Building a new system

dipstick · Posted: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:15:47 Post Subject: Building a new system

Hi there,

It's been a while for me and PCs. I've not had a decent rig for 8 years or so, and thus it's a long time since I messed about with overclocking and such - work, family and financial reasons. I need a new PC though, and this time I'm treating myself. To bear in mind for any advice, I want a system that'll do for gaming, and that can be overclocked for my own interests.

I've been nosing around the OC forum for a few days having been looking for guidelines as to what hardware I should be looking at for my new PC. I'm currently at,

Intel Q6600
-cooled with a Zalman CNPS9700NT
Asus P5K Deluxe
Antec P190
XFX 8800GTX 768mb
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card
WD Raptor 150Gb w/ Barracuda 250Gb as backup drive
Vista Home Premium x64
(DVD drives, peripherals, monitor etc as well)

First off, RAM. I've not been able to find that much about what's good and what's not, and have been thinking about 2Gb of Corsair XMS2 Dominator 1066 RAM. Any reasons I shouldn't go for this? Is there any RAM I should look at instead?

Secondly, is there anything I should add to or replace in that list so far? My budget won't stretch much further, but if there's something that'll considerably better the system then I'll see what I can do about fitting it in.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice Smile

-dip.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:40:14 Post Subject:

Hi - welcome.

Looks like some good stuff! The memory could be addressed with a number of products. Lots of good stuff out there right now. While I haven't used any Dominator modules, one thing to consider is that you pay extra for the fancy heatspreader, and it may not be worth it. There is plenty of good memory, even at 1066MHz, that might be less $$.

Also, just a suggestion, but many people like the Tuniq Tower 120 as a CPU cooler, so it might be worth considering.

Finally, I was never a fan of the Raptor drives... especially now that they are still SATA 1.5 Gbps, while the rest of the world has been SATA 3 Gbps for a while now. I'd either get another Barracuda, or something else at 3Gbps and 16MB cache for speed and reliability (and probably less money than the Raptor).

dipstick · Posted: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:13:32 Post Subject:

Thanks for the reply.

Iâ€™ll go for the Tuniq over the Zalman for now then â€“ give it a go and hope it fits! Though it does seem as though the Zalman is actually taller than the Tuniq, and height was my main concern! Reading the OC forum has convinced me that the Tuniq stands out.

As for memory, the Corsair is pretty cheap for me here in the UK right now and is the same sort of price (barely any difference) to the ones below. What other brands should I be looking at?
-GeIL Black Dragon
-Crucial Ballistix
-OCZ SLi Ready

are the ones I can get quite easily- other brands such as Patriot and G.Skill are really hard to get hold of here in the UK, at least the newer and better modules are. Considering that the Crucial, OCZ, GeIL and Corsair are within a few Â£/$ of each other, which would be the best bet to go for?

Thanks again,

-dip

acruxksa · Posted: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:55:55 Post Subject:

Any of the ram you listed should be fine for overclocking the q6600. DDR2-800 will be enough to get a q6600 to 3.6Ghz (9x400). Assuming the cpu can even go that high. 3.2Ghz (8x400) is a more achievable goal. If possible get a G0 stepping cpu. They are designated with an s-spec of SLACR on their box.

You will need a quality psu to run the quad and an 8800GTX. If you don't ever plan to go sli, something in the 500-600w range would be sufficient, but if you do plan to go sli you should get something 600w or above.

Also, You should consider spending the extra money for the P5K-Premium. It's supposed to be identical to the P5K-Deluxe but with a couple changes to the board. Some say it's a bug fix other say it makes no difference. Something to consider anyways.

I agree also with Doc on the raptors. They are fast, but the difference is no longer large enough to account for the extra cost.