Been Away 18 Months - Advice on Motherboard / CPU

[cinders]

Hey Everyone.

I've been away from the scene for 18 months (been living abroad) and have just got back and decided to build a new machine.

It's nice to see some old faces I recognise on this forum!

Now my last setup was a watercooled FX-55 @ 3Ghz and an MSI K8N motherboard. Things have certainly moved on since then and I haven't got a clue what's popular today. Back in those days the MSI K8N was the choice of motherboard.

I was after some advice to see what the most popular CPU / Motherboard . Memory combination is for overclocking on plain old air.

I've been told you can get over 3Ghz on Air with the Core 2 Duo E6600?... Is this CPU a good choice?...

Can anyone advise me on what choice of motherboard everyone is using?...

What about memory?... When I was last on the scene OCZ VX was the enthusiasts choice.

Any help advice for my new setup would be gratefully appreciated!


Peace,
Cinders.

[michaLcoughliN]

p5kDeluxe = for mobo p35 chipset
Q6600 dropping to $266 in july22nd. (quad core) 8mb cache.

[[XC] serlv]

for air cooling...

Thermalright Ultra 120 Xtreme HS with maybe a nice 75 CFM Minebea 120mm fan

or, a Tuniq Tower 120

~~~~~~~~

RAM...
there are so many good, cheap choices right now

Anything with Micron D9 chips...
Crucial Ballistix, GSkill's, Mushkin, others

[cinders]

Thanks for the advice. Looks like I have to learn everything over again!

Do I go for DDR2 or DDR3 Ram?...

Quad C2D is out of my range - looking online now they're around £346. Ouch.

What's does the P35 chip set offer over the 965P?...

I'm looking for a middle-spec system. I don't want to go too crazy like last time!...

[TouGe]

After seeing what eva has done w/ the P5K Deluxe its hard not to recommend the board. Mine is off on RMA due to a bad BIOS flash but I'm ready to retire my 680i for it. Also, as suggestion above, if you want to stick with air, the TR 120 extreme is a very good cooler.

[Brother Esau]

Get the E6420 I can get 3.3GHZ out of mine and get the G-SKILL DDR2 800 F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ I have a set that I just got and I am prime stable @920MHZ @1:1 and they overclock much higher if you run unlinked!
For Motherboard I would get the D.F.I 680 LT or a P35 Board would have got the D.F.I 680 LT myself but they had released it 3 days after I finally bought the EVGA 680 i A1 which is also a very good board and I like it very much!

Alos Intel will be cutting prices on July 22nd if you can wait till then and you can pick up a Q6600 or E6850 for $266.00 there or abouts! If you cannot wait pick up the E6420 for $186.00 like I did untill price cuts as I said I run 3.2GHZ 24/7 stable on 1.33 Vcore

I have a couple month old Tuniq Tower 120 that I am getting rid of thats in Mint condition that I will let go for $40.00 if you want it?

[TouGe]

Originally Posted by cinders

Thanks for the advice. Looks like I have to learn everything over again!

Do I go for DDR2 or DDR3 Ram?...

Quad C2D is out of my range - looking online now they're around £346. Ouch.

What's does the P35 chip set offer over the 965P?...

I'm looking for a middle-spec system. I don't want to go too crazy like last time!...

If the quad is out of your price range then DDR3 will more than likely be too expensive as well. I plan on holding off on DDR3 until next year when I step up to the P38 chipset and the Nehalem processor.

I've never owned an Intel chipset before the P5K D so I can't comment on the difference but from reading Eva's post it seems to be a step up. Here's some links that might interest you:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=2991
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=2993
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=2995

and of course Eva's post on this site

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=144199

I guess it all depends on how much you want to spend but for pure overclocking you can't beat the P5K Deluxe.

[Chewbenator]

I would go with DDR2 because not only are the prices insanely low right now, but DDR3 has some quirks to work out and is at the $400 mark for 2 gigs. There has been some news that DDR2 prices might be at there lowest right now, and that the prices will go up, so I would get the ram now.

As for CPU, the Q6600 @ $266 seems like the deal everyone is talking about. If you want, you can see what the new Intel and AMD chips can do this fall. But, that deal, which btw is happening on the 22nd of July, should not disappoint.

P35 has the advantage of being able to work with the new Intel chips coming out this fall. As far as overclocking there have been numerous +500 and even +600 FSB clocks on the P35, so it has an advantage in that area as well. The p5k-deluxe has been doing well around here, but offerings from Gigabyte, there are alot, have been good as well. Also on the motherboard front there is the X38, while the P35 is about on par as P965, the X38 seems to be the replacement for the 975X. If you are into Multi-GPU solutions you might want to see how this chipset plays out this fall.

[cinders]

Thanks for the advice guys - it's appreciated!...

I'm definitely going to go for the E6420 until I can buy a quad-core in July when the prices drop.

I've always admired GSKILL ram, so will get myself the sticks you recommended. DDR2 will do me nicely.

I'm also going to go with the P5K-D Motherboard.

Brother Esau - I'd love to buy that heatsink from you. Only problem is I live in Koh Samui, Thailand. Would you be able to post it over for me?... Fedex gets here no problem. Maybe you could PM me?... I can pay you via PayPal.

My friend is going to Fed-Ex me out the GSKill RAM.

Again, thanks for all the advice.

Cinders.

[dnottis]

E6420 - mine does up to 3712 orthos stable, great value as most will do 3.4 - 3.5 easily.

Asus P5B Deluxe - can easily vdroop mod, still overclocks better and is usually slightly faster than P5K. BIOSes have made it very stable and mature.

Get some nice (OCZ, Crucial, Mushkin) DDR2-1000 that way u have some overhead for overclocking it as well.

[orion23]

Definately buy a P35 chipset board. Newer, support for 1333 FSB and Quad Core.

I own the P5K Deluxe and love it. Others seem to like the Gigabyte or the Abit P35 boards. Look around and make a decision based on your RAID needs, board layout, SATA ports...

Buy a GREAT cooler from start. Best is the Thermalright Ultra 120 (or Xtreme), followed by the cheaper Tuniq Tower 120.

For the RAM, the G.SKill will be fine, but you should be looking into DDR2-1000 or 1066 (PC2-8000, PC2-8500). DDR2 can be very cheap now days...

For the CPU, if you cannot wait, then the 6420 or the E6600 will be just fine!

[michaLcoughliN]

ram is going up in price if you already havnt noticed... Sooooo Ide purchase the ram as soon as possible because its still said to climb within the enxt month 30-40%..

[cinders]

Thanks for all the advice, it has been excellent.

I'm definitely going for the P35 chipset so I can upgrade to quad-core in the future. I'm going to go with a E6420 for now.

I live in Thailand and the only mainboard I can get out here is the:

ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

- it's not the deluxe version - will this do?...
What is the difference between this and the deluxe version?...

Looking at specs it seems the deluxe version comes with wi-fi and an extra x1 PCI-E slot?...

Thanks again,
Cinders.

[`danny]

I have a P5k Deluxe and love it and I imagine the vanilla version would be almost or just as good as the deluxe.

[cinders]

Again, thanks for the advice. I have everything sorted out now except for the RAM.

Can anyone recommend me 2Gb Of DDR2-1000 or 1066 RAM (2 x 1Gb)

I've been looking online this seems like a good deal:

OCZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2G10002GK - Retail @ $169

or

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-2GBHK - Retail @ $179

Any other suggestions?


Thanks,
Cinders.

[orion23]

Best RAM:

http://www.buy.com/prod/crucial-ball...204681868.html

$140 shipped, and if you use google checkout, you can get a $10 discount making it $130 for the best RAM, + you get cool LED's!

[cinders]

Originally Posted by orion23

Best RAM:

http://www.buy.com/prod/crucial-ball...204681868.html

$140 shipped, and if you use google checkout, you can get a $10 discount making it $130 for the best RAM, + you get cool LED's!

Thanks orion - Ordered!... Now I have to get my friend to post them to Thailand!...

I notice you have 3 drives in your system - how you got them configured?... All in RAID-0 or two in RAID-0 and one separate for redundancy?...

[CedricFP]

God those Ballistix Tracers are cheap.

Here in HK, we don't get cheap GMH

I got my GSkill HZ's for 1600 HKD - thats about 200 USD. This was just 3 weeks ago as well. All the other stuff is Patriot or Super Talent - none of the models with GMH...

[Soulburner]

The G.Skill HZ's are down to $115 @ Newegg. The cheaper version with the red heatspreader is around $85.

[shiznit93]

Originally Posted by Soulburner

The G.Skill HZ's are down to $115 @ Newegg. The cheaper version with the red heatspreader is around $85.

do you mean this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16820231098?
Are those also the good mircon chips?

[orion23]

Originally Posted by cinders

Thanks orion - Ordered!... Now I have to get my friend to post them to Thailand!...

I notice you have 3 drives in your system - how you got them configured?... All in RAID-0 or two in RAID-0 and one separate for redundancy?...

Standard operation, all independent. I do have AHCI enabled though!

I've never bothered with RAID, don't even know the advantages. Some say it might be faster. One day when I'm bored enough I'll give it a shot!

[shiznit93]

Originally Posted by orion23

Standard operation, all independent. I do have AHCI enabled though!

I've never bothered with RAID, don't even know the advantages. Some say it might be faster. One day when I'm bored enough I'll give it a shot!

Not a very Xtreme statement sir...

[entropy]

RAID generally faster in server applications, or where high sustained transfer rates are req, really depends on the RAID type, controller, and application. For most benching or user applications a fast Raptor or Hitachi would be best.

The best part about RAID is adding redundancy to your data.

To the OP, I can highly recommend the E6600. Getting over 3Ghz should be cake, I don't even have to raise Vcore.

[StealthyFish]

Originally Posted by CedricFP

God those Ballistix Tracers are cheap.

Here in HK, we don't get cheap GMH

I got my GSkill HZ's for 1600 HKD - thats about 200 USD. This was just 3 weeks ago as well. All the other stuff is Patriot or Super Talent - none of the models with GMH...

ouch, i got my 2 kits of tracer for 80 after MIR.

[cinders]

Originally Posted by michaLcoughliN

p5kDeluxe = for mobo p35 chipset
Q6600 dropping to $266 in july22nd. (quad core) 8mb cache.

Has this happened yet?...

I really want to get this CPU!