Building a new PC - Advice?

Tange1Tange1
edited June 2007 in Hardware
In the link below you'll find what I believe will be my next PC. I've been out of touch on hardware lately so I just wanted to ask advice before I bought.

Just wondering if:

Anyone sees any obvious incompatibility issues (Power supply adequate?; RAM voltage OK?)
Anyone would swap out one part for another (I know its personal opinion)?
Anyone who thinks I have some part thats total over kill?

I have:
A monitor, mouse, keyboard and OS so I wont need any of that.

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=6768688&WishListTitle=My+new+comp


Thanks for the help!

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2007
    That motherboard probably will not be compatible with Intel's 45nm chips (Penryn), slated for release later this year. You'll be in for a steep upgrade if the performance boost is substantial enough to warrant the purchase, as you'll be needing a new mobo as well.

    That power supply is not strong enough. You're going to need 600-700w, from a reputable company: OCZ, Corsair, HiPer, PC Power & Cooling, Enermax, FSP are all good.

    Those are the only things to consider. Everything else looks great.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited June 2007
    Thrax wrote:
    That motherboard probably will not be compatible with Intel's 45nm chips (Penryn), slated for release later this year. You'll be in for a steep upgrade if the performance boost is substantial enough to warrant the purchase, as you'll be needing a new mobo as well.

    That power supply is not strong enough. You're going to need 600-700w, from a reputable company: OCZ, Corsair, HiPer, PC Power & Cooling, Enermax, FSP are all good.

    Those are the only things to consider. Everything else looks great.

    Are there any boards that would be compatible w/ Penryn chips?

    Why do you recommend a more powerful power supply? Some of the items off the list came from Arstechnica's guide. There guide had said that if your not using a SLI setup w/ 2 cards that you don't need much more than 450w.

    Your thoughts?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2007
    There's a utility I'm looking for that comes off of a website, and I can't find it at the moment. When I do find it, I'll link it to you. It calculates the wattage necessary for your power supply based on the components you have in your system. Our two PCs are fairly similar, and mine is fairly close to 600w, which makes me glad I had a 650w power supply. :)

    As for boards:

    The Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 is always my first recommendation. Solid overclocker, very stable, and made with very long-lasting components.

    The Asus P5K is also good, but certain spots on this Asus board can get very warm, and heat is always a bad thing. It's not a bad board at all, and it's a bit more inexpensive than the Gigabyte, but I hate heat in my PC.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited June 2007
    How's this site for measuring power? Do you know it?

    http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

    I told it high end desktop motherboard, E6600 chip, 2 DDR2 SDRAM chips, a Nvidia 8800 640mb, A dvd burner, 2 HD's, a soundblaster audio card and a handfull of USB devices. Power draw came out to 365 W
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2007
    I crunched your system and got 430w. But the real kicker of PSUs these days is not the wattage, but how many amps the PSU can supply to essential components like your video card. A 430w power supply will not be able to deliver enough amperage to make your video card run correctly, especially with other components connected to it.

    Trust me when I say ~600w. You'll run into problems later if you don't.
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2007
    wattage is only amperage * voltage.

    so if it can deliver the wattage then the amperage has to be there. Voltage is just the potential in the circuit, kind of like presure in a pipe, and amperage is kinda like the cubic feet per minute of liquid flowing through a pipe. Wattage is just a derived number though.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited June 2007
    I updated my wish list.

    https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=6768688&WishListTitle=My+new+comp

    I i've adjusted the power supply choice. I'm still unsure about if i want to go w/ the gigabyte board recommend above. This system is expensive enough right now and the board might not be necessary..
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited June 2007
    Looks pretty good to me but I would perhaps change to the following components instead of your choices (and I'll give the reasons for doing so too).

    Instead of your Seasonic psu you picked out, I would go with the Corsair CMPSU-520HX instead. The Corsair psu is actually built by Seasonic for Corsair and the reason I would go with it over the Seasonic is that Corsair is giving you a 5 year warrantee instead of a 3 year like Seasonic. But both should be plenty capable of powering your system. They are also both the same price but the Corsair also has free shipping. :D

    Instead of your Asus P5B Dlx, I think I would go for the eVGA 22-CK-NF67-T1 680i mobo instead. This is because eVGA has publicly posted that their 680i boards will support Penryn processors with a bios update, giving you a future upgrade path and also saving you some money as it's a little cheaper than the Asus.

    Intead of the G. Skill ram you have picked out, I would go with either the G. Skill F2-6400CL4D-2GBHK kit or the G. Skill F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ kit instead. Even though both are more expensive, they will also run higher ram speeds and/or tighter ram timings. The HK kit are using the Promos ram chips and the HZ kit is using the famous Micron D9GMHG ram chips. I just bought the HZ kit myself and it is some quality stuff and will run tight timings. And neither kit will break the bank either, with both coming in around $110 shipped.

    But that is definitely a nice system you have picked out if you decide to stick with your choices and should do you well. :)
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited June 2007
    I wonder about ram voltages? I noticed that the asus board says it only supports 1.8V and the ram just recently recommended is 2.0 and above. Any thoughts?
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited June 2007
    I am pretty sure that the P5B dlx supports vdimm adjustments up to around 2.4-2.5v in bios. I think the vanilla P5B and the P5B-E are limited to around 2.1 v vdimm. I don't own a P5B-dlx though, so I am just going by what I've read in forums on this.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2007
    DLX does support up to 2.5.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited June 2007
    I like the ram, I like the power supply. I just cant make up my mind on the mobo. Anyone care to try to convince me one way or another? I like the recommenced EVGA board for its price and Quad chip but i dont know EVGA's boards. I know Asus, and generally like them and the price is OK. I know gigabyte makes great boards but is the price of the board recommend above worth it?
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited June 2007
    That's going to be a hard decision to make, the mobo selection. I have no experience with the eVGA board, but that is the company that Nvidia chose to market their oem boards (main launch partner). I've heard of some mixed reviews of their boards, mainly positive. Most of their problems seem to stem from the 1st month or 2 of production boards. The 680i chipset has been out for some months now though and from what I've read, they were the overclocking champs for the quad procs until the P35 chipset boards showed up. Now to confuse you even more, if you want a very good performing board that is pretty inexpensive and you don't need RAID or Crossfire capability, the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (rev. 1.3) mobo is a great "bang for the buck" mobo that will tide you over until your next upgrade. I have one and it's a pretty nice board with a decent layout and it performs very well indeed. The main drawbacks for it are the lack of active cooling on the northbridge and the fact that it only has 2 mobo fan headers. But it is a good basic board with some pretty good overclocking features in bios. But like the Asus P5B, don't count on it supporting the next generation Penryn processors. It does have some pretty good vcore and vdimm and chipset voltage selections in bios and my board will run my E6300 to past 500 fsb.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited June 2007
    I'm quite techie, I manage about 1000 dell servers w/ 5 other people but this will be my first attempts at overclocking a CPU, i've done video cards a bit but not CPU's.

    Muddocktor:
    Do you also recommend the board that Thrax recommended, the Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6? Its a bit expensive but it looks sharp.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited June 2007
    Yeah, I think that it would be a fantastic choice if you don't mind paying that much for it. Gigabyte has been coming up with some real winners lately for motherboards and their build quality is high too. The P35 DQ6 is basically a modification of the p965 DQ6, which is one of the best performing p965 boards out on the market. They are using the updated P35 chipset though, which seem to be even better than p965 for overclocking, especially the quad processors.

    As far as overclocking the processor, these new boards make it quite easy to do and C2D has a lot of headroom for overclocking too. My old E6300 I got last year when C2D first came out operates 24/7/365 with a 90% overclock on it. :D
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited June 2007
    BTW, I just received an email ad from Tankguys.biz and they are having a pre July 4 sale and they have the E6600 for $204.99 and the Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme for $49.99. Both of those prices are ultra good on them and Tankguys are a pretty good smaller vendor and I would recommend them.

    Just thought I would pass this along to you, since you are in the market for your new build. :)
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited June 2007
    I assume 'Intel Boxed' means retail package including heatsync? I was thinking of using the stock heatsync and fan unless I need it.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited June 2007
    Yes itf it is boxed it has the CPU fan :)
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited June 2007
    muddocktor wrote:
    BTW, I just received an email ad from Tankguys.biz and they are having a pre July 4 sale and they have the E6600 for $204.99 and the Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme for $49.99. Both of those prices are ultra good on them and Tankguys are a pretty good smaller vendor and I would recommend them.

    Just thought I would pass this along to you, since you are in the market for your new build. :)


    I assume you've shopped w/ these guys before?
    Hm, honestly it looks like the price difference (between tankguys and newegg) is only 10 dollars after shipping. I think for 10 dollars, I might just stay w/ whom I trust.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited June 2007
    How does this ram compare w/ the stuff recommended earlier?

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?ATT=20146565&CMP=AFC-SlickDeals&Item=N82E16820146565

    Noticed from a deal site that its got a 45 dollar mail in rebate. It would be fine w/ the gigabyte board in my wish list correct? I see it can support 1066 speeds but that ram is expensive.

    I read that the price of the Q6600 (quad core) will drop from 500+ to ~266 at the end of july? With a price change and drop like that I need to wait till then...
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited June 2007
    That Crucial ram is some great stuff too, if you don't mind the hassle of rebates. Personally, I would rather take an ass-whipping than fight for a large rebate that a lot of companies try to scam you out of. But that ram uses the same Micron ram chips. And yes, prices are supposed to drop sharply on the Q6600 on July 22, so if you can hold out until then you can save a couple hundred bucks on your processor. As far as Tankguys, they are a small company that caters to the overclocker and niche machine builders.

    They also have a pretty decent ratings record at Resellerratings.com too.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited June 2007
    muddocktor wrote:
    That Crucial ram is some great stuff too, if you don't mind the hassle of rebates. Personally, I would rather take an ass-whipping than fight for a large rebate that a lot of companies try to scam you out of. But that ram uses the same Micron ram chips. And yes, prices are supposed to drop sharply on the Q6600 on July 22, so if you can hold out until then you can save a couple hundred bucks on your processor. As far as Tankguys, they are a small company that caters to the overclocker and niche machine builders.

    They also have a pretty decent ratings record at Resellerratings.com too.

    Thanks for all the help. I'm thinking I'm going to pick up the ram if the rebate's still valid (haven't checked in a few days). I think most of the other parts (motherboard included) wont go up or down much in the next month so I'll just watch them and pick them up a bit before the expected price drop.
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