Few questions before purchase.

[.Lethal]

Hi all,

I am about to make my second purchase this week on a few more parts however this purchase I consider my most important to get right. I am looking at..

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Asus P5K Premium/WiFi-AP Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

The board and CPU are on offer this week with the board quickly running out of stock.

A few days ago I bought.

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) x2 packs = 4GB.

I am happy with the CPU. I am happy with the RAM. I do have some questions about the MOBO and the CPU Cooler.

1. Is the above CPU Cooler best suited for me? I dont overclock, I am looking for a cool and quiet PC. If this is not good can you recommend something else?

2. Is this MOBO good? I want ASUS no matter what (due to past experience and personal preference) what I am unsure of though is weather this is good? or if another P5K is better for me. I need eSATA which this has 2 ports. I wont overclock. I want a quiet PC remember so fanless is a good plus here on the board. I am wondering does this board work well with my RAM? and is there any problems with it? Wi-Fi terrible? build poor?

I think that is it really. if any can help it would be much appreciated.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

The cooler is pretty good. It's quieter than the stock cooler and should do the job just fine. Since you're using an aftermarket CPU heatsink, you should get the OEM version of the CPU since the main difference is that the retail version has a heatsink and the OEM does not.

I haven't used that particular mobo so I can't report on the WiFi, but in general P5Ks are well built and compatible with pretty much all RAM.

Since you're not overclocking you could have saved a lot of money on RAM, but alas it's too late.

 

[.Lethal]

Thanks for that.

I had to go ahead on the order so that it would arrive tomorrow, ordered just before 2pm to ensure delivery tomorrow.

Regarding the RAM I game quite often so I figured it was worthwhile?

I did not know the Q6600 lower wattage CPU came as OEM?

 

[BillytheImpaler]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-172-IN
It's only 1.18 cheaper ATM but I suppose every little bit counts.

If you won't be going into the BIOS and changing things to run faster then you'd be just as well served by some bargain basement PC2-5300C5. This is why OEMs use cheapo RAM in their rigs since it yields the same results as the expensive stuff when at stock.

 

[.Lethal]

Ahh I see. £1 is not going to persuade me to get the OEM though

Even though I ordered just before 2pm looks like my order isn't going anywhere. Still says "Order Status: Printed in our warehouse" Oh well Monday it is then.