• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Need Advice?

Mista.Gee

Mista.Gee

Mista.Gee

Associate
Joined
18 Mar 2006
Posts
759
Really Need Advice?

Just taken delivery of my brand new shiny BFG nVidia nForce 680i SLi Motherboard.

The problem is now i've got £350 left in the bank for a processor and memory, really stuck on what to do now and what to go for.

Really want to run a decent system setup as i plan to purchase a 8800GTS card soon.

Any advice on the way forward?
 
Last edited:
Hmm, a E6600 and some 2x1GB OCZ Platinum Rev.2 would just about fit into that budget (maybe +£10.00) and then postage on top.
 
Arthalen said:
Hmm, a E6600 and some 2x1GB OCZ Platinum Rev.2 would just about fit into that budget (maybe +£10.00) and then postage on top.
Click to expand...
If t'were me I'd get an E6300 and a Ninja then pocket the rest of the money. The performance difference is not that significant with some overclocking goodness.
 
Hi, I think this is going to be one of those threads that die because you were not specific enough about what you actually want.

You've bought a high performance overclocking motherboard. I presume that's just sitting there in the box at the moment? You've indicated that you want to add a high performance games oriented graphics card. The question is - are you going to overclock and is gaming performance your ultimate goal?
 
I'm abit of a newbie to overclocking but im willing to give it a shot.

The BFG is just sitting in it's box at the moment, but im tempted to get the E6400 and the Corsair PC2-6400C4D Dominators to go with it.

I did look at the E6300 but the clock speed is slighty low and thought for the money maybe get the E6400 and the Dominators and attempt overclocking.

I can only game at 1280x1024 as i own a 19" TFT monitor so gaming performance shouldn't be a problem i hope. Any advice?
 
Last edited:
Mista.Gee said:
I'm abit of a newbie to overclocking but im willing to give it a shot.

The BFG is just sitting in it's box at the moment, but im tempted to get the E6400 and the Corsair PC2-6400C4D Dominators to go with it.

I did look at the E6300 but the clock speed is slighty low and thought for the money maybe get the E6400 and the Dominators and attempt overclocking.

I can only game at 1280x1024 as i own a 19" TFT monitor so gaming performance shouldn't be a problem i hope. Any advice?
Click to expand...

I would buy a faster processor and less expensive RAM. I think the E6400 mated to the TEAM or OcUK Value RAM will give you 3.2GHz with the RAM running at 1:1 or maybe 3.6GHz with the RAM running at stock. If you want to spend £200 on RAM, get the Crucial Anniversary as it will still be worth something when you come to sell it. I have to be honest, I wouldn't have bought the 680i board as the ASUS 650i board does 99% of what the 680i board does at less than half the price, but you have it, so enjoy ;)
 
I bought the 680i before OcUK had the 650i motherboards so i thought whilst i had the cash get the best of the bunch that was available at the time.

So many choices, but i'm still very tempted by the E6400 and the Corsair Dominator Memory at the moment. I'm a newbie at overclocking and i have read reviews on the memory i've chosen seems a good clocker.
 
What is it about the Corsair Dominator that so attracts you? Corsair has an excellent name for stability and it has excellent resale value (I change my kit every 3-4 months so I am obsessed with how fast does it go and how much will it be worth when I upgrade?) but other than that, it does seem a bit 'the same' as all the others.
 
The reason i like corsair is because of it's stability, reliability and excellent warranty.

I've always had either Corsair or Crucial memory kits and worked directly out of the box with no fuss so i think i might stick with them as i like the warranty also.

Just to back the warranty up my uncle who owns a Dell XPS Laptop purchased SODIMMS from Corsair directly, even though they where dead on arrival they shipped out a new set sameday without hassle aslong as he shipped the memory back within a certain time no charges where applied.
 
I think you've thought it through sensibly and I can't suggest any reason not to buy the Corsair. Sounds like a plan then?
 
LOL! yep it's a plan and just ordered the E6400 and the Corsair Dominator Memory from OcUK. May have to call on your services when it comes round to overclocking.

Talking of overclocking can it affect the lifespan of your cpu, memory and motherboard if you overclock sensibly?
 
Mista.Gee said:
LOL! yep it's a plan and just ordered the E6400 and the Corsair Dominator Memory from OcUK. May have to call on your services when it comes round to overclocking.

Talking of overclocking can it affect the lifespan of your cpu, memory and motherboard if you overclock sensibly?
Click to expand...

I went to an Intel conference where the question was asked in a side-room and the guy said that as long as you kept the TM1 and TM2 switched on, you couldn't over-heat an Intel processor. You could potentially damage them by putting a lot of voltage through them, but he didn't know of a modern motherboard that was capable of putting that much voltage through a CPU unless it was faulty. So, on the processor side, I reckon it's quite safe.

I know for a fact that you can damage RAM by over-volting it and some people were reporting issues with RAM whereby once it had run at very high clock speeds it failed afterwards, even at stock speeds (but that could have been Samsung DDR3 on a graphics card - my memory isn't what it used to be). The good news is that your motherboard will quite happily run the RAM at one speed and the CPU at another, but I reckon you'll easily get 400x8 out of the E6400 and the RAM is rated for that so you can just tighten up the timings and run 1:1 which is theoretically the optimum anyway. So for £350 you get more performance than an X6800 at stock, which has to be good!

AS regards clocking the motherboard - you can only ask it to do what the BIOS allows so if it melts, it's an RMA job.
 
Melts! Nasty Stuff! LOL!

Any recommendations on a good CPU cooler prefer a bolt on cooler i hate the Intels push pin process.

Also have i made a good choice on the following specifications, also looking down the path to a 8800GTS so will it be up to the job of say playing Crysis if it ever comes out.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400.
Corsair 2GB XMS2 Dominator PC2-6400C4D EPP.
BFG nVidia nForce 680i SLi Motherboard.
 
Well, normally I would recommend the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7, but that is a push-pin design so...

Big.Wayne has had excellent results with the Thermalright Ultra-120 and a Sharkoon 1000 (you supply your own fan) but it's quite pricey (almost £40 with the fan).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom