New Build - Core 2 Duo

[quant]

Hello community

looking to upgrade my aged PC with smth able to cope with modern games, video editing and encoding, etc. Here is what I have in mind:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Asus P5B Deluxe
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX
Leadtek GeForce 7900 GS
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB
Corsair HX 520W

Do you think it is a well matched and powerful enough system, or would you recommend changing or slightly enhancing some items to get the most out of it? A few questions in particular:

1. Is there much between E6300 and E6400 (and whether it is worth going for the more expensive one), as both seem to have 2Mb cache and clockable to 3Ghz with the stock fan?

2. How does the 965P mobo chipset compares to the earlier 975X one. In particular is the MSI 975X Platinum PowerUP Edition have any advantages over the above mentioned Asus?

3. How will the above Leadtek 7900GS card cope with the current generation of games (Oblivion, Fear, Medieval etc)? Is there any advantage going for an ATI card, like this Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB , seeing both have 256Mb of DDR memory and go for approx same price?

I have been out of loop over the latest developments so any advice will be gratefully received

 

[Geo]

You'll get better IQ and somewhat better features with the X1950PRO. Performance is a bit better too, tho not wildly if I'm recalling correctly the reviews I've seen. But at any rate, the features and Imaqe Quality advantages to X1k vs G7 are the big seller to me.

 

[Rys]

1. Is there much between E6300 and E6400 (and whether it is worth going for the more expensive one), as both seem to have 2Mb cache and clockable to 3Ghz with the stock fan?

You're effectively paying for a multiplier choice, if you're planning on overclocking. So depending on your target frequency and how that affects your memory clock, you can choose the chip that way.

2. How does the 965P mobo chipset compares to the earlier 975X one. In particular is the MSI 975X Platinum PowerUP Edition have any advantages over the above mentioned Asus?

You'll enjoy the ASUS board more, especially if overclocking, versus the MSI you link to.

3. How will the above Leadtek 7900GS card cope with the current generation of games (Oblivion, Fear, Medieval etc)? Is there any advantage going for an ATI card, like this Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB , seeing both have 256Mb of DDR memory and go for approx same price?

Geo's advice is very sound, grab the X1950 PRO :smile:

Welcome to B3D!

 

[digitalwanderer]

Just as an aside; but for a first post that was remarkably clear and well detailed. A very nice job.

Welcome to B3D, good luck with your new system.

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

I would wait about 2 weeks because Intel is cutting processor prices up to 40%. You can save a good $45 on your new setup or use the savings on another part.

 

[quant]

Thank you for a warm welcome lads, your advice is much appreciated

You'll get better IQ and somewhat better features with the X1950PRO

There seem to be X1950PRO at the same price point as 7900GT, so ATI that is then. As an aside, there also seem to be a 512Mb version of the same card for £25 more, is it worth considering?

You're effectively paying for a multiplier choice, if you're planning on overclocking. So depending on your target frequency and how that affects your memory clock, you can choose the chip that way.

In that case I think I'll stick with the cheaper E6300 and overclock it sensibly to 2.5-3Ghz range. Same goes for the Asus Deluxe, which seems to be offered with wifi and non-wifi options, so I will go with the latter, unless there is smth else in it I am missing. here are a couple more questions though:

1. I found a memory with better latency at somewhat better price. However I never heard of the manufacturer, Geil. As I always followed "quality first" priniple with my RAM, and usually used crucial or corsair, what would you make of this Geil® Ultra DDR2?

2. I also noted that 965P chipset boards have only a single IDE port, which is a bit of a problem as all my current optical and hard drives are IDE. Are there any SATA DVDRW drives on the horison?

Just as an aside; but for a first post that was remarkably clear and well detailed. A very nice job.

I had a look at how people post here and liked the clarity and the mature style of most posts which I tried to follow

thanks again guys

 

[Rys]

If you can run to the 512MB board with your budget, you might as well. Just make sure the 512MB version doesn't have a fairly reduced memory clock, which is sometimes the penalty for a big memory pool on boards in that price range. Although you might be happy to suffer slightly slower memory for the increased size. I'm not sure of the clocks for the SKUs in question (and I'm too lazy to check ), something for you to investigate.

As for GeIL, they've made a decent name for themselves in recent times with good products, so I wouldn't be scared to stray from Corsair or Crucial.

SATA DVDRW drives are freely available now, for the same prices as their IDE brethren (at least in the UK). I've just bought a Samsung SATA DVDRW (dual-layer, 16x, the usual stuff) for £19 inc VAT, for example. Your sticking point is board support for SATA ATAPI, to make the drive visible in the BIOS to be used for booting from, to load an OS or rescue CD/DVD or whatnot. Modern P965 boards are all likely to have the support, though, given the singular lack of any IDE ports with that chipset (ICH8 doesn't have provision and you'll probably find the port is provided by an external IC from the likes of J-Micron) and its heavy support for SATA in general.

Your choice of E6300 seems sensible enough, sounds like you're building yourself a sweet PC, good luck with the build.

 

[ManicMouse]

If you are going with an Asus P5B DLX you might want to pull the heatpipe cooler off and redo the thermal compound. Here's what i found under the Northbridge cooler on my P5B Dlx Wireless ed:

The light colored parts is where the factory thermal compound covered. The dark part is the nice, shiny, uncovered northbridge. This shows about 60% coverage. The southbridge had about 40% coverage. If you replace the rubber thermal pad on the power circuitry cooler (mosfets), be sure to use Arctic Silver Ceramique over Arctic Silver 5. Mosfets get insanely hot. Sometimes hitting as much as 120C. This will thin a silver-based compound and possibly have it fouling the high amperage conductors of the mosfet's legs with silver particles. You are better off reusing the rubber conductive pad or a non-metallic compound like AS Ceramique for this.

I'll add my welcome to the others above for a fellow (for this board) n00b!

 

[Geo]

There seem to be X1950PRO at the same price point as 7900GT, so ATI that is then. As an aside, there also seem to be a 512Mb version of the same card for £25 more, is it worth considering?

I'd probably ask you how long you intend to use the card, and the longer the answer the more likely I'd be to say "yes". Off hand, if the answer is north of one year you're almost certain to be glad of having those extra MB. On the other hand if you're just looking to get to next summer/fall for a look-see at where DX10 product is at, then I'd probably say "no".

 

[quant]

Thanks again guys, lots of helpful advice

I think I will stick with E6300 and go with X1950PRO with 256Mb and once Vista is more mature (say 1 year from now) consider an updgrade for a DX10 card.

I would wait about 2 weeks because Intel is cutting processor prices up to 40%. You can save a good $45 on your new setup or use the savings on another part.

This very interesting news, and would easily sway me to get E6600 as it would be available at the same pricepoint as E6300 now. When do we expect the actual price cut though, as the only snippet of news I've seen was The Register mention of some Intel plans for Q2 2007? I wouldn't mind waiting a couple more weeks, but three 3-6 months

Happy Christmas and New Year everyone!

 

[Rys]

While there's no date on them that I can see, I do have price maps that say "Jan 07" for the cut, so {S}W's likely correct. It looks like the introduction of E4300 is when they'll hit, too, from what I can tell. So if you can hang on....

Hope the build goes well, cheers and happy holidays to you too :smile: