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Build Advice Rebuilding a Dell Q6600 rig - advice

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by casey_cole, 2 Apr 2011.

  1. Blarte

    Blarte Moderate Modder

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  2. sonicgroove

    sonicgroove Radical Atheist

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    shame you got that mobo. aria have this on superspecials at the mo
     
  3. Marine-RX179

    Marine-RX179 What's a Dremel?

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    Shame? That barebone you quoted doesn't even have a properly branded motherboard, and the PSU that comes with the case is most definitely generic crap. Motherboard aside, X48 board doesn't overclock Q6600 anywhere as good as a P45 chipset board such as ASUS P5Q Pro...it's pointless to get X48 over P45 chipset when not going Crossfire.

    He got the ASUS P5Q Pro along with the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro CPU cooler for £50. Granted it's 2nd hand, but better than the Dell collection of craps barebone.
     
    Last edited: 4 Apr 2011
  4. sonicgroove

    sonicgroove Radical Atheist

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    cheap tho, for a gp rig anyway :)
     
  5. sonicgroove

    sonicgroove Radical Atheist

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    There are some really angry people on here ATM. What is it? Black April? the rig i linked to would be fine for a General purpose build, it'll manage a moderate OC (something that was in the OP's original post) and is very cheap (something else that was in the wishlist) yes, it's Dell, yes, it has a fairly naff PSU, but it is fine for a single GFX card, moderate OC budget system. FFS you get a case, which looks quite nice, a motherboard, which works, a cooler, which works, and a psu, which might work :) I could build a nice GP machine for less than 150 quid with that as a base. sometimes, you don't have to have the best that money can buy! sometimes, cheap will do. Hell, if you swop out the PSU, you could even run a couple of 460's in it for a decent folding rig. I'm getting a little tired of being shot down in flames for trying to find solutions that fit a purpose.
     
  6. Marine-RX179

    Marine-RX179 What's a Dremel?

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    Angry? Who's angry? Just because people disagree with you doesn't make them "angry".

    The OP already said the XPS 420 he got is "shiiiiit" as he put it, and you are recommending him to go from one crap board to another (XPS 430 board), low quality case and generic 375W PSU?

    £71.99 for that lump of crap is hardly a bargain as you put it, as I would say the board worth £20, case worth £20, and PSU worth £10 at best considering their quality.

    Anyway, OP already got the Asus P5Q Pro, and he would be MUCH better off with that.
     
  7. casey_cole

    casey_cole Minimodder

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    Cheers for the links everybody - thanks very much to you too sonic, I appreciate your help.

    NB that XPS rig is a BTX rig of course, so I would be replacing like with like - I really wanted to move to an ATX rig due to the capacity to customise, overclock and get much better stock parts.

    Now I've bought the p5q I'm experiencing a bit of buyers remorse...could have gone mATX for something smaller...

    Hopefully I'll get something for my xps case on the marketplace as it's a well built, good looking beast - maybe I'll keep it and mod it to ATX myself? Undoubtedly some chump on ebay looking for a replacement BTX mobo too.

    CC
     
  8. casey_cole

    casey_cole Minimodder

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    Ok, bit the dust and bought a load of stuff new.

    Antec PSU - 450W
    4GB of 800MHz Kingston RAM
    Xigmatek Asgard Case
    - now before you go nuts, I've read a lot of reviews - and they all say it's worth way more than £30, is good quality and suprisingly well built.
    Couple of fans and some arctic silver gloop for my 2nd hand cooler.

    Oh...and a copy of Windows 7 64bit Premium - it turns out that CAD software doesn't run on windows 7 32 bit either :D So I'll have to get a new version anyway.

    Total spend - £237.90. Ah well, no food for this week :D

    Just need to build the system now! The best part is - I'm going away for a week, so when I get back, it'll all be there waiting for me to break. Can't wait.

    CC
     
  9. Marine-RX179

    Marine-RX179 What's a Dremel?

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    Yea...you gonna have a cracking time...and just wait till you start overclocking hehe.

    I moved my Q6600 G0 from my previous crappy P6N SLI nforce chipset board (which would only allow stable overclock up to 3.0GHz and not beyond that) to a 2nd hand P5Q Deluxe, and wala! Overclocked to 3.6GHz!

    And just to give you an idea...before I upgraded my CPU cooler to the awesome Thermalright Silver Arrow, I was using Arctic Freezer 7 Pro as well, and it was able to keep my Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz with 1.48 vcore at under 70C in prime95.

    Yes I have better case cooler, but 3.6GHz overclock should be fine for you as well, considering normal usage such as gaming would never stress the CPU anywhere as much as prime. Also, the only reason I need such high vcore for overclocking to 3.6GHz is because my 4th core is a bit weak, so needed higher voltage to keep it from stopping working in prime; you might have better luck with your chip and don't require as high vcore.
     
  10. casey_cole

    casey_cole Minimodder

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    Nice one, I was wondering whether the Freezer 7 would be man enough to cool an o/cd q6600 - so that's excellent info to have, cheers marine!

    Once al the hardware is installed in the Zig-mar-tech Ass-guard (as it will be known from now one) I'm going to attempt to convert the XPS-420 case into an ATX case.

    Here are some good pictures that show the general layout (NB - BTX):

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    One thing I really want to keep is the "pop-off" side panel. There's a big spring loaded catch on the top of the case that you pull to eject the right hand side panel. So I'm almost definitely going to invert the motherboard, and have the PCI slots at the top. I'll therefore, have to re-make the back plate.

    Plans are to cut out the side panel logos and replace with blue acrylic, lit with LEDs. Maybe a big X on each side. Mesh those little grills too.

    [​IMG]

    The case also has the awful windows-slideshow thing on the top of the front. It broke long ago and was USELESS to begin with. That's going right away. Probably move the power button and HDD LEDs up there too, maybe the front IO as well.

    Thoughts?

    CC
     
  11. Marine-RX179

    Marine-RX179 What's a Dremel?

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    Ah just remembered...you should pick up some decent thermal paste such as the Arctic Cooling MX3 or MX-4, as your 2nd hand Arctic Freezer 7 Pro will need new paste.
     
  12. casey_cole

    casey_cole Minimodder

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    Last edited: 5 Apr 2011

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