New build getting ready for conroe chip

[Destinatus]

CASE: Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply - Retail: $99.99

MOBO: ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail: $269.99 *UPDATED

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40 GHz 1066 MHz FSB 4 MB L2 cache: Not Available yet (around $360)

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM : 89.99

DVD-RW: LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ LightScribe and 5X DVD-RAM Write Black ATAPI/E-IDE Model SHM-165H6S - OEM: 32.99

RAM: CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS2GBKIT533D2 - Retail: 145.99

SOUND: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - OEM: 74.99

KYBRD: Saitek PZ30AU Black USB Wired Standard Eclipse Keyboard - Retail : 41.95

MOUSE: Atake Robot Roo AEM-006DG Grey 3 Buttons 1x Wheel USB + PS/2 Optical Mouse - Retail: 10.99


$765 w/o chip and $1125 with the suspected price of the new chip and I still need a video card (thanks Alaron mobo wasnt on list 'cause it was sold out). I'm hoping to keep it around $1000. Will be used primarily for lots of gaming and Photoshop(ideally large canvases). Parts can be exchanged depending on importance to keep the price down. Any suggestions\help? Thank you

[Alaron]

I didn't know Creative made keyboards.

The list looks good. As for the video card, the Radeon X1800GTO or the Geforce 7600GT would be a good choice for a gaming card on a budget.

I'm not sure on your total, when I total up the parts, I get $1125. Without the chip, its $765.

[Destinatus]

Oh I forgot to add that I already have WinXP, a monitor and 5.1 speakers. My monitor is 24" at 1920x1200 so I would probably want to run games at a high resolution, can anyone suggest downgraded one of these specs to allow for a more capable videocard?

[blue60007]

I know one of our members here posted that Intel was having an issue with the 965 chipsets (actually more so with the Southbridge). The new ICH8 drops PATA/IDE support, and intel tried fusing a 3rd party controller in. Problem was it couldn't boot from an IDE drive (your dvd-drive) to install Windows (because it needs drivers to be install on an OS...kinda a "did the chicken or the egg come first?" situtaion). I have no idea if this was just a rumor...cause I also heard that board has native IDE support, meaning no drivers necessary. Your best bet would be to wait till the board is available and read user reviews and professional reviews and see how they fare.

If you don't want to worry about it, there's the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe. Same price. It's on the 975X and ICH7 - which does have native IDE support and it brings Crossfire support to the table (you'll need a beefier PSU, etc, and unfortunately there's no cheaper mobo options out there). It's out of stock at Newegg though. Do you want a smaller monitor or a beefier video card? I'm not sure what you are asking... A 7900GT or X1800XT or X1900XT are good starting points for beefier video cards.

[Destinatus]

I haven't really been following Intel boards, thanks for the tip. I guess I'll get the P5W DH Delux it's only $1 more. I don't think I really want to do crossfire (not enough money), do you still think I would need a bigger PSU?

What I was asking was is there anything I can save money on that wouldn't effect gameplay too much (1GB RAM?) so I can afford a better gfx card. I'm looking for a good midrange card that can last me about 2 yrs before I upgrade that to a DX10 compatible card.

[Kareeser]

Originally Posted by blue The new ICH8 drops PATA/IDE support, and intel tried fusing a 3rd party controller in. Problem was it couldn't boot from an IDE drive (your dvd-drive) to install Windows (because it needs drivers to be install on an OS...kinda a "did the chicken or the egg come first?" situtaion).

Ouch... for what it's worth, my D945 only has one IDE controller, and it boots from the optical drive fine...

As for the build list: Going down to 1 GB of RAM would be fine in my books, but I tend to build behind the times (old stuff tends to not get that much older after the initial year ). However, depending on the games you play (and blue would probably back me up on this), 2 GB of RAM may be better.

Perhaps you could put the build on hold for a week, and do some odd-jobs to scrounge up the extra cash. Now that you have an incentive

[Destinatus]

good advise Kareeser. I technically have the money now for everything but I'm just a cheapo hehe. I'm buying a nintendo ds lite and wii and will probably get tons of games for those as well as for the new PC, and it will all just add up. I guess I shouldn't worry about that now though, I'll just leave that for the future me to take care of. Does anyone know where to find some good benchmarks for mid to mid-high range gfx cards?

[jayb1234]

anandtech.com and tomshardware.com should have quite a few.

[Destinatus]

OK I think I found a good gfx card: SAPPHIRE 100154 Radeon X1800XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM

I have no idea why it's so cheap, any ideas? it looks pretty good to me.

[blue60007]

Originally Posted by Kareeser Ouch... for what it's worth, my D945 only has one IDE controller, and it boots from the optical drive fine...

Yes, but all Southbridge's up to the ICH8 have had native IDE support. Keep in mind I'm really not sure if that problem was just a rumor or not...you may want to read reviews on the P5B. Maybe the problem was fixed (or it wasn't a problem to begin with).

Originally Posted by Kareeser As for the build list: Going down to 1 GB of RAM would be fine in my books, but I tend to build behind the times (old stuff tends to not get that much older after the initial year ). However, depending on the games you play (and blue would probably back me up on this), 2 GB of RAM may be better.

Games like BF2 almost need 2GB of RAM to run completely smoothly.


The X1800XT, from what I've heard, is a pretty good card. I think the 450W PSU will be fine on a single-video card set up.

[glc]

The price of faster ram is now about the same - I'd prolly look at putting 667 in there. By the time the C2D is out, 800 speed ram may even be around the same price. It doesn't hurt.

[Destinatus]

OK the conroe chip is out tomorrow so I'm gonna try and jump on it later tonight. I switched out my RAM for this:

OCZ Gold Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 667 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail

I also upgraded my HDD to the to 320GB. Do you guys think that I'll have enough power for another HDD down the road if I decide to add one later? Also would the current cooling be enough for this setup?

[Mr.Ferrari]

I would suggest the gigabyte ds3 over the p5wdh. That is unless your going dual card config.

Not only is it outperforming the asus p5wdh or any other motherboard in every single benchmark clock for clock, i.e 3dmark03 05 06, aquamark, superpi, etc. But it is currently the highest fsb motherboard on the market. Some people have been hitting 500fsb with thesebabies, the asus has been chocking on 420-430. And to top it all off, its 149.99 plus 6.73 shipping at the egg.
If you wanna save even more, its 144 with free shipping at ewiz.com

They have been very quick on the bios updates. Another benefit of going 965 is if you dont have a secondary chip to flash the bios with to support the new stepping of conroes, 965 will support it out of the box. With p5wdh you have 3 choices. Get a secondary processor to flash with, do a hot flash, or getting asus to send you the new bios chips.


And for the ram. Do you plan on doing overclocking with conroe. (I really hope so, so much power, such a waste hehe)

[Destinatus]

Originally Posted by Mr.Ferrari I would suggest the gigabyte ds3 over the p5wdh. That is unless your going dual card config. Not only is it outperforming the asus p5wdh or any other motherboard in every single benchmark clock for clock, i.e 3dmark03 05 06, aquamark, superpi, etc. But it is currently the highest fsb motherboard on the market. Some people have been hitting 500fsb with thesebabies, the asus has been chocking on 420-430. And to top it all off, its 149.99 plus 6.73 shipping at the egg. If you wanna save even more, its 144 with free shipping at ewiz.com They have been very quick on the bios updates. Another benefit of going 965 is if you dont have a secondary chip to flash the bios with to support the new stepping of conroes, 965 will support it out of the box. With p5wdh you have 3 choices. Get a secondary processor to flash with, do a hot flash, or getting asus to send you the new bios chips. And for the ram. Do you plan on doing overclocking with conroe. (I really hope so, so much power, such a waste hehe)

Wow that mobo sounds like a win win win situation from what your saying, I didn't plan on doing dual card anyway. I'm glad to hear that it supports conroe out of the box, I don't want to sound like a newbie but I don't know how to flash the bios >_<.

I haven't looked into overclocking much because I'm already a paranoid person, I don't want to worry about frying my board everytime I use it. I might look into it later though. Thanks a bunch, you saved me some money!

[glc]

At this point, I'd be looking at DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 ram if you plan on getting into overclocking. DDR2-667 is an exact match for a 1066 FSB processor, anything faster and the ram can hold you back.

[Destinatus]

Originally Posted by glc At this point, I'd be looking at DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 ram if you plan on getting into overclocking. DDR2-667 is an exact match for a 1066 FSB processor, anything faster and the ram can hold you back.

I'm a little confused by your post. Anything faster than the DDR2-667 will hold me back but I should be looking at DDR2-800 and DDR2-1066?

[glc]

I meant running the bus any faster than 1066, not faster ram.

[Mr.Ferrari]

If you want some good overclocking ram without spending big bucks I would get this stuff.
http://www.tankguys.biz/ddr2-3338-p-...4dc48967785fb6

Thos things have been hitting ddr2 1000 with a little voltage and little timing change. Even more so if you work on it. The same chips that are used in these are used in *i think* on some of the 300-400 corsair chips.
But if your a begginer overclocker and dont know how to fiddle around with memory timings, I would do as glc suggested and get some preoverclocked ram.

Some of the best stuff right now would be this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231065

Or of course it would always be safe going with anything ddr2 800 with corsair, ocz or mushkin.
I would pick ocz out of the three if I was going by customer service.