First-Timer Build w/a little OC

[descalada]

Hey all,

Long-time reader, first time poster here. I've been toying with the idea of building a new rig for a long time, and I'm just about ready to do it. I've seen that there are new things coming out, but is there anything that's really worth the wait in my budget range? I'm looking at around $1,150 after rebates w/out the screen... Anyway, this is the list that I've put together.

Raidmax Sirius ATX-701WB Black Aluminum ATX case: $99.99
ASUS P5B Deluxe board w/WiFi: $194.99
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB: $259.99
XION Supernova 600W PSU: $79.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600: $222.90
Crucial Ballistix 4x1GB DDR800: $169.98
WD1600YS, 160GBx2 (Raid 0): $119.98
ASUS DVD Burner: $32.99
Total: $1,181

I'm planning to OC the E6600 to around 3.0 ghz, nothing too big. From what I've read I may even be able to use the stock cooler just fine at this speed. I chose the ASUS mobo in case I want to go SLI in a year or so, and the WiFi version was just $20 more than the deluxe. WiFi isn't a requirement, however. I haven't purchased anything yet, but plan on doing this at the end of August or early September. So... Obviously prices may change somewhat. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[andybird123]

I would advise against the GTS-320 if you like playing with your graphics texture settings set to "High", as some games will only let you play with "medium" with less than 512mb

my personal advice would be to buy a cheaper processor (all of the E series will overclock to 3ghz on the stock cooler) and spend the money saved there on the 640, you could also save nearly $100 on the mobo by getting something like a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, I've had great results with this mobo with E2140 processors - better performance than a stock E6700, which is way more than enough for gaming, and this board will accept a Q6600 which in a years time will be able to be picked up for next to nothing

the P5B is also 965 chipset based which only supports Crossfire, not SLI

 

[theuprightman24]

Yeah I agree the 320MB sucks!

 

[foxrocks]

E6600 might not be worth getting, depends what they get dropped down to. For instance today in the UK, an E6750 is less than an E6600.

Not a good choice on the motherboard tbh: save money and get a better chipset with a Gigabyte P35-DS3R.

Get a 640MB GTS if you can afford it.

Don't try and skimp on the PSU. Double your PSU budget and get something decent by Corsair or Seasonic.

RAID 0. Ugh.

 

[Dior]

I was pretty sure I could get a 8800 GTX in there for that much and I did Just have to wait for E6750 to arrive. Also included an aftermarket cooler with quality paste so you could easily push your E6750 to 3.0Ghz or most likely even higher. Everything is from newegg expect for PSU and cooler.

Centurion 5 $50
E6750 $~170?
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R $130
2GB Crucial ballistix DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 $120
Corsair 520HX $99 (buy.com)
MSI 8800 GTX $480
320GB Seagate $80
LG 18X $28
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro $22 (directron.com)
MASSCOOL G751 Shin-Etsu Thermal Interface Material $5

$1184

Good luck.

 

[descalada]

Centurion 5 $50
E6750 $~170?
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R $130
2GB Crucial ballistix DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 $120
Corsair 520HX $99 (buy.com)
MSI 8800 GTX $480
320GB Seagate $80
LG 18X $28
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro $22 (directron.com)
MASSCOOL G751 Shin-Etsu Thermal Interface Material $5

$1184

Good luck.

Thanks for the info! So it looks like the E6750 has a fixed multiplier and a FSB of 1333mhz, so the only way to increase it is by increasing the Vcore. It looks like I can push it to 3.6GHz on a stock cooler, which sounds great! But the multiplier is locked on the E6750... I know it would be beneficial for it not to be, but does that really matter that much? As far as overclocking, I'm a total NOOB. But it does sound like this Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R board will let you do it very easily.

My only regret w/this board is just one PCI-E x16 slot, but I see the DS3P has 2 for $20.00 more... I'll make a choice on which board sometime soon, but it definitely sounds like these boards are what I should be using.

It sounds like RAID 0 isn't really a good way to go? Foxrocks says ugh, and Dior reduced the build down to one HDD... So is "don't do it" the consensus?

As far as the GPU goes, is it really worth it to upgrade from the 8800GTS 640MB to the 8800GTX? I will be doing gaming, but that will not be the sole purpose of this rig. And... I will be using a single 19" Samsung LCD with a resolution of 1400x900. I chose this because of a 2000:1 contrast ratio and 2m/s response time. The 22" is $100 more... Maybe do the 8800GTS and spend the extra $100 on another 2GB of ram? What do you guys think?

 

[menetlaus]

You don't overclock by raising the voltage. With a locked multiplier the only way to OC is by increasing the FSB. But once the FSB has been increased then you may need to raise the voltage to keep the processor running properly (higher voltage helps with an overclock, but doesn't do anything by itself)

One PCIe x16 is all any of the Intel boards have anyways (the rest are always limited to x8 (at best) but usually x4). So if you don't plan on using a cheap x1-x4 video card for multiple monitors, a PCIe raid controller, or physics controller: the second PCIe isn't much benefit. OTOH - if you want to be able to add a physics card later - the extra $20 isn't too painful.

RAID 0 - can be nice, but it doesn't double the speed of your computer. 2+ gigs of ram can hold a whole lot of data, and that's what you load from most of the time, so except when loading something from the hard drive - you get no improvement with double the risk of losing all your data. So no, RAID 0 is not worth it.

At 1400x900 - the GTS will be fine. 640MB is preferred because some games require 400+ MB for higher quality textures. But the 320MB is "good enough" when already paying $250+ for a graphics card.

 

[descalada]

Sorry I said that quite poorly, I know that I will end up raising the FSB, and in order to do that I will be increasing the voltage. That I knew. I will adjust my build accordingly. Thanks for all your help, you've all been great! And it'll be interesting to see if the physics card makes more of a stand in the next few years...