Rate this spec

yawa

yawa

yawa

Associate
Joined
19 Jul 2005
Posts
47
Im upgrading my machine a bit.

What do you think of the following? Any obvious improvements?

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail - £176
Asus P5E Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard- £149
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Reaper HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel DDR2 - £82
2 x PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT Extreme 512MB GDDR4 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £117 each

and i need a psu... so im looking at the corsair 620w.
 
corsair 520 would be enough, 620 would give you a bit extra for future expansions.

wouldnt bother getting the 2x3870 initially tbh.

maybe go for a 3870x2 instead then at a later date get another.
 
Cheers.... ive been considering getting a Intel E8400 cpu instead as well.

Any thoughts on that? im never really going to be running multiple apps. Just like the extra speed for each app/game i run.
 
not really seen much that makes use of the quad core tbh, so the 8200/8400 may be the better option for pure speed, as they seem to be overclocking nicely.
 
While it's not really a bad chipset I'm not really sure if the X38 is worth it. You could go a bit cheaper and get a mobo based on the P35 chipset because while the X38 might be ok, everybody knows and says that the P35 is a lot more stable both for normal use and when overclocking.

I think Intel are releasing another chipset Q3 of this year anyway
 
If you go Crossfire the X38 is a must though.

closeratio the X38 bios's have matured a lot there, is basically nothing in it now with regards to overclocking.

E8400 - P35 - 3870x2 would be a pretty cool gaming setup though.
 
Hesky82 said:
closeratio the X38 bios's have matured a lot there, is basically nothing in it now with regards to overclocking.
Click to expand...

Aye well I'm not completely up to date on the newer chipsets but I suppose because the X38 has been out for a while like you say it probably would have been improved somewhat.

I guess it comes down to how much you want to spend really, and how future-proof you want to make it
 
i got my self x38 asus maximus and two 3870 in crossfire i think its better then 3870x2 as the cooling is better and you can get better clocks on core and memory also memory is ddr4 you can reach 2600 + easy and on core 900+
 
Quite a few people on here are running 900MHz+ GPU on 3870X2

TBH there’s nothing in it performance wise, but as two XT's will work out less than one X2 the XT's are better bang for buck :)

But as mp260767 stated, if you go X38 and X2 you could always add another X2 at a later date and have the power of pretty much four XTs in crossfire :D
 
Think ill stick with the dual core 8500 and need to make my mind up over crossfire or not. That will make my decision over whether to get a X38 chipset mobo or not.
 
Question: If i was to go with the 2xgpu gfx card do i need an X38 chipset as its essentially crossfire on 1 card.
 
Ive narrowed it down to the following. Any recommendations?

my.php


http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshotjf8.png

mmm not displaying image for some reason.
 
Cheers for the help.

It all arrived yesterday and is now up and running :)

CPU ideling at about 18c so im pretty happy with that.

Best rig ive built so far.... although its only been a few.
 
There's no way it's idling at 18'c ?! I'm pretty sure the application will be reporting the temperature incorrectly. 18'c is really far too low to be an accurate temperature... I know some processors reported their temps something like 15'c lower than they really are, but I don't know exactly which processors they are.

But even so, 18+15 is still a very respectable 33'c. But I really wouldn't go trusting an 18'c reading! It seems waaaay too low to be true, especially if you're using the stock cooler. Perhaps someone who knows a bit more can fill me in here!
 
Good rig.

I personally would have chosen the quad core though.
Things are starting to move to multiple core programming, plus, even in single/dual threaded apps, its still a bonus.
Its not like the quadcores are out of the realms of affordability anymore either.

:).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom