Need a little bit of help

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xvioz

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 26, 2007
Messages
127
About to start ordering parts and I just want to see if there's anything I should change. PC will be used for some gaming (HL2, UT3, GRAW 2, etc... not at crazy high resolutions like you guys though lol)... mainly just mixing / recording audio and graphic design.

Case: Antec Nine Hundred

PSU: Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750W (** not sure about this one **)

Motherboard: BFG nVidia nForce 680i LT (** not sure about this one either, someone mentioned an Asus P5K-E. Would that be a better choice? **)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (didn't go with Q6600 'cause I don't overclock [partly because I don't know how and partly because I'm paranoid])

Memory: OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz Platinum XTC Revision 2 GB

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar 320GB SATAII

Video Card: BFG 8800 GT OC2 512 MB (when they're in stock)

DVD Drive: LG GSA-H55L

I'm gonna start orderin' tomorrow so any help is appreciated!
 
I assume you would never go SLI with this setup since you say you don't need the crazy high resolutions, so I would say ditch that motherboard and get something based on the Intel P35 chipset, like the Abit IP35.

That PSU is overkill since you wouldn't use SLI. Save some money and get a good 500-ish watt PSU, like the Corsair 520HX.

Regarding the CPU - well, it's 4 cores at 2.4 Ghz vs. 2 cores at 3 Ghz. Honestly, overclocking the CPU is so simple with the Core 2s that I think you would be doing yourself a disservice. The nature of your work (graphic design) might really love more cores, but this is all your choice since the two CPUs are the same price. If you are completely dead set against overclocking and would rather have 2 3 Ghz cores vs. 4 2.4 Ghz cores, go for it.

May I ask where you're ordering the LG DVD drive from?
 
Thanks for the info.

The highest res I'll use is most likely 1280x1024 for games so yeah I guess I wouldn't need SLI right? Between the Asus P5K-C, Asus P5K-E WiFi-AP and Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R which do you think I should go for? Those 3 are all available locally and fit within my budget perfectly.

Will go with that Corsair PSU. I'm not too good with the whole power supply deal but if I were to upgrade later this would still work good right? By upgrade I mean like adding another 2 gigs of RAM and maybe quad core CPU.

I'm totally scared about overclocking. But with these mobos there is always room to upgrade to quad down the road (maybe when that 3ghz sucker drops in price lol).

I'll be getting the LG drive from canadacomputers.com .. just realized I got the model wrong that's the IDE one, I meant LG GSA-H62L.
 
Ah okay, Canada, no wonder. The major sites I know of (Newegg) don't carry that drive, which made me wonder.

Anyway - with those motherboard choices I would choose the Gigabyte DS3R. My motherboard choice lately was between the Abit and Gigabyte P35 mobos, both series receive very high praise.

Even if you went up to 4 GB RAM and got a quad core, the 520 watt Corsair would still be more than enough, so you shouldn't have to worry there. I run 4 hard drives, an overclocked E6300, 8800 GTS, 4 GB RAM, two optical drives with a Corsair 520HX, and down the line I will bump it up to a quad core. :D



xvioz said:
Thanks for the info.

The highest res I'll use is most likely 1280x1024 for games so yeah I guess I wouldn't need SLI right? Between the Asus P5K-C, Asus P5K-E WiFi-AP and Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R which do you think I should go for? Those 3 are all available locally and fit within my budget perfectly.

Will go with that Corsair PSU. I'm not too good with the whole power supply deal but if I were to upgrade later this would still work good right? By upgrade I mean like adding another 2 gigs of RAM and maybe quad core CPU.

I'm totally scared about overclocking. But with these mobos there is always room to upgrade to quad down the road (maybe when that 3ghz sucker drops in price lol).

I'll be getting the LG drive from canadacomputers.com .. just realized I got the model wrong that's the IDE one, I meant LG GSA-H62L.
Click to expand...
 
I agree with everything BillLeeLee has said so far. Pretty sound recommendations to me.
 
I also agree with BillLeeLee. No, you don't need SLI at that resolution and the Corsair PSU will be perfect for your upgrades as well.

xvioz said:
Between the Asus P5K-C, Asus P5K-E WiFi-AP and Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R which do you think I should go for?
Click to expand...

Do they have the non-C version of that Gigabyte board? If so, I'd recommend that. Otherwise, I'd recommend the Asus P5K-E instead -- you just get more for your money.

Just know that with the E6850, you're paying $82CAD for 333Mhz over the E6750. The E6750 could easily reach 3Ghz, and I would think that learning to get it there wouldn't take much research, making it well worth the time over spending the extra 82 bux. Even if you don't OC, I still think the E6750 or Q6600 would be a much better choice, taking into consideration the cost and performance from all 3 chips.
 
Went with the Antec Nine Hundred, Corsair 520HX, Asus P5K-E, Intel C2D E6850, OCZ Platinum XTC Revision 2 GB, Western Digital Caviar 320GB SATAII, LG GSA-H62L and when I see a BFG 8800 GT I'll grab it.

This is a huge upgrade from my s939 build aka my current PC... Asus A8N-E, AMD 3200+, 1 GB of RAM, 250 GB IDE Maxtor and a BFG 6600 GT OC lol.

I'll upgade to more RAM and quad later (quad when prices go down a bit... or maybe if I learn about all this overclockin' business [which won't be for awhile, maybe I'll try it out on the AMD] then I'll get more RAM next time I've got a $100 lying around hah).

Thanks again guys.
 
Well here's what I ended up with:

Antec P182
Corsair 620HX
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 [ordered and still waiting]
Asus P5K-E [ordered and still waiting]
4x1GB DDR2-800 OCZ Gold GX XTC
BFG Tech 8800GT OC 512MB
Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATAII [didn't have any 320's in stock... not a huge deal]
LG GSA-H62L

I got the 620HX cheaper then the 520HX would have been since it was on sale so I went for the P182 case which balanced the price out. Decided to go for Quad since it cost me $30 less then the E6850. Then the memory well a relative bought me another 2 GB of it the day after I bought it so I ended up with 4x1.

Just 2 more parts... 2 more parts... hurry up and get them in you bastards :eek:

Thanks again!

PS: How well do you think this will run COD4 and Unreal Tournament 3 at 1280x1024 / what settings should I expect? I'm hoping atleast medium. :confused:
 
I have basically the same setup,

Q6600
8800 GT
4 gb of ram

all at stock settings and I can play UT3 with everything maxed out on my 1280X1024 monitor, and it runs everything fine. I don't know about CoD4 though, never tried it.
 
xvioz said:
Well here's what I ended up with:

Antec P182
Corsair 620HX
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 [ordered and still waiting]
Asus P5K-E [ordered and still waiting]
4x1GB DDR2-800 OCZ Gold GX XTC
BFG Tech 8800GT OC 512MB
Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATAII [didn't have any 320's in stock... not a huge deal]
LG GSA-H62L

PS: How well do you think this will run COD4 and Unreal Tournament 3 at 1280x1024 / what settings should I expect? I'm hoping atleast medium. :confused:
Click to expand...

That system will breeze COD4, you will be able to max the settings at that res.
My A64 x2 @ 2.8, 2GB Ram with X1800PE runs it at 1280x960, 2xAA, medium bodies, all other settings maxed very smoothly with the odd slowdown.
 
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