Looking at building my fist computer....

[justin_d]

Well I've been using the same emachine for the past 4 years and am about to graduate and start med school in the fall so was thinking of building a new computer over the summer to have at med school.

I was wanting to make this computer as future-proofed as possible, as I will probably keep the same basic computer for the next 2-3 maybe 4 years with just upgrades during that time.

Which mobo would you guys suggest. I was thinking either the Asus P5E or Gigabyte DS4.
Intel Q6600 2.4 Ghz
MSI GeForce 8800GTS 512 MB
G-Skill 4GB (2X2GB) DDDR2 1000
Antec 900 Case
Seagate 7200.11 500GB HD
Seagate 7200.10 250 GB HD
PC Power and Cooling S610EPS 610W
Zerotherm Nirvana


The main questions i have are on motherboard. I think a X38 will be better for me than the p35, but didnt know whether to go with the asus or gigabyte.. Is there any difference between the MSI 8800GTS and evga that makes the evga worth teh extra money?
will the nirvana be able to keep the q6600 cool if i oc it? Would like to oc it to atleast 3.0Ghz.

 

[chuckm]

The only thing you would gain from an X38 board is the ability to do Crossfire in 16X16, which you cannot do with a Nvidia GPU anyway. Are you gaming? Look at this on that cooler, I'm stayin' away from it;
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/20/cpu_cooler_charts_2008/page15.html
This cooler is new and getting great results, nice price too;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

 

[beurling]

evga has the best customer service and lifetime warranty, plus a 90day step up if something better comes out in 90 days u can just upgrade.

Motherboard: Asus or Gigabyte will work, I have the maximus formula which is basically the P5E but with more overclocking ability. MY preference is Asus.

I've never used the nirvana but most aftermarket coolers will be able to handle a 3Ghz Q6600.

 

[amd_fanboi]

that looks good...

you could go for a Phenom, as the mobo ought to be able to accept newer phenoms later on...

 

[jamesl]

question,
if you're entering med school in the fall, you will have zero time to play games ffor the next two years
so why buy such an expensive video card?
you could buy cheap $90 card and it would suit all your needs, then next summer, when you might have a week or two free, you could buy a new video card,
by then, the 8800GTS may be $175 ,
all you really need to do is use MS Excel, MS Powerpoint, a browser, a pdf reader, really basic stuff,

 

[justin_d]

i had read reviews stating the x38 added features for ocing over the p35 and that the oc ability is the main draw for the x38. If this is wrong i may save some money and just go with a p35 board.

Would an artic cooler pro work well for this type of system? I know its cheaper than the cooler i had listed, and if it will work just as well why not use it.

I think im going to stick with intel since right now they have the best higher end chips out there.

Yea my time will be limited with school and what not, but im hoping to have some free tiem to play some computer games.. use to play a lot more than i do now, but im hoping to get back into some. really looking at eq2 or another mmo thats coming out.

 

[chuckm]

The cooler I linked to is around the same price as the Artic, but does a lot better job, not just when overclocked but a stock settings too. I think the X38 may OC a little better, but not enough to justify the additional cost over a P35.

 

[justin_d]

on the p35 vs x38.. will the p35 using the pci-e x16 1.0 compared to the x38 2.0 slow the gpu down though? Or will the 8800GTS not really see a big difference between the 1.0 and 2.0?

 

[amd_fanboi]

PCIe 1 doesn't make that much iof a difference yet as apparently there aren't cards that max out the bandwith...

as far as i remember reading, it's to prepare for future cards by supplying more power and greater bandwith... on that system, the CPU might end up being the bottleneck

 

[justin_d]

alright thanks... So i think i will go with the DS3L mobo and the XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler and leave everything else the same. Puts it right at $1170 from new egg. My dad is going to see if he can get the parts cheaper too. So i'm hoping he can. So the final build will be....

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM

PC Power & Cooling S610EPS EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

MSI NX8800GTS-T2D512E GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3


Thansk for all the help!

 

[chuckm]

Other than a DVD drive that I don't see, it looks great. Good luck with your build.

 

[resonance451]

I'd spend the cash and get an EVGA card.

 

[justin_d]

i already have a dvd +-r/rw dl that i will switch over into it.

the evga card is worth the extra money? what is the difference between the
EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) and
EVGA 512-P3-N841-A3 GeForce 8800GTS (G92)

except about a $30 on the price tag. both have some clock rate and everything.

Also, i think im going to switch to the g-skill ddr2 800 instead of the ddr2 1000.

 

[chuckm]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%2050001402%201305520548%20106791921%201067924922%201068310557&bop=And&CompareItemList=N82E16814130325%2CN82E16814130312

The cheaper card is Vista certified, the more expensive one has composite video out.
Good call on the ram, 1000 is just 800 that's been tested to work at that speed.

 

[Serj]

you know, you could save even more $$$ and just get a Dual Core. the Quads are really nice but you're not going to see any benefit unless med school is suddenly having you map protein chains and encode video on your breakthrough dissertation.

 

[justin_d]

the e8400 or the e6600 (seems to be the two best dual cores) are only $6 cheaper than the q6600?

why would the dual core be better than the quad core?

the e6600 has the same stock speed as the q6600 for about the same price, and the e8400 is faster but has a fsb of 1333 and was planning on just taking the q6600 up to 1333 fsb from its stock 1066 to be running at 3.0 Ghz.. I am new to all this so I may be missing something, so please explain why going dual core would be more beneficial? Is there another dual core that would work better for much cheaper?

 

[jamesl]

I think the e6750 is better than the e6600 and it is pretty inexpensive

this chart shows the e6750 and the e6600 in red and the fps during 60 seconds of play in Supreme Commander.
The e6750 does better than the e6600.
The q6600 does a little better than the e6750, but I don't know if that slight difference is worth $65 more

maybe someone with more experience can answer, but I think that for most games, you're not really going to notice a difference between either cpu. They're both good and you're choosing a top line graphics card

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=877&model2=873&chart=421

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029

 

[chuckm]

The price is high, but MWave has the E8400.
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA24732

 

[resonance451]

the e8400 or the e6600 (seems to be the two best dual cores) are only $6 cheaper than the q6600?

why would the dual core be better than the quad core?

the e6600 has the same stock speed as the q6600 for about the same price, and the e8400 is faster but has a fsb of 1333 and was planning on just taking the q6600 up to 1333 fsb from its stock 1066 to be running at 3.0 Ghz.. I am new to all this so I may be missing something, so please explain why going dual core would be more beneficial? Is there another dual core that would work better for much cheaper?

No, he just has no idea what he's talking about.