Zero
02-27-2009, 07:40 PM
So this is what I went with:
Quad-core q6600 @ 2.4ghz
4gb (2x2gb) g-skill 1066mhz DDR2
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P motherboard
Gigabyte nvidia-based 512mb memory video card (Pci-Express 2.0 16)... i forget which version etc, doesn't matter.
Anyhow... what I wanted was a good multi-tasking machine for everyday power usage, which is why I went with quad-core. I wanted to stay XP-Pro. Some people argue that quad-core is pointless on XP as it doesn't utilize all cores correctly. As of SP3 updates, (I did before and after tests) XP utilizes the cores MUCH better. I did want to be able to play games as well, so I got an okay video card, but didn't want to break the bank on something I won't do that much of... I can always upgrade in the future (not to sli, only one pci-x 2.0 slot is 16x, the other will run 8x.)
I DID want to overclock... so I paid an extra $30 for an arctic-cooler, bought arctic silver 5, and made sure I got components that were meant for it.
Right now, I've overclocked the 2.4ghz q6600 to 3.2ghz and I'm seeing temps of 31C at idle/normal usage, and around 38 under a heavy load... very good. (60 is about the max you want, and 25 is about the lowest you can go.) Some people are overclocked to 3.6ghz (from 2.4ghz) and running fine on air cooling... I'll eventually get there, but I'm going to upgrade the case fans first. The motherboard, memory, and cpu all got GREAT reviews for overclocking... I originally was going with the 2.66ghz quad-core cpu, but it had less l2 memory for 1, and 2 people were getting better overclocking results with the 2.4. I can say so far... 4 cores running at 3.2ghz and bumped up memory/fsb speeds is pretty nice... :) I did bios overclocking first just to play around, but I set everything back, and used the overclocking software that came with the motherboard... it's awesome. It saves youa lot of time calculating, double-checking, etc, and does all settings at once... it has a nice hardware monitor too. I haven't touched the video card yet... but, again, it recommends overclocking on the damn box... should be cool.
I did a video-encoding test: With everything stock, 8 minutes. The first bump to 3.2... took it down to 5 minutes. We'll see what the jump to 3.6 does.
How much did it cost? $650 for all parts shipped. I got an XP pro license for free, so if you needed that and wanted the same setup, it'll cost you $140. I'm running a cheap 350w power supply that came with the case... I've used mannyyyy of these before and had good luck... I'll see how it holds up to my torture tests... worst case scenario, I'll upgrade for $50.
The only other thing I'm going to buy is a couple of fans... I'm happy so far. I would've liked to get SSD or a velicoraptor... but just didn't see the benefits being justified. I also was going to run RAID 0 simply for performance, but decided not to.
/geek.
Quad-core q6600 @ 2.4ghz
4gb (2x2gb) g-skill 1066mhz DDR2
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P motherboard
Gigabyte nvidia-based 512mb memory video card (Pci-Express 2.0 16)... i forget which version etc, doesn't matter.
Anyhow... what I wanted was a good multi-tasking machine for everyday power usage, which is why I went with quad-core. I wanted to stay XP-Pro. Some people argue that quad-core is pointless on XP as it doesn't utilize all cores correctly. As of SP3 updates, (I did before and after tests) XP utilizes the cores MUCH better. I did want to be able to play games as well, so I got an okay video card, but didn't want to break the bank on something I won't do that much of... I can always upgrade in the future (not to sli, only one pci-x 2.0 slot is 16x, the other will run 8x.)
I DID want to overclock... so I paid an extra $30 for an arctic-cooler, bought arctic silver 5, and made sure I got components that were meant for it.
Right now, I've overclocked the 2.4ghz q6600 to 3.2ghz and I'm seeing temps of 31C at idle/normal usage, and around 38 under a heavy load... very good. (60 is about the max you want, and 25 is about the lowest you can go.) Some people are overclocked to 3.6ghz (from 2.4ghz) and running fine on air cooling... I'll eventually get there, but I'm going to upgrade the case fans first. The motherboard, memory, and cpu all got GREAT reviews for overclocking... I originally was going with the 2.66ghz quad-core cpu, but it had less l2 memory for 1, and 2 people were getting better overclocking results with the 2.4. I can say so far... 4 cores running at 3.2ghz and bumped up memory/fsb speeds is pretty nice... :) I did bios overclocking first just to play around, but I set everything back, and used the overclocking software that came with the motherboard... it's awesome. It saves youa lot of time calculating, double-checking, etc, and does all settings at once... it has a nice hardware monitor too. I haven't touched the video card yet... but, again, it recommends overclocking on the damn box... should be cool.
I did a video-encoding test: With everything stock, 8 minutes. The first bump to 3.2... took it down to 5 minutes. We'll see what the jump to 3.6 does.
How much did it cost? $650 for all parts shipped. I got an XP pro license for free, so if you needed that and wanted the same setup, it'll cost you $140. I'm running a cheap 350w power supply that came with the case... I've used mannyyyy of these before and had good luck... I'll see how it holds up to my torture tests... worst case scenario, I'll upgrade for $50.
The only other thing I'm going to buy is a couple of fans... I'm happy so far. I would've liked to get SSD or a velicoraptor... but just didn't see the benefits being justified. I also was going to run RAID 0 simply for performance, but decided not to.
/geek.