The (new) Official PC building thread!

Yes it depends on the build. The normal rule of thumb is 12" to 18" for a mid sized tower case. I think all the SATA cables that I have are 18" and I use them in the full tower case too.

..gm

 

@Zoso
I thought you had PC-8500...so you have PC-6400...and your local shop cannot get the corsairs to run stable at rated speed?..or...are they OCing?...and just not getting good results?..

How trustworthy...and knowledgeable...is this local "PC Shop"?..

 

yeah the 6400 (its not built/done yet, i can change my mind. but yes there having problems with the 8500 / 1066 memory running stable at stock.heres the memory there having trouble with

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145043

 

I just got the 4GB kit with the fans today...along with a 8800GT 1GB card...my HD4850 won't get here till Friday...I am looking at that board for my self...that or a DFI or Gigabyte...
Link to memory I just got today:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145197

Right now they are using the PC-6400 memory...what are the problems they are having?..
Have they tested the memory in another board?..and narrowed things down?..or are they working you...for maybe more $$$ for labor?..

 

Lp531,

Aside from the bios issue I had, I've had no problems with my 1066 Dominators and they will run at 1066 although they are running at 1060 at the moment. You shouldn't need the fans at all as they run very cool to begin with. Usually with most boards, the memory is right in the airstream for the CPU cooler. Just be sure to raise the voltage until it reads 2.10v in everest or something that shows the Dimm voltage.

On a funny note, I had a guy complaining that the 1066s don't OC very well. I looked him straight in the face and laughed! I told him they're already overclocked 266MHz now! What more would he like? LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

As far as I'm concerned if you've overclocking a 200FSB CPU to 3.6Ghz or less (and with a 200FSB CPU you probably are) then PC6400 is what you should buy, as there is absolutely no reason to have anything higher speed. For anything else though, you may as well go with PC8500, as long as its decent stuff like Corsair Dominator. True, SOME OCZ or Crucial sticks might be good, but it's a minefield out there - Corsair is like a comparative safety zone!

 

argh so much het on me i should have bought my flame proof jacket lol.

sam i find cricket a abore, footy on the other hand...

well firstly big coolers dont rip the mobo off unless you mount them without the backplate. millions of people have them.

now, using 533 FBS with a quad just aint going to happen uless you drop the multi to 6 and put insane Vcore & NB Volts. with a Q6600 400x9 will be the highest on air w.o presition OC (aka nuck) or switching to water.

 

Indeed, my Ultra 120A is firmly planted and doesn't worry me about my mobo in the slightest.

 

on PC 6400 that is rated to do 400 at C4, 4-4-4-12, when doing 5-5-5-15 and uping the V by 0.05 will allow it two run at 500 minimum. done on a geil black dragon, OCZ platinum, and two corsair xms. still working two months later w.o a hitch

 

abuzar1,

Let me put it this way. Most of last week it was 105-106F, and summer hadn't even begun yet! End of july, early August it will be in the mid teens!

He and I also did a bit of work on the case airflow. First we turned the side fan around and made it an exhaust, replaced the front fan with a 42 cfm Cooler Master @1200 rpm. Very quiet and it moves a lot of air. We replaced the rear fan with my favorite FM-121, 67 cfm @1300 rpm, removed the top 80mm fan, and it cools very well, thank you!

When he first got it all together, using the stock Intel cooler and then OC'd, he had an XFX-8800GTXXX in it and it ran a little warm, although no real problem. Idled in the mid 30s! At the time we were both thinking that the problem was caused by the stock cooler, but like I said, it wasn't that bad as it never went over 60C running Orthos!

Once we did the fans the temps improved a couple of degrees so I installed the FS7-Pro, which dropped it a couple of more degrees to about 31-32C. That did it and I went and borrowed the Thermal Probe, this time after signing my life away, I also borrowed the direct laser read Infra-red attachment too! Takes the temp right through the window! Just converge the twin laser beams and push the button! The problem was the single slot video card! Hot air was being trapped below and behind the video card. 42C worth of hot air! Went to nVidia (now why didn't I think of doing that, as nVidoa's only 20 minutes away LOL!!) and bought a G92 GTS which turned out to be the high end XFX with the 678MHz core clock. Went back and installed it and the temps are now 28-29C Idle and 55-56C max, running Orthos @3.3GHz! It will probably run a degree or two hotter when the summer heat gets here, as it's very dry here and oppressively hot but I think he's good to go! We may change the window fan to something that moves a bit more air, although removing the top fan seems to help the side fan move more air. We'll see!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I can understand the benefit of changing to a GPU that exhausts out the case rather than dumping heat into it. When the room temperature is 22C like it typically is, the temperature of the case is usually about 26-27C. The CPU typically idles at around 31-34C (I say idle, that's anything that isn't more than 25% load really) and the GPU idles at around 36/37C, the same as the chipset. While the temps aren't exemplary they seem better than average, and done using fans that spin so slowly you can practically still read the stickers!

It's not fast fans you need, it's several, and in the right places!


For reference load temps are 40-42C CPU, 38C Chipset, 50-60C GPU, case temperature 29-30C.

 

greensman.. On the Q9450 the best price I can find is 330.00. at newegg. With Heatsink & Fan That's about a 60.00 more
Do U know where I can get it Without Heatsink & Fan

 

Rick,

I highly recommend paying a little more and going with the retail version (boxed kit with hsf). the warranty is 3 years for retail and only 1 year for oem/tray cpu. microcenter has the Q9450 retail for $300 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0287628

edit for spelling and to add link.

 

I also forgot a Video card..I don't need anything 4 Gaming just 4 Monitor & TV . I'm guessing anything will really do
Any recommendations

 

shaf - i got a medion 8383xl pc, the graphics card in it at the mo is a G Force 6610Xl PCI. I can't find these anywhere, Do you which one i'll need? also if i change the card will i have to load new drivers & stuff?

 

sammorris,

The typical room temperature in these parts is about 25C during the summer. It's very hard to air condition air here because it's so dry. The heat just soaks into everything. Trust me, you wouldn't want to walk to the corner store during the heat of the day. You haven't lived until you've sunburned your eyelids! Only did it once, though! LOL!! Hey, I was hanging my laundry on the line and talking to a fine looking woman, so I wasn't exactly in a hurry! ROFL!!

I'm using fast fans only by your standards! 1200 and 1300 rpm aren't fast by most of our standards here. I'm also running the CPU fan through PWM in the setup and it idles about 1000 rpm. I'm not happy with the noise the stock side fan makes, but everything else is pretty quiet. Right now his makes a little bit more noise than mine does, but I think the stock side fan is going to be history real soon. It's not as quiet as you would like it, but still much quieter than most computers. We'll see how it all works come those 115F+ days!

BTW, I have a question for you. What's the difference between the plain Lexa Blackline and the Lexa Blackline Series CS-NT-LEXA-BLB, besides the blue lights? It costs a few dollars more, so I'm wondering why?

Best Regards,
Russ

 

rick5446,

Take a look at this one. It should well suit your needs. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150247
$70 after a $20 MIR and it has HDTV out. It should handle pretty much anything you choose to do with it!

They also make a faster one but it's $79 with the $20 MIR! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150260
I'm not a gamer either, but I would choose this one for myself if I had your needs.

Russ

 

I would get this. It's 80 bucks plus 7 dollars for shipping, but it's MUCH faster than the 8600GT in case you EVER want to play a game. Good card especially because it's not much more for much higher performance.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130332

 

Thank everybody, but I was really looking at the PCI Video cards. Are these an inferior card over the PCI Express
I've got my total order together comes to a total of 987.00
With..DIAMOND Stealth S9250PCI256SB Radeon 9250 256MB 128-bit DDR PCI Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103167

 

rick5446,

Yes! Much slower! They're an inferior card over an 8X AGP as well! LOL!! You're much better off with a PCIe 16X! Especially as I think you wanted HDTV!

Russ