I want to pull every single hair out of my head.
I spent ALL DAY yesterday researching, and have been for weeks before this, and just can't seem to make up my mind. Do I get the cheap 4300 and OC, or get the awesome and stable 6600 and OC up to 3.2 ghz? But then there's the 6420, which seems to be a good balance, especially with the 8X multiplier.
I have G. Skill F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ 2X1 GB RAM, Antec Sonata III case, earthwatts PSU 550, EVGA 7900GS GPU, Vista Home Premium (reluctantly). All that's left is the stu*%d processor and mobo.
Really, I will buy today if I could actually make up my mind. I'd rather spend less money of course, but I want something that will last me a while.
This is my first build and my first OC. I really don't want to spend ALL summer tweaking it, so a rather stable, user friendly BIOS on a mobo would be nice. I would like eSATA, Firewire, optical audio out, and lots of USBs. And I want to keep it for a while. I couldn't care less about SLI/Crossfire.
Specifically, I was looking at the MSI P6N Platinum, ASUS P5N-E, P5B-Plus, EVGA 680i, P5B Deluxe (a little $$), and the ABIT AB9 QuadGT. Maybe even the new ASUS P5K for $145 from Directron.
Every board has good and bad reviews, "get this" and "stay away" type advice. Is it best to stick with an Nvidia based board because I have an Nvidia GPU?
Every processor seems to be the BEST. No clear winners.
I will be doing mostly multimedia type stuff (burning DVDs, music, photoshop), MS Office, and some gaming.
There has to be an obvious choice of processor and mobo, right? RIGHT????
I spent ALL DAY yesterday researching, and have been for weeks before this, and just can't seem to make up my mind. Do I get the cheap 4300 and OC, or get the awesome and stable 6600 and OC up to 3.2 ghz? But then there's the 6420, which seems to be a good balance, especially with the 8X multiplier.
I have G. Skill F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ 2X1 GB RAM, Antec Sonata III case, earthwatts PSU 550, EVGA 7900GS GPU, Vista Home Premium (reluctantly). All that's left is the stu*%d processor and mobo.
Really, I will buy today if I could actually make up my mind. I'd rather spend less money of course, but I want something that will last me a while.
This is my first build and my first OC. I really don't want to spend ALL summer tweaking it, so a rather stable, user friendly BIOS on a mobo would be nice. I would like eSATA, Firewire, optical audio out, and lots of USBs. And I want to keep it for a while. I couldn't care less about SLI/Crossfire.
Specifically, I was looking at the MSI P6N Platinum, ASUS P5N-E, P5B-Plus, EVGA 680i, P5B Deluxe (a little $$), and the ABIT AB9 QuadGT. Maybe even the new ASUS P5K for $145 from Directron.
Every board has good and bad reviews, "get this" and "stay away" type advice. Is it best to stick with an Nvidia based board because I have an Nvidia GPU?
Every processor seems to be the BEST. No clear winners.
I will be doing mostly multimedia type stuff (burning DVDs, music, photoshop), MS Office, and some gaming.
There has to be an obvious choice of processor and mobo, right? RIGHT????