My Conroe Spec.

[Converge]

Hey guys,

Just thought i'd run by you the specification of the pc im gonna build when conroe is released.

My budget is about £900, so im just within, give me any hints and tips you can please regarding it, whether its good or not etc! Thanks!

CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN) £214.95

HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) £49.95

MB-151-AS Asus P5B (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-151-AS) £99.95

GX-112-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP) £219.95

MY-079-CR Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Ballistix Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) (MY-079-CR) £129.95

CD-078-SA Samsung SH-S182D 18x18 DVD±RW ReWriter (Black) (CD-078-SA) £21.95

Subtotal £736.70
VAT £128.93
Total £865.63

Pretty close to my budget!

Any advice would be great... oh and im keeping my current PSU 480W Antec Trueblue and my sound card Audigy 2. (sounds fine with me still)

 

[syke]

For me id replace the Motherboard for:

Intel Extreme D975bx-304 975X (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - OEM (MB-010-IN)

Because ive heard good things about it - Could be wrong with the decision though.

But great spec mate Hopefully overclocking that beast?

s-

 

[Converge]

well im new to that kinda of thing, how would i go about overclocking it etc?

I have about 8 fans in my Antec server case, that help?

Also that MB doesnt work with the conroe does it?

 

[syke]

yeah it does if you dont know anything about overclocking, dont bother hehe

s-

edit: what monitor/case this going with?

 

[Converge]

awww, seems a shame not to overclock it if thats what this CPU is apparently really good at, lol

Also the case is like this one:

Antec Performance TX1088AMG Metallic Grey Tower Case - 480w Truepower PSU (CA-035-AN)

But with a see-through side door and also it was 5 fans attached to the case and 3 other fans, IE PSU fan, CPU Fan and Gfx fan, didnt specify very well, sorry

 

[Pulseammo]

From what I've read on this forum the Bad Axe (Intel Extreme D975bx-304 975X (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - OEM (MB-010-IN)) doesn't have decent inbuilt overclocking options unless you a) load the technicians bios (apparently even then the clocking options aren't good) or b) void the warranty and mod the board.

Personally I just think people like the name bad axe .

Edit: Oh also, RAM. You may wish to consider:

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 HZ PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ) (MY-013-GS)

or a little more within budget

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR) (MY-014-GS)

Both are faster than the Ball'x, one is cheaper. The only thing about the ball'x is it has better timings however I think that doesn't matter quite so much on intel chips. The first set of Gskill ram there apparently overclocks to 1000mhz I think.

 

[drunkenmaster]

the only reason people have the bad axe is because its been the single board that supports conroe for quite a while. afaik it requires a hard mod to enable any voltage options to appear in the bios and it needs certain bios's to enable other options in the bios. out of the box it will be without doubt the least tweakable board available.

asus have for a long time been pretty much the best intel board maker so theres no issue chosing the p5b. so far to me all the 975x boards seem to be complete rip offs. i might grab a cheap and cheerful(£50ish) asrock to last me the first month, at which point hopefully most shops will have a full range of 975x and 965 boards out, probo some 590sli nvidia boards and possibly(but maybe not that soon) the ati rd600 boards which look killer. with stock and range available prices should drop.

 

[Jimbo]

I like the look of the P5B also. I might get this over the P5w which seems a bit poncy and overpriced.

Whats the main difference does anyone know? and will the P5B be garunteed to work with conroe out of the box?