Help me build a new development workstation

[angra]

I need to put a new motherboard, CPU, HSF and RAM into my desktop case at work to build a new development workstation. I need to do this in the next couple of weeks to beat some fiscal year purchasing deadlines. The bonus is that I will have the machine folding for XS with its spare cycles.

I need a core2, quad core based machine. It will be running windows xp for now. RAM is TBD. Overclocking will be kept to a minimum (work time is not play time). Stability, quality control, and ease of setup and use are major factors. Cost is a factor but much less so...so, no skulltrail :). I do dual-GPU coding work on my workstation so it needs 2 pci-e slots, preferably 2 pci-e x16. SLI is not used.

I am totally not up to date on current XS-fashionable motherboards and the RAM to go with them, and I fear to try to wade through the intel board. Can someone tell me a quick and easy set of parts that will do the job and add a couple of kppd to the XS roster? preferably all parts I can order at newegg (despite them shafting me last week on a shipping switcheroo, they are still the best overall vendor for work stuff lately).

[SparkyJJO]

q6600 is good bang for buck and you could oc easily to 3GHz or so with no issues. I've heard good things about the gigabyte P35 boards. Ram, well, just get a good set of DDR2-800 or shoot get some 1066 to make the OC go a bit easier, its cheap enough :)

[coo-coo-clocker]

Try this:
Intel P35 Mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121314)
Intel Q6600 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017)
Zalman HSF (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223)
OCZ DDR2 RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227269)

Play with this a little and you'll find some combo deals too.
STABLE AND CHEAP.

[the]

well i can get you an amd k6-2 500mhz with 3dnow! technology for 7 dollars.

[mike8913]

I feel as though everyone is going to recommend going for the q6600, But i am going to go down the road less traveled and say go for the q9xxx as it will offer improved ppd and long term value through energy use and life cycle, etc.

I'll look into motherboards for you as well. As for the RAM, if you're only doing mild overclocks I would go for the most affordable brand name you can find. Corsair has great deals as well as OCZ and are both rock solid modules.

[Shadowtester]

You might try the Abit P35 Pro mother board I understand its a very good board and also over clocks very well and yes going to 3ghz on a Q6600 is a very easy and stable over clock with a reasonable heat sink I would recommend a TRUE for that being best bang for the cooling buck on air. As for ram the G. Skill 2x2gb ddr2 1000mhz or ddr1066mhz are hard to beat currently.

[SocketMan]

Thats the only one with AMD colours:rolleyes:



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136046
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136046

[Polizei]

You guys are forgetting that P35 doesn't have two x16 PCI-E slots... it's x16 and x4, both with x16 length.

[angra]

Thanks for the inputs so far guys! I'm going to keep watching and piece together an order soon. A couple of notes:

How many of the motherboards support dual pcie-16x? This is a huge plus, but not an absolute requirement.

I refuse to buy DFI for work stuff. They are great hobby boards but I have a very low impression of their quality control.

Don't forget that overclocking is unlikely for this machine unless it is trivially easy. I like the "outside the box" suggestion of thinking about the Q9xxx series. It's probably too expensive, but it might not be.

Keep it coming guys, thanks!

PS thought you guys might get a kick out of the last machine I built:

[Stijndp]

You could go basic with a Asus P5E which is an x38 and uses cheap DDR2. It's one of the basic X38's but price and extra functionalities are allready mid-budget compared to a P35.
The CPU is tricky. If you really don't want to overclock your best bang for buck would be a Q6600. But, you can also go for the Q9450 with 12MB L2 and on 45nm. But in the last case, for the love of the extra $$$, overclock the damn thing :p I know you write MT so speed of one core shouldn't hold down the graca's but rather the full power of the quadcore.
The memory is pretty easy. A 4GB kit of some major brands like ocz, corsair, kingston or whatever is popular/cheap in the states. For stock Q6600 you take pc4200, stock Q9450 PC5300. CAS4 or 5 won't make enough difference to pay the difference.
edit: saw you didn't need a psu, we'll scrap that then :p

I think that is what you wanted, fast stuff without rediculous prices. Also pretty standard things to setup and use as a reliable pc.

[The_Barnacle]

My vote:

Q9450 - slightly more Mhz than Q6600, more cache, SSE4, less energy, and not too much more money

Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 - 2 16x PCIE, DDR2 (I just don't see the benifit of DDR3), Officially supports 1600 fsb, so a moderate OC to 3.2Ghz is an easy task if desired, $200. I own this board and I love it, folding at 450x8 24/7 on a Q6600 with no problems.

[angra]

Thanks for the guidance, guys. I got the gigabyte, q9300 (newegg did not have the 9450 and I did not want to ask my purchasers to make a separate order just for the one part), the ocz 4gb kit, and the zalman. Hopefully it'll be up and folding soon.

[The_Barnacle]

Sounds good, let us know how it turns out once you get it built.

I know this may sound obvious (I was a noob and didn't know any better), but the 12v 8-pin connector comes with a rubber plug over 4 of the pins for 4-pin compatibility. Make sure to remove it and use an 8-pin connector as I found it made a pretty big difference with overclocking stability.

[sc00p]

Shait... forgot to post here, sorry Angra I'm too late (as always;))
Though... I agree with everything said already... wanted to just add, I like the durability of Abit mobos :p:

[angra]

So the parts came in last week, but I have been out of the office until today. I made a brief stop in my lab and tried to get it up and running...got some odd behavior, and didn't have the time to really troubleshoot. With the full complement of RAM, the system lights up for a few seconds, fans start, and all that, then after about 5s, the whole thing shuts off. a second or two later, it comes back on and repeats.

I tried taking out a stick of RAM, and this time it went all the way to the graphical BIOS splash screen, and then hangs. If I mash tab during the boot, I get the text POST screen and then hang. No other keys seem to do anything. I'll troubleshoot some more when I get back from my current work trip (next friday), but in the mean time does that sound particularly like any specific culprit?

[Alpha]

i would check the bios - it may need a flash to support the q9300.

[SocketMan]

Which Gigabyte mobo did you get?
Does it "beep" (what buzzer sound: 1 long is ram I think)
I am no expert on Intel, but the BIOS update (like Alpha said) might be necessary.
Which means you'll need another cpu briefly.

[angra]

I got the x38-ds4. I do not have access to a single or dual core CPU to swap in for bios update. (bummer).

It beeps but I do not remember the exact beep codes. I am away from machine, should have access again on friday. I will probably take it home over the weekend to work on it.

[SparkyJJO]

Wish I could let you borrow a CPU to flash with but (as you know) I only have AMD stuff and a couple old P3 CPUs, no modern intel chips :(

[[XC] 4X4N]

Hey Angra, I have a chip if you need it. Just let me know.

[angra]

OK i finally had some time to try to work on the new machine. I have uploaded a photo of the bios screen that I can get in certain cases.

If I put in both sticks of RAM (2GB each), The machine lights up, the on-board LED line comes all on, and the fans start turning. This goes for about 8 seconds and then the whole thing shuts off spontaneously. 3-4 seconds later, the whole thing repeats. This goes forever.

If I take out one of the sticks of RAM, I get what starts to seem like a system start - single beep, monitor comes up, and graphical logo splash screen comes up and system freezes there. Fans stay on, but no further progress and no response to keyboard. If I mash "tab" while the system is booting up, I am able to have it show the text splash screen instead, but nothing else happens. I took a photo of the bios screen, which can be seen at http://gtf.org/dan/bios.jpg

I am limited on my options in terms of swapping parts in and out. I might be able to scrounge some RAM.

ETA: Swapping in a single 1gb stick seems to make it work. Could this be a BIOS issue? I am not too familiar with the vagaries of this particular motherboard.

[The_Barnacle]

I am actually running the GA-X38-DS4, not the GA-EX38-DS4, but I don't think there's much of a difference.

I had no problems running 4 2GB sticks on my setup, underclocking and overclocking. I am inclined to think that if you replaced the RAM with the 1GB stick and it works that the 2GB sticks you have might have soemthing wrong with them.

Once you get into the BIOS with the 1GB stick you might want to try setting failsafe defaults and retrying the other RAM. Or manually setting the RAM multipier to the lowest setting possible and then trying the 2GB sticks. Your chips are running 333 FSB instead of 266 so if the board is trying to set your RAM speed to 2.5x fsb (which wuld be normal for DDR2-800 on 266 fsb) it would actually be overclocking it to 900Mhz when set to 333 fsb. You should be able to manually select a 2x fsb multiplier for your RAM, I would try that jsut to see if you can get it working.

[SocketMan]

I am actually running the GA-X38-DS4, not the GA-EX38-DS4, but I don't think there's much of a difference.

I had no problems running 4 2GB sticks on my setup, underclocking and overclocking. I am inclined to think that if you replaced the RAM with the 1GB stick and it works that the 2GB sticks you have might have soemthing wrong with them.

Once you get into the BIOS with the 1GB stick you might want to try setting failsafe defaults and retrying the other RAM. Or manually setting the RAM multipier to the lowest setting possible and then trying the 2GB sticks. Your chips are running 333 FSB instead of 266 so if the board is trying to set your RAM speed to 2.5x fsb (which wuld be normal for DDR2-800 on 266 fsb) it would actually be overclocking it to 900Mhz when set to 333 fsb. You should be able to manually select a 2x fsb multiplier for your RAM, I would try that jsut to see if you can get it working.


Makes perfect sense, not many DDR 800 2gb sticks will run @ 900 at the default voltage.
BTW. The EOC website might have the same setup:rolleyes:

[The_Barnacle]

Yeah, btw, I can in fact do math, I swear!!!

Default for 266 fsb is 3x for DDR2-800, at 333 fsb that runs the RAM at 1000Mhz.

Any luck getting your system up yet?

[angra]

no luck yet, except that spare 1gb sticks work. I have a set of 4 1gb sticks on the way and will swap them in when they arrive.

[coo-coo-clocker]

The OCZ guys are pretty good about support after the sale, from what I read. You going to RMA them, Angra?

[angra]

Once work calms down a little bit, yes :)