Help Building a New CPU Please :)

[Desisuperman]

Need help building a new computer. Want to spend 12-1500 cdn MAX.
Last time i checked the conroe's were excellent overclockers, is that still the case? Are they still the best chips? Is it worth going for the 6600 or should i just stick with the 6400 and OC that?

What's the best MB without overspending?

How about memory? Last i checked with the amd's spending the extra money on "better" memory was a waste of money.

Video cards should be a no brainer, you get pretty much what you pay for. Anything i should be looking out for in particular?

Thanks In advance guys

[Polaren]

Need help building a new computer. Want to spend 12-1500 cdn MAX.
Last time i checked the conroe's were excellent overclockers, is that still the case? Are they still the best chips? Is it worth going for the 6600 or should i just stick with the 6400 and OC that?

The E6600 is still the best chip to OC because of the 4MB L2 Cache, but the others are just as good for OC'ing if you can't afford the E6600.

What's the best MB without overspending?

Best motherboards without breaking the bank are the boards with the P965 chipset, either a P5B Deluxe or Gigabyte DS3 and both are excellent overclockers.

How about memory? Last i checked with the amd's spending the extra money on "better" memory was a waste of money.

For memory anything that is PC2-6400 DDR2-800 for overclocking, you will be capped alot if you go for 667 and you want to overclock.

Video cards should be a no brainer, you get pretty much what you pay for. Anything i should be looking out for in particular?

Video Cards, there are a lot of nvidia DX10 cards coming out in march and also ATI's new line in March. If you are not concerned about DX10 then this is not a issue. If you need something immediately, it's hard not to recommend a DX10 card so either a 8800GTS or GTX.

Thanks In advance guys

.

[Desisuperman]

any other suggestions guys

[lincoln]

Intel e6300 or e4300 (I have my e6300 running at 3.33 stable right now at 1.55Volts)
Stock Cooling should work fine, but I'm running a 9700
It's 50C on idle and 74C under load.

The 965p boards are nice but my favourite is still the 650i and 680i

OCZ 2GB 6400 platinum xtc rev. 2 (mine is overclocked to 954mhz with 5-5-5-12 timing at 2.35Volts)
Just make sure, if you are running a 680i or 650i that your ram is "linked" and then "sync" in the bios. Otherwise you will have stability issues.

2 of the Western Digital Caviar 250gb 16mb cache in RAID

Ultra Aluminus ATX Case with 550w X2 Modular power supply. (only at tigerdirect.ca)

Thermaltake 120mm fan with 78cfm and 22dba for the front.

120mm LED fan for the back. 44cfm 22dba

2 of the 12" sunbeam UV cathode kits.

Also, for a video card I'm running a MSI 7900 gto and flashed the bios with the Rev 2 version.
I'm getting around 6800 in 3Dmark06 and running it stable at 710mhz and 840mhz memory.
I set the fan speed to 100% using Rivatuner and click that button that loads the setting whenever I boot windows.
Then I overclocked it using PowerStrip. Without Fan speed at 100% the card would only hit 700mhz stable.

Make sure you check all the following places for prices.

tigerdirect.ca
canadacomputers.com
ncix.com
directcanada.com

I hope that helps you out. If you need help with voltages just let me know.

[budric]

I recently built a computer. I chose to go for the E4300 (it's overpriced now but I needed an upgrade and couldn't wait a month), Gigabyte P965 S3 - simple, cheap and a good overclocker (from consensus on tomshardware) BUT no firewire.

Overclocked no problem to 2.4 Ghz, stock cooling and no voltage increase. So I'm running at 1066 Mhz FSB, and I didn't need to buy more expensive 800 Mhz memory to overclock.

E4300 is something to consider for overclocking.

[curtis]

You'd need either a very powerful microscope or lots and lots of silicon + a few million transistors to build a CPU that can run today's software.

[budric]

What good is a microscope and silicone if you don't have the masks?

[ullyeus]

Contact Intel, see if you can rent some lab time from them.

[jeffyjaixx]

Contact Intel, see if you can rent some lab time from them.

:lol:

[MrDisco]

What good is a microscope and silicone if you don't have the masks?

forget masks..what he needs is the bunny suit!

[the one]

You'd need either a very powerful microscope or lots and lots of silicon + a few million transistors to build a CPU that can run today's software.


:lol: ... was waiting for someone to post this

[wonton1017]

Get the new CPU by Intel, E4300 and a good heatsink such as Scythe Ninja. Then overclock the CPU like crazy and get 3GHZ+, its easy to overclock this CPU! (Totals up to about $200)

For the motherboard, get a P5B Deluxe or a P5B-E (Dlx is about $180 and -E is about $130) Used...

The ram, just get a good branded PC-6400 RAM such as: OCZ or Corsair

Video card: get a 7600GT for now, and wait for a few months and sell this video card to get one of the upcoming ATI x2000 cards.

I have a E6300 and a P5B Deluxe and its at 3.2ghz right now at stock cooling, but i got tons of fans in my case to keep it cool.

My friend has a E4300, and he got 3.6ghz easily with aftermarket HSF.
E6600 may probably be able to do this, but it costs double the price.

[lincoln]

Get the new CPU by Intel, E4300 and a good heatsink such as Scythe Ninja. Then overclock the CPU like crazy and get 3GHZ+, its easy to overclock this CPU! (Totals up to about $200)

For the motherboard, get a P5B Deluxe or a P5B-E (Dlx is about $180 and -E is about $130) Used...

The ram, just get a good branded PC-6400 RAM such as: OCZ or Corsair

Video card: get a 7600GT for now, and wait for a few months and sell this video card to get one of the upcoming ATI x2000 cards.

I have a E6300 and a P5B Deluxe and its at 3.2ghz right now at stock cooling, but i got tons of fans in my case to keep it cool.

My friend has a E4300, and he got 3.6ghz easily with aftermarket HSF.
E6600 may probably be able to do this, but it costs double the price.

Basically when it comes down to it, the e6600 isn't worth it.

Nvidia is releasing brand new cards in 2 months again too. One of them is a budget priced 8800.... supposedly for around $300

[wonton1017]

Off Topic:
Lol, we just quoted eachother in different threads... >.>

Back on topic:
Anyways, i think the 8xxx series wont do as good as the upcoming ATI series...
Im a Geforce fan, but the image quality and performance by ATI is just always better by a little at cheaper price...

[lincoln]

Off Topic:
Lol, we just quoted eachother in different threads... >.>

Back on topic:
Anyways, i think the 8xxx series wont do as good as the upcoming ATI series...
Im a Geforce fan, but the image quality and performance by ATI is just always better by a little at cheaper price...

LOL again...

Granted, the performance are about the same but the Nvidia's are slightly more $$$ ... but when it came down to the decision between ATI and Nvidia for me, I chose Nvidia for one simple reason....

ATI cards run damn hot! Nvidia's run substantially cooler. With equal performance and a price tag difference of 5% to 10%. I would much rather pay the extra and have a cooler case.

That's just personal preference though. Both companies produce high quality components.

[tdotcbc84]

Intel e6300 or e4300 (I have my e6300 running at 3.33 stable right now at 1.55Volts)
Stock Cooling should work fine, but I'm running a 9700
It's 50C on idle and 74C under load.

The 965p boards are nice but my favourite is still the 650i and 680i

OCZ 2GB 6400 platinum xtc rev. 2 (mine is overclocked to 954mhz with 5-5-5-12 timing at 2.35Volts)
Just make sure, if you are running a 680i or 650i that your ram is "linked" and then "sync" in the bios. Otherwise you will have stability issues.

2 of the Western Digital Caviar 250gb 16mb cache in RAID

Ultra Aluminus ATX Case with 550w X2 Modular power supply. (only at tigerdirect.ca)

Thermaltake 120mm fan with 78cfm and 22dba for the front.

120mm LED fan for the back. 44cfm 22dba

2 of the 12" sunbeam UV cathode kits.

Also, for a video card I'm running a MSI 7900 gto and flashed the bios with the Rev 2 version.
I'm getting around 6800 in 3Dmark06 and running it stable at 710mhz and 840mhz memory.
I set the fan speed to 100% using Rivatuner and click that button that loads the setting whenever I boot windows.
Then I overclocked it using PowerStrip. Without Fan speed at 100% the card would only hit 700mhz stable.

Make sure you check all the following places for prices.

tigerdirect.ca
canadacomputers.com
ncix.com
directcanada.com

I hope that helps you out. If you need help with voltages just let me know.

wow you are brave running your computer @ 50c idle and 70plus on load !

[lincoln]

wow you are brave running your computer @ 50c idle and 70plus on load !

If it was above 80 I'd start to worry, but anything in the 70 range is ok. My buddy has a Nautalis Water Cooler with the same system and his 6300 runs at around 67... That's what happens with a 80% overclock I guess. Try running Orthos for an hour and check out your cpu temperature in Nvidia Control Panel > Performance :P

Anyways, the point is it's rock solid stable at that temperature.

[aZnDeViLbOi]

with dat budget get a 8000GtX card... core 2 duo is nice too... if u go a bit over ur buget u can get the quad core... around 1000 bucks

[Polaren]

Off Topic:
Lol, we just quoted eachother in different threads... >.>

Back on topic:
Anyways, i think the 8xxx series wont do as good as the upcoming ATI series...
Im a Geforce fan, but the image quality and performance by ATI is just always better by a little at cheaper price...

8800's are overrated for the moment, they run too hot, and take too much power per card. That and the fact that there are barely DX9 drivers for vista nevermind DX10 drivers LOL. They hype up all this marketing for DX10 compatible cards, but by the time ATI's cards come around or the lower end 8xxx series cards, we may have some drivers! So you are not really gaining anything by buying a 8800 series at all. First DX10 compatible card my ass LOL

[jjboy]

If it was above 80 I'd start to worry, but anything in the 70 range is ok. My buddy has a Nautalis Water Cooler with the same system and his 6300 runs at around 67... That's what happens with a 80% overclock I guess. Try running Orthos for an hour and check out your cpu temperature in Nvidia Control Panel > Performance :P

Anyways, the point is it's rock solid stable at that temperature.

running at 1.55v seems a bit high
there are people who can get their 6400 to 3.2ghz at stock voltage

[tdotcbc84]

If it was above 80 I'd start to worry, but anything in the 70 range is ok. My buddy has a Nautalis Water Cooler with the same system and his 6300 runs at around 67... That's what happens with a 80% overclock I guess. Try running Orthos for an hour and check out your cpu temperature in Nvidia Control Panel > Performance :P

Anyways, the point is it's rock solid stable at that temperature.

I don't really get worried for the CPU, but my motherboard chipset I get very worried !

Don't really have good cooling for those chips, and its like playing with time ! you never know when it is gonna blow !

had my rig running @ 3.2ghz on stock voltage, and I was already scared... won't OC until I notice my computer really laggin in programs :S