Conroe E6600 system - thoughts please :)

[zedzed]

V. close to buying a new PC - def. going the conroe route after all the reports/reviews. So ... what do all you PC experts think of this set up? (any weaknesses?). My top budget is definitely £1k max.

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MI: Coolermaster WaveMaster Black TAC-T01EK Aluminium Case + 480W XClio-SCF PSU £84.01
(480W XClio-SCF aPFC Super Silent SLi (21Db) 12cm Fan 8/20/24 ATX2/2.01 12vEPS + SATA+PCI-E Hi-End)

ASUS P5W DH Deluxe i975X, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533 / 667 /800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £146.28

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 S775, 2.40Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache Retail £230.24

Akasa AK-961 Intel LGA 775, P4 3.8Ghz 3 Heat Pipe Dual Core/Conroe Cooler with Open BLUE LED PWM Fan £18.20

512MB ASUS Radeon X1900 XT PCI-E (x16) Mem 1450 MHz , GPU 625 MHz ,48 Pipes VIVO £229.00

2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC6400 (800), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12 £146.28

160 Gb Samsung HD160JJ SpinPoint P80, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, NCQ, 8.9 ms £39.00

HP 840i Lightscribe Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer Retail £26.98


Total: £935 (all from scan.co.uk)

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Thanks,

Dez

[sibeer]

Hi there,

I have lots recommendations for you.

1. Go for a motherboard with the 965 chipset as it is more modern, overclocks better and is more likely to support the quad core cpus . Be careful about Gigabyte ones though as they are very fussy with memory. Even better if you can wait a couple of weeks the new Asus P5N32-SLi Premium WiFi (Socket 775) will be out. This has full SLI support for Dual / Quad core Conroes:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._Asus_177.html

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6326

2. Either downgrade your GPU to a 7900GT as you won't see much difference:

http://www.aria.co.uk/productinfocom...pecialStatus=1

or upgrade to a 7950GX2 for significant gain, especially as the current intel motherboards don't support SLI:

http://www.aria.co.uk/productinfocom...pecialStatus=1

3. Go for this Geil RAM: GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) @

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...R2_Memory.html

4. Change the CPU cooler to an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, or a beast such as the Thermaltake Big Typhoon.

5. Get a bigger HDD, preferably Seagate 300 gig plus with their 5 year warranty.

6. Get a Pioneer DVD-R, they are the best apart from Plextors. HP are premium prices but not worth the extra. If you are considering using the lightscribe technology I would seriously advise changing to Printable media on an Epson Photo printer. This will give far superior results on much cheaper blank disks.

Sorry for pulling your system apart but trust me that some of this advise is due to my own mistakes (I have had a nightmare with my Gigabyte 965 and CAS5 RAM). Good luck with your build, I am sure it will be a beast regardless

[Tigerblade]

Originally Posted by sibeer

2. Either downgrade your GPU to a 7900GT as you won't see much difference:

Depends what monitor is being used. At higher resolutions with eye candy on the X1900 will stomp on the 7900GT, plus will stand up to future games far better. Then there is the issue of 7900 series cards failiure rate. Not a line of card's that I would suggest, especially with the inpending price drop of the x1900 due to the x1950.

[zedzed]

Originally Posted by sibeer

Hi there,

I have lots recommendations for you.

1. Go for a motherboard with the 965 chipset as it is more modern, overclocks better and is more likely to support the quad core cpus . Be careful about Gigabyte ones though as they are very fussy with memory. Even better if you can wait a couple of weeks the new Asus P5N32-SLi Premium WiFi (Socket 775) will be out. This has full SLI support for Dual / Quad core Conroes:

Hmm. I'll have a read. Always a bit nervous about going "bleeding edge" though. I've read mostly good things about the board I've chosen - are you aware of any issues? (re: quad core support - give me a break - i'm only just moving to dual core )

2. Either downgrade your GPU to a 7900GT as you won't see much difference:

Can't afford a 7950, and i've also read about reliability issues on 7900 line of cards. Jury's out on that one

3. Go for this Geil RAM: GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) @

OK

4. Change the CPU cooler to an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, or a beast such as the Thermaltake Big Typhoon.

OK

5. Get a bigger HDD, preferably Seagate 300 gig plus with their 5 year warranty.

I don't really need a 300 gig drive. I've a 120gig drive at the moment and it's not even half full Any performance improvements going with seagate?

6. Get a Pioneer DVD-R, they are the best apart from Plextors. HP are premium prices but not worth the extra. If you are considering using the lightscribe technology I would seriously advise changing to Printable media on an Epson Photo printer. This will give far superior results on much cheaper blank disks.

OK

Sorry for pulling your system apart but trust me that some of this advise is due to my own mistakes (I have had a nightmare with my Gigabyte 965 and CAS5 RAM). Good luck with your build, I am sure it will be a beast regardless

No worries - I'm happy to get all the advice I can

Cheers,
Dez

I don't really need a 300 gig drive. I've a 120gig drive at the moment and it's not even half full Any performance improvements going with seagate?

You will find that 120 gig HDs only have an 8meg cache and dont have NCQ. When you go up to the 200/250 mark most nowadays have 16meg cache with NCQ, the 16meg cache does make a massive difference. Seagate is IMO one of the better manufacturers. Also get sata II!

Rob

[pRot3us]

The Gigabyte DS3 is a great board and much cheaper than the Asus and its fine with Corsair/Geil ram.

CPU Cooler : The Scythe Ninja is a great big beast

Basically everything in my sig rocks

oh and shop around for best prices, if you buy all components from one place you will get ripped off

[apolloa]

Originally Posted by zedzed

MI: Coolermaster WaveMaster Black TAC-T01EK Aluminium Case + 480W XClio-SCF PSU 84.01

Nice looking case but it's got crap coolling. There is little space up front for the air to come in. The Coolermaster Mystique 631 looks nice with good cooling and it's a new case design so origional. Or get an Antec P180, brilliant design with great cooling.

Originally Posted by zedzed

(480W XClio-SCF aPFC Super Silent SLi (21Db) 12cm Fan 8/20/24 ATX2/2.01 12vEPS + SATA+PCI-E Hi-End)

I would get a Seasonic S12 600 PSU.

Originally Posted by zedzed

ASUS P5W DH Deluxe i975X, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533 / 667 /800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £146.28

Well I don't see anything wrong with this, the 975C chipset is more featured then the 965, with Intel chipsets the higher the number the better and more up the range they are. And as for quad core CPU's, hardly anything uses dual core CPU's at the moment let alone quad core.

Originally Posted by zedzed

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 S775, 2.40Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache Retail £230.24

Brilliant choice the Conroe, it runs rings around the AMD's.

Originally Posted by zedzed

Akasa AK-961 Intel LGA 775, P4 3.8Ghz 3 Heat Pipe Dual Core/Conroe Cooler with Open BLUE LED PWM Fan £18.20

Akasa are a good make, not sure how good it is at overclocking mind but maybe try to get a cooler that uses an 80mm fan as you can alway's put a faster fan on it later for higher clocking.

Originally Posted by zedzed

512MB ASUS Radeon X1900 XT PCI-E (x16) Mem 1450 MHz , GPU 625 MHz ,48Pipes VIVO £229.00

This is the current fave of the graphics card world, I don't know if you can use crossfire on that mother board or if you need an ATI chipset but then again I've never seen a Crossfire master card sold anywhere. Still a fine choice of card.

Originally Posted by zedzed

2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC6400 (800), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12 £146.28

Corsair is great memory but so is Giel. Buy and try, get it from the same place as you get the motherboard (I recommend Scan, you can speak to a human there if needed) then if it's not compatible change it.

Originally Posted by zedzed

160 Gb Samsung HD160JJ SpinPoint P80, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, NCQ, 8.9 ms £39.00

At that size drive the Hitachi T7K250 with SATA 2 switched on is much faster, not sure what the latest Seagates 7200.10 are like, but they are more exspensive so your paying for that 5 year warranty, they do honour it though. I wouldn't read to much into the 16MB cache either as tests have shown it to not alway's be an advantage, data density is more important at drives of 160GB.

Originally Posted by zedzed

HP 840i Lightscribe Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer Retail £26.98

I like NEC drives, very reliable, as for performance, these day's there all pretty much the same, plextor are good but pricey. These day's most makes of DVDRW's come of the same production line.

[sibeer]

Hi there,

The reasoning behind the 965 is that it is pretty much as fully featured as the 975, whilst being cheaper and designed for Conroe from the ground up. The 975 is a more premium chipset, but is still only a compatabilty upgrade to an old model. The 965 also seems to be far more stable at the silly overclocks you can potentially get from a Conroe (despite my complaining about Gigabyte my DS4 it is easily pushing 2.8Ghz from a 1.8 Ghz Conroe 6300). The new Nvidia chipsets will definately be better though. I know they are bleeding edge, but Nvidia is yet to release a bad motherboard chipset. Now that AMD have become bedfellows with ATI, Nvidia have to impress the new Conroe fanbase to retain their position as the top chipset manufacturer for enthusiasts.

With regards the 7900GT having issues, I have to admit to being unaware of this (still using a very happy BFG 7800GT with lifetime warranty myself). All I based my decision on was that there is little to choose in most benchmarks between this and the ATI, whilst the 7900GT is significantly cheaper. I am sure any issues would be covered by warranty, but who wants to be without their PC for weeks on end.

On the case front I would agree with apolloa wholeheartedly that a Seasonic is the ideal choice. If the Xclio comes as a package with the Wavemaster though I can honestly say I should easily power this system. The cooling should not be a major issue unless you start to play with your system. The Conroe with an Arctic Freezer runs very cool indeed. Mine struggles to get over 47 at full load, even if I turn off the fans (bear in mind this is also despite being over voltaged and overclocked over 50%)

On the larger hard drive front, the bigger the hard disk generally the bigger the platter. This means more information on the same space. As the drives spin at the same speed, this usually gives some performance benefits. Given how cheap it is these days a 300 Gig Seagate SATA 2 just makes sense.

On the DVD Drive front NEC were my choice for three of my past four, but the burn quality of my most recent Pioneer is definately better. It also is the only burner for reliably backing up 360 games . Feed it quality media such as Taiyo Yuden and enjoy hastle free burning.

With regards to who to buy from I have to agree with the suggestion of Scan, they are an excellent company. I can also say that Overclockers tend to have good service with problems, as well as an excellent range of top line products. You can usually speak to a human if necessary though you may have to wait 5 mins . Their forums are also a good place to try if you are going to tune your new beast. Ebuyer have improved alot, but still aren't ideal. Dabs are quite good too, no real humans, but very quick live MSN type chat. I would base most of my decision on where has the majority of what I want for a good price. By the time you factor in postage it is normally better sticking with one shop.

[sibeer]

By the way, might be of interest that overclockers.co.uk have got some good offers on 1900XT cards in their weekly offers:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...aCP_2d129_2dAM

Connect 3D version for under £200

[apolloa]

Originally Posted by sibeer

Hi there,

The reasoning behind the 965 is that it is pretty much as fully featured as the 975, whilst being cheaper and designed for Conroe from the ground up.

Hmmm, the trouble then though is whilst the 965 chip is the better one to go for, do you loose any good features in the process? I assume the powers that be at intel will replace the 975 in that case at somepoint. Didn't know AMD were making a chipset for the Conroe, you sure? Great if they are, make intel drop there prices.

Originally Posted by sibeer

On the case front I would agree with apolloa wholeheartedly that a Seasonic is the ideal choice.

Yep, far too many people overlook PSU's, then they run into problems and will never think of it as being the cause of those blue screens of death.

Originally Posted by sibeer

On the DVD Drive front NEC were my choice for three of my past four, but the burn quality of my most recent Pioneer is definately better. It also is the only burner for reliably backing up 360 games . Feed it quality media such as Taiyo Yuden and enjoy hastle free burning.

Thanks for that, I will be after a new drive soon and may check out the Pioneers.

Originally Posted by sibeer

With regards to who to buy from I have to agree with the suggestion of Scan, they are an excellent company. I can also say that Overclockers tend to have good service with problems, as well as an excellent range of top line products. You can usually speak to a human if necessary though you may have to wait 5 mins . Their forums are also a good place to try if you are going to tune your new beast.

So Overclockers has improved on there rep a bit then? My advice is always to just shop around for the best prices, I have a few places that I have got bits n pieces from in the past so I know there legit but if your buying a whole system then sticking to a couple of places will keep the postage costs down.

[sibeer]

Hi Apolloa

Definately give the Pio drives a go for your next build, you won't be dissappointed. By the way I don't know if it was a mistype but you say you didn't know AMD were doing intel chipsets now. I don't think that is likely, I mentioned the new Nvidia chipset myself

Have to say that I would recommend buying it all from one place if you can help it, particularly if you don't build many PCs. That way if you have a problem and you don't have a stock of spare compatible bits it will be easy to return the lot for testing.

[zedzed]

OK ... revised system based on feedback:

CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

MB-061-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit

GX-047-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056)

HD-079-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM

CA-039-AN Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Silver)

CA-001-SS Seasonic S12 500W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply

HS-017-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775)

CD-038-PO Pioneer DVR-111DBK 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM

Total £978.39 (inc. VAT)

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The only doubt in my mind is whether the gigabyte DS3 motherboard is the one to go for - I still like what I hear about the o/c potential of the Asus P5B deluxe - but it's about £50 more. (Not gone for the giga-DS4 cause I already have a wireless PCI card)

Any final opinions?

Dez

p.s. Just got to convince the wife this is worth the cash ... I hate it when Dell advertise on the TV and the Mrs. says "how come they sell PCs for £400 and yours is more than twice the price?". I'd make a comparison between a cheap car and an expensive sports car, but I know that would only lead to more trouble

[pRot3us]

Looks fine

very similar to mine

I've not clocked anything yet, but the DS3 is a competent board, have a look around the OCUK mobo forums here if you need more info/opinions

It costs a tad more but if you're getting an Antec P180 case I really recommend you consider a Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler ,they're made for each other; 2nd down here

See how it sits near the 2 exhaust fans in the P180 case in the picture here

[zedzed]

Looks good - bit of a beast - but I see it works very well with the case :-)

Dez

[Dazzyman]

It would be just as cheap to buy a machine from Mesh for that price though.

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default...ION&KEY=110324