New build idea - comments please

Benm

Benm

Benm

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Joined
30 Mar 2006
Posts
35
Hi Folks,

Am considering the following to upgrade from my old Winnie 3500+ and 6800GT

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI
Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.66GHz (1333FSB)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR10662GK)

I have a few questions:

Are the alleged memory issues with gigabyte boards and Ocz ram now resolved?

Which cooler should i get as I plan on overclocking at least someways - Tuniq , Noctua or the Thermalright 120? Will all of those fit on that board? I gather the Noctua does but that the other 2 may be better coolers.

Operating system - presumably I need to get another Op system OEM - if i am purely playing games is there much value in getting XP Pro over XP Home edition?

I imagine I will need to upgrade psu from my old Tagan 480w (although that has been absolutely rock solid for 4 years or so)

Case is a big ol coolermaster stacker so should be plenty of room for even gigantic cooler assuming I can fit it to the chip on that board!

Welcome your feedback guys.
 
1. Memory should be fine.

2. Any of those coolers will work fine.

3. OS - XP for games, Vista for everything else. Choose...

4. Your Tagen might be okay actually. They are well made PSUs.

General comments: Get a cheaper core 2 duo (I recommend an e2160) and overclock it. If you want to spend lots of money, get a quad rather than a fast C2D (that is just closer to it's OC headroom).

Also, get the 640MB GTS.
 
what would be the largest screen and res I could reasonably expect the 320mb and 640mb cards to go to?

not an issue at present as still on a 19in 1280 res screen but would like to upgrade to a 24in widescreen such as the benq in nearish future and if i would need to upgrade to a 8800gtx to run at 1920 i will buy the cheaper card in the meantime and look to upgrade monitor and card in 9 months or so.
 
320MB - up to 1680 x 1050 resolution, after that, major slowdown
640MB - up to 1920 x 1200 resolution, after that, major slowdown

This assumes 2-4xAA. If you have more AA, then depending on the game it might also be too slow.
 
mostly play WoW in a raiding guild.

looks like i should find the extra cash for the 640mb card then if that would power a 24inch screen in future.

will take a look at the e2160 and also the quad cores though i doubt there is much gaming application for quads at moment and I don't do any encoding or folding stuff so not sure I need the crunch power of a quad...
 
your tagan should be ok i reckon.

the thermalright ultra 120 extreme for cooler, scythe or noctua 120mm fan. not sure if those will fit on that board or not, i know with the ds4 you have to cut off a bit of plastic on the fan cos the chipset heatsink is in the way, doesnt affect the fan tho.
 
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