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Ok, I'm working on coming up with a parts list. Let me know what you think. This will be a gaming machine and I already have the parts that aren't listed.

 

Motherboard: Abit IX38 Quad GT - $205 (Possible Crossfire later)

CPU: Core 2 Quad Q6600 - $220

CPU cooler: ???

Memory Changed to: G.Skill DDR2 1000 2 x 2 GB - $85

Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 3870 512 MB GDDR4 - $190 (I don't know anything about PowerColor, anyone know anything?)

if not fanless maybe this: Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512 MB GDDR4 - $160

PSU: Antec Earthware EA500 - $90

or

PSU: PCP&C S610EPS - $95

for a total of $790

 

I'm open to suggestions especially on the CPU. I'm really not sure what I want to go with on that. I'm going for quiet, or relatively quiet anyways. Trying to keep this around $900. Thanks.

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In the range of $90 for a PSU, I'd look at the PCP&C 610 which is currently like $95 after rebate. If not that then a Corsair or OCZ. Also, why pay ~$50 extra for 1066 ram when the Q6600 will never put it to use? 2x2 800's would be more than enough.

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I just bought a Q6700 and a Zalman 9700 and it's very quiet and cool at 300x10 1.19vcore at 26c idle

 

In the range of $90 for a PSU, I'd look at the PCP&C 610 which is currently like $95 after rebate. If not that then a Corsair or OCZ. Also, why pay ~$50 extra for 1066 ram when the Q6600 will never put it to use? 2x2 800's would be more than enough.

 

not quite true....

 

depends on the board used...

 

the Asus P5E-VM I just got gives me options to run the ram at it's rated speed at default clocks...

 

even when overclocking i can run the ram on a faster divider...

Edited by dr_bowtie

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not quite true....

 

depends on the board used...

 

the Asus P5E-VM I just got gives me options to run the ram at it's rated speed at default clocks...

 

even when overclocking i can run the ram on a faster divider...

That's fair, but I'm just not sold on the real-world benefits of running a positive ram divider. I'd love to be proven wrong, but so far I just haven't seen it.

 

EDIT###

To be even more specific... Even if there were a benefit to a positive memory divider, I would still submit that whatever gains you see can't match the value you'd see from putting that $50 into the video card instead.

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In the range of $90 for a PSU, I'd look at the PCP&C 610 which is currently like $95 after rebate. If not that then a Corsair or OCZ. Also, why pay ~$50 extra for 1066 ram when the Q6600 will never put it to use? 2x2 800's would be more than enough.

alright

So how about

RAM: G.Skill DDR2 800 - $ 85

PSU: PCP&C 610 - $95

 

This may be a dumb question but if a psu says SLI Certified does that mean it will run a Crossfire just fine. It seems it should since it's just powering graphics cards but I was curious.

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The primary question I'd ask relative to the cpu is whether you need a quad core, or if a dual core meets your needs.

 

If you are going to do a ton of heavy multi-tasking, then you can't beat the Q6600 for price and performance.

 

However, if you're primarily into gaming and light to moderate multi-tasking then a dual core might be more appropriate for you. Especially when you consider the overclocking headroom on many of the Intel dual cores right now.

 

The Wolfdale E8400 and Xeon 3110 will clock to 3.8-4.0 ghz pretty easily. I'm not suggesting that the Q6600 isn't the right processor for you, I'm only throwing out some alternatives in the $199 - $205 price range.

Right now you sure can't beat the price versus performance ratio on some of the G.Skill 2X2gb kits. I just recently purchased a set of the DDR2 1000 G.Skills for a whopping $79.00 when NewEgg ran them on sale. Haven't played with them yet, but at soon as I feel like busting my case open those will be the first things to go in.

 

I've had several PowerColor video cards and for the most part they are on par with every other brand available. I personally wouldn't go with a fanless design unless I was building a HTPC, otherwise I'd stick with active cooling.

 

The Zalman 9700 is one of my favorite air coolers and I don't hesitate recommending that. Of course there are also other excellent air cooling options. Two units getting a lot of positive pub right now are the OCZ Vendetta 2 and the XIGMATEK HDT-S1283.

 

Whatever you decide, you've got the beginnings of a kicking system. Good luck.

Edited by wevsspot

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The primary question I'd ask relative to the cpu is whether you need a quad core, or if a dual core meets your needs.

 

If you are going to do a ton of heavy multi-tasking, then you can't beat the Q6600 for price and performance.

 

However, if you're primarily into gaming and light to moderate multi-tasking then a dual core might be more appropriate for you. Especially when you consider the overclocking headroom on many of the Intel dual cores right now.

 

The Wolfdale E8400 and Xeon 3110 will clock to 3.8-4.0 ghz pretty easily. I'm not suggesting that the Q6600 isn't the right processor for you, I'm only throwing out some alternatives in the $199 - $205 price range.

Right now you sure can't beat the price versus performance ratio on some of the G.Skill 2X2gb kits right now. I just recently purchased a set of the DDR2 1000 G.Skills for a whopping $79.00 when NewEgg ran them on sale. Haven't played with them yet, but at soon as I feel like busting my case open those will be the first things to go in.

 

I've had several PowerColor video cards and for the most part they are on par with every other brand available. I personally wouldn't go with a fanless design unless I was building a HTPC, otherwise I'd stick with active cooling.

 

The Zalman 9700 is one of my favorite air coolers and I don't hesitate recommending that. Of course there are also other excellent air cooling options. Two units getting a lot of positive pub right now are the OCZ Vendetta 2 and the XIGMATEK HDT-S1283.

 

Whatever you decide, you've got the beginnings of a kicking system. Good luck.

Thanks for the response.

I'm really debating between a dual and quad core. dual core is all that is needed now as far as programs go as most don't take advantage of more than one. But I feel like more programs to take advantage multiple cores as most processors are moving that way. But I can get the E8400 @ 3.0 GHz for $199 or since I lowered the cost of the ram I could go to a Q6700 @ 2.66 GHz for $280. or would one of those need the faster ram I had earlier(DDR2 1066)?

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The only reason I went with a Quad core in my rig was because I do alot of video encoding and thats where a Quad really shines...

 

Other than that i would have went with a E8400 and clocked the snot out of it..;)

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If I were spending my own money I certainly wouldn't spend it on the Q6700. If you are sold on the quad core, just get the Q6600 and overclock it a bit. I still think the E8400 or the Xeon 3110 are a better value though for what you plan on doing right here and now.

 

On the subject of memory, truthfully you can get anything from DD2-800 up to DDR2-1066 and tweak your BIOS settings to get the most out of whatever RAM kit you buy. Personally I think the G.Skill DDR2-1000 hits a pretty attractive price point for the performance you get.

 

Here is the part number I'm referring to;

F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ

 

$84.99 + free shipping at the Egg.

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If I were spending my own money I certainly wouldn't spend it on the Q6700. If you are sold on the quad core, just get the Q6600 and overclock it a bit. I still think the E8400 or the Xeon 3110 are a better value though for what you plan on doing right here and now.

 

On the subject of memory, truthfully you can get anything from DD2-800 up to DDR2-1066 and tweak your BIOS settings to get the most out of whatever RAM kit you buy. Personally I think the G.Skill DDR2-1000 hits a pretty attractive price point for the performance you get.

 

Here is the part number I'm referring to;

F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ

 

$84.99 + free shipping at the Egg.

Thanks that looks pretty good.

 

Curiously, how do you know which memory speed to get for your cpu? Verran said that the Q6600 wouldn't put the DDR2 1066 to use. How does one know/find this out?

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RAM: G.Skill DDR2 800 - $ 85

PSU: PCP&C 610 - $95

It's a good PSU, I think it'll work out well. The memory should be fine as well. Any good kit of DDR2-800 should be more than enough for a Q6600 and a 2x2 kit is a smart move with the current prices.

 

Curiously, how do you know which memory speed to get for your cpu? Verran said that the Q6600 wouldn't put the DDR2 1066 to use. How does one know/find this out?

As for how to know, it's not that hard. Take a look around the forums. The Q6600 is old news by now. People have clocked it more times than any other quad. And generally, the top speed is pretty much 3.6Ghz. People are surely breaking that on good water systems with high dollar boards and what-not, but for the most part you'll see people top out around 3.6. So how do they get that? Well, the max multi for the Q6600 is 9. So 3600 / 9 = 400. So they're running their ram at 400 FSB. So we also know that DDR2-800 actually has a FSB of 400 (half the DDR2-XXX rating because "double" data rate). So that means with your memory at stock, you can get a Q6600 up to pretty much max speed. That's assuming your memory won't OC one little bit.

 

So if you don't need more speed, why pay for it? Some people will run positive memory dividers to have their ram run faster than their CPU's FSB. That's a fair point, but I haven't seen any data to show that there's real world gains from that. I plan to run some tests of my own once I lock my OC in. My 4x1 Crucial Ballistix should be able to run 1066 at 5-5-5-15, but we'll see.

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As has already been written, a 65nm quad running at 3600MHz (400x9) is a realilistic expectation. With the divider set a 1:1 there is no real reason to use any ram rated higher the 800MHz. So where does the advantage of faster ram come into play? It has more to do with dividers then actual ram speed.

 

On most boards, a 1:1 divider is only available when using the 333 strap. At 400 FSB this setting will result in a ram speed of 800MHz. If a person is using 1000MHz capable ram at 400 FSB the 4:5 divider will result in a ram speed of 1000MHz. This divider is normally found on the 266 strap. The 200 MHz difference in ram speed in and of itself will not result in much of a gain in real world usage. It's the side effect of this flexibility that will bring additional performance however.

 

It's all about the straps and the valid tRD values that go along with them. A lower strap will allow for a lower tRD value. But how does this equate in a real world performance difference? Using a lower tRd value can result in a reduction of several nanoseconds of Northbridge latency. But without the components in hand the difference cannot be known for sure. The mathematical model that outputs this result is dependent on not only the strap setting and FSB but also the CAS value of the Ram. So without knowing the minimum wait state required by the ram the exact latency reduction can't be known.

 

On the surface a few nanoseconds doesn't seem like much. But when one considers that the Northbridge issues read and writes commands millions of times a second two or more nanoseconds between each one adds up pretty fast.

 

Faster speed ram in and of itself does little for real world performance. What it does do is allow other components of the system to be tuned for that performance. I try to configure my systems where the CPU is always the limiting factor.

 

While most everything bought today has some overclocking headroom, I purchase ram with the assumption that it will not overclock at all. Whatever speed I feel I will need I buy it rated for that speed and consider anything extra a bonus.

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