Conroe Upgrade

HungryHippos · 5 Sep 2006 at 02:29

Hi all,

I have been using my current rig for quite a while now and as such have not really been keeping track of the computer market.

current rigs spec is as follows:

Asus A8N-SLI Premium
AMD x2 3800+ @ 2.6ghz under watercooling
ATI x1900xtx
2gb OCZ PC3200 DDR memory
600w Seasonic S12 PSU
1x WD Raptor 74GB Drive
2x WD Caviar 320GB Drives
NEC 16x DVD Writer
Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card
Lian Li V1000+ Black case

Not a bad spec and it's pretty powerful really, but at the moment the noise of my computer is driving me crazy.

I put watercooling in hoping to reduce noise (and because I wanted to try it out) but instead of having 1 fan on my CPU I have gained 2 fans on the radiator AND a pump too so it's generally louder than before.

I also need to put a zalman/arctic cooler on my graphics card really to reduce noise further but would rather get all of this out of the way at the same time.

So basically I guess my question is should I fork out some cash and make the leap to conroe (getting rid of water cooling in the process) or just switch my watercooling back to a quiet/silent air cooler and chuck a new cooler on my GPU?

If I were to go to conroe and overclock it a bit while keeping the whole thing quiet and temps down a bit what sort of performance increase are we talking?

p.s I love my case but am looking for something a bit smaller perhaps so I can move it around a bit easier, are there any decent small form factor cases that support conroe well? perhaps something in mini atx format or so?

Budget : £500-£600 tops to spend on this upgrade really but can stretch this higher if needed by quite a lot.

Apologies for long question

barf0r · 5 Sep 2006 at 10:37

If your happy with the performance of your system but not with the noise then just go with what you said about lowering the noise.

t31os · 5 Sep 2006 at 10:39

Been trying to give myself a reason to upgrade to.

You'd save a bundle just changing the cooling. Less time consuming to and easier.

syke · 5 Sep 2006 at 10:50

If it was me, this is what id get, but id bring over the GFX Card, HD's, PSU and the neccesities.

MB-061-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-061-GI)
£91.99 £91.99
CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
£197.99 £197.99
CA-054-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)
£48.95 £48.95
MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£124.99 £124.99
HS-017-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR)
£17.99 £17.99
CD-038-PO Pioneer DVR-111DBK 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM (CD-038-PO)
£21.95 £21.95
Subtotal £503.86
VAT £88.18
Total £592.04

Ive left more in there, as you said you can go higher to buy your own cooling of your choice. I put the Freezer 7 Pro in as its the best for Conroe atm if im not mistaken?

Anythin you'd change there guys?

s-

HungryHippos · 5 Sep 2006 at 10:50

Some questions then

I'm a fan of asus what are the boards like for them with conroe chips?

Assuming I need DDR2 whats the best value for money stuff to get?

My Seasonic PSU is compatible with the Intel board?

Same PCI Express slot i'm pretty sure

How does this case compare to my v1000+ in size?

What sort of speed can I expect to hit "easily", what sort of range of speeds are people getting with similar setups?

syke · 5 Sep 2006 at 10:54

Eulogy said:
yeah think i'l just stick with what I got for the system atm as it's got just about all the performance I need atm and hardwares always improving anyways

so question is are there any really quiet but great socket 939 cpu coolers I can chuck on my x2? (I still have my Arctic Freezer 64 Pro actually)

and which is best for my x1900xtx card a zalman cooler or one of the arctic ones?

Rest of the system should be quiet PSU is silent and mobo is passively cooled.

Not too sure on VGA Coolers, but ive added these, as you are sticking to your current system. I would advise a new case, as you said you wanted something smaller.

CA-054-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)
£48.95 £48.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£13.99 £13.99
SY-002-AR Artic Cooling Accelero X2 Cooler (X1800/X1900 Series) (SY-002-AR)
£13.95 £13.95
Subtotal £76.89
VAT £13.46
Total £90.35

s-

HungryHippos · 5 Sep 2006 at 10:55

edited my above post as you can see i'm fickle

syke · 5 Sep 2006 at 11:03

Eulogy said:
Some questions then

I'm a fan of asus what are the boards like for them with conroe chips?

Assuming I need DDR2 whats the best value for money stuff to get?

My Seasonic PSU is compatible with the Intel board?

Same PCI Express slot i'm pretty sure

How does this case compare to my v1000+ in size?

What sort of speed can I expect to hit "easily", what sort of range of speeds are people getting with similar setups?

Asus are okay for them, but ive heard for overclocking the DS3 or DS4 seem to be the way to go.

The GEIL DDR2 or the G.Skill RAM is the best for Conroe and overclocking.

Yep same PCI-E Slot im sure.

Your seasonic s12 is what most people advise for these sort of systems, so its more than enough power anyway.

And considering size;

The PC7+ is 210x450x490mm

Whereas the V1000+ is 210X490X525mm so thats atleast 40mm in height difference, the same width in both, and the v1000+ is 35mm bigger in depth. I'd say thats a fair amount to go down as the PC7+ is the best case sub £100. Although, if 4CM doesnt bother you, the V1000+ might help in the cooling aspect.

Any other questions?

I think i answered them all...

s-

Edit: as of speed, ive heard people have got upto 3.6gig if im not mistaken? Not sure what they have got out of the E6600 though, perhaps check the CPU Section.

syke · 5 Sep 2006 at 11:12

Oh and by the way, if you can id change the Gigabyte DS3 for a DS4. If you are going to be clocking the E6600.

s-

HungryHippos · 5 Sep 2006 at 11:39

How about this? (prices inc vat)

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN) £232.64

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-062-GI) £123.36

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) £170.36

Lian-Li PC-V600 Aluminum Mid Tower - Black (CA-058-LL) £88.07

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR) £21.14

Zalman VF900-CU Quiet Copper VGA Cooler (SY-008-ZA) £24.62

Total : £660.19

The case listed here seems the same width and height but is a fair bit smaller in depth

syke · 5 Sep 2006 at 11:53

looks a great spec, but the PC7 is the best case sub £100 by far.

s-

HungryHippos · 5 Sep 2006 at 11:59

ok so

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN) £232.64

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-062-GI) £123.36

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) £170.36

Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL) £57.52

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR) £21.14

Zalman VF900-CU Quiet Copper VGA Cooler (SY-008-ZA) £24.62

Total : £629.64

So now if the rest is good all I need to do is make sure I get a nice quiet CPU cooler and a nice cooler for my x1900.

I hope the ones listed here are good?

syke · 5 Sep 2006 at 12:03

Eulogy said:
ok so

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN) £232.64

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-062-GI) £123.36

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) £170.36

Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL) £57.52

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR) £21.14

Zalman VF900-CU Quiet Copper VGA Cooler (SY-008-ZA) £24.62

Total : £629.64

So now if the rest is good all I need to do is make sure I get a nice quiet CPU cooler and a nice cooler for my x1900.

I hope the ones listed here are good?

That looks a great spec mate. Im not sure on the VGA Coolers..so someone else may have to help you here. But that looks like a great future-proof spec. Also, if you havent had GEIL before, have a look at some Corsair and G.Skill..might lower the budget too...

s-

HungryHippos · 5 Sep 2006 at 12:31

ok new cooler so now it's:
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN) £232.64

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-062-GI) £123.36

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) £170.36

Lian-Li PC-V600 Aluminum Mid Tower - Black (CA-058-LL) £88.07

Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY) £35.24

Zalman VF900-CU Quiet Copper VGA Cooler (SY-008-ZA) £24.62

Just need to make sure i'm getting the right kind of memory and I can order

syke · 5 Sep 2006 at 12:34

Yep thats DDR2 - some people say G.Skill is best if you're overclocking, but im not too sure.. But that GEIL RAM is recommended by people, but check out the others and see what you think too =]

What monitor is this gonig with?

s-

HungryHippos · 5 Sep 2006 at 12:39

got an NEC 20WGX2

HungryHippos · 5 Sep 2006 at 12:52

Order placed thanks Syk3y

syke · 5 Sep 2006 at 13:07

Eulogy said:
Order placed thanks Syk3y

Nice dude! You have to take pics and tell me how it runs in-game, because thats a very very similar spec (if not the same) that i am wanting to get.

s-