#1491422

 

[Dakre14]

thanks for that reference list... there seems to be almost every PSU... and you're right with the cooler... if i plan to overclock in a year or two and the cooler is not sufficient i can still buy a new one

 

[Dakre14]

in addition to the questions at the top i came up with another one... and that would be the time when to get these new parts... waiting for april or even may seems reasonable to you? maybe prices drop or ATIs new card rocks the GF 8800?
on the other hand there are always comming better things out if you just wait for a few months... what would you prefer?

 

[jeff_2087]

The new ATI cards are months away at best. If you wait for them, you'd be hoping for early summer. And considering they were initially saying release in Q4 '06, who knows if they're going to be delayed again.

You're better off to just buy now and enjoy it.

You don't really need an aftermarket cooler, for the most part they're overrated when it comes to getting a better OC than the stock Intel cooler. I've got my e6600 running at 3.25GHz on the stock Intel, and the only reason I haven't gone higher is because that seems to be my RAM's limit to operate 1T. I'd suggest waiting on the cooler because if you try OCing and decide you want more, just buy it then.

 

[GSTe]

in addition to the questions at the top i came up with another one... and that would be the time when to get these new parts... waiting for april or even may seems reasonable to you? maybe prices drop or ATIs new card rocks the GF 8800?
on the other hand there are always comming better things out if you just wait for a few months... what would you prefer?

Yes I'd wait until April/May until the R600 comes out..... it's not always best to wait, but in this case it would be, because at least by then there'll be some DX10 benchmarks out, so we'll be able to judge the 8800s properly, if nothing else. Add to that the fact that the ATIs might kick the 8800s, or at least lower the prices, and it would be sensible.

I have to disagree also about aftermarket coolers.... they will give you far lower temps, keeping your OC within safer limits. Jeff_2087 has a good OC there, but my chip wouldn't get past 2.9GHz below 70C with the stock cooler, however it reaches 3.6GHz with the Arctic Cooling, and thats at 66C load! They don't make after-market coolers for no reason..... even if you only want to OC a bit, the cooler I mentioned is only £11.50 here ($20/17 euro) so it's well worth it. [/i]

 

[Dakre14]

thanks for the advice...
i have to wait until april at least anyway, because i have no time at the moment. But I hope the release of the R600 isn't delayed any further... :>

concerning the Corsair RAM that is so expensive... it is 800mhz CL4 RAM at 1.9 Volt... so there is much room for OC when increasing voltage and releasing cycletimes, or am i mistaken? but you said, it wouldn't be worth it... so with cheaper 800Mhz RAM i still can increase the Voltage to maybe 2.1, 2.2 Volt? How about lifetime then? and releasing the Cycletimes further to maybe 6 wouldn't be noticable in performance beside a few percent? if that's so i am very thankfull, because i can save a lot of money here

 

[GSTe]

Because you are buying DDR800, it will allow you to overclock your CPU to 3.6GHz anyway, without having to overclock your memory (if you stick to the 1:1 ratio that usually gives optimum performance). If you won't want to go higher than this, I'd get some Corsair Value Select...... far cheaper and still has lifetime warranty.

 

[Dakre14]

thank you very much GSte... you and jeff helped me a lot... now i am pretty sure what to get
thanks!!

 

[GSTe]

Just realised that you can't buy value select at DDR800 speeds.... oops .... any DDR800 with lifetime warranty will be fine, and get cas4 if its only a bit more expensive. Glad to help!