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Best value CPU/GPU / RAM/Motherboard...need suggestions :)

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Processor E8500 Core 2 Duo, 1333Mhz FSB, 3.16Ghz @ 4.5GHz (got into Windows @ 4.75GHz)
Motherboard ASUS P5Q-e
Cooling CPU Cooler - TT V14 Pro, 2x120mm CM Blue LED fans, 1x90mm CM Blue LED fan
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Case Thermaltake Soprano Black ATX case
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Power Supply Thermaltake 850W Toughpower Cable Management - Quad (2x18A and 2x30A) 12V rails
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Yep, ive decided to make the move to conroe/PCIe/DDR2

Now are the big questions on what to get :D

NOTE: I'm in Aussie dollars here :p....all prices from www.ebay.com.au if you guys wana check em out ;)

CPU
Well, im leaning towards a e6400 mainly because they are like $20-30 dearer than an e6300, and $210-$250 cheaper than a e6600. i know the e6600 has an extra 2mb of cache, but is it really worth it? its almost double the price, and IMHO, its better to spend the money on better mobo/gfx/ram.

Motherboard
Need a lot of help here :D...got NO idea on what to get :). Looking around the 200-250 dollar mark (the cheaper the better), wanna OC a fair bit, but dont wanna spend like an extra 50 bucks just for OC potential.
Wants:
  • SLi or crossfire (depending on GFX card)
  • onboard sound and LAN
  • 4 DIMM slots up to or over DDR 800, but 667 compatible (depends on wat ram im getting)
  • nice OC potential
  • SATA (but no need for RAID)

RAM
Looking at DDR667 atm, but not too sure, havent looked much at pricing. Dont know anything about latencies for DDR2 RAM so this is open :)

Graphics
This is the BIG question...what gfx card. looking at something pretty decent, but nothing too dear. less than 300 bucks, looking around 200ish. Im willing to spend a bit of money but ONLY if its worth it. Like, if a 9800 was $300 and an X850 was $350, id spend the 350 :p (just an example :D)...also, with gfx, might get a second later on (just something to consider)...unless i should get 2 cards now (two cheapy cards like 2xX1300's or 2x6800's or 2xX850's)...but i dont really know :D...and i would prefer SM3.0, but it doesnt matter to me THAT much

ahh yes and should i wait for DX10 cards to push prices down and buy a card then? and will they push prices down at all?


All help is greatly greatly greatly appreciated!! Comment on whatever you want...dont have to comment on everything :)...if you wanna know how much a component would cost me over here, just post and ill look it up ;)

Thanks in advanced!!!!

Pinchy
 
Last edited:

urdead

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Cpu - i would chose e6300 for oc if u are'nt going to oc him buy a e6400
Motherboard - this is very chip and good Asrock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 its a good 945 crossfire board. i chose crossfire cuz' i think u should wait for the r600 to come out it will own the 8800gtx by what i heard and it will make them cut down prices
Memory - 2gb 667mhz (2X1024) or (4X512)

dont buy a X850XT dont !!! it has a shader 2 and some games without shader compitibility wont work like the new splinter cell.
 
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Motherboard ASUS P5Q-e
Cooling CPU Cooler - TT V14 Pro, 2x120mm CM Blue LED fans, 1x90mm CM Blue LED fan
Memory G.Skill Pi 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel DDR2 PC8000 (1000MHz), 5-5-5-15
Video Card(s) Sapphire HD4850 512mb with ASUS EAH4850 BIOS
Storage 2x 500GB Seagate 7200.12 Raid 0
Display(s) Acer AL1912, 19" LCD screen
Case Thermaltake Soprano Black ATX case
Audio Device(s) Onboard 7.1, Speakers - 5 + Sub + Monitor speakers
Power Supply Thermaltake 850W Toughpower Cable Management - Quad (2x18A and 2x30A) 12V rails
Software Win 7 Pro x64, MSN, CS:Source, etc etc
CPU - Are the e6300 and e6400 basically the same? B/C i probably will overclock ;)...like would an e6400 get me a better OC?

Motherboard - Wow thats a really good find! I like it cus its only $150 :D!...only problem is that it hasnt got DDR800 support and is only a 945p chipset...but its REALLY good for 150 bucks :D

GFX - Yeah i was gonna say - two X850XT's look very tempting for like $120 each & i already got an ATI silencer...but they only have sm2.0 :cry: which isnt good for the near future....im looking at two mid-range cards, like 2 X1600 pro's/2 7600GT's/2 6800GT/Ultra's but im wondering whether its better to get one good card like a 7900GS or X1800 or the two cards...

btw thanks for the fast reply ;)
 

Kasparz

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e6400 cuz of bigger multiplier, easier to overclock.
Motherboard eVGA i680 if you have money :evil:
Try to search best ram for your money, and be sure they have D9 chips. Just google it.
GPU - x1950pro/x1900gt rev1/x1900XT 256MB/7900GTO.
 
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Processor E8500 Core 2 Duo, 1333Mhz FSB, 3.16Ghz @ 4.5GHz (got into Windows @ 4.75GHz)
Motherboard ASUS P5Q-e
Cooling CPU Cooler - TT V14 Pro, 2x120mm CM Blue LED fans, 1x90mm CM Blue LED fan
Memory G.Skill Pi 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel DDR2 PC8000 (1000MHz), 5-5-5-15
Video Card(s) Sapphire HD4850 512mb with ASUS EAH4850 BIOS
Storage 2x 500GB Seagate 7200.12 Raid 0
Display(s) Acer AL1912, 19" LCD screen
Case Thermaltake Soprano Black ATX case
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Power Supply Thermaltake 850W Toughpower Cable Management - Quad (2x18A and 2x30A) 12V rails
Software Win 7 Pro x64, MSN, CS:Source, etc etc
CPU - sorted
RAM - sort out later
Motherboard - Still not sure
GFX - still not sure whether to get 2 mid range in crossfire/SLi or one nice card...

Also a qn on the gfx, an X1900XT is better than an X1950 PRO in everyway, yet the X1950 beat it in 3dmark06...what the?
 
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GFX - still not sure whether to get 2 mid range in crossfire/SLi or one nice card...

My advice is to get only one fast card, and wait for the prices of cards to get lower to buy a second one. Chances are a single 7900 or X1900 will almost beat dual middle range cards, and you can get twice the performance in a year or so.
 
Joined
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System Name UltraPC
Processor E8500 Core 2 Duo, 1333Mhz FSB, 3.16Ghz @ 4.5GHz (got into Windows @ 4.75GHz)
Motherboard ASUS P5Q-e
Cooling CPU Cooler - TT V14 Pro, 2x120mm CM Blue LED fans, 1x90mm CM Blue LED fan
Memory G.Skill Pi 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel DDR2 PC8000 (1000MHz), 5-5-5-15
Video Card(s) Sapphire HD4850 512mb with ASUS EAH4850 BIOS
Storage 2x 500GB Seagate 7200.12 Raid 0
Display(s) Acer AL1912, 19" LCD screen
Case Thermaltake Soprano Black ATX case
Audio Device(s) Onboard 7.1, Speakers - 5 + Sub + Monitor speakers
Power Supply Thermaltake 850W Toughpower Cable Management - Quad (2x18A and 2x30A) 12V rails
Software Win 7 Pro x64, MSN, CS:Source, etc etc
Yeah ill go for one beasty card :D

I think i can get an X1900XT 512mb with an arctic silencer for like $400AUD...so i might go with that :D

Still not sure about the motherboard though....i like the look of that Asrock board, but will it OC well with only the 945 chipset?
 
Joined
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5,105 (0.78/day)
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Sydney, Australia
System Name UltraPC
Processor E8500 Core 2 Duo, 1333Mhz FSB, 3.16Ghz @ 4.5GHz (got into Windows @ 4.75GHz)
Motherboard ASUS P5Q-e
Cooling CPU Cooler - TT V14 Pro, 2x120mm CM Blue LED fans, 1x90mm CM Blue LED fan
Memory G.Skill Pi 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel DDR2 PC8000 (1000MHz), 5-5-5-15
Video Card(s) Sapphire HD4850 512mb with ASUS EAH4850 BIOS
Storage 2x 500GB Seagate 7200.12 Raid 0
Display(s) Acer AL1912, 19" LCD screen
Case Thermaltake Soprano Black ATX case
Audio Device(s) Onboard 7.1, Speakers - 5 + Sub + Monitor speakers
Power Supply Thermaltake 850W Toughpower Cable Management - Quad (2x18A and 2x30A) 12V rails
Software Win 7 Pro x64, MSN, CS:Source, etc etc
CPU - e6300 $200 (it is 70 cheaper than the e6400, and i dont see a diff besides clock speeds :p - which is what OC is for :D)
Mobo - ASUS P5b Deluxe - $270
RAM - 2GB G.Skill PC6400 - $275
Graphics card - looking at X1950PRO 512mb for 360, but havent decided, gonna start a thread on it :D - $360
Thermaltake Soprano with PSU - $125
 
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you should see how much you can find the Gigabyte ds3, if your going to save $100 I'll say get that since you prob only will ever need one card. (I'm just using my 1900gt rev1 for a year or so, than I'll sell it and get a dx10 card).

The ds3 is a good board, just look at tiggers oc... oO than get some ram like this.

- Mushkin XP2 PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL 4-4-3-10
- Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12
- G.SKILL F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL4-4-4-12
- G.SKILL F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL4-4-4-12 <<<Cheaper than the above.
(I heard that the green g-skill ram was not a great oc'er, so read some reviews).

Wish I could afford one of theses rams.
 
D

Deleted member 24505

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my board is a asus p5b-deluxe,and my ram is patriot pc2-7200 ddr2 900 eased latency,for some reason it managed windows last night at 1120mhz at 2.4v.i'm baffled myself as to how this ram can even post or let alone get to windows at such a high speed.it cost me £108 for the 2x512mb kit about 6mths ago.
 

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D

Deleted member 24505

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if your getting a new case and using it for sli/crossfire,get the akasa eclipse 62/mirage.its wider than a standard case and longer,so its not a squeeze getting two cards in it.and it fits a 8800gtx/s in too so its ready for a future card upgrade.

the cooling is fine too.it keeps my e6300 at about :love:0c fine at 3.2 with 1.25vcore.it was only at <40c last nite too at 3.9ghz with 1.475v.

imo its a fine case.
 
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Processor E8500 Core 2 Duo, 1333Mhz FSB, 3.16Ghz @ 4.5GHz (got into Windows @ 4.75GHz)
Motherboard ASUS P5Q-e
Cooling CPU Cooler - TT V14 Pro, 2x120mm CM Blue LED fans, 1x90mm CM Blue LED fan
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Case Thermaltake Soprano Black ATX case
Audio Device(s) Onboard 7.1, Speakers - 5 + Sub + Monitor speakers
Power Supply Thermaltake 850W Toughpower Cable Management - Quad (2x18A and 2x30A) 12V rails
Software Win 7 Pro x64, MSN, CS:Source, etc etc
thanks for the recommendations chewy.

i was looking at the ds3, and its only like $30-40 cheaper than the Asus p5B deluxe.

with that RAM, its a bit pricy, like imo, 2GB for $275 australian is pretty darn cheap :p

...ill check out what the PSU is like in the case, if its crappy, ill sell it and buy a new one :)

and tigger, thats with your freezer isnt it?

Thanks for the replies :D
 
Joined
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5,105 (0.78/day)
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System Name UltraPC
Processor E8500 Core 2 Duo, 1333Mhz FSB, 3.16Ghz @ 4.5GHz (got into Windows @ 4.75GHz)
Motherboard ASUS P5Q-e
Cooling CPU Cooler - TT V14 Pro, 2x120mm CM Blue LED fans, 1x90mm CM Blue LED fan
Memory G.Skill Pi 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel DDR2 PC8000 (1000MHz), 5-5-5-15
Video Card(s) Sapphire HD4850 512mb with ASUS EAH4850 BIOS
Storage 2x 500GB Seagate 7200.12 Raid 0
Display(s) Acer AL1912, 19" LCD screen
Case Thermaltake Soprano Black ATX case
Audio Device(s) Onboard 7.1, Speakers - 5 + Sub + Monitor speakers
Power Supply Thermaltake 850W Toughpower Cable Management - Quad (2x18A and 2x30A) 12V rails
Software Win 7 Pro x64, MSN, CS:Source, etc etc
hmm...looking at the conroes, ive ruled out e6600 completly (so not worth it)

now im looking at an e6300, but what about the e6400 having better multipliers and hence a better overclock? is this true, or should i keep to spending $70 less and getting the e6300?
 

rizzo

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Get the 6300. The thing overclocks great. I can get 3.0 on stock volts with my ds3 MB. I've hit over 3.2 but not real stable because of my memory i believe.
 
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