New Build...Advice Please

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homerjr43

Gawd
Joined
Nov 12, 2004
Messages
763
Well this machine will be for my dad and i hope it will last him for at least 3 years. He is currently still dragging along a P4 2.4 with a 9800 pro. So this should be a substantial upgrade.

Components used from previous machine:
DVD-RW NEC 16x
250 GB WD HD 7200 RPM
120 GB WD HD

Already purchased:
Antec p180 Case...............$80
PNY 8800GTS ..................$365 after coupon and 5% cash back (discover)
Extra 120 mm Fan.............$5

Need to be purchased:
Corsair HX 520W PSU............$119
Core 2 duo e6600 2.4..............$310
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3.......$136
Patriot (2 x 1GB) DDR2 667 ....$224 after MIR
Thermaltake Big Typhoon HSF $49

Please give advice with any changes...or deal that you have found for items that i still need to buy. So far upgrade cost is roughly $1288 and i think he is planning on getting a DELL 2407 to use with the machine. They have been on sale of around 650...so i think it will be a great new system for under $2000 TOTAL

Thanks,
ERIK
 
It looks good. Are those HDDs you're keeping SATA? If not, you may want to add in a SATA drive for best performance. I'd go with the Seagate 7200.10 320GB... its about 10MB/s faster than my WD2500KS drive.
 
they are IDE and i have considered a 320 seagate..i have 2 currently myself. but he doesnt need the capacity and i am curious about the hybrid drives that are supposed to be coming out soon. So i think we will wait...the WD HD he has isnt the fastest but it isnt slow either it has 16mb of cache and is 7200 rpm...

Thanks for the advice...i agree but for right now we will prolly wait...
 
how did you get the antec p180 for 80 bux?

did you buy it bstock or ebay or what? if so, how is the condition? tell me more, im gona buy this case too probably used
---

thanx! btw your choices are really good.

i would change the power supply for the xclio 500watt (50 bux at newegg) its a good'n

however im not too knowledgable on this stuff so it might not be that good.

also i would buy the asus p5b deluxe instead of the gigabyte for a bit more

not sure how good that ram is but there are ddr2 800 gskills for around the same price, the typhoon is great, im not sure if its better than the scythe infinity or tuniq tower which are around the same price... you should look into that

just givin some tips, im not einstein when it comes to this stuff
 
InCogneato said:
how did you get the antec p180 for 80 bux?

did you buy it bstock or ebay or what? if so, how is the condition? tell me more, im gona buy this case too probably used
---

thanx! btw your choices are really good.

i would change the power supply for the xclio 500watt (50 bux at newegg) its a good'n

however im not too knowledgable on this stuff so it might not be that good.

also i would buy the asus p5b deluxe instead of the gigabyte for a bit more

not sure how good that ram is but there are ddr2 800 gskills for around the same price, the typhoon is great, im not sure if its better than the scythe infinity or tuniq tower which are around the same price... you should look into that

just givin some tips, im not einstein when it comes to this stuff
Click to expand...

The Corsair powersupply is higher quality than the xclio so it should last. The motherboard should be fine. Patriot ram is good stuff :)


@OP: With the Gigabyte DS3 make sure it's the GA-965G-DS3 because that way you'll have more pci card slots for expandibility otherwise you'll only have 1 pcie-x16 slot and they cost the same anyways.
 
Well i have read that the G965 do not overclock as well as the P965... If you can provide a review showing otherwise i would love to see it...

As for the XCLIO 500 Watt that is the PSU i currently have and its great but i wanted to go up a nothc considering the fact that it will have the 8800GTS and i want it to be ready for upgrades in the future.

The patriot ram is the only 667 ram that runs at cas 4 and at 1.8 volts on newegg. My friend has this stuff and is running it at 800 with 4-4-4-12 with only 1.9 volts. So i think for the extra 25 bucks over the other 667 ram this stuff is worth it.

My dad got the p180 from frys.com when it was free shipping and 70 plus tax after rebate...i paid 96 only 3 weeks earlier...its awesome by the way.:)

And finally the great ds3 vs the p5b debate...i was on the fence for awhile...then 2 friends of mine purchased the gigabytes and have had zero problems, My one friend splurged for the dq6 and the other the ds3 and the OC ability was the same so i assumed the ds3 would be fine for my dad since he does not plan on SLI...

Thanks keep the advice coming and feel free to prove me wrong i ask because i know there are members here that know more than me..

ERIK
 
homerjr43 said:
Well i have read that the G965 do not overclock as well as the P965... If you can provide a review showing otherwise i would love to see it...
ERIK
Click to expand...

So overclocking isn't a fine art and is dependant on a whole host of other factors. Go with 965G for expandibility as those extra pci slots will come in handy down the road.
 
ok im really confused because looking at newegg both the G and P both have the same amount of pci and pci-e slots...so im not sure what you mean....
 
the P5B Deluxe isnt worth its price. tisb0b lost me on his post, lol... something about more pci slots? where? because of onboard video (freeing up the pci-e slot)?

anyhow, go with the GA-965P-DS3, lol. if you want to save more money, you can go with the GA-965P-S3 instead, which can oc pretty well, too. the ds3 just has better caps, which last longer. so i guess the ds3 is more fitting, since your dad keeps systems for a while, hehe.

ahh... 2.4ghz p4c + 9800pro... i still use mine for cs'ing, lol!
 
can you guys say whats the overclocking gap between ds3 and p5b? im sure the p5b overclocks a bit better but by how much? of course its small but im still wondering cuz i plan on getting gskill ddr800 hz, core2duo 6300, watercool eventually and i planned for the gigabyte before but everyone says the p5b is best

thanks
 
which p5b?

Tweaktown did some OC'ing on several boards... here are their results:
432Mhz - Foxconn
438Mhz - AB9 Pro
443Mhz - P5B DLX (505Mhz on the OC database on the Intel Subforum)
451Mhz - DS3 (508Mhz on the OC database on the Intel Subforum)
483Mhz - DQ6 (486Mhz on the OC database on the Intel Subforum)

Other results from the OC database on the Intel Subforum:
512Mhz - P5B-E
517Mhz - eVGA 680i
 
enginurd said:
which p5b?

Tweaktown did some OC'ing on several boards... here are their results:
432Mhz - Foxconn
438Mhz - AB9 Pro
443Mhz - P5B DLX (505Mhz on the OC database on the Intel Subforum)
451Mhz - DS3 (508Mhz on the OC database on the Intel Subforum)
483Mhz - DQ6 (486Mhz on the OC database on the Intel Subforum)

Other results from the OC database on the Intel Subforum:
512Mhz - P5B-E
517Mhz - eVGA 680i
Click to expand...
yes the deluxe, thanks for that. WOW! so the less expensive gigabyte is actually betterthan p5b deluxe? amazing, i notice there are two versions on newegg though. 10 dollars apart... the north bridge is different. more expensive one is G965 the other is P965. it also says it has onboard video (the more expensive one) mehh..i wonder.. no big deal for 10 bux but just wondering what the specs mean
 
InCogneato said:
yes the deluxe, thanks for that. WOW! so the less expensive gigabyte is actually betterthan p5b deluxe? amazing, i notice there are two versions on newegg though. 10 dollars apart... the north bridge is different. more expensive one is G965 the other is P965. it also says it has onboard video (the more expensive one) mehh..i wonder.. no big deal for 10 bux but just wondering what the specs mean
Click to expand...
With OC'ing, results vary. I'm sure someone out there has gotten the P5B Dlx even higher than 505. The G965Express is Intel's new IGP (onboard intel X3000 graphics). As Homer said above, it doesnt OC as well as the P965Express.
 
tisb0b said:
So overclocking isn't a fine art and is dependant on a whole host of other factors. Go with 965G for expandibility as those extra pci slots will come in handy down the road.
Click to expand...

965G chipset has a hardware lock to prevent damage to the IGP core due to overclocking. They max out at about 333.
 
Other results from the OC database on the Intel Subforum:
512Mhz - P5B-E
517Mhz - eVGA 680i
Click to expand...

Meh, I'd trust the solid caps on the DS3 compared to the ones on the P5B-E. ;)
 
While the Patriot ram usually hits ddr2 800+, its not guaranteed, so if doesn't you're SHIT OUT OF LUCK!

So I'd go with the G.SKill ddr2 800
the cas 5 stuff costs around $200
the cas 4 stuff costs around $240
 
An 8800 GTS for your dad? Is he a gamer? That board seems overkill IMO if he's not.

Sorry if I missed it in the thread somewhere, just skimmed the other posts.
 
yeah my dad games he just hit the of 55 mark but he is still a kid at heart...He lives in Florida and i live in Ohio so we don't get to see each other much and i cant fix his computer all the time...thats why i wanted to build him a high quality machine with all good components so he can enjoy it worry free...

As for the gskill ram that stuff has a great reputation but its rated for ram voltage 2.0-2.1 and from experience i know that the p965 chipset has problem with higher voltage ram. Thus i thought i would be safer with the patriot ram that only requires 1.8 volts..

If anyone can show me some 800 mhz ddr2 that runs at cas 4 and 1.9 volts i would be very intrested. If not according to the OC database, personal experience and online review i think the patriot ram is superior....

Thanks for all your comments...

I love having the [H]ard Community here to provide advice
ERIK
 
yea i was wondering the same thing about the voltage and the gigabyte. gigabytes default
is 1.8v ram but the g.skill HZ are 2.0v

i hear some people saying they cant start the computer with this ram, i hear others saying gigabyte fixed the problem

anyone got the skinny?
 
From working on my friends computers the DQ6 and the DS3 the initial booting tends to be the problem...There are bios updates that help to correct the problem. But if your ram requires 2.1 by default and you do not have other ram available to use in order to flash the bios your in trouble. So as a precaution ram with a lower default voltages is better. You can always adjust the ram voltage after you update the bios. As i mentioned above the patriot ram ran at 800mhz at 1.9v on the other ds3 i have helped build.
 
homerjr43 said:
From working on my friends computers the DQ6 and the DS3 the initial booting tends to be the problem...There are bios updates that help to correct the problem. But if your ram requires 2.1 by default and you do not have other ram available to use in order to flash the bios your in trouble. So as a precaution ram with a lower default voltages is better. You can always adjust the ram voltage after you update the bios. As i mentioned above the patriot ram ran at 800mhz at 1.9v on the other ds3 i have helped build.
Click to expand...
DAMN IT :( i hope if i buy it in the future it will ship with the newest bios version so as to not have to flash it to get it to work with my ram (im buying around january-february)
 
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