The (new) Official PC building thread!

the waranty is one year with OCUK and the boards are either palit, or xpertvison or ecs (ecs comes with the S2 GPU cooling)

it is good.

and BFG and EVGA are one of the best (along with XFX and zotac) for nvidia, they offer outrageous waranties (and thats alwasy good xD) and good prices.

the only problem being xfx RMAs are nightmareish (as you have to ship to USA)



(im sure shoping around the mobo will be cheaper, but the GT is the cheapest and the Q6600 is inline with other sites, so it works out in the end as the same)

 

Thanks for your responses on the DDR 400 RAM. I'm gonna snag the OCZ stuff and see what it's like.

On the voltages for the E8xxx series cpus. It is a learning curve and the longer they are out the more we learn about them. cincyrob has learned a lot about his system and will be able to help others on that front if need be. BET you NEVER thought you could help others, huh rob??

....gm

 

A warranty with OcUK doesn't necessarily mean much, they're hard work to get anything done with, I've tried a few times before. Plus, ECS. Need I say more?
Also, the X38-DS4 is a great board, but with two PCIe2.0 16x slots at full bandwidth, it's designed with crossfire in mind. He may as well save some money and go with the DS3R.

 

hey if i can help out i will. but i gotta have the stuff running before i can do anything....

once i get my mobo back everything is staying stock. no OC'ing until i get my PSU. stilll havent gotten my rebate from coolermaster.

kinda funny im allready thinking of how i can talk the wife into another build. need to be creative. granted it wont be for another 6months or so... my oldest will be in the 5th grade next year so im sure he will need his own puter(this HP would be nice for him) then i can set the big red machine up for the wife to use/have. then im left out in the cold and need to build me a new one???sounds good to me...

 

I highly discourage skimping on the mobo. it's the heart of a build. that's precisely why I went with the top end asus rampage formula. I've yet to have any mobo problems with a top end asus mobo.

in regards to cpu's it all depends what you're going to be doing with your pc. I do a lot of video encoding and although hc encoder by hanks will utilize 4 cores (as will procoder2 I think) a higher clocked core2duo using CCE is faster.

the 45nm cpu's do not require near the voltage to OC and therefor run a lot cooler especially if using a top end cpu hsf. no need to push them to 1.4v+. their default voltage is also lower. 4.0ghz should be obtainable with an E8400 or E3110. time will tell when I get my E3110.

 

Good luck with the better half on that one !

 

i agree with your mobo statement, and then he could put the extra towards more ram.

BTW what PSU is he running?

but FYI, ALL nvidia cards are made in the same facotry (unlike ATI, whos partners make them) therefore, they are all the same cards underneath.

and i can agree with you about the OcUK aftersales service being piss poor, but it is 1 year waranty nevertheless.

 

I wouldn't exactly call the P35-DS3R skimping on the mobo. It's the best board I've ever had.

Shaffaaf: Where did you read that?

 

maybe, but you've been there. you had your budget asus mobo (forgot the model) and now you badmouth asus. I bought a top end asus mobo (P5W DH Deluxe WiFi) and it is still going strong with my E6600 OC'ed to 3.6ghz.

 

possible future build here

MOBO
CPU
RAM
GPU
HDD
PSU
COOLER
Burner #1
BURNER #2
for you Sam
CASE

grand total of $1027 minus S&H and MIR's

 

well the x38 would be alto better. but if i was to go x38, i would go eihter DFI or ASUS.

if im spending top end, id go for top end.

and mort, it was the p5n-e (which has booted up with my E2410 jsut fine, and installed vista perfectly. time to see if this baby can OC)

and sam has always said midrange asus are bad, but he has said int he past that their high end is superb.

about nvidia cards, read it in a forum once lemie search for the link again

 

yea i gotta get her something nice she wants first kinda lay low with the build for awhile, make sure she has found the job she has been waiting on... make sure everything is peachy keen then nicely get on my hands and knees and beg like a little kid in the toy section at wally world...lmao

 

Rob me thinks it's time for a X38 motherboard instead of P35, no?

 

Mort: Not exactly, people seem to think I've turned into an Asus-basher. I haven't really, I just think their midrange boards are crap. The reason why I primarily recommend gigabyte boards is because their less expensive models are actually good. If you're spending over £100 on a board, Asus become a viable option, but just because Asus can't make midrange boards doesn't mean nobody can.
Shaff: This might shock you, but not everything everybody says on forums is true.
Rob: Nice looking build. I take it you're 'expecting' approval from the other half? From what I can see though, that DFI board doesn't have onboard audio and it's a lot of money for a P35 board.

 

Rob,

if doing a new build in the near future, move up on the chipset. although the P965, 975X and 680i are still good chipsets they will soon be obsolete. same will apply to the P35.

as for the psu, great manufacturer but I prefer modular

as for the hdd, I would go smaller for OS and get a large one or two for storage.

as for the case (no disrespect sam), I will never stray from all aluminum construction. half the weight as steel and every bit as strong (that is with cooler master aluminum cases anyway).

 

i was thinking that also boozer. but for what i do would it benifit me??? just encodeing movies, burns CD/DVD's plus thats 6-8 months down the road and the X48 will have been out a while so who knows?

i just dont think i will need something that awsome for what i do..lol

 

sam the article on the forum had a link to an article.

 

Mort: I don't really take offense at that. Remember, the Red Blackline version is steel, but the original silver design is Aluminium, which IMO is nicer, but hey, it's the higher-end version of the case. The blackline is the 'budget' model so to speak.
Shaff: As far as I can remember, there are even some electronic differences between brands, I'd think that them all being made at the same factory would be unlikely.

 

Well you could probably get a better cooler OC out of it. Probably performs better too. 6 months down the road, who knows? Maybe even the X48 will be a viable option.

 

Given how far people have been overclocking on P35 boards, I'm not really sure that's a valid argument against them.