it also looks the prettiest unless someone has something else to add, i think i'm (really) all sorted now.
On top of the looks, it's well built, and has a more powerful/quieter cooler than the stock versions. It can probably overclock higher too, all told.
You guys realize he is using a E6420? Don't let him do that! lol Get this CPU instead. http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/79402/CPU_CORE_2_DUO_EXTREME/Intel/BX80570E8400.asp I'm also kinda pissed that your Store doesn't sell crucial RAM. Call around your Local stores to see if you can get Crucial Ballistix Ram for about the same price.
only one of my local shops sells crucial ram and it's at a ridiculous price (it was something like $215 for 2GB). i also looked at a couple of other online stores but none of them sold it either. seems kind of odd to me. is it an american brand or something? in any case, i think i'll just stick with corsair. i will get the e8400 instead of the e6420 though. i only chose the e6420 because it won the consumer choice award on newegg.... i should probably stop listening to that site. if there's nothing else that should be changed, i'll probably be ordering my parts around this time tomorrow.
Well the higher multiplier on the E8400 should certainly help. This means you won't have to overclock your RAM as much. It seems Sam can't get this RAM to overclock well at all so that's why I was a bit weary of it. You should be fine though, even with the RAM at stock speed you're looking at 3.6 Ghz if you decide to overclock it(which you should). Good Luck! I'm sure it's gonna be a great computer!
Thing is, I'm using four sticks of it, so that may skew my overclocking progress. That and I was running it at 1.9V, which isn't the typical voltage it should have. All told it probably overclocks really well. As for the E8400, do it. On air cooling you can get it beyond 4Ghz easily.
i'm aware that i sound like a newb saying this... could be because i am, but how do you overclock? i'm reading up on it now but if one of you could give me just a brief overview of how it works, it would save me a lot of time. i'll make sure i've thoroughly done my homework before actually doing it, but if someone could give me the "gist" of it, i'd really appreciate it.
You go in your motherboard setting and change the FSB. It's really simple, I'll show you what it looks like. You just need to know how to multiply lol.
a) get good parts b) get into the BIOS c) up the front side bus as high as you can without getting crashes d) increase the voltages and latencies as required so you can get the FSB even higher - CARE with this one!
back again. thanks for the help with overclocking. much appreciated. i'm afraid i need help again. techbuy no longer sells the motherboard that i was planning on getting so instead i'm thinking of getting this: http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/80123/MOTHERBOARD_INTEL_SOCKET_775_CORE_2/Gigabyte/GA-EP35-DS3.asp to be honest, i've got no idea what a decent motherboard looks like. i just chose this one because it's made by the same brand and is around the same price.
That board looks pretty much identical to the P35-DS3R, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same product renamed.
and mine's a humble 1.1... <sobs> meh, i get my parallel port on the back, no need for headers! Not that I've actually used a parallel port in the last 5 years...
That may just be due to the popularity of the first board. It might also have a newer BIOS revision and hardware mods for PCIe 2.0 and such.
