[Drumbum667]

So here is my final rig without the CPU. But the CPU I'm probably gonna get is the new quad core. I'm pretty sure everything is compatible.

Thermaltake Case
Anybody know if this case has enough fans. It has two 120 mm fans, and one 90 mm fan. If not any
recommendations on fans that i should get that i could put in here.
MSI Motherboard
Corsair XMS Ram
Arctic 5 Thermal Paste
Zalman Cooling
ATI Video Card
Western Digital Hard Disk
Samsung DVD Burner
Hanns-G Widescreen Monitor
Antec Power Supply
One question on this. It says its ATX12v. Will it still fit in any ATX case.
Logitech Speakers
Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse

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After reading the review a lot of people had problems with this MSI mobo so can anyone recommend another MSI mobo or another company that makes good mobos. I oculdnt rele find anyones that I liked from Abit or Gigabyte.

Edited by Drumbum667, 05 November 2006 - 01:56 PM.

[Drumbum667]

After reading the review a lot of people had problems with this MSI mobo so can anyone recommend another MSI mobo or another company that makes good mobos. I oculdnt rele find anyones that I liked from Abit or Gigabyte.

Edited by Drumbum667, 05 November 2006 - 01:56 PM.

[jrm20]

After reading the review a lot of people had problems with this MSI mobo so can anyone recommend another MSI mobo or another company that makes good mobos. I oculdnt rele find anyones that I liked from Abit or Gigabyte.

IF you are building on the core 2 duo the motherboards I have had no problems with are these gigabytes..


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128017


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128018


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128012

Alot of people are having problems with all brands of core 2 duo motherboards but its mainly because of incorrect memory or memory that has too high of a voltage for that particular motherboard.


If you get any of the three mobos above make shure you get approved 1.8V memory. As long as the memory will run at 1.8v it will say it on the specifications page when you look at every memory, then it will work with these boards I listed above..

I have just build a clients pc on this one and it runs flawlessly. Its not the top of the line and its not the bottom of the line. I would only get one of the 3 above from gigabyte. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128017

On the GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 Socket T I used CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) and it runs without any problems.

Just make shure you get 1.8volt memory when you pick out the 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) memory.

I would go for the second or third mobo I listed.

[jrm20]

P.S. the gigabye motherboards are already flashed to support the quad core processors.

[Drumbum667]

I'm think I'm gonna go for GA-965P-DS3. I was wondering how many hardrives I can get working with this mobo. It HAS 6 sata connectors so does that mean it can hold up to 6 functioning harddrives. Also on the reviews one person said 1.9v RAM worked fine so I might get 1.9v. Also do you know if you can easily OC with this mobo.

Edited by Drumbum667, 05 November 2006 - 04:55 PM.

[Drumbum667]

So basically I plan on getting this setup now. Can someone tell me if I can overclock the cpu. And the only other thing is that I need to buy cables I think.
I need an Sata connector to power my harddrive if I need it.

Gigabyte Motherboard
Western Digital 250 GB Hard Disk
Corsair RAM
I plan
on getting this RAM but won't if jrm20 advises me not too. Someone reviewed on newegg that 1.9v
works in the mobo.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 CPU
Zalman CPU Cooling
Arctic 5 Thermal Paste
Logitech Speakers
Creative Sound Card
ATI X1950 Video Card
Hanns-G Widescreen Monitor
Thermaltake Case
Samsung DVD Burner
Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse

Edited by Drumbum667, 05 November 2006 - 04:55 PM.

[warriorscot]

Most will take most memory however it can be difficult to get it to work it requires a knowledge of memory and experience in configuring it properly from bios not reccomended just get what the manual says is compatible.

It will be overclockable everything is to an extent. That ram is perfectly fine, you also get thermal paste with the cooler but it is sometimes nice to have extra AS5.

The biggest problem with going for core2 isnt the CPUs its the motherboards, Intel are really really bad at being open about their chipsets, one of the reasons AMD did so well is because they are so open about the motherboard chipsets and moved the memory controllers onto the CPUs which let them remove the southbridge from the motherboards reducing costs and making boards easier to develop and make, they also let manufacturers of the boards in on the design of the CPUs meaning lots of choice on release, the motherboards are core2s only major disadvantage left over the AMD Athlons. It means some of us are totally spoiled on motherboard features what constitutes a mobo at over 150 quid for intel wouldnt even be a 50 pound AMD board. Something you have to live with until some better boards come out with any luck there will be some nforce5 or 6 boards for core2 eventually.

If i were you i would have pretty much the same system(maybe not spend so much on gfx but im really looking forward to DX10 looks really good)but what i would do is go lower still on the CPU to the E6600 and spend more on a better bigger monitor to me what good is a great PC if you cant see the difference(i like a nice monitor).

Cooler i love zalmans but they are pricey, another good make is thermalright their CPU HSFs are the business very good very cool usually a little cheaper, but up to you the zalman again is a very nice cooler as well.

Also don't underestimate a good keyboard and mouse, MS make great keyboards but apart from the new MS/Razer mouse all the mice are pretty sucky utterly useless for gaming, i got a ideazon zboard and a razer mouse and the mouse i will never part with except for a newer model of the same thing and the keyboard is amazing for gaming although if i was buying again i would maybe get a saitek or logitech keyboard and a fang game pad.

[Drumbum667]

Actually, I am gonna get a different Gigabyte Mobo. And this one guy gave information on how to OC the e6600 to 3.24, so I am really happy. I'm gonna get OCZ Ram now.
This is what he said. I'm getting the same Ram he's using cause I like OCZ but it is a little pricey but I'm saving a little bit by getting the E6600.
Here it is:
multiplier= 9x360, voltage= 1.42. +.1 mch .. +.1 fsb = 3.24ghz

If anybody thinks this would fry then tell me. Plus the guy did this with the Intel stock fan and I'm getting a Zalman.
Also how do I update the BIOS.

Edited by Drumbum667, 05 November 2006 - 08:49 PM.

[warriorscot]

You'll get bios update instruction with the board and with the flash. OCZ memory is fine but Corsair you picked originally is better or just as good, for memory corsair is top dog no matter what the use, what you should get if you are over clocking is a faster rating of memory for normal use it will just slow itself down to the max supported and lower its timings however it means it will go up to its normal speed and then some guaranteed. Also corsair memory in the XMS range comes with the overclocking guarantee in my DDR400 it was guaranteed to go from 200Mhz to 250Mhz which is DDR500 a significant boost. Memory is often the biggest hurdle to overclocking.

What you need is to know how to overclock if you just go in and set thsoe settings then yeah youll toast it. Its a gradual thing and no two systems are the same some will go to 4Ghz some wont manage three, its all luck of he draw, also unless you need more speed dont overclock until you have to, i can get my CPU up 700Mhz almost without thinking about it but i rarely do it because i dont usually need that power and it server to decrease the CPUs lifetime.

[Drumbum667]

So can you recommend any overclocking setup cause I don't really know what to do. I think I'll go from 2.4 up to 2.5. And for overclocking if I dont plan to try and get up to 3 GHZ should Zalman cooling be okay. And since I have to raise the FSB which makes everything faster, should I get more fans in my case, and if so how would i do it. Do i mount it inside the case and then give it some power by hooking it up to the PSU. And what do you mean by a faster rating of memory. Like DDR2 667, DDR2 800. Or something else. Please explain. And thanks for all your help. And one more thing, For the harddrive. When I was looking at the pictures of the mobo I'm getting I couldn't see the 4 pin thing where u put in the SATA power cable. And since I am overclocking, and I have to raise the FSB, will the Video card or RAM get too hot. I was wondering if the stock RAM heatsink and the stock Video card fan will keep it stable. Sorry I have so many questions but I'm a noob to building computers, and to overclocking. And I want to overclock because I wanna run some very high end games.

Edited by Drumbum667, 06 November 2006 - 11:34 AM.

[warriorscot]

Man even with overclocking with your games your going to see almost no discernable difference its mostly gfx card related and right now youre allready getting the fastest card you can pretty much get for normal sane people. You would see more performance boost from overclocking the gfx card rather than the CPU, its also much easier to overclock the gfx card than the cpu as its independent from the rest of the system.

Yeah faster memory means it can overclock higher more easily and will give better timings at lower than its normal speed. It also in general performs better than slower memory.

Memory doesn't get all that hot it usually doesn't ever need any cooling. Fans it all depends on the case you get and how many it can mount and what size i wouldnt use anything smaller than 120mm for primary cooling method. and no more than one smaller fan. There is one case that uses a larger fan and one or two that can mount more than 2 or 3 120mm fans.

[Drumbum667]

What is faster memory though. Like DDR2 800 or higher voltage. Well if I overclock the GPU will I need to get better cooling for it. And i still wanna OC the CPU higher. I think I'm just gonna stick with Zalman an OC with that and since RAM doesn't get very hot if I raise the FSB and the ram goes faster it shouldn't be a problem. But what about if I OC the video card. Will the stock fan be ok. U rele saved me a lot of money. Cause i was looking into water cooling then i realized how much of an idiot i would be to buy it. I probably won't overclock it too high. So basically I think i finally have the finished rig and what I'm gonna buy unless I need something else.
Thermaltake Tsunami Case
Samsung DVD Burner
Corsair XMS2 RAM
Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Zalman Cooling
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX Video Card
Creative Sound Blaster Sound Card
Logitech Speakers
Western Digital Hard Disk
Razer Copperhead Mouse
Logitech Keyboard( I know it comes with a mouse but I'm giving the mouse to my brother)
Acer 20" Widescreen Monitor
Antec Power Supply

Edited by Drumbum667, 06 November 2006 - 04:16 PM.

[warriorscot]

Yes frequency is what is denoted by the number and that's what we call speed. So ddr800 is faster than 667 its also the highest supported speed for that cpu if i remember properly.

The x1950 has a very good cooler already you shouldn't need another, remember overclocking is dangerous you can damage or completely destroy your hardware doing it.

If you intend to overclock the CPU you will need to read up on it, you should never do it unless you understand it, also it takes a while what you do is increase the speed of the cpu by 5Mhz at a time 10 at most and then see if it boots then when you get to higher speeds you start benchmarking it and running with prime95, but read some of the info in overclocking websites they have alot of info itll take you a while to read it all.

[Drumbum667]

One whats benchmarking, two whats prime95, and 3 should I set the RAM timings manually, if so how do I do it. If I was going to set it manually I will go by what the company says.

So I read up on overclocking. And I was wondering that if my RAM is set to run at an FSB of 800, if I make my FSB 805,( I'm guessing thats correct for overclocking cause it sby 5 mHZ) will my RAM be okay. Or do I have to raise the FSB of the RAM first.

Edited by Drumbum667, 06 November 2006 - 04:18 PM.

[Drumbum667]

Ooo and another question on the mobo when i look at the pictures theres only one 4 pin sata power connector for a hard drive. So how do you set up two hard drives. Does the Sata cable plug into two harddrives and one 4 pin connector.