My New Rig - any comments appreciated!

U

unclebob

Geek Trainee
About to fork a small fortune on this, its going to hurt so any comments appreciated!

2GB OCZ DDR2 PC-7200 Special Ops Edition
Intel Core 2 DUO E6700 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.67GHz (1066FSB)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (with latest BIOS)
Gigabyte GeForce 7950GX2 1GB DDR3
580W Hiper HPU-4M580
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
Chuck Norris novelty mousemat
 
Haha, I like the Chuck Norris mat. I think we are getting very similar systems, what I decided to do was to hold off getting the expensive graphics card yet. Right now I have an AGP, so to get the system to work I'm gonna get a low-end PCI-e.

You're getting a better processor (which I'm not sure is worth the extra money, but if I had it I'd do it too), the same motherboard, and the same type of vid card I was going to get (just different make). So I like youre system.

There is better memory out there, if you hurry there's a $75 rebate on this item to make it a steal at around $350: mushkin REDLINE 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail at Newegg.com
this is currently one of the fastest running memories at this speed and can overclock into the 1100 MHzs.

The reason I say you might want to hold off (like what I'm doing) with the vid-card is that the new cards with DirectX 10 will be shipped at the end of the year. This might save you some money if you don't rush to get that DirectX 9 card. DirectX 10 will be vital in newer games as well as Windows Vista.
 
There is no such thing as a "steal" when it costs $350 and is 2 GB. I've never worked with Conroe so I can't really suggest anything about the motherboard or processor but I would tend to agree about the video card.
 
Thanks 4 the reply. Yes Chuck Norris rocks(Chuck Norris Facts)

Yeah, that memory is v. expensive especially in the UK (almost twice the price). Thats why I thought I'd go for 7200 rather than 8000. Still better than 6400 no?
 
The higher the rating the better the speed is in theory. Granted the latency gets pretty horrible at higher speeds but it's not going to affect anything much. Personally I don't think you need to blow tons of dough on PC2 7200. Sure it'll seem cool but unless you're planning on doing some extream overclocking I'd say the 6400 is plenty. There are other places you could put that money into down the road. Like new games for instance.
I've said this a ton lately but I'll repeat myself as you wouldn't have read those posts. Now's not a great time to buy a spanking new video card. It'll run all games just beautifully but this fall we'll see new DX 10 cards come in followed by DX 10 titles that winter. Those games will be backwards compatible in the sense that they'll run on DX 9 cards but without all the next gen bells and whistles. So I'd say it's worth waiting about 2 months and adopting the new big wave of technology. Just a thought.
 
Exfoliate said:
Now's not a great time to buy a spanking new video card. It'll run all games just beautifully but this fall we'll see new DX 10 cards come in followed by DX 10 titles that winter.
Click to expand...
Exfoliate did you even read my post? I've already mentioned that.
Vol7ron said:
The reason I say you might want to hold off (like what I'm doing) with the vid-card is that the new cards with DirectX 10 will be shipped at the end of the year... DirectX 10 will be vital in newer games as well as Windows Vista.
Click to expand...

I disagree with Exfoliate on the memory though. You want some decent RAM. Why do I disagree? Conroe was built to support low voltages and they have found that these chips are remarkable for overclocking - EXTREME OVERCLOCKING with stock heatsink and fan. You're going to want to overclock them and it won't hurt them one bit because they won't be generating that much heat.

You can take these chips far. The E6600 was taken to 4GHz with air cooling and a Tuniq heatsink. What if you had water cooling? If your FSB could get to 1Billion Hz, your system will still only go as far as your memory takes you. So this means you want memory that can take you farther. If you're not going to overclock at all (which is sort of a waste with Conroe) you should just settle with PC2-6400 like Exfoliate said. Or even buy 4200 and overclock it to 6400 speeds. Even 6400 chips will overclock somewhat (some with speeds and timing better than PC2-8000 modules - like the Corsair XMS PC2-6400 3-4-3-9).

By the way it is a steal for $350 because the ram should really be at $480, but it is on sale with newgg AND there is a $75 rebate. I was surprised to see all this. If you check out AnandTech's Conroe buying guide, this memory went to something like 1116MHz with low timings. You want high clock speed and as low as timings as you can get. Buying better for a lower price now will make sure it'll work in the future when you're upgrading other components. And if you underclock this memory, the timings get better and better.
 
Thanks everyone for your comments, very helpful (esp Volron). In the end I went for:

2GB OCZ DDR2 PC-7200 Platinum ed
Intel Core 2 DUO E6700 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.67GHz (1066FSB)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (with latest BIOS)
Gigabyte GeForce 7950GX2 1GB DDR3
Tagan TG580-U22 580W
Tunic Tower 120 Cooler
Chuck Norris novelty mousemat

Seriously hurt my wallet, but my current PC is over 2 years old and chugs like hell playing BF2. Going to get myself a copy of Oblivion!
 
Yours is very similar to mine:

Case: Ultra Silver Aluminus Mid-Tower (Silver-Yum)
Case Fans:
Ultra 120mm Ball Bearing Fan Titanium (mirror finish)
SILVERSTONE FM121 120mm 2 Ball Case Cooling Fan (CCF 110 - wow!)
Power Supply: Ultra X2 550W(mirror finish)
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6600
Heatsink+Fan: Aerocool GT-1000 Cooling Tower (Gold Plated)
Motherboard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi
Memory: Mushkin Redline DDR21000 2GB (2x1024MB) 4-5-4-11 stock
Video: XFX GeForce 7900GT (getting new when Dx10 comes out)
PCI Fans: Vantec Spectrum Fan Card with Blue UV LED (2x70mm 17.73 ~ 29.54 CFM)
Hard Disk Drive:
Western Digital Raptor 36GB 10,000RPM 8MB Cache
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM 16MB Cache



The differences:
-I opted to go with the E6600 to save cash and since I saw that AnandTech OCd it to 4GHz, that was good enough for me.
-I also went with a cheaper vid card for now. The only reason I got one was because my current one is AGP, which won't work with this mobo - I will be getting DirectX-10 compatible when they come out
-I saw the Mushkin Redline memory in a review and it OCd the best, so I wanted to give it a shot.
-I was going to get the Tuniq heatsink, but the only place I could find it was at their website and I didn't see an order form, so I went with this other one that had good reviews (I might try water cooling later on just to try it out, but for now I'm okay)
-You didn't list your case fans but I wanted everyone to see that Silverstone. 110CCF is amazing, I really wanted to get my case as silver as possible and run blue lights through it, but this fan moves a lot of air and runs quiet so I had to get at least one. My power supply and rear case fan both have this metalic mirrored finish (titanium) that look nice, I just wish the mirrored fan would move a little more air, but that's okay.
-I was worried about going from a case that has 5 fans to one that only holds two, so I am also trying these two fans that fit in a PCI slot, granted they don't move much air, but they shold provide a vertical flow of air (from the bottom of the case to the top). I thought this might be nice since the front case fan is at the bottom and the back one is in the middle towards the top, moving air straight in and out and cooling the board. I am concerned that the graphics card might obstruct the air, but I figure even if it does, the graphics card will be cooled better. I saw this link here that compared how temperature on his old system decreased just from the case alone:

CPU idle temp went from 48C to 39C
CPU load temp went from 56C to 46C
GPU went from 54C to 48C
From the case alone? That's ridiculous.
 
vol7ron said:
Exfoliate did you even read my post? I've already mentioned that.
Click to expand...

I'm aware of that, just sharing my opinion as well, even if it is the same. Just trying to make a point. But he bought what he felt was right so it doesn't matter.

I know Conroes are excellent overclockers but (correct me if I'm wrong) I don't remember him ever mentioning that he was ever going to overclock, or if so overclock to the extreme. I mean it's not like you need to when it's that fast already anyway. It's not like DDR2 6400 is too shabby anyway either, it's pretty much the standard these days.
Don't take this the wrong way alright dude, I'm not trying to be arguementative, just pointing what I feel. No hard feelings:)
 
I understand man.

But there isn't much of a need for processors this fast in the first place. Not until Vista comes out. But if you're going to get it, you might as well OC it - whether there's a need or not, I mean that's part of the enthusiasm of buying the newest product. Otherwise wait a few months for prices to fall and other newer technology to come out. Intel could have defaultedly OCd them out of the box and sold them with a higher clock speed, but didn't. Why? Who knows -> maybe just to show how well it performs with lower vol7ages. Maybe to help hit the power-saving marketing point. In any case, if you have this chip you'd be a fool not to OC it.
 
You've got a point there, the majority of people you buy these procs for their own rigs probably intend to OC the heck out of them. It's just I'm not sure Unclebob intended to do that is all so I didn't want him spending money he didn't need to.
I'm glad intel didn't crank the speeds any more. Sure they'd totally destroy the competition and make everyone look towards their products but it'd also be an excuse to charge a ton for them and they'd then also have little oc'ing potential if they were already jacked up a lot. Depends I guess.
 
Yes but let's recap on why they should be jacked up more:
1 - Faster/more efficient (both cores actually use the same memory bank)
2 - Lower power consumptions (due to the 65nm design)
3 (and this is a big one) - unlocking the multiplier

For these reasons alone the processor should be priced well over what they are currrently at. I don't know why they are not. I'm thinking it's another marketing strategy to get you to buy the proc, which means you will have to have a motherboard for it. At the time of the first beta chip, the BadAxe was the first released motherboard for Conroe. This means that Intel would suck in both Processor and Motherboard profits.

Also, lowering the prices helps people transition over from AMD. If you just bought a new AMD system, you probably won't get the Conroe. But what if your system is over a year old. For me, I look at buying every 2-3 years. If prices were lower and technology has changed a lot, I very well might buy after a year and a half. Well, here, prices ARE lower and the technology has greatly changed. I'm just fortunate that I was already looking at a new system - I'm even more lucky that I started reading and didn't just buy. I was going to get an AMD X2 3800+ a month ago, but saw the Conroe coming out and then saw the price lists and wow. Performance gain per dollar is intense.
 
I'm a cheap sob, I'm real glad they don't cost more. Once the 6300 actually drops down to it's origional list price I'll be real temped for my next build...which will be a long while away I'm afraid.
 
They pretty much are at their list price $218 from NewEgg or $209 from TigerDirect
 
Yeah it's not bad but it's a bit weird that they'd go up from the list price of $184 or so. Availability and demand I guess.
 
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