Building New PC, Need Some Advice

[D3lta]

Within the next week I'll be buying new components and putting together a new computer.

I currently have...

- 1.5GHz CPU
- Intel Pentium 4
- 768MB RAM
- Nvidia GeForce2
- 120GB HDD

I'll be upgrading to...

- Case: Antec 900
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021&Tpk=antec+900]
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad(2.4GHz), hopefully NewEgg will send me the G0 stepping [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017]
- Heatsink: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme (I'll most likely overclock the Core 2 Quad to around 3.0GHz-3.2GHz, so I need the extra cooling!)
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109140&Tpk=Thermalright+Ultra-120+Extreme]
- Motherboard: Asus/Intel P35 ATX
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131182]
- Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009]
- RAM: Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB(2 x 2GB)
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220227]
- Video Card: EVGA GeForce 8800GTX
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130072]
- HDD: WD 320GB
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074]
- DVD Drive: Samsung 20x SH-203B
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153]

Right now all that is at around $2000.

What do you guys think? Anything I should change, add, remove, etc...?

My main concern is: will there be enough cooling going on in there?

Thanks for all help.

 

[Solariscs]

hey there, check out www.solair-pc.com/forums as well and I sent you a pm.

Looks like you have a good system there. The asus is good, but you can try gigabyte as well, they have really good new boards. I think you can get something cheaper than the PCC PSU. A cosair 620W will be greast for your system. I have one for my GTX and its amazing. You don't need to spend that much for a PSU, you wont even use it all.

Let me know if you have questions! I'll be happy to help.

I can get you better price through my company on the parts it you like I can get you an estimate.

 

[D3lta]

Thanks to the above replies.

2 replies and 56 views? Anyone else? I'd like to get as much advice as I can get...

 

[akhilles]

Excellent advice on backup, supremelaw. I do the same: c for software; d for backup/data. I back up my and my family's pc's every month with true image that boots from a cd. So far it has saved us a few times. Plus, we can try out new oses w/o losing a byte.

I see you're aiming for an o/c'ed rig. I don't see a 120mm fan on the list. The hsf can hold 2 fans on both sides. Ideally, pulling from the bottom or front to the top or back.

Your selected ram isn't great for overclocking. Unless you're not going over 3.2ghz:

3200 / 9 = 356 * 2 = 712Mhz RAM
3200 / 8 = 400 * 2 = 800Mhz RAM

I'd suggest:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820150054
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

Get 2 kits of either if you want 4 gigs.

 

[D3lta]

What's "hsf"?

The case has 3 120mm fans, is that not enough? If it isn't, which would you recommend?

As for the RAM, is there a major difference between having 2 x 2GB sticks or having 4 x 1GB sticks? Or is the brand/quality for the ones I selected not good?

 

[Bobsama]

HSF means Heatsink/Fan... basically we use it in short to say CPU Cooler. A lot of people simply say HSF to refer to processor cooling, and then add to that abbreviation if it's any other (NB HSF, SB HSF, GPU HSF, &c.). Anyways--what he means is you can mount a second 120mm fan on the HSF itself--it improves cooling efficency. You shouldn't really need a second fan on that HSF, especially since a Q6600 at 3.2GHz is quite a light overclock (very good improvement of performance). I'd personally go with a Scythe Infinity (SCINF-1000)--I just ordered mine for $39, along with an inexpensive Thermaltake Purepower 500W (not the best, but its only $40 after the MIR). I'm not going to do the dual-fan configuration, however. Still, most of the HSF towers (Tuniq Tower, Thermalright Ultra 90, Ultra 120, Scythe Infinity, &c.) can have a second fan mounted on them. Even without a second fan, they're quite adequate.

I'd say the 2x2GB kit would be better then 2x2x1GB kits. Why? Because... you can upgrade to more RAM later!

 

[D3lta]

Thanks, Bobsama, that cleared up a couple things.

So the Thermalright Ultra-120 can have 2 extra fans on it? One on the left and one on the right, I'm ***. Is that something and a lot of people do that?

What's the normal temprature for a computer to be in, say, when running Photoshop or a game like BioShock/Crysis?

And for RAM, is Patriot a good company? Would you recommend another 2 x 2GB set?

 

[Bobsama]

Okay...

The Thermalright Ultra-120... it can mount up to 2 fans, if I remember correctly. Most people who get the towers only mount a single fan--adding $10 for a relatively decent fan (or $20 for two) can be a good way to get about 100mhz extra, but I'm not because my budget won't allow me to do so. You can do it, it'll make everything run cooler, but it might not be enough to justify the cost.

For max temperatures? I'd probably guess about 40 Celcius at stock, 50 Celcius at 3.2GHz.

Patriot is a good company--I'd probably say the following kit of RAM would be good. The 2x2GB kit will cost more then 2x2x1GB kits, but remember that you will have to remove at least one DIMM (wasting $40+) for each time you want to upgrade, not to mention that you have to offset the removed RAM (a 2GB stick could cost $100, but removing and wasting the 1GB stick you had in there would make that cost over $130 quite easily, and that's only for 1 extra gigabyte).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220230
That's a Patriot 2x2GB DDR2 667 CL5. You can get faster for less, but the extra only really shows in synthetic benchmarks. Also, remember you would still waste the older RAM if you fill the board. (as I said before, $130+/gigabyte, compared to $50/gigabyte for 2x2GB kits)

 

[D3lta]

Isn't the RAM I listed better than the one you gave?

From the title on NewEgg. Isn't higher, the better?

One I listed:
DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

One you listed:
DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)

Sorry for the confusion if I'm wrong, this is my first build, so I need to know all the details...

 

[sanjiwatsuki]

Isn't the RAM I listed better than the one you gave?

From the title on NewEgg. Isn't higher, the better?

One I listed:
DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

One you listed:
DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)

Sorry for the confusion if I'm wrong, this is my first build, so I need to know all the details...

Not exactly.

You have to realize how the RAM speed is being used.

At 2.4ghz, you're running 266.6~ * 9 = 2.4ghz.
266.67 * 2 is about 533mhz for your RAM.

At 3ghz, you're running 333 * 9 = 3ghz
333 * 2 is about 667mhz for your RAM.

At 3.2ghz, you're running 355 * 9 = ~3200
355 * 2 is about 710mhz for your RAM.

You could change the multiplier, like Akhilles mentioned to 8.

When it is like this, it works like so.

At 3.2ghz, you're running 400 * 8 = 3200
400 * 2 is about 800mhz for your RAM.

Akhilles was noted that your RAM isn't good much beyond DDR2-800. It can go beyond it, but it isn't going much further beyond. The RAMs he mentioned will go much further than DDR2-800 and are better for overclocking.

If you only intend to hit 3.2ghz, go with almost any DDR2-800 RAM.

 

[D3lta]

I'm still a little confused.

The '800' in DDR2-800 is MHz, right?

So even if I'm getting 3.2GHz with a multiplier of 9, I'm getting 710MHz(like you said), so isn't that less than 800MHz, therefore, I could go even higher than 3.2GHz?

 

[Bobsama]

Okay--the DDR2 667 could work too, but you'd need to further relax timings (6-6-6-18 at 1.9V possibly). The DDR2 800 you put up would probably be better, though. You can get 4GB of DDR2 800 CL5 for $200 (I didn't link to it).

EDIT: Not quite... the DDR2 800 means it's 400MHz memory--remember that your rated FSB must be divided by 4 and your rated RAM speed (DDR2 533/667/800) must be divided by 2. That being said, FSB1066 would actually be 266MHz, and the DDR2 800 would actually be 400MHz. The only way to overclock non-extreme edition Intel processors is to increase the FSB. In 1:1 mode, the DDR2 800 will be running at the same speed as DDR2 533, but once you start increasing the FSB, both numbers climb at the same rate. When you hit FSB1333 (333MHz), both will be running at 333MHz. The further you go, the faster both get. In the end, the 3.2GHz you want will come out to be a 356MHz FSB and memory--meaning FSB1424 and DDR2 712.

EDIT 2: You could plausibly go up to 3.6GHz on DDR2 800. You can go further on most RAM if you loosen the timings (5-5-5-15 is probably DDR2 800 speed, you'd need to relax to 6-6-6-18 and likely 1.9V).

 

[D3lta]

What's the FSB on the DDR2 800 RAM?

 

[akhilles]

Sorry I wasn't clear.

Take my pc for example. Click the link in my signature to see the numbers. I'm at 3.2ghz. My cpu is overclocked by 1.2ghz whereas my ram is at stock. I would love to stress the ram and o/c it, but it won't go too far beyond 900mhz. If I had the money, I would get the PC2-1066 or faster RAM so that I have more headroom for overclocking.

Intel FSB is quad pumped. So the e6750 is: 1066 / 4 = 266 x 9 = about 2.4Ghz

DDR & DDR2 is double rated. So a 800mhz stick is actually 400mhz.

HTH