Q6600 build: About to buy everything

[Synthetickiller]

HDD: W
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $200
I picked this over the raptor because I need the room and the raptor doesn't appear to be worth the price vs storage.

RAM:
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804 - Retail $250 (4 gigs total)
I figure I can get it to well over 500 mhz (I hope 550+) with OCing.

MOBO:
ASUS P5K DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $220
Has Vdroop and wifi. Appears to be the best DDR2 p35 mobo out from what I've read.

Liquid Cooling
Pump:
Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC Pump Liquid Cooling System - Retail $90
Its a good pump that should last a while.

Thermochill 120.3 $135
Not sure where to buy, but its supposed to be the best radiator for low speed fans. Should handle an OC'd q6600 no prob.

Swiftech MCB-120 "Radbox" - Retail $15
I need one, thats all there is to it.

Tubing:
Tygon 3603 Tubing 1/2" ID 3/4" OD $2.8 per foot.

CPU block:

Swifttec storm : $65
Swiftec apogee gtx: $75

Which ones of these is better? I thought the storm was the better of the two?

I own:

Video card: x1900xtx (waiting till when I need a DX10 card)
CPU: Q6600 GO stepping (yup, I preordered w/ tankguys and they will probably be shipping on the 6th)
Case: antec p180b
PSU: 650 watt seasonic s12

Anything I need to change?

 

[emp]

Get the GA-P35-DS3R mobo, I trust gigabyte a lot more than ASUS when it comes to mobos. I don't know much about liquid cooling but you seem to know what you're doing on that front. Other than that you're pretty much set.

 

[aevm]

Seasonic is great, but liquid cooling builds typically have 1kW PSUs. I have no idea if you do need a 1kW PSU, but I'd do more research on this one.

If you're going for record overclocking, DDR2-800 may not be good enough. Crucial is a great brand, but you may want one of their better products .

I wonder if it's safer to buy a liquid cooling kit, for example a case that already has the whole cooling mechanism with it. This way you're sure all the pieces work together... I read a review some time ago about Thermaltake Tai-Chi, it's a great case with water cooling kit attached. (CAD $550 at my local shop). Check it out...

Agreed with Emp about the mobo.

Why not get 2x500GB disks for the $200, instead of one with 750 GB? You get more space, you lose only half your stuff, not all, if a disk fails, and you get better speed if two different processes access files at the same time and they happen to use different disks.

 

[Evilonigiri]

Quite possibly. Are you running XP or Professional or Vista? I remember reading something about all 32bit OS having a 2gig limit for one program. I think Vista 64bit is the only OS that can support 4 gigs for a single program.

So unless you multitask like crazy, get cheaper ram and wait for DDR3.

 

[emp]

XP 64 can also address more than 4 Gigs. 32 Bit OS can only address up to 4Gigs of memory (Video ram, Ram, etc...)

 

[picho]

That 2GB doesn't include the kernel space stuff which likes to be in physical memory as well. It also wouldn't include other processes which are already running such as services or explorer itself. There's really no reason to limit yourself to 2GB physical RAM, even if you don't "multitask like crazy".

As a side note, only native 64-bit applications get the large address space and there aren't too many of those around yet.

 

[aevm]

That 2GB doesn't include the kernel space stuff which likes to be in physical memory as well. It also wouldn't include other processes which are already running such as services or explorer itself. There's really no reason to limit yourself to 2GB physical RAM, even if you don't "multitask like crazy".

As a side note, only native 64-bit applications get the large address space and there aren't too many of those around yet.

OK, I could really use some clarification here: if I get Windows XP 32-bit and 4 GB of RAM, will it hurt anything? Will it help at all? I understand that there is some benefit to having 4 GB instead of 2 GB, even if the system is 32-bit, but I don't know if it's true and what the benefit is. I would probably get 4 GB anyway if it doesn't hurt, just because RAM prices are very low now and I may switch to Vista 64-bit later. Advise us guys! Thanks!

 

[V lyx]

I'm not positive but I believe you would only have around 3+ gb's give or take depending on your gpu in a 32bit o/s. Should run fine but I have read people having problems with running more than 2gbs of ram. Could have just been something else causeing instability /shrug.

If you want to use all 4gb's go for a 64bit o/s.

Also there was a article on Anandtech about vista hitting the 2gig barrior before xp

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3044

 

[Synthetickiller]

I will be running both xp and vista 64bit in the future (future means about a month) as well as linux which supports over 3 gigs and i'll need 4 for vista since its a resource whore.

1000w for liquid cooling is nuts. Why would you need 1000 watt? I have a 1kw psu for dual cooling loops, dual CPUs on a server board which requires 645 watts to run plus an x1900xtx video card and 7 HDDs. I probably could have been ok with 800 watts, but wanted to play it safe.

Extreme psu calculator states that I need about 610 watts for 100% TDP on the system i mentioned including the pump and the full OC to 3.8ghz (which i might not even be able to reach). Actually pushing 100% will be another story and probably won't happen. As well, the GO stepping will lower my power requirements slightly and help with lower OC voltages.

I've had liquid cooling kits fail on me and had to throw them out. I did not want to to go the trouble to replace hard to reach pumps. This way, I can fix anything I need and add to the loop.

If you go to any site that discussing liquid OCing, they always say that if you can, build your own system. Most pre-made systems (I've owned 3 different kids in the past) have problems:

Weak pumps
Loud
Can have poor fluid flow and not the best cpu/gpu blocks.

Most of them can be outdone or matched by high quality and cheaper air set ups like the TUNIQ.

The HDD i went with b/c i feel that the raptors are over rated and lack space., plus i wanted something less noisy. Most 500 gig drives are great for stored (duh) but performance wise, don't stack up the the WD 750 gig drive. Check out toms' article on it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/06/record-making_hard_disk/

I will be backing up my files elsewhere as well, so if the drives goes down, no worries. I'm going to address that later on anyways. I just want a drive that's a great performer and yet, doesn't limit my space like the raptor does.

I will consider doing 2 separate drives, but i think I will end up doing that anyways.

I like gigabyte, but chose the Asus after reading about all the great OCs that people were getting over at xtremesystems. Even the gigabyte guys there said if you want to OC, go Asus. If it wasn't for so many recomendations by even gigabyte guys, i'd get the GA-P35-DS3R in a heartbeat. Its a great mobo.

Ram wise, I need something that's great for OCing and the ballistix can go to 5-5-5-15 ddr2 1066 speeds if not beyond I believe. Its basically the same ram w/o the sticker saying its ddr2 1066 or so I've been told on here before.

If there's better ram, could anyone give me a link?

 

[Synthetickiller]

This is why I want the Asus, first post in the thread:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=152722

The G0 stepping looks to be insane. 3.7ghz @ 1.4v.

The ram this person used is ballistix, but its a higher speed. If the ddr2 800 can get that far, then I will go with it. Otherwise, I'll get faster ram.