Recommendations: Processor and Motherboard

By darkdestroyer6
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Grand Master

CrashG

Posted
Posted
Hows this for ?550 @ http://www.scan.co.uk ?

Asus P5K-E/WIFI-AP

512MB PNY 8800GT

2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2

500w Seasonic S12II-500

320 GB Western Digital WD3200AAKS

Coolermaster RC-331 Elite Black/Silver

Optiarc/NEC AD 7200S-0B

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700

Nice specs, but again why the Q6700@?173.18 over the Q9300@?175.06

Ok, what PSU would you recommend having? would a 550w be ok?

What do you think of the ASUS P5K-E motherboard?

Which do you think would be better to get the Q6600 or the Q9300?

I like mi:) :) had no issues with it. The only issue might be if you go with the Q9300 you might need to have the BIOS flashed before it will recognize the CPU.

A good Quality 550 (Seasonic, Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, OCZ) should be fine.

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darkdestroyer6

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Thanks, Heres what im thinking of:

Q6600 or Q9300 (more likely Q6600)

ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP AiLifestyle Series - motherboard - ATX - iP35

Maxtor 320GB or 500GB SATA hard drive

Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2

A cheap ATX case (or use old case)

XFX 8600GT 512MB GDDR2 DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card

LG GH20NS10 20X SATA DVD?RW/DL/RAM - Black Bare Drive OEM

550 OR 600W PSU

Grand Master

+shift. MVC

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  • MVC
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Sorry, i just meant like theres so many makes of graphics cards e.g. asus,pny,xfx etc

does it matter which make you choose?

Generally, the only difference between the manufacturers would be whether or not they used the reference nVidia PCB, the reference nVidia cooler, the reference nVidia clock speed, and of course warranty.

Otherwise, pretty much all the cards are "the same".

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darkdestroyer6

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Generally, the only difference between the manufacturers would be whether or not they used the reference nVidia PCB, the reference nVidia cooler, the reference nVidia clock speed, and of course warranty.

Otherwise, pretty much all the cards are "the same".

Thanks, will it say in the specs about the reference to those things?

_________________________________________

Heres what im thinking of getting:

Q6600 or Q9300 (more likely Q6600)

ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP AiLifestyle Series - motherboard - ATX - iP35

Maxtor 320GB or 500GB SATA hard drive

Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2

A cheap ATX case (or use old case)

XFX 8600GT 512MB GDDR2 DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card

LG GH20NS10 20X SATA DVD?RW/DL/RAM - Black Bare Drive OEM

550 OR 600W PSU

Grand Master

+shift. MVC

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  • MVC
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Well, regarding clock speed that should be fairly easy to find out, usually manufacturers will give their cards special names when factory overclocking them.

For example, eVGA factory overclocked cards have the suffix KO, Superclocked, and SSC. So a 9600GT would run at reference speed of 650MHz core clock, a KO would have a core clock of 700MHz, while a Superclocked would have 675MHz.

While XFX will have their XXX Edition, and the Alpha Dog edition cards. And ASUS will have their TOP cards.

Just to give a few examples.

Despite the fact they are factory overclocked though, eVGA still uses the reference PCB and reference cooler on all their video cards. While ASUS will usually replace the reference cooler with their own.

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darkdestroyer6

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Thanks for your help.

Is there a card that you would recommend for someone who wants a decent graphics card but doesnt play a great deal of games?

_________________________________________

Heres what im thinking of getting:

Q6600 or Q9300 (more likely Q6600)

ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP AiLifestyle Series - motherboard - ATX - iP35

Maxtor 320GB or 500GB SATA hard drive

Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2

A cheap ATX case (or use old case)

XFX 8600GT 512MB GDDR2 DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card

LG GH20NS10 20X SATA DVD?RW/DL/RAM - Black Bare Drive OEM

550 OR 600W PSU

Grand Master

+PeterUK MVC

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  • MVC
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Nice specs, but again why the Q6700@?173.18 over the Q9300@?175.06

When it was the Q6600 vs Q9300 it was hard to see what was better for ?40~ now with the Q6700 vs Q9300 its not any easier as its like ?2~ for one or the other so the one that cost less wins.

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darkdestroyer6

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9600GT is a good choice, the one at stock speeds. Or you can go with a cheap 8600GTS, but that won't run nearly as fast as a 9600GT.

Thanks, il look into it.

Ebuyer.com:

Q6600 = ?141.94

Q6700 = ?171.98

Q9300 = ?162.59 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache OEM Processor or ?173.73 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2. GHz (FSB 1333MHz) Socket 775 L2 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Neowinian

TheBootReaper

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Dark D.

Contrary to what many would advice, I would suggest that you build a computer that is "Earth-friendly", meaning a system that consumes less electricity. From what I sense, you must be aiming for a rig that would be used for gaming. But be advised, these systems require 500watts minimum power - that's like having 10 pcs. of 50 watt light bulbs turned on for the duration of a session or use. I know that the Q9XXX processors alone consume 80watts minimum and 130watts at peak, and this does not include the motherboard (36 watts to 50 watts on a high end unit), SATA hard drives (25watts each), DDR II's (11.5 watts per slot), DVDRW Optical Drives (25 watts), probably a high-end PCI-x Graphics card (50-65 watts). LCD monitors (75+watts), mouse & keyboards (7watts + batteries), 5.1 speakers (20-50 watts), and other peripherals like fan coolers and mod lights. If you do the math, using a system like this can run you up to US$250+ in electricity bills per year. That's like loosing an ipod every year!

As for the OS, I would not and would never advice Windows Vista. Not today or in the future or to the time I will loose my sanity. There is a lot of corporate marketing involved with this OS and it has opened the gates for more upgrades and new software versions - which can run you up to $1,500 dollars to have the common applications like an image editor, word processor, probably an office suite, a video editing application (I recommend Sony Vegas studio), and games.

I have built such units and I have gotten rid of them. Time was when I had a dual 3.0ghz XEON with an ATI All-in-wonder X1950 card, and all the works.

I now have an AMD GEODE NX1750 1.4 ghz processor that consumes 17 watts peak (and is hard to find). To sum it up, my unit consumes only 120 watts at peak level (including all peripherals), and I pay around $65 a year for its use. For the OS, I have defected to UBUNTU, which is free and virtually hacker proof. It has served all my needs.

If you would still prefer to go for "new-tech", just consider the amount of power your preferred system would consume. I would suggest a dual-core Xeon that runs only on 65watts peak (it is stable and can be overclocked to its limit . Though a 1.8ghz 35watt single core celeron is good - I have used it). And stick to XP and 2 gigs of ram (XP will only recognize up to 3.25 gb's of a four gig setup regardless of configuration, except for the XP 64 bit edition).

Hope this helps you and everyone.

The BootReaper

Grand Master

+PeterUK MVC

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  • MVC
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Ebuyer.com:

Q6600 = ?141.94

Q6700 = ?171.98

Q9300 = ?162.59 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache OEM Processor or ?173.73 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2. GHz (FSB 1333MHz) Socket 775 L2 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Keep in mind OEM you get no Heat Sink or warranty.

Grand Master

CrashG

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When it was the Q6600 vs Q9300 it was hard to see what was better for ?40~ now with the Q6700 vs Q9300 its not any easier as its like ?2~ for one or the other so the one that cost less wins.

For that little difference in price, I'd have to go with the Q9300 (45nm, SSE4). If your looking at spending that amount of cash on a CPU, a few bucks one way or the other won't break the bank:p:p

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darkdestroyer6

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For that little difference in price, I'd have to go with the Q9300 (45nm, SSE4). If your looking at spending that amount of cash on a CPU, a few bucks one way or the other won't break the bank. :p

:p very true.

Heres what im thinking of getting:

Q6600 or Q9300 (more likely Q6600)

ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP AiLifestyle Series - motherboard - ATX - iP35

Maxtor 320GB or 500GB SATA hard drive

Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2

A cheap ATX case (or use old case)

XFX 8600GT 512MB GDDR2 DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card

LG GH20NS10 20X SATA DVD?RW/DL/RAM - Black Bare Drive OEM

550 OR 600W PSU

Anything anyone would change/avoid or recommend instead? many thanks

Grand Master

+PeterUK MVC

Posted
  • MVC
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For that little difference in price, I'd have to go with the Q9300 (45nm, SSE4). If your looking at spending that amount of cash on a CPU, a few bucks one way or the other won't break the bank. :p

Yes but whats faster... and by how much?

45 nm Q9300 6MB L2 2.50 GHz 1333 MHz

65 nm Q6700 8MB L2 2.66 GHz 1066 MHz

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darkdestroyer6

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Posted (edited)
Yes but whats faster... and by how much?

45 nm Q9300 6MB L2 2.50 GHz 1333 MHz

65 nm Q6700 8MB L2 2.66 GHz 1066 MHz

65nm Q6600 8MB L2 2.40GHz 1066 MHz

Im thinking of getting the Q6600...do you think id be making the right decision?

_______________________________________________

Heres what im thinking of getting:

Q6600 or Q9300 (more likely Q6600)

ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP AiLifestyle Series - motherboard - ATX - iP35

Maxtor 320GB or 500GB SATA hard drive

Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2

A cheap ATX case (or use old case)

XFX 8600GT 512MB GDDR2 DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card

LG GH20NS10 20X SATA DVD?RW/DL/RAM - Black Bare Drive OEM

550 OR 600W PSU

Edited by darkdestroyer6
Grand Master

CrashG

Posted
Posted (edited)
Do you think Quad core is the way to go? Someone said some of the dual cores might be a better way to go.

It all depends on what your using it for, and how long you plan to keep it before doing a major upgrade. Also if the apps you're going to be using make use of 4 cores. I have no problems running Photoshop CS2, Winamp, IE7 w/multiple tabs open, encoding to xvid all at the same time on a dual core. Would things get done quicker with a quad core, most likely, but maybe not. As much as I wanted a Q6600 it wasn't going to work out with my budget so I settled on a E6550 and overclocked it a little, still doesn't give me two more cores though. :( I built mine as an "all around" machine, it may not excel in any one area, but it does what I need/want it to do in a reasonable amount of time.

:p very true.

Heres what im thinking of getting:

Q6600 or Q9300 (more likely Q6600)

ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP AiLifestyle Series - motherboard - ATX - iP35

Maxtor 320GB or 500GB SATA hard drive

Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2

A cheap ATX case (or use old case)

XFX 8600GT 512MB GDDR2 DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card

LG GH20NS10 20X SATA DVD?RW/DL/RAM - Black Bare Drive OEM

550 OR 600W PSU

Anything anyone would change/avoid or recommend instead? many thanks

The Q6600 if you need to save some cash

P5K-E if you don't need the onboard WiFi

The hard drive depends on your usage, a 250Gb works for me, but might not be large enough for you

Ram looks fine, you won't need anything extravagant, but I wouldn't go for any "Value Ram" either

The case is up to you

GFX card looks fine for light-casual gaming

I've never used LG drives, but it looks like it has decent reviews

For a PSU something in the 550-600w range from a quality manufacturer will be fine. Just don't go cheap here, it's a shame to see nice parts go up in smoke because of a crap PSU.;))

Edited by CrashGordon
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darkdestroyer6

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Thanks, I too am just after building an all round PC, but to the best specs as i can afford.

I think im going to go with the Q6600, with the motherboard i wouldnt probably use wifi. I dont really know all that much about motherboards, am just trying to find one that is the best that i can afford.

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