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New Rig Critique Needed


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New Egg Wish List Items

 

I need some feed back from you guys. I'm building what I consider a top of the line system. That being said I'm somewhat on a budget. I've gathered a list of items on newegg I would like you guys to give a critique on it. Such as "This would actualy be better for about the same money."

 

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My main questionable areas are:

 

Is it better to go Quad processor with a Q6600 or stick with the X6800.

 

Is the power supply correct for this system? Is there a better one for the money?

 

Is the Video card the one you would use in this case or is there another company to choose from for the same general price?

 

Is the memory worth right for the price or is there something better out there in the general price area?

 

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I will be using Vista eventualy but I will more than likely be sticking with the trusty XP for awhile until Vista ages a bit. The system will be air cooled. I'm thinking of going with another thermalright setup as the last one has served me well.

 

I will of course shop around a bit as I know newegg does not have the "bet price" but they offered the best way to consolidate what I wanted. As you can see I'm spending more than I ever have on a new system I just want to make sure I get it right, for the budget. (2500ish)

 

Thanks in advance.

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What will you be doing on this computer? If it's just gaming and video editing, you have too much IMO. I bet you can survive with a GTS, save some money there. Also, you can probably save some cash getting the E6600 instead of the X6800, you can probably overclock the E6600 to be equivalent to the X6800.

Edited by Makaveli

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Unless all the 680i issues have been worked out Id say stay away. For the cpu you could save alot by getting an e4300/e6300 and overclocking (unless you have some reason that you need quadcore). For the memory give Gskill a look because there is a much cheaper 2gb kit that can easily reach the same timings @ DDR800. Everything else looks fine.

Edited by caffeinejunkie

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Are you serious? With an OS and Apps that actually utilize the 4cores theres no way an e6600 could touch it. Obviously this wont be the case with XP but still come on. I do agree with everything else you said.

 

He is referring to the ability to overclock the E6600 to X6800 levels, both of which are dual core. The Q6600 is quad core, and as you said overclocking wouldn't make it close.

 

Tech Spec

Core Conroe

Multi-Core Dual-Core

Name Core 2 Extreme X6800

 

Tech Spec

Core Kentsfield

Multi-Core Quad-Core

Name Core 2 Quad Q6600

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My bad I always confuse the x6800 and qx6800 they should have just stuck with one naming scheme for the dual cores or at least give the extreme line a completely different name scheme like AMDs FX line. Like I said though my bad. Oh and an e6600 should easily reach x6800 speeds on air if not greatly surpass it.

Edited by caffeinejunkie

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Thanks for the replys guys. I'm checking into the memory suggestion. I did find some OCZ with very good latency timings. I don't have the link at the moment as I'm at work. I'll post it up later tonight. I might end up going to 4GB before its over with.

 

Looking at Toms Hardware CPU charts I see the quad isn't realy anything I need or want at the moment. I do want an EE processor. Cal me crazy I just want to be one of the "cool kids" for once. I had a very low budget on my last build but it still turned out well.

 

This will be a gameing PC with a good bit of work being done in Photo Shop. I also want it to be somewhat more future proof for at least 5 years. This is the last major "toy" I'm buying for myself and I need it to last.

 

caffeinejunkie brought up a good point about the MB. I had read that there were issues with the board, most of wich were resolved with a recent bios update. Are there any other boards out there that might be better and more reliable overclockers?

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these days your lucky if your computer can keep up in 3 years. suggest you stick to 2gb of ram and in about a year 2x 2gb kits will be out for like $200, 4gb alone is like $500. for Cpu's you forget your MB can be upgraded and in about 2 years just putting in a new cpu thats like $250 will rock the quadcores its funny how computers speed up so fast its almost not worth the money. also in 4-6months new video cards will be out so say yourself $400 bucks and just get 1 card this time around.

 

 

there i just saved you about a grand :)

 

 

i do poster size projects with photoshop with 300mb+ PSD files it handles well, old computer only lag when you have Premire, aftereffects and photoshop open at the same time. iv froze my computer a few times doing that, i think it was more of a memory issue than raw power.

 

 

i just ordered my 3rd lit-on the other day, it bets sony but they still are really slow doesnt even burn at 12x but for the price i dont care that much but would expect a product to burn at the speeds it says.

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I'm going to continue my crusade against quad-core and say that you definitely shouldn't get the Q6600. Quad-cores are great for encoding and other similar tasks, but they're no good for gaming (which is what 98% of the people are going to buy them for). Dual-core still doesn't really help you in most games, and quad-core has even less support. Save yourself the cash and get a faster and cheaper dual-core that will overclock MUCH better.

 

Check out my analysis of the OCC Q6600 Review if you want more specifics of why the quad is not a good choice.

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The Power supply you choose is fine, its great in fact. But its way overkill. I suggest you save some money by Buying the Corsair HX620. Its one of the best power supplies out there and it has more than enough power for your rig.

 

And though I agree you Don't need the processor you chose, I say, if you don't plan on upgrading for 3+ years. Go for it.

You could be equally happy with an OCed E6600 or E6400, but its your choice.

 

I would change the Burner to Samsung, optorite or plextor. Since your dumping so much cash into eveything else you might as well get a high quality burner.

 

The memory issue has already been addressed by others.

 

Also, whatever your processor choice will be: If your going to overclock you will want to invest into a good after market heatsink with some artic silver 5. Such heatsinks as:

Tuniq Tower

Scythe ninja

Xp-120

Xp-90

Zalman 9700 (For lesser OC's)

Zalman 9500 (For lesser OC's)

 

Onto Cooling: Make sure you fill all fan slots that the case has, make sure the case air flow is even. Same number of intake as exhuast fans. And if you go into heavy OCing, lowering the room temparture will help alot also.

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the 680i is fine, the only thing it has issues with is quad core OCing, and even that is being replaced with a new revision that fixes it

 

Looks good to me, and I vote x6800 as well

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Ste that was a great suggestion. I made the change to the PSU. The cooling suggestions were great as well. I'll definatly look into the HSs mentioned.

 

Verran, point taken on the quad cores. Theres no point in me looking in that direction after all the posts pertaining to their lack luster performance. I'm staying stubborn on the matter of the X6800. :)

 

The memory I found was Gskill 2GB. Currently its on backorder. Has anyone had any exsperiance with this ram? The price is great for the latency timings.

 

Is there a SATA 3gb DVD burner? I'm not sure if the SATA connectors are backward compatable, as I haven't even had the change to see the new style SATA yet. I didn't see any standard SATA ports mentioned on the MB stats. I'd like to get away from IDE if I can. Maybe someone can elighten me a bit on this.

 

Thanks again guys. This is realy helping me out in my discision process.

Edited by Stacked

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The memory I found was Gskill 2GB. Currently its on backorder. Has anyone had any exsperiance with this ram? The price is great for the latency timings.

 

Is there a SATA 3gb DVD burner? I'm not sure if the SATA connectors are backward compatable, as I haven't even had the change to see the new style SATA yet. I didn't see any standard SATA ports mentioned on the MB stats. I'd like to get away from IDE if I can. Maybe someone can elighten me a bit on this.

 

Thanks again guys. This is realy helping me out in my discision process.

 

 

There are SATA Burners, but the only benefit with SATA is the space saved because of cable size. I search for them on newegg. They are around.

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