e7200 system - ordering today. Comments please.

Hi

I am thinking of ordering the following system today. Please let me know if you have any comments. There is no graphics card as I will be using my x1550 until the HD4870 is released. I also already have a 24" monitor (thanks to work).

I considered the e2160, but have read that the e7200 should overclock a little higher and that the 3MB of cache vs 1MB will make a bit of a difference in games and some applications. From what I have read, the 6MB cache on the e8xxx series gives about a 10% increase clock for clock over the 3MB e7200. I am presuming a 1MB cache will drop performance further (I think the sweet spot is somewhere around 2-4MB). I also like the lower power requirements and the other slight enhancements.

I would be looking at pushing the e7200 to a 400MHz FSB and am presuming I can drop the multiplier from 9.5x to 9x or 8x if needed (would give me 3.8GHz, 3.6GHz and 3.2GHz, respectively). I may upgrade to a quad core late next year if I need the extra cores.

If you know of a cheaper, good PCIe 2.0 16x motherboard, let me know. I need a 2.0 board as I believe the HD4870 will start pushing the 16x 1.0/1.1 slot (the review I read shows a slight bottleneck at 8x PCIe 2.0 / 16x PCIe 1.1 on the high end cards right now). Currently, my preference is the GA-EX38.

Also, advice about RAM would be appreciated. I am looking at spending around $100 or less on RAM. The way I understand it, just about any decent DDR2-800 RAM will be sufficient.


GIGABYTE GA-EX38-DS4 LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard
$199.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128089

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E7200
$134.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115052

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
$36.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233003

ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound
$6.99

mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996580
$25.00 Mail-in Rebate
$114.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146726

Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DVR-115DBK
$29.99

COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$84.99

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$119.99

ASUS Xonar D2 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Ultra Fidelity Sound Card with Complete Dolby/DTS Sound
$164.9

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
$129.99

Logitech X-540 70 watts 5.1 Speaker
$78.99

Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 B2L-00047 Black USB Ergonomics Keyboard Mouse Included
$21.99


Thanks!

I'd go with a sata dvd drive too instead of IDE. You could also give the onboard sound a shot and always order the sound card after if you're not happy with it.

buy.com always seems to have the best price on Corsair PSUs for some reason. The 750TX is currently $95 after rebates. You could probably get by with a 650TX ($70 after rebates) and still have enough juice to power a 2nd video card, though if you want to play it safe and leave more headroom with the 750TX that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Switched the pioneer DVD drive from the IDE version to the SATA version.

How does buy.com rate as a etailer? e.g. compared to Newegg?

I've only used them once (to order a Corsair PSU) and had no issues. I generally order from Newegg though.

Nice choices! Well thought out. Let us know how things go.