Building 2nd C2D PC

dark4orz · 29 Oct 2006 at 20:57

Hi

I am building a C2D pc for someone, they have persistantly asked for a MicroATX setup, their not into overclocking, they just want to use it for Encoding MP3's & Video, games.

CPU im going to buy for them will be either 6300/6400. Im gearing towards a Asrock Conroe945, until someone can advise me a better motherboard approx £80 mark.

What other recommendations for a MicroATX board for C2D is available ?

WJA96 · 29 Oct 2006 at 21:14

It really depends. The ASRock 945 is the best value board, no doubt. I've got a lightly used ASUS P5L-VM1394 that I'm about to put on member's market as it is the best clocking mATX board of a very bad bunch and I eventually gave up and bought a DS4.

I have heard very good things about the ASRock and I have to be honest, that's what I would go for, unless you can wait for the Abit IB-95. That board could be out next week or never as there is absolutely no news from Abit about it whatsoever except that it exists. In the way that these things tend to get spread, the rumour is that it's supposedly the natural heir to the LG-81's title of the best Intel mATX overclocking board.

But everyone said the P5B-VM was that already and it turned out to be a real turkey, so who knows?

hohum · 29 Oct 2006 at 21:32

But the OP says that the person it is for is not interested in overclocking. For that reason, I'd go for the Asrock, should be perfectly fine.

WJA96 · 29 Oct 2006 at 22:16

WJA96 said:
It really depends. The ASRock 945 is the best value board, no doubt....

....I have heard very good things about the ASRock and I have to be honest, that's what I would go for

Not clear enough?

Tute · 29 Oct 2006 at 22:27

Another vote for the Asrock.

Running it here, highest you're likely to get is 300FSB, due to Vcore and Vmem settings.

At the moment, it is the best mATX Conroe board. Period.

hohum · 30 Oct 2006 at 01:44

WJA96 said:
Not clear enough?

Of course, it's just that recommending waiting (if possible) for a particular Abit board because it's rumoured to overclock well didn't seem relevant going by what the OP said. I didn't mean any offence from my reply, I apologise if it came across that way.

dark4orz · 30 Oct 2006 at 05:56

Just to extend on this post, im considering to buy them a Aspire x-qpack case, what im worried about is would there be enough headroom in the case for the C2D stock HSF to fit inside it, or would I have to buy a LOW profile hsf and also to fit a ATI x1800 or Nvidia 7900 gfx card ?

Any help ?

WJA96 · 30 Oct 2006 at 06:13

hohum said:
Of course, it's just that recommending waiting (if possible) for a particular Abit board because it's rumoured to overclock well didn't seem relevant going by what the OP said. I didn't mean any offence from my reply, I apologise if it came across that way.

He specifically asked for other recommendations. So I gave him the options available in my experience. I didn't take offence.

WJA96 · 30 Oct 2006 at 06:16

dark4orz said:
Just to extend on this post, im considering to buy them a Aspire x-qpack case, what im worried about is would there be enough headroom in the case for the C2D stock HSF to fit inside it, or would I have to buy a LOW profile hsf and also to fit a ATI x1800 or Nvidia 7900 gfx card ?

Any help ?

There is loads of headroom for the CPU fan. You won't get a Freezer 7 Pro in there, but the stock fan is well under the level. I've had big graphics acrds in those and the Sugo and the TJ-08 and even an ARIA. They are a tight fit and you might have to bend the power cables a bit, but they probably will fit. The new ATI cards are just enormous though.

I would also suggest a SATA optical drive as the Samsung ones in particular are very much shorter than the equivalent PATA and the PSU and SATA data cables go in at a 90-degree angle, making them even shorter in effect.

dark4orz · 30 Oct 2006 at 06:20

what gfx cards can fit inside this case ?

WJA96 · 30 Oct 2006 at 06:23

dark4orz said:
what gfx cards can fit inside this case ?

I've definitely had an 850XT and a 7800GTX in there, so as long as you are inside those dimensions I would say you'll be fine. The graphics cards run down *** side of the optical drives so you have pretty much the whole length of the case to get them in.