The (new) Official PC building thread!

Also, should i go quad core? its about 75 bucks more, and how well would a quad core overclock?

 

Not as well as a dual core. The ceiling for air cooled Core 2 Duos can be as much as 4Ghz with the right chip and revision. With the quads, it's barely above 3Ghz. My advice to you is to only get a quad core if you can regularly make use of the extra cores. Otherwise it may be worth waiting until the intelligent quad cores come out, that can actually use as many threads as they like for single-threaded applications.

 

good to know. i dont think i would use the extra cores that often, as this is going to be used for 90% gaming. thanks sam.

 

I'm still here, something is messed up with my account though. It keeps on suspending me, but I changed my password and it seems fine now.

As for the Quad-Core thing, only some programs use all four cores, and if you happen to use those programs your processing time will be cut nearly in half. Although you mentioned 90% gaming and most games don't utilize all four cores so the higher clock speeds coming form the duos might actually give better performance.

 

To put it into perspective I run the entry level E4300 core 2 duo, there are at least 11 models above mine in the series, and yet I've overclocked mine to be faster than you can overclock any quad core CPU on air. You've got to really want those extra cores. As I say, future Quad cores will be able to make use of all 4 regardless of what program you're running, but that's the future, not now. Best advice I can give you is to get a board that supports both types, and upgrade to a quad as/when necessary. It's what I've done...

 

well the board i got priced out in my list is the GA-P35-DS3P, which can run the core 2 duo as well as the core 2 quad. hopefully this rig will last a couple years.

 

With any luck...

 

hummm, I'm thinking about upgrading maybe spring vvvv

CPU
mobo
memory
videocard

everything else i have should be fine

Antec Nine Hundred Mid-Tower Gaming Case/Thermaltake 750-Watt PS/ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe MB Socket 939/ Seagate160GB Barracuda Sata/ Westeren Digital Raptor 150 GB Sata/NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2,1 GB of GDDR3 Memory / CORSAIR XMS 2GB DDR SDRAM (PC 3500)/AMD Opteron 185 Dual Core CPU OC(ed) to 2.87 GHz/Zalman CNPS-9500 LED Cooler/3-Plextor PX-810 SA Sata Drives/View Sonic-VX2245wm 22" Widescreen 1680x1050 res. 5ms Respone Time


so taking ideas guys!!

 

Thanks for the help you guys gave me. I had to put off getting my cpu and mbd while I was out of town. I missed a great deal on the e4500 cpu at microcenter for $99, and didn't realize Intel cpu's do not generally go on sale, so I'd be waiting a long while before seeing that again.

Anyway, in comparing e4500's at different vendors, I notice a difference. I'll restate their descriptions, and I'd like to know if anyone thinks there is any relevent difference. Price is virtually the same.

ClubIT describes it as: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 M0 Stepping Conroe 2.2GHz 2MB L2 LGA 775 Processor Retail BX80557E4500 SLA95

NewEgg describes it as: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 2.2GHz LGA 775 65W Processor Model BX80557E4500 - Retail

I had read that Conroe's that had half their cache disabled are larger and might run hotter than Allendale's. Any truth to this? And any idea why one would mention "MO Stepping" when I assume they both have MO Stepping? And might some retailers just call a Conroe with a 2mb cache an Allendale anyway (I always thought the e4xxx series were all Allendales)?

 

Long story short, the proper Intel core 2 duos (E6600, 6700, 6800, 6850) are Conroe CPUs. The Lower end ones of the original market (6300, 6400) were listed as Allendales. They are in fact Conroe CPUs, essentially they are the same CPU but with half their cache disabled. For interest, they now make full 4MB cache versions of those CPUs called the 6320 and 6420.
The 4000 series (4300, 4400, 4500) are Allendales from top to bottom. They were never made to have any more than 2MB cache.
I've no idea about the heat level, but suffice to say with a good heatsink, you can overclock any of them ridiculously far without getting heating issues.

 

Zoso, What kind of budget are you planning?
For my next build I'm considering a Gigabyte board with the X38 chipset and probably DDR2...

GA-X38-DQ6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128066

Mainly because it's semi future proof although it uses DDR2 rather than DDR3. Everything I've read is not showing much advantage in DDR3 at this point.
This board will support the soon to be released Intel Penryn Core 2 Duos. The Q9650 quad core is out now but very expensive. I want to use a quad core though, just a couple of steps down from that one... probably the Q9450. Some of the video programs do use all four cores (Nero Digital is one of them) and you get some amazing encoding times.


For RAM I'll probably go with Corsair again:

TWIN2X2048-8500C5D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145043

Video cards... hmmm, The new 8800GT seem to have a good price/performance ratio:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...303&CMP=AFC-EggxpertDeals&ATT=N82E16814130303

 

Why not go with this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148069

 

Lol a six dollar difference. Every penny counts!

 

Thanks sammorris,

I did call ClubIT, and the guy in tech support was persistent in telling me it was a Conroe. Doesn't exactly give me a feeling of confidence. Since the box numbers are the same, my guess is they're identical. I wish they'd simplify the naming conventions, though.

Not as bad as the sales rep at Dell, who I called recently for a friend. I asked what motherboard they used in a particular pc and he said either Intel or AMD. That was the one part of the pc he knew the least about. When he came back from talking to tech, he corrected himself, but still couldn't tell me how many SATA and ATA connections it had. Of course, I recommended that my friend avoid Dell. (Duh!)

 

To be honest you're doing Dell a little dis-service there. Their PCs are well built, but as you say, their tech support isn't up to the scratch that most users require. It doesn't help that all their stuff is proprietary, so they're the only people you can ask.

 

Rebates are a hassle, plus I trust the Crucial ones more.

 

I've run three different sets of Corsair RAM, didn't have any issues with either.

 

Frank yeah i was leaning towards that mobo being its almost furture proof but I've always liked the Asus mobo too there a good match with the NVIDIA videocards. everything you listed i like but i will probably go with a dual-core CPU for now?

the money is no biggie somewhere between a grand and 1500.00 bucks is fine,I want something that will scream !! lol. I think everything else i have will work out the Case, PS, HDs, Optical drives etc.

 

I look at benchmarks and any other reviews I can get once I figure out what chipset I want to use. A lot of folks here have been using them so I want to try this one. I'm still not sure about the memory though. I may end up going with the DDR3 version.
My E6850 CPU is working out great. Excellent encoding times and overclockable. I was able to boot into Windows at 4 Ghz and it runs stable at 3.84 Ghz. It's on a EVGA 680i board with two 640Mb 8800GTS video cards. You can get similar performance from the E6750. I'd wait a couple of months and get one of the new C2D releases though. AMD Phenom should be out by then. I see one retailer has three listed for pre-order.
http://www.tankguys.com/index.php?cPath=29_193&osCsid=345f9b9f0093801e943ca139905f40d0
The next few months will be interesting. It's good to see AMD getting something out there that will compete against C2D. It might force the prices down a bit.

 

You say you already have the power supply. What power supply is it you currently have?