Core2Duo build to replace my 939 Shuttle! Advice Please!

Clowned · 19 May 2007 at 13:09

Afternoon all,
Ive currently got a ST20G5. Instead of maxxing it out, im thinking of selling it and going back to a full tower and buying a core2duo setup.

as for the RAM, would the GeiL be up to the job in this board and cpu? (Would it work happily with 4GB? I know nothing about how good GeiL is)
Its been a while since i had a pc to overclock (it was an athlon xp

) and i understand id get quite a bit more from that cpu if i o/c it so any pointers on that would be great.

Thanks

semi-pro waster · 19 May 2007 at 13:23

That will all work fine together, I don't know too much about the motherboard but since it is based on the 965P chipset it should be decent enough.

The case looks very much like a Coolermaster Wavemaster knock-off so it might well suffer from the same cooling flaws. The Lian-Li PC7+ is very popular and is excellent if you like the looks.

The Ram is fine but if you want the full 4gb then you need a 64bit OS.

t31os · 19 May 2007 at 13:26

How about this, you still get a silver case. I've had a Soprano, and they're honestly not that great, easy to build with, but you can do better, the NZXT looks a good value case and has 4 120mm fans as oppose to 2 120mm and 1 92mm.

Plus with the soprano the problem that most door cases have is, if you want to position it so you can see in the window, the door opens in the wrong direction, which will annoy you to no end, if you want a window of course and another note, the top catch isnt the strongest, i managed to break mine quite easily by accident.

I managed to sell mine on and replace the top catch from a spare soprano that got scrapped.

For some reason my spec has cheaper delivery to...

and its only another £3 odd ...

Clowned · 19 May 2007 at 13:32

semi-pro waster said:
The Ram is fine but if you want the full 4gb then you need a 64bit OS.

Thanks for the heads up, think i could manage with 2gb, dont know enough about driver support for 64bit windows tbh!

t31os said:
How about this, you still get a silver case. I've had a Soprano, and they're honestly not that great, easy to build with, but you can do better, the NZXT looks a good value case and has 4 120mm fans as oppose to 2 120mm and 1 92mm.

Ok, ill check them cases out! Forgot about a good cpu cooler too

Ta ! The corsair psu looks great too!

Cheers

t31os · 19 May 2007 at 13:36

Yeah i thought the Thermaltake cases were great until i had the chance to see some alternatives, like Lian Li, Akasa, and so on...... and to be honest, avoid Thermaltake, as easy to use as they are, they just don't compare in quality in my opinion.... the soprano actually looks and feels quite cheap compared when you have it infront of you to.

Don't get me wrong, it's still better then a lot of cheapo cases, but for the cost i think you can do better by buying another brand.

One of the reasons i choose the NZXT was for the colour as i assume silver is what you're after....

and the reviews seem to be very good to, though according to the reviews the price use to be quite a bit higher.... there's some good pics of the case up close in the reviews to, it looks really nice... especially in black (just my preference as black is easier to buy for optical wise, etc).

Review links:
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/NZXT Adamas/index.php
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=562
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=984
http://www.3dgameman.com/content/view/6558/48/

After reading those i'm actually considering this myself.... not for me (i have an eclipse) but a planned build, its looks really nice.

Clowned · 19 May 2007 at 13:43

Silver / Black, if it looks alrite i dont mind either way really, prefer one without a side window! The NZXT looks quite tidy too!
You recommened the ASUS P5N-E motherboard over the Abit?

t31os · 19 May 2007 at 13:46

Clowned said:
Silver / Black, if it looks alrite i dont mind either way really, prefer one without a side window! The NZXT looks quite tidy too!
You recommened the ASUS P5N-E motherboard over the Abit?

DS3P and P5B-E are proberly the 2 most recommended boards for C2D specs, and they offer enough features for most users, and good clocking boards.

Unless the board you specced has specific features that the Asus doesnt then yeah i'd stick with that or the Gigabyte, but its slightly more... was trying to stick to £400 or as close as i could..

Clowned · 19 May 2007 at 13:58

t31os said:
Unless the board you specced has specific features that the Asus doesnt then yeah i'd stick with that or the Gigabyte

Id like to keep around the 400 mark yea, i dont know much about intel boards/chipsets tbh, ive had amd since athlon xps so its new architecture to me really. As far as features go, dual gigabit lan would be nice, wireless would be nice if its not too pricy, and on board 5.1 optical sound output is a must, which most of the current boards seem to have!

t31os · 19 May 2007 at 14:12

The asus has 1 gigabit lan, no wifi.... wifi is usually on the more expensive boards.

If you really need wireless though you could buy a PCI card for the same price then it would cost to buy a more expensive board.

Wishing i had £400 to spend on that spec now..... then again i'm happy with my system and current case which cost twice that one.... :cool:

Clowned · 19 May 2007 at 14:19

t31os said:
Wishing i had £400 to spend on that spec now..... then again i'm happy with my system and current case which cost twice that one....

hehe, its more a case of i have £100 + a bit of birthday fundage to spend, + whatever i get for my shuttle. Ive had it 2 years now and if i keep it any longer it wont be worth anything!

t31os · 19 May 2007 at 14:25

Good luck with the sale and build then mate...

gt_junkie · 19 May 2007 at 14:38

I'd consider stretching to some slightly faster memory which will guarantee you a 3ghz+ overclock. The team xtreem pc8000 would be nice. If your new chip was up to it it would get you to 3.5ghz without clocking the ram past stock. (I always figure it's one less thing to worry about!

)

Team Xtreem

Also, for an extra tenner, the Scythe Mine will do far better than the Freezer 64. Some of those cool very well but others are dogs and i'd personally be worried that i may get one of the latter!

Scythe Mine

gt

Clowned · 19 May 2007 at 15:18

t31os said:
Good luck with the sale and build then mate...

Thanks for the help mate. Going to try get rid of the shuttle, cpu, ram in the next week or so.

gt_junkie said:
I'd consider stretching to some slightly faster memory which will guarantee you a 3ghz+ overclock.

Also, for an extra tenner, the Scythe Mine will do far better than the Freezer 64.

One reason why i want to upgrade is the ridiculusly cheap ddr2

think ill give the geil a try and see how it goes for now! Ill probly go for a slightly better cooler though like you say!

t31os · 19 May 2007 at 15:33

gt_junkie said:
I'd consider stretching to some slightly faster memory which will guarantee you a 3ghz+ overclock. The team xtreem pc8000 would be nice. If your new chip was up to it it would get you to 3.5ghz without clocking the ram past stock. (I always figure it's one less thing to worry about! )

Team Xtreem

Also, for an extra tenner, the Scythe Mine will do far better than the Freezer 64. Some of those cool very well but others are dogs and i'd personally be worried that i may get one of the latter!

Scythe Mine

gt

I was trying to stick to the budget/price he originally stated.

gt_junkie · 19 May 2007 at 15:50

t31os said:
I was trying to stick to the budget/price he originally stated.

I understand mate - not treading on your toes!

Just offered an alternative that may be better if he could stretch his budget slightly.

gt

gt_junkie · 19 May 2007 at 16:02

How about this Clowned:

Tenner over but would do you proud!

gt

Clowned · 19 May 2007 at 16:57

Done some shopping around;

Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 (1.86Ghz) Socket 775 FSB1066 4MB Cache Retail
ABIT AB9 Pro iP965 Socket775 onboard audio ATX with WIFI
Corsair HX Series 520W Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC
Zalman ZM-STG1 Thermal Grease
ZALMAN CNPS 9500 AT Socket 775 CPU Cooler
Crucial 1GB DIMM 240-pin DDR2 1 GHz PC2-8000 CL5 2.2 V unbuffered non-ECC

That spec comes in at £385, the case is £47 if its anygood i could happily do that, and get the extra ram another time! Im a little unsure on the zalman cpu cooler, i presume its decent, ive only ever had a zalman vga heatpipe back in the day!

t31os · 19 May 2007 at 17:11

So you're not going to buy from overclockers now?..... and you'll lose out by having half the memory for a saving of £17....

You shouldnt really be asking if you're planning to buy from a competitor.

I'm not gonna sit here suggesting any more though, i gave you a nice spec to begin with. Not going to make any suggestions now if you're shopping at a competitor, it's just cheeky doing that on OcUK's forums.

Shicky · 19 May 2007 at 17:16

i think its fair enough hes shopping around, everyone wants the best for their money. unfortunately ocuk cant offer the best price for everything. Hes taking your advice onboard which i think should be the main thing.

t31os · 19 May 2007 at 17:21

Shicky said:
i think its fair enough hes shopping around, everyone wants the best for their money. unfortunately ocuk cant offer the best price for everything. Hes taking your advice onboard which i think should be the main thing.

I guess you're right but the way i see, you get what you pay for, and i generally stick to OcUK where i can because they offer decent support and returns in most cases, providing you actually know what you're doing.

If i ever send anything back for example i write a detailed description of how i've tested the fault and verified it, and i've never had a problem as a result. I do feel for OcUK when people clearly don't know how to proberly diagnose a fault, but then a lot of people here are still learning, all the same it should'nt be at OcUK's cost to cover it.

For a saving of £17 i can't see the point in shopping elsewhere.... as that £17 will also get him double the memory to.