Another New Build Thread: E6600
- Thread starter Mark228
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Couple of points,
1. The retail version of the E6600 comes in a fancy packet complete with HSF. Why not save a few pounds and buy OEM as you're buying a seperate HSF.
2. The Arctic Freezer pro already has the thermal compound applied, protected by a wax paper strip that you remove before fitting. Unless you plan to fit and re-rit, you don't need a seperate tube of thermal compound.
3. My research into trying to quieten my WD Raptor drive is Hitachi are the only maker that allows tweaking of the HD firmware (you download the tweak from their website). I gather it's quietness versus performance, but not both. I have no idea what the performance hit is.
4. The monitor I bought is the one you are thinking of - Belinea 2225S1W 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver. I've been delighted with it although to be honest I have nothing to compare it with. No defective pixels, no blurring or streaking and no obvious artifacts. Lack of a DVI connection doesn't seem to matter either.
The comments above about the cost savings between 680i vs 650i, and 8800gtx vs 8800gts are all valid and only you can make that choice. One point though, you don't take a performance hit with the 650i over the 680i, it only affects your upgrade options later.
Choosing a 8800gtx or 8800gts is perhaps easier because you get more performance for money.
Choose a 680i with an 8800gts and you can add another card in SLI later (provided your PSU is big enough). A 650i with 8800gtx will limit your options because I don't think you can add another 8800gtx (it requires 16lane PCIEx to run) so you're fixed without further major upgrading.
I clearly have upgrading in mind, hence the MB and 850W PSU chosen.
Glad you found my 'epic' useful.
Tony
1. The retail version of the E6600 comes in a fancy packet complete with HSF. Why not save a few pounds and buy OEM as you're buying a seperate HSF.
2. The Arctic Freezer pro already has the thermal compound applied, protected by a wax paper strip that you remove before fitting. Unless you plan to fit and re-rit, you don't need a seperate tube of thermal compound.
3. My research into trying to quieten my WD Raptor drive is Hitachi are the only maker that allows tweaking of the HD firmware (you download the tweak from their website). I gather it's quietness versus performance, but not both. I have no idea what the performance hit is.
4. The monitor I bought is the one you are thinking of - Belinea 2225S1W 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver. I've been delighted with it although to be honest I have nothing to compare it with. No defective pixels, no blurring or streaking and no obvious artifacts. Lack of a DVI connection doesn't seem to matter either.
The comments above about the cost savings between 680i vs 650i, and 8800gtx vs 8800gts are all valid and only you can make that choice. One point though, you don't take a performance hit with the 650i over the 680i, it only affects your upgrade options later.
Choosing a 8800gtx or 8800gts is perhaps easier because you get more performance for money.
Choose a 680i with an 8800gts and you can add another card in SLI later (provided your PSU is big enough). A 650i with 8800gtx will limit your options because I don't think you can add another 8800gtx (it requires 16lane PCIEx to run) so you're fixed without further major upgrading.
I clearly have upgrading in mind, hence the MB and 850W PSU chosen.
Glad you found my 'epic' useful.
Tony
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Arrrghhhhhh! lol Well the listing for the 650 doesn't look as good as the 680i - or at least the blurb isn't as detailed. Those GTXs are on offer this week too lol at only £375.99 inc VAT compared to the cheapest GTS at ~ £200. You've tempted me with the GTX now but I'm just not sure I play games enough to justify the extra cash. Are there any games that the GTS 320mb can't handle well enough?melbourne720 said:
edit: bearing in mind I'm looking at the 22" widescreen...
Thanks, I've updated my list.
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TonyH said:
You'd think, but it turns out the 2 x 16 lanes for 8800 GTS SLi was NVidia 'exaggeration'. Two 8800 GTXs run fine on a 650 SLi board with no noticeable difference in performance.
I'm sure I read somewhere that the 8800GTX requires a 16 lane PCIEx slot to run in. I think the 650i board runs one Graphics card at 16lane, but two in SLI at 8 lanes. This may prevent the 650i running 8800gtx cards in SLI, and this may also affect the 8800gts. I agree the performance difference between 16 and 8 lanes may not be significant, but I don't know enough about it.
Also if you look at the note at the bottom of the BFG 8800gtx advert in Overclockers, it specifically states that 16 lane slots are required. I am interested to hear the view that this may be an NVidea exaggeration but it's certainly worth checking before committing to build, and then finding out it doesn't work after all.
Tony
Also if you look at the note at the bottom of the BFG 8800gtx advert in Overclockers, it specifically states that 16 lane slots are required. I am interested to hear the view that this may be an NVidea exaggeration but it's certainly worth checking before committing to build, and then finding out it doesn't work after all.
Tony
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Ooohh I found the case I want, but doesn't look like OcUK have them in 
Asus Vento 3600 in Red mmmmmmmmm 
Asus Vento 3600 in Red mmmmmmmmm
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TonyH said:
Strange but true, isn't it. Might be more of a difference in future games though. For the moment, no real world difference.
@ Mark228 - Also, I was thinking about that vento case - heard it feels a bit cheap though...
The case i went for the Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS, has a dust filter on the large intake fan at the front, easy to get at without having to move the pc and unplug everything. The front pops off to allow you to clean the filter once in a while.
Right so it's a race to the finish and the 650 and 680i are neck and neck at the final hurdles. At almost half the price and almost the same power the 650 is a really good mobo for that price for definite. What is leaning me towards the 680 tho is that:melbourne720 said:
"Sure, the 680i boards have additional features such as dual Gigabit Ethernet connections with DualNet technology, dual x16 graphics slots along with a slot designed for physics capability, an additional two SATA 3Gb/s and USB 2.0 ports, and enhancements like LinkBoost, SLI Ready Memory, and extended overclocking capabilities."
Now are those extras worth the extra cash and will they come in handy in the future? The 650 has "support for four IDE devices" but I plan on moving over totally to SATA (and using a USB external box for any IDEs). If I was on a tighter budget then the 650 would be the obvious choice but as I'm not on too tight a budget I think it looks like the 680i is the winner for me personally.
I'd like to thank everyone who gave input so far as I came in here with really not much idea of what to get and after hours of hand-wringing it looks like I am finally getting to some final decisions on build. Thanks a lot for that guys, this is a great forum.
OK I think I only have one thing left that is niggling me, this RAM:
Memory: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £170.36 inc VAT 800MHz RAM Speed, CAS 4-4-4-12 Timings, 1.9-2.3v VDIMM
Is this the best choice in that price range for my setup? Could someone explain briefly what the 4-4-4-12 means and is 4-4-4-10 better and why? Thanks!
Memory: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £170.36 inc VAT 800MHz RAM Speed, CAS 4-4-4-12 Timings, 1.9-2.3v VDIMM
Is this the best choice in that price range for my setup? Could someone explain briefly what the 4-4-4-12 means and is 4-4-4-10 better and why? Thanks!
Mark, The memory subject is tough to answer - I read the definitive posting on all you needed to know about DDR2 memory, and it was difficult to follow. I used the following to help me: The lower the 'C' number at the end of the product description, the more expensive it is. This is the CAS latency figure and is related to the recovery of the memory between clock cycles. It doesn't really matter to people on our budgets because CAS3 memory is so much more expensive than CAS4. Look at the memory prices and you'll see what I mean.
The figure in the middle, the '6400' and '8500' is the memory bandwidth in Gbytes/sec, and this is directly related to the speed it is rated at. 6400 relates to 800Mhz, and 8500 to 1066Mhz.
For me the OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2N1066SR2GK) is CAS5 memory but at a much higher speed than the Corsair. In short, for an extra tenner or so you would have memory clocked as standard 100Mhz quicker than I have overclocked my standard memory (800 up to 950Mhz), and that's without considering that many overclockers have to relax timings to CAS5 anyway for stability reasons.
For me the OCZ at 1066MHz is a clear winner.
Tony
The figure in the middle, the '6400' and '8500' is the memory bandwidth in Gbytes/sec, and this is directly related to the speed it is rated at. 6400 relates to 800Mhz, and 8500 to 1066Mhz.
For me the OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2N1066SR2GK) is CAS5 memory but at a much higher speed than the Corsair. In short, for an extra tenner or so you would have memory clocked as standard 100Mhz quicker than I have overclocked my standard memory (800 up to 950Mhz), and that's without considering that many overclockers have to relax timings to CAS5 anyway for stability reasons.
For me the OCZ at 1066MHz is a clear winner.
Tony
Tony, what can I say? Excellent advice by the looks of it. Not only is the board (I just found out) I've chosen specially designed to go with the 8800 Graphics cards (yes I'm going for the GTX) but you've now pointed out the RAM that is also specially designed to go with this exact setup. I read the review Here on OcUK which mentioned This siteTonyH said:
I now have my build chosen and ready to buy tomorrow (apart from a case..), thanks a lot for yours and everyone else's input, I can't wait to get this baby running! 
I'll be back on the overclocking part of the forums when I need to learn how to overclock safely lol And maybe I'll upgrade to a better CPU cooler now too?