Need your advice for 1st build. Details inside.

[Treize2]

This will be used primarily for high-end gaming and some multi-tasking. I’m looking for a very good performing but stable overclock build with the least amount of manual tweaking, converting. (Targeting 3.2ghz air-cooled)

Q6600 G0 is on its way.

My chosen case is Silverstone TJ-09
http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_photo.php?pno=tj09&area=usa

My chosen OS is Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit

My chosen video card is 1 x EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX


For the rest, these are what I’m thinking. Kindly let me know if you have other recommendations in mind or if you see any incompatibilities. Thanks

My budget for all the remaining parts below is (excluding the 4 items above) 800 USD

MB: Asus P5k not sure which one

Memory: 2 x (2gb Corsair DDR2 800).
* What are these promos I’m reading about? How do you tell?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

HD: 1 x 250GB WD SATA 7200RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144417

I need just one fast and reliable DVD Drive, read/write double layer (silver). Not sure which one

Sound Card: Creative SB X-fi XtremeGamer PCI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006

Network Card: I need something to hook up my broadband modem to

PSU: Enermax Liberty modular. Not really sure how much wattage I need.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194004

And essentials I’m missing

For Air Cooling: (preferably black and silver colors, without glowies and bubbles)

Case Fans: I need 4 (6 total if you count the 2 below).
I’m thinking S-Flex Ultra, Delta GHB, Yate Loon. Can Tornado be fan controlled? What has the highest airflow (ignoring noise)?

Thermal Compund: Arctic Silver Ceramique
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100009

CPU: TRUE + a 120mm fan (does TRUE sag a lot?)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109140

VGA: HR-03 Plus + a 92mm fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109136&Tpk=HR03%2bPlus

Memory: Thermalright or Corsair Dominator,
http://www.petrastechshop.com/thhrmemoco.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16835704001&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&SelectedRating=3&Page=

Sound Card: I hear X-fi cards gets really hot.

Mofset and Chipset: I was thinking of replacing the copper heatsinks on ASUS. Are thermalright any good?

Looking for a sleek-looking silver fan controller and temperature monitor.
Size: No more than 3 x 5.25” bay

And any other cooling apparatus I may need.

[Tsaroth]

I will dissect this to the best of my ability.

if you don't see something in here that was in your original post then it is because I left it out because I had no input :D



Q6600 G0 is on its way.


Nice


My chosen case is Silverstone TJ-09
http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_photo.php?pno=tj09&area=usa


I think the TJ07 is sexier but that's me.



My chosen OS is Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit


Remember that if you use 32-bit then you will not register the 4gb memory that you are aiming to get. If you are don't want to run 64bit or already have 32-bit and don't want to buy 64-bit then I would suggest getting 2gb of ram.



My chosen video card is 1 x EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX


Nice company choice, lifetime warranty which includes overclocking and if you put an aftermarket cooler on it, as long as you don't physically damage the card.


My budget for all the remaining parts below is (excluding the 4 items above) 800 USD


Lets see now...........



MB: Asus P5k not sure which one

I have heard a few good mobo's for oc'ing the G0 your getting
I'm assuming you are getting the P5K for one reason or another but here a few more suggestions you might want to look at.

abit ip35 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127030) - $200

Asus p5k premium (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131190) - $230

Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128046) - $239

You might want to get some more input on that but I have heard that those are all good mobos. Hell you can even drop 300 bucks and get the new DFI LP board (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136037) that is out now.



Memory: 2 x (2gb Corsair DDR2 800).
* What are these promos I’m reading about? How do you tell?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184


As far as the memory goes. I'll touch on this again. 32-bit you are better off with 2gb. If you have 4, you'll register about 3 and won't get all you're paying for. I would suggest 64-bit and get 4gb (2x2gb).

Here are my suggestions..........

2gb (2x1gb) - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820231065) without hesitation. They are using the D9 chips and are very good for overclocking. - $150

or

4GB (2x2gb) - Patriot extreme performance (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820220227). I suggest this one because I think that patriot is a good company and these modules are very solid. They are a bit cheaper than the corsair memory also. I would have linked some D9 but I can't seem to find any D9 in 4gb kits. - $247



HD: 1 x 250GB WD SATA 7200RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144417


May I suggest WD 320GB 16MB Cache Sata2 HDD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822136074) - $75 bucks is 10 bucks more but I think it's a better HDD.



Sound Card: Creative SB X-fi XtremeGamer PCI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006


I think this is a good choice. Remember though that games can't use EAX through vista unless you use a program called alchemy that basically hacks it to make it work. I strongly suggest dual booting with xp 64-bit pro so that you can play games that don't require Vista and get the best sound from them.


Network Card: I need something to hook up my broadband modem to

Any high end mobo should come with dual ethernet ports on the back so you shouldn't have to worry about that.


PSU: Enermax Liberty modular. Not really sure how much wattage I need.

You should be good with 500ish. May I suggest the Corsair 520watt Modular PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001&Tpk=corsair%2b520) very solid. - $140



For Air Cooling: (preferably black and silver colors, without glowies and bubbles)

Case Fans: I need 4 (6 total if you count the 2 below).
I’m thinking S-Flex Ultra, Delta GHB, Yate Loon. Can Tornado be fan controlled? What has the highest airflow (ignoring noise)?

I think the Yate Loons are very good fans and very cheap also, especially at jab-tech.com


Thermal Compund: Arctic Silver Ceramique
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100009

:slapass: ............ I would just get the Arctic Silver 5. It's very good. It has more thermal conduction and less thermal resistance.


Memory: Thermalright or Corsair Dominator,
http://www.petrastechshop.com/thhrmemoco.html


I'd probably go with the Corsair or OCZ cooling fan to go over the Memory. I wouldn't put an individual piece on each stick, that will alot of time and a lot of money.


Sound Card: I hear X-fi cards gets really hot.

I have one and I have never experienced heat issues with it and my case is probably 2/3 the size of yours so you should be fine.


Looking for a sleek-looking silver fan controller and temperature monitor.
Size: No more than 3 x 5.25” bay


I'd look at this Sumbeam Tech Chromatic (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138&products_id=3277)

I hope I helped some. Just some suggestions for you to look at and get an idea that there's alternatives out there.

Let me know if you need any more help and I'll try my best to do so. :up:

[LagunaX]

Go for the 2 x 1gb of ddr2 800 ram:

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
$110, $70 after rebate!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

If you need more shiny bling, they the Ballistix Tracers with LED's are for you (like in my picture):
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB(2x1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800(PC2 6400)
$130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148076

The best thermalpaste is MX-2:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=156316&highlight=mx-2

I have an asus p5k vanilla. DO NOT get this board as it has horrible vdroop unless you are prepared to do a pencil mod to fix the vdroop. I think the next one up with the bios option of voltage damper for vdroop is the p5k-e. I've heard good things about the gigabyte boards too.

[zanzabar]

definantly ge teh mx-2 its the same price as teh as5 or ceramic and way better

that theramrite ram sink requires that u remove teh original sink so that could pose a problem

also get vista 64bit

and wait till mid september to order u will see a price drop on p35 because the x38 will usurp its position, adn drop the sound card it wont work well on vista wait till creative comes out with their next card


mx-2 past $6 http://www.petrastechshop.com/arcomxthco.html

[dieqast]

Abit IP35 - well priced, brilliant performance and excellent BIOS or..
P5K-E

Crucial Ballistix - D9GMH's at $70 after rebate, unbeatable. Forget the aftermarket cooling not worth it especially with such great airflow in a TJ09
2x1Gb cause you already have that 32-bit coming in, maybe 3x1GB

For HDD check Storagereview.com - A good Hitachi will do T7K500 320 has 16mb cache and perfroms well in the charts

silentpcreview.com will tell you to go for S-Flex, Noctua or Nexus fans

Corsair HX520/620 or Silverstone DA650

Auzentech X-Fi Prelude hands down

Zalman MFC-1 Plus (looks perfect on TJ09) and softwarewise temp monitoring

Arctic MX-2 hands down

And leave the GTX cooler on there, you'll won't get your money out of that Thermalright I'm sure. Also if you're not die-hard overclocking you can leave the stock mosfets/chipset-cooler on there cause they don't suck they just get outperformed by a minimal margin by the HR's making it ideal for say G0 ~4GHz overclockers

[zanzabar]

i just realized that there is 8 day till the phenom so u might want to wait for those benches before u decide to go intel, and i bet intel has a $20 price drop so that they lead the price to performance next week

[L'enFer]

Abit IP35 Pro/Asus Blitz Extreme.