Need help making a decision...

[Evil-Dragon]

Hi guys, please excuse my absence to the forums, i have been a bit busy as of late. I finally got a job and now have some money that i want to use to build a new PC. However, after 2 years of not building any machines i need some help and advice and possibly some recommendations on the following specification:

Case: Lian Li A70B Black Aluminium (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1077.html)
Processor: Intel Quad Core Q6600 (worth getting a Q6700?)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia Tritium
Memory: Corsair Memory TWIN2X2048-8500C5D (x2 = 4GB)
GFX: Asustek GeForce 8800GTX 768MB or BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC
Motherboard: Asustek Maximus Formula
PSU: Coolermaster 850W Real Power
Main OS HDD's: Western Digital 150GB Raptors (x2 in RAID 0)
Operating System: Windows Vista x64 Home Premium
DVD Drive: Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7191S 20x DVD±RW SATA (just noticed my previous spec was a DVD-ROM!)

Total cost is about £1400-ish ($2760) and will be built by myself

Things i am not too sure about is using Vista 64bit edition, is it stable and compatible enough to run games on? Is it worth getting a Q6700 over a Q6600 or is it just not worth the extra £200? Since the X38 motherboards are Crossfire only is it worth getting the new nForce 780i mb's instead in case i wanted to have SLI?

Anything else that you can see that's wrong or needs changing?

[drezha]

Things i am not too sure about is using Vista 64bit edition, is it stable and compatible enough to run games on? Is it worth getting a Q6700 over a Q6600 or is it just not worth the extra £200? Since the X38 motherboards are Crossfire only is it worth getting the new nForce 780i mb's instead in case i wanted to have SLI?

Anything else that you can see that's wrong or needs changing?

If your willing to overclock, stick with the Q6600. I know people with them happily running at 3Ghz. Buy a decent mobo if you do..Money you'll save on getting a Q6600, use to buy a decent OC mobo and you'll be laughing.

No idea on Vista 64 for gaming but my Vista 32bit rig should be arriving next week and if you can wait, I'll let you know how that goes. Of course you wont be able to see all 4Gb RAM.

I'm getting an 512Mb 8800GT. From reviews it's pretty much equivalent to a 8800GTX for much less. Maybe worth investigating? You could SLI them for awesome power as well ;)

Bar that, looks good.

Personally I went for capacity over performance, I've got 1Tb worth of hard drives turning up (2 x 500Gb):)

[mitchellds]

yup you cant go wrong with the q6600, Zalman, or that Asus board.

I'm getting ready to put that same zalman on one of my new q6600's, its the best air cooler I've seen, you cant do any better without going the WC route, which will gain you some more speed to. 3.6 ghz is easy on water, 3.4-3.5 is not to tuff with the Zalman on Air. Make sure you get a G0 stepping model of the q6600. Forget about the 6700.

[Nflight]

By the Way, Welcome back to the forums Evil-Dragon we missed your shinning voice! :)

[Frederic Brillouet]

yup you cant go wrong with the q6600, Zalman, or that Asus board.

I'm getting ready to put that same zalman on one of my new q6600's, its the best air cooler I've seen, you cant do any better without going the WC route, which will gain you some more speed to. 3.6 ghz is easy on water, 3.4-3.5 is not to tuff with the Zalman on Air. Make sure you get a G0 stepping model of the q6600. Forget about the 6700.
mitchell, you have more experience than me with quads (mine hasnt arrived yet) but I do know the zalman is crap compared to the thermalright ultra 120 extreme (search reviews). if you want to have good performance of the zalman it has to turn full speed which translates to lots and lots of noise. agreed you need to buy your own fan for the thermalright, so the combined cost may be a bit higher than for the zalman. I got 2 for my new sysems and m fiend ordered one as well to replace his zalman in his old system. the problem with the thermalright might be that its just huge, 1 or 2 cm taller than the scythe ninja. hope my input is useful :)

[Evil-Dragon]

Many thanks for your inputs. That Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme looks a real heavy beast, looks like it could snap a mb in half! Is there any issues with having that CPU cooler bending/weakening the MB?

[BlackAdder]

Hi Evil, Nice box your building, I use a Cooler Master Aquagate Mini water cooler for my CPU, I've now got a Opteron 180 running F@H smp client and I haven't seen temps above 51c, even when my computer room is HOT.I've had this cooler two years now, my computer is always running 100% on something and the only problem is the fan needed to be taken apart and the shaft re lubricated. Very easy really...thats all I've done to it in two years.The fan speed is adjustable and it's fairly quiet... :)

[mitchellds]

yup your right Frederic, the Thermalright is prob a better air cooler according to the reviews, I've just kinda standardized and had good results with the zalman. Maybe I'll try one of those Thermalright next. That Aquagate Mini water cooler has got good results as well, but I've read that for a 4 core this is on the edge of being able to drain the heat away from a quad. I do have a galaxy 500 Wc on a q6600 and I've been running in at 3.65 for a least a year although its runs about 60c.

[PoorBoy]

I used the Thermaltake Big Typhoon on a lot of my Quads with varying success. I also tried the Thermaltake V1 but don't feel it's as good as the Big Typhoon, it installs easier but doesn't cool the CPU as good.

The last 3 Quads I put together I used the CoolIt Freezone Cooler & I like it, it keeps the Go Q6600 Quad's @ 50c or below while running them @ 3.6 GHZ. It's a bit expensive @ $250+ but it installs easy when the proper Case is used and it does a good cooling job too ... :)

[Evil-Dragon]

Things are on a bit of a go slow with building the new machine... in fact i haven't bought a single component yet.

The problem? Everywhere in the UK that sells the case i want is out of stock :(

Without a suitable case there's no point moving forward and purchasing anything. Who knows, i've waited 2 years to build a new PC, a few months extra probably won't hurt.

[spikey_richie]

My only input would be that XFX SLi cards are excellent. Also remember that if you don't like Vista and want to go back to XP, there's no DX10 support.

[Danish Dynamite]

since you have waited this long why not wait for b3 stepping phenoms i have heard phenom's 9600 black edition is out now, on certain projects normal phenom 9600 makes my 5200, 4600 look sick

[Evil-Dragon]

Huzzah!

I finally started my build. Specs as follows:

Lian-Li BLACK CLASSICAL SERIES PLUS FULL TOWER NO PSU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12M Cache S775 1333MHZ
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (x2)
Asustek S775 Intel X38 Maximus Formula ATX Audio Lan
Western Digital Raptor 150GB S150 16mb 10000rpm (x2 for RAID0)
Sapphire Technology Radeon HD 3870x2 GPU 1GB PCIE Dual DVI HDMI
Zalman ZM850-HP Heatpipe Cooled 850W Modular PSU
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7191S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM DVD
Alphacool Full Graphic LCD Display (240x128) - Black
QuietPC AcoustiPack Deluxe Kit V2 (Optional)

Should be an awesome gaming/cruncher when it's built. I'm going to look forward to building it :)

[spikey_richie]

I'd be a bit cautious of a passively cooled PSU, there are some VERY quite fan cooled PSU's around. My Tagan was very quiet, and my new Coolermaster is also VERY quiet and much more efficient (it's a green edition)

---

Scrap that lot - I just saw the pics on the Zalman site :icon_redface:

However, consider a modular PSU as you might not use 1/2 the wires on that supply. I have one with the clip-in leads.

[Evil-Dragon]

Too late on the PSU unfortunately, it's already ordered but hopefully i should be able to hide the cables i don't need/use somewhere in the massive case :)

The Zalman PSU did well on efficiency pulling only 167watt from the line with a 850watt load, so it means it's quite green (if i am reading the numbers correctly) :)

[gamer007]

Huzzah!

I finally started my build. Specs as follows:

Lian-Li BLACK CLASSICAL SERIES PLUS FULL TOWER NO PSU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12M Cache S775 1333MHZ
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (x2)
Asustek S775 Intel X38 Maximus Formula ATX Audio Lan
Western Digital Raptor 150GB S150 16mb 10000rpm (x2 for RAID0)
Sapphire Technology Radeon HD 3870x2 GPU 1GB PCIE Dual DVI HDMI
Zalman ZM850-HP Heatpipe Cooled 850W Modular PSU
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7191S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM DVD
Alphacool Full Graphic LCD Display (240x128) - Black
QuietPC AcoustiPack Deluxe Kit V2 (Optional)

Should be an awesome gaming/cruncher when it's built. I'm going to look forward to building it :)

Looks awesome. I have the same Mobo as you. :) I see you got the new 45nm CPUs. I have a Q6600 that I've recently OC'd to 2.8 GHz. Stock cooling and surprisingly runs stable after I lowered voltages! I regret getting Home Premium 32-bit since I recently upgraded to 4GB of Mushkin DDR2-800 RAM.

Anyways, enough me me. :icon_lol: Have fun building it! I know I had fun building this current rig (T'was my first time too).

EDIT: Just a note of caution, the Maximus Formula overvolts some of the voltage settings. No clue why. :dontknow:

[Evil-Dragon]

Thanks for the heads up gamer.

I just placed the order (can you tell i'm like an excited schoolboy right now?) but i've been reading some rumours/new posts that the 3 (Q9300, Q9450 & Q9550) 45nm Quad core chips are delayed until 31st March. Can anyone confirm that this is true?

Apparently it's due to errata (a bug with mb's with less than 4 layers to the PCB apparently)

News source: http://www.dailytech.com/Intel+Explains+45nm+Delays+Errata/article10362.htm

Looks like my PC won't be built until March now... worth the wait?