My Newegg wishlist(under $600), hows the specs? Upgrading soon.

[NewLCD123]

GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Model #:GA-EP43-DS3L
Item #:N82E16813128347
Return Policy:Limited 30-Day Return Policy
In Stock
$86.99 $86.99
I was recommended this motherboard from another post, what's the max fsb it can overclock to? I will need at least 333fsb so I can hit 3GHz on the cpu. Any other good mobo choices for under $99?


Update

ASUS EAH4670/DI/512M/A Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
Model #:EAH4670/DI/512M/A
Item #:N82E16814121274
Return Policy:Standard Return Policy
In Stock
Mail-in Rebate

$79.99 $79.99
I made a thread asking if this card could outperform an x850xt and was told it most certainly can. I looked on ebay and they have x1900xt for $80. No dx10 but it's got 256 bit ram and the reviews show it's extremely fast. My friends recommend I get the x1900xt. My other alternatives are hd2600xt, hd3650, hd4550, how do those perform? They are priced around $50. One more thing, this hd4670 has VGA, DVI and HDMI!


Update

Rosewill RP600V2-S-SL 600W ATX12V v2.01 SLI Ready Power Supply - Retail
Model #:RP600V2-S-SL
Item #:N82E16817182032
Return Policy:Standard Return Policy
In Stock
$79.99 -$15.00 Instant $64.99
This PSU should be plenty for powering my components. Would a lower wattage still be good?


Update

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E5200 - Retail
Model #:BX80571E5200
Item #:N82E16819116072
Return Policyrocessors (CPUs) Return Policy
In Stock
$83.99 $83.99
This is the cheapest 45nm cpu. Anyone know how that one overclocks? My alternative is a 65nm for $70 or maybe I could buy a used core duo that's a proven overclocker. I would like over 3GHz, 3.5GHz would be nice and 4GHz would be a dream! Must be on air with 10% overvolt max so I don't fry cpu


Update

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail
Model #:F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK
Item #:N82E16820231166
Return Policy:Memory (Modules, USB) Return Policy
In Stock
$94.99 -$5.00 Instant $89.99
That one really confuses me. Im assuming it's stock at 266fsb for use on a quad pumped 1066MHz(effective) motherboard. I hate the high 5-5-5-x latency, any chance I can reduce them to 3's or 4's? How well can this ram overclock(and still keep low latency) I would be happy to get 333fsb out of that ram without vmods. The previous ram I owned was stock 217fsb and I oced it to like 250fsb at 2.5-3-3-7


Update

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Model #:WD6400AAKS
Item #:N82E16822136218
Return Policy:Limited 30-Day Return Policy
In Stock
$74.99 $74.99
Most people, including me don't need such a huge HDD, but much smaller, slower drives were almost the same price. There is SSD but the good, fast ones are like $750 for 64gb, way out of my price range!


Update

SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F - OEM
Model #:SH-S223F
Item #:N82E16827151171
Return Policy:Standard Return Policy
In Stock
$25.99 $25.99
I am amazed how cheap dvd burners have become. I can't find any regular dvd drives, no point when burners are so cheap! I am skipping the 1.44mb 3.5" floppy drive, it's obsolete when you have usb jump drives with capacities of 8gb+


Update

ASUS V72 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler - Retail
Model #:V72
Item #:N82E16835101026
Return Policy:Standard Return Policy
In Stock
$29.99 $29.99
How much better is this than the included stock cooler that comes with the cpu? Any other good choices that aren't too loud and will allow good cpu overclocks?

Subtotal: $536.92
This is my total before shipping. I already have a case, nothing fancy but I don't need to spend $100 on a flashy LED case with glass sides. I have a keyboard(duh lol) and mouse, whats the difference between the "fancy" keyboards and mice? As for monitor, im gonna try to get a 42" 1080p, otherwise im sticking with my 21" CRT. I may need various cables for the 1080p monitor(VGA, DVI, HDMI) as well as cables for my motherboard, HDD, DVD and who knows what else? I have been 2 years out of touch. My last system was an a64(single core) s939 mobo and 2x512mb ram using a radeon 9700pro. That computer stopped working a while ago and the fan on my 9700pro died. Ive been using this slow 1GHz backup computer so I need a faster one and want to learn all I can. Thanks for your time.

 

[customisbetter]

i think that ram is a waste on an intel platform personally. ddr2 800 is usually just as fast in all benchmarks so save some money and get 800. You can get better latencies with 800 too.

on your motherboard, you will likely get 3ghz+ with that cpu.

About the Graphics though, if you want to game on higher settings and resolutions (like 1080), i would recommend a 4850 over that 4670. you can find them for less than 150 dollars nowadays and its a significant improvement over the 4670.

so yeah, save a little on the ram and spend it on a better vid card, other than that, it a solid system.

 

[roadrunner197069]

I got a 4670 with a e8400 "C0" @ 4.0 4G DDR2 800 ram running at 900, and I loaded the Crysis Demo out of curiousity, and I set it to detect my hardware and set the settings from there. I have a 22" LCD, it put my settings on High @ 1680x 1050, and they game play was actually really impressive. I played through the Demo, and I have no complaints. I'm sure there might be some levels that are more demanding then the first level but I don't play the game, I was just using it as like a benchmark of sorts. I figure it played the Crysis Demo on high realy nice so anything else I throw at it will be more then fine.

 

[jerreece]

i think that ram is a waste on an intel platform personally. ddr2 800 is usually just as fast in all benchmarks so save some money and get 800. You can get better latencies with 800 too.

on your motherboard, you will likely get 3ghz+ with that cpu.

About the Graphics though, if you want to game on higher settings and resolutions (like 1080), i would recommend a 4850 over that 4670. you can find them for less than 150 dollars nowadays and its a significant improvement over the 4670.

so yeah, save a little on the ram and spend it on a better vid card, other than that, it a solid system.

Agreed! On the memory, and the video card. If you choose the DDR2 800 instead of 1066, you won't regret anything. And you most certainly won't regret upgrading to the 4850 (over the 4670) if you can afford it.

 

[kamkal]

Info on MEMORY

your mem is based off of the actual FSB that you are running at

if your cpu has an actual fsb of lets say 333 (which would also be referred to as 1333, hence the quad pumping)

then you memory is based off the 333 actual fsb

running in 1:1 ratio would give you a mem speed of 333mhz

now since the mem is DDR2, it doubles the rate to 667mhz

so the mem you have is a waste of like 20 bucks and as a previous poster mentioned, wont do much

get this instead

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211282
a-data vitesta 69.99 2x2gb

as for your mobo, yes it can do 1333 fsb (which is 333 actual fsb) and can go past that to 1600 (400 fsb)

now this mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131333
ASUS P5Q SE LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
99.99
has a P45 chipset instead and can support upto 16GB of ram and OCs well
if you change the mem you can get the p45 based mobo instead if you want more mem support later on

as for the PSU
rosewill isnt that great
get this instead
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016
Antec BP550 Plus 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retai
69.99


gfx card is decent for that price, it performs similar to an HD 3870 which is about 10% more pricewise, if you can swing it, get an HD 4850 instead, way better than 4670
and if you are planning on getting a 42" full 1080P tv to play games on at 1920x1080, the 4670 kind of falls flat on its face at that res, a 4850 would be a better solution for the long run

change CPU cooler to this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233023
XIGMATEK HDT-S1284EE 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail
39.99

the asus one you chose is flop


other than that looks good

 

[roadrunner197069]

I recommend Asus P5Q series as well, but not the SE edition. The SE edition has 4phase where as The P5Q and aboves have 8Phase and the Deluxe has 16 phase. The better the phase the better the overclock, and stability.

 

[kamkal]

I got a 4670 with a e8400 "C0" @ 4.0 4G DDR2 800 ram running at 900, and I loaded the Crysis Demo out of curiousity, and I set it to detect my hardware and set the settings from there. I have a 22" LCD, it put my settings on High @ 1680x 1050, and they game play was actually really impressive. I played through the Demo, and I have no complaints. I'm sure there might be some levels that are more demanding then the first level but I don't play the game, I was just using it as like a benchmark of sorts. I figure it played the Crysis Demo on high realy nice so anything else I throw at it will be more then fine.

crysis fps stays low but for some reason the game still plays smooth, it has motion blur and other smoothing out stuff going on or something

the jungle is basically the most taxing part as far as i can remember, and i played it on my old radeon x1950 pro

once you leave the jungle, the game goes downhill anyways lol

 

[dirtmountain]

This power supply at $40 - Antec earthwatts 430w, plenty for that system with overclock and the HD4670
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006
The HD4670 outperforms all of the 19xx series of graphic cards
2x2 GB DDR2 800 1.8v RAM $55 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146731
Xigmatek HDT1283 cooler with bracket no case mentioned, needs to be 7.5 wide
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233019

 

[shoota]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770 +$50 ($ 50 more than the 4670 that is)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341017 -$35 (i'm including this as the combo deal with the 2x2gb OCZ Reaper Edition ram, i have this ram and it rocks)(combo deal after rebates is $119 and your current crap psu and ram here totals $155)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233023
XIGMATEK HDT-S1284EE 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail
39.99

so now you're only at $561 with a WAY more powerful and higher quality rig. glad i could help

 

[NewLCD123]

Thanks for your replies. I changed the ram, psu and heatsink. I need to do more research, especially on the ram. Are you saying "mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996587 - Retail" does 400fsb stock? I thougt it was 200fsb double pumped for 400MHz effective! Ill have to research this ram, one thing I don't like is the 5's in the timing. I want 2's or 3's!

As for the mobo, im sticking with the Gigabyte, Asus is leaving the mobo arena and also theirs doesn't support pci-e 1.1 cards, just 2.0

The hd4850 is over double the price of the hd4670 and would put the budget over $600. I believe ill be able to max out 99% of the games out there with a 4670. I used to have a 9700pro and it ran recent games at medium settings with aa/af at 1024x768.

Ive read someone say "from what I can see, the E5200s are so so overclockers. They can do 4 but needs too much juice to accomplish that. Probably the 8xxx series are still the best for dual core OCed. the E5xxx seems pretty low bin stuff. Still at that price I wouldn't care too much." and ill personally be happy to get something like 333fsb x 10 =3.33GHz 1.3v for 24/7 computing. I used to want 4GHz but no way am I going to kill off cpus for a few excellent benchmark rounds, I don't got alot of money to throw around.

I did put as5 in my wish list, is this thermal compound safe or should I go with ceramic? As for cables, please suggest which kinds I need. Ill need cables for my HDD, monitor and other components.


Ive been reading what OCs I can expect from an e5200 200x12.5=2.5GHz 2mb cache and it appears I have a 95% chance of 3GHz, 75% of 3.3GHz and 33% of 3.5GHz using a max of 1.4v for 24/7 operation. Ive also read those cpus don't like high fsb, one guy could not get above 310fsb. No one can get above 400fsb. Oh well at 12.5x multi, that won't be a problem and ive heard once you get above 300fsb, you won't be bandwith limited at this point. Ill hit the cpu limit before the fsb limit most likley anyway. Those are Intel's lowest speed bins but at $84, they are a super price and fits my budget and besides something like 300x11=3.3GHz shouldn't be cpu limited with todays games, right?

The e8400s cost $170 and the e8600s $270. Those two appear to be able to overclock 400-700MHz higher(4GHz easy at 1.4v wow), still reading about those. They also have 6mb cache which adds another 10% over 2mb.

 

[effel]

I don't know where some of your information is coming from honestly, because a lot of the claims you make just aren't right.

First thing, getting 1.8v Ram at 4-4-4-12 would be optimal, but 5-5-5-12 stuff at 1.8v is still pretty good. Latencies are usually lowered with more voltage applied- look at Crucial's Ballistix. It runs 4-4-4-12 at 2.0v which is fine, but if you can run those latenices at 1.8v it's much better for your system. This is DDR2-800 by the way. You can reach higher frequencies with more juice as well, that's why often times, 1066 stuff is at 2.1v or so, with latencies like 5-5-5-12/18. It's essentially just overclocked 800 stuff. I'll tell you from my RAM overclocking experiences, reaching CAS of 2 is impossible on DDR2-800. My Ballistix got 3-4-3-9 stable at 2.1v, but getting any less is asking way toomuch. I'd go with 1.8v 5-5-5-12 ram if I was in your shoes, because it's cheap. And for all intents and purposes, you probably won't notice the differences with a slightly higher latencies. Thinking about 2 latencies is, lol, that's DDR days.

Another piece of info about the RAM and the FSB. DDR2 800 is capable of running in sync with a processor that's running at 1600 FSB without so much as raising a single volt on the ram. You won't be getting an e5200 to 1600fsb on that Gigabyte P43 board, so don't worry about getting anything higher than DDR2-800. That chip is fine honestly, but I'd spend a little bit more and go with the e7200 priced at 119.99. Reaching 3.2-3.5ghz with that chip seems very reasonable with the Xigmatech HDT-S1283.

About the motherboard, a P43 board uses a cheaper NB chip, which is why it won't always overclock as well as a P45 chip. Regardless, it should be fine running 1333 FSB. I don't know where you got the information about Asus leaving the motherboard market. It's very clear that they are thriving in that field. They definitely have a few X58 boards already lined up. Please, share this knowledge you have with me, because I'd love to know where you're reading your news.

The 4670 is a decent card, it performs near the same as a 3850, but usually won't ever beat it. If you can squeeze a few bucks here and there, you should be able to get a 9800GT which'll cost about $100-120. Most of them are running rebates or offering free games too. I'd check that out if I were you. The performance on that G92 chip is much better than the 4670. But you're comparing low-end to mainstream, so that's not really fair.

Another note about the e5200. It can reach 4ghz on a capable motherboard, but it's probably going to have to run about 1.5v to do so. I wouldn't be so thrilled about running my CPU at that kind of voltage, but from articles I've read, see X-bit labs, it is indeed possible.

Artic Silver 5 is fine. People will say MX-2 is better, or say something about something else. But meh.

Cables. You'll need a DVI and a SATA. They should come bundled with your purchases though...

I wouldn't worry about the 8xxx series with your budget, the e7200 is a great little overclocker at the $120 pricepoint.

I tried to cover most of your questions in the order they appeared, but I probably missed something.

 

[NewLCD123]

Ive been reading more about the hardware on my wishlist. It appears that 10% of those Gigabyte mobos don't work properly, the other 90% are nice. I also read that large heatsinks may not fit since the chipset heatsink gets in the way. Please confirm if XIGMATEK HDT-S1284EE 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler properly fits this motherboard and can be installed and secured properly.

I am assuming the HDD already includes a SATA cable. Does the video card include any cables?

Is it possible to run the ram async higher than the fsb? Ive read about this, people running 333fsb and running the ram at 400+ MHz! That mobo will overvolt the ram to 2.3v which should be safe. Ive seen people run 3-3-3-9 timings as high as 500fsb but at over 3v which would kill the ram in minutes. Ill have to settle for 4-4-4-12 at perhaps 2v, good enough and only 2% performance hit from 3's to 4's(2% each higher number, 5,6,7,etc)

Ive also read you need to flash the bios to get support for wolfdale cpus and modern video cards. I am worried I may not be able to POST with the new hardware. I don't want to buy older hardware just to flash the bios. Maybe I should buy a used motherboard with the latest bios? Finally, reading the reviews, some people say the p35 is more stable and overclocks better, consider that instead of p43?

 

[shoota]

did you even read our posts!??!?!?! i included a 4850, better ram, better PSU, better everything for way under $600 and then you come back and post that a 4850 will put you way over your budget which is absolutely false. I spent a lot of time building that list for you and so did alot of other people in an attempt to help you and you make it clear that you didn't take the time to read any of them. good luck i'm out.

 

[NewLCD123]

I did update the list with better ram and PSU. If you read the post above, hd4850s cost near $200 while hd4670s are half that price. My subtotal is up to $542.91 before shipping. The hd4850 would add nearly $100 to that total.

I give my thanks to everyone whos helped me, I will keep up to date and let you know how the new computer works.

 

[effel]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150316

Have you seen these? Honestly this is what you should do. Get a 500w PSU, 9800GT, cut the 4GB of Ram to 2GB, because for all intents and purposes, the money is better spent on a more powerful graphics card. The listed PSU is well worth getting over the Rosewill. And by cutting down to 2GB you save another $40 which can put towards the listed graphics card. You're probably going to be running 32bit anyways, the extra ram would most likely go to waste. The day I see my memory usage go over 1.5GB, then I might consider getting more. (I guess Vista might cause some problems...)

**More to add. You get another $50 back in rebates from the listed parts, and a free copy of CoD4. That rebate money can be spent in the future on more ram if you really want it.**