Hello all. OK now that these fast as hell new Intel chips are out, prices just dropped. Might as well grab one up. Need to upgrade the old 423 pin, P4 2.8. Primary usage... Been playing Company of Heroes lately and have regained my love of gaming (kinda blows after you see it run on another machine at high settings). Also: Bitorrent, Video encoding, Office work, Crap load O' surfing, multimedia. Want this one to last 4 years with maybe a vid card upgrade. Here's where I'm at: And the issues I'm on the fence about. MoBo Thinkin intel goes well with Intel. Have an Abit IC7G board in my present system. Hate all the tweakability (just seems to have lead to lack of stability). I just want it to work. I heard this board overclocks well, and very easy as well. Heard the model shipping needs a bios upgrade out of the box. Intel BOXD975XBX2KR LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $229.9 Processor Dual cores for some future scalability. Heard she overclocks nicely to 3.6 or somethin... Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6700 - Retail $320.00 Memory mushkin 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Chennel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996557 - Retail $289.99 Cas Latency 5 Timing 5-5-5-12 Voltage 1.8V Heat Spreader Heat sink ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail $47.99 ZALMAN ZM-CS1 Clip Support for installation of CNPS7000 series onto Socket 775 - Retail $3.99 Power Supply Modular design issues?? 530W enough? any recogmendations on this subject greatly appreciated. Like the modular design idea (Clean). What are some of your guys' experiences with it? HIPER HPU-4K530-MS ATX12V v2.2 530W Power Supply - Retail $79.99 COOLMAX CR-550B ATX 550W "140mm Fan" Power Supply - Retail $69.99 Any ideas for a vid card that will last me a year or 2? I heard new stuff is dropping on Monday the 14 of May. May wait and see till Tues about price plummets. Any models stand out to anyone that may be an awesome deal Price/Perf come that time? All and all this has got me @ $1020. With 2 power supplies because I have no clue. Still need a new monitor and a Graphics card to add to this. Thanks for any and all advice. My primary concern here is stability. My 1 and only home desktop/power machine that I spend ~4 hours a day at. Stewrt
Well, you don't have to purchase a separate heatsink as one is included in all retail box processors, and is fairly quiet. As far as power supplies go, Coolmax is to be avoided---not the absolute worst you could buy, but the last place you want to cut corners is the power supply. Hiper is a mid-grade performer, but typically fine. Also consider Corsair and OCZ units. These are a bit of a jump up, but, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Both the Corsair HX520 and HX620 are modular, while the OCZ GameXStreme units are not. If you come across the older ModStream 520, that's also modular and would serve your needs. For budget purposes, FSP/Fortron Source (FSP Group), Ultra, and Hiper would be your best bets. A 500-600W unit would work in most cases. The high-end cards are the GeForce 8800 series, which will generally set you back anywhere from around $400-600 per card, depending on if it's a GTS or GTX unit, the latter being faster, and the amount of RAM on the card 320MB or 640MB (GTS only). Some 320MB GTS cards can be had for closer to $300, and that's about the sweet spot for pricing. If that's too rich, the GeForce 7900GS or Radeon X1950Pro run somewhere between $150-200, and some have been spotted under $150 with rebates. These are last gen cards, and the bottom of the high-end segment. There are faster cards in the 7900 and X1950 series, but if you look at those, if they're much over $200, you're better off looking at an 8800GTS 320MB. Also in similar performance is the 8600 series. They're new, so the prices are a little on the high-side right now, so as with the last one, if you're seeing them much over $200, it's better to drop to the aformentioned 7900GS or X1950Pro or jump up to the 8800GTS 320MB.
Getting the biggest and baddest CPU is fun, but not always reasonable. I'm an AMD fan, but one thing in your post pushes me to Intel and that's the video encoding. C2Ds blow the pants off of AMD chips in that area. I would think about the 6600 though. It's the most popular for a reason; stability and OCing. Motherboard: Tom's Hardware has covered this "Intel chip with Intel board" issue. The results? Doesn't matter. Just pick a solid board with the features you want. Unless you're an absolute tech junkie, that price seems a little high. RAM: Mushkin is good RAM, but todays MoBos are picky about what they'll accept. Check the boards website for a compatibility list. PSU: I'd really avoid Hiper. Tons of people have recently been reporting their Hipers burning out in spectacular fashion; sparks, flames and smoke. I believe modular PSUs have gotten to the point where they'll do the job just fine. I wouldn't stress over wattage. Worry more about the rails. Check the sticky in the Power Supply forum here for an in depth explanation. Graphics card: Since you like to game, you might as well jump on the 8800 bandwagon. Prices are dropping and reviews keep being higher than anything on these cards. They were just recently rated better than low and mid end work station cards if that tells you anything. Monitor: Big honking LCD. Just read the reviews on the websites where you can buy them. Also check the sticky about monitors here. -Crom
Thanks Guys, Went with the Samsung 22" monitor with the 2ms response that was well rated on Newegg, and on special!!!. Also got the 8800 320MB card. Thanks again! Stewrt
