Little spec check please

Dale

Dale

Dale

Associate
Joined
5 Jan 2004
Posts
663
Location
Sussex
Hi all,

Getting fed up with my current machine constantly failing in various places!! Decided to get myself something new.

Had a look at this so far:
  • Asus GeForce 9800 GX2 1024MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express)
  • Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x2GB) Supplied with Airflow Fan
  • Asus P5E3 Premium/Wifi@N Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
  • Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz
  • Zalman ZM850-HP Heatpipe Cooled 850W Modular PSU
  • 2 x (RAID 0) Western Digital Raptor X 150GB 10000RPM SATA 16MB Cache

I was hoping to use my current case (Coolermaster Stacker) but one of my goals is to make it as quiet as possible, with also overclocking the CPU, but my main question is whether or not to buy a new case to aid cooling / quietness and if so which one?

Also, for quietness which fans are a good choice these days along with a fan speed controller?

Thanks
 
Can't see anythin wrong with most of it, RAM speed might be slight overkill as might be the PSU but if you can afford that much speed and power then it's all yours lol :)

However, the motherboard you've chosen only supports DDR3 (mighty pricey), and the RAM you've picked is DDR2 :(
 
Many thanks for that - could you reccomend a decent Mobo (I'm used to using Asus) that is happy to OC that CPU that would support DDR2? I can't see me affording DDR3 (or needing it for now).

Thanks again,
 
I would by all means but motherboards are probably my weakest point in terms of pc's and the like. I'm all into OC'ing and the chipsets manufacturers use but I only know the most about the board I've currently got sitting in my case lol :)

I do know that pretty much all of the Asus P35-based motherboards are pretty reliable and pretty stable when it comes to clocking, but for which one is the best I have no idea.

As for the Asus boards based on the newer chipsets (X38 and later), I've not heard much about how reliable or how stable they are. Although I think I do remembr somebody telling me once that the X38's now are pretty good because of the newer BIOS's coming out for them. And unless you wanna go for SLI in the future I'd stick with the Intel chipsets, pureely because people seem to think that they're more stable than the nVidia ones, but I can't confirm that.

I would try and wave semi-pro waster over here because I know he knows a thing or two about things like this but he's offline atm :(
 
Have a look at the Asus P5K Intel P35 or Asus P5K Premium/WiFi-AP Intel P35 if you want the wifi option.

I'd change the psu to the corsair 620w and look at an aftermarket cooler like the tuniq tower.
 
I'd go with mp260767s suggestion on the motherboard front, the P35 chipset is well tried and tested by now. It doesn't support PCI-E 2.0 as such and Crossfire is at 16x and 4x for the lanes but those are a pretty minor points for most folks in comparison to their overclocking ability.

I don't know exactly how loud the Raptor Xs are but if they are anything like the earlier models then quiet would not be an apt description. Any particular reason for going for the X models rather than the ordinary ones? The Stacker isn't a clear case that I'm aware so you don't even get to see the windows on the drives but you are paying £10 extra per drive for the privilege and I think they are overpriced to begin with. :)
 
Thank you guys, really helpful :)

One more ickle question, I've heard that (and I hope I get the jargon right!) 45nm technology CPU's are not too far away? Is it worth waiting for one of these or is the CPU I spec'd going to OC and do the job just as well?

Thanks again,
 
There are some 45nm CPUs available already (the E8x00 series aka Wolfdale are out and are dual core), I think the Q9x50 series are also available in limited numbers but you'd need to check that properly.

However you are probably as well just sticking with the Q6600, with a good overclock you aren't likely to notice a huge difference from the extra cache anyway and it is available now.
 
Updated list:

  • Asus GeForce 9800 GX2 1024MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express)
  • Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x2GB) Supplied with Airflow Fan
  • Asus P5K Premium/WiFi-AP Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
  • Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz
  • 2 xWestern Digital Raptor 150GB 10000RPM SATA 16MB Cache
  • Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
  • Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)

Once again, thanks to all that helped :)
 
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