projhex

Distinguished
Sep 28, 2008
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18,510
Thanks Tom's Forumers.

After a month of scouring Tom's Forums for information and Newegg for pricing, I finally put together my system earlier this week and am happy with the results. The only thing I am disappointed about is something out of my control, my E8500 is a C0 stepping and I just ordered it from Newegg a week ago. I thought they would be shipping out all E0 steppings by now =/

It was not without complications however. At one point I managed to drop a small amount of OCZ Freeze (Thermal Compound) into the socket 775 and rather than try to RMA the board, I manned up and used a toothbrush combined with isopropyl alcohol to clean the socket. It took upwards of two hours and I let it dry under a hot lamp for 90 minutes. The first power on was about as nervous as I have ever been. I know for sure I am glad I waited for Newegg to restock OCZ Freeze, I bought it originally because it is non-electrically conductive and who knows what would have happened if I was using a silver-based compound.

The system:

[Mobo] GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
[CPU] Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
[RAM] G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 @ 1.8v
[GPU] POWERCOLOR AX4870 1GBD5-PPH Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card 800mhz Core Clock 925mhz Memory Clock
[PSU] Antec TPQ-850 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
[HDD] Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
[CASE] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
[MONITOR] ASUS VK222H Black 22" 2 ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor w/Webcam 300 cd/m2 ASCR 5000:1(1000:1) Built in Speakers
[DRIVE] LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe
[NIC] LINKSYS WMP54GS IEEE 802.11b/g 32-bit PCI Interface Wireless-G Adapter with SpeedBooster Up to 54Mbps Data Rates WEP key bits: 64Bit and 128Bit WEP and WPA
[OS] Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD
[MISC] ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
[MISC] OCZ OCZTFRZTC Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound
[MISC] XTRAC Ripper Optical Mouse pad
[MISC] CyberPower 850 6 Feet 4 Transformer Spaced 4 Non-Transformer Spaced Outlets 2400 Joules Surge Protector

----Total Cost 1483.77 Shipped (I pay tax from Newegg being in California)




The Lapped Processor (also lapped the Freezer Pro 7):



The Overclock E8500 C0 @ 3.8ghz @7+ Hours Mid-day Large FFT : [TCase 51c Core0 & Core1 56c Loaded] [TCase 33c Core0 & Core1 38c Idle]




Thanks again guys. Great guides, great help.