So I am going to build my own computer, however i am not sure which components to buy. Currently I am looking at the following things: Sapphire Radeon 4870 1gb toxic Intel Core™ 2 Quad Q9650 3,00 GHz Microsoft Windows Vista 64bit I have a 1 tb hard drive that i will be reusing, now i am looking for advice on motherboard as well as what memory modules to buy. I am also looking for advice on a case, I know i might be a little demanding, but don't want a large case, and not a noisy one either, anyone have any suggestions?
CPU: Given the very small disparity in clock frequency between the Q9550 and Q9650, try shooting for the Q9550 instead, especially if you're overclocking (and really, why wouldn't you?). That would save you about $50 (US prices). Alternatively, you could shoot for the Phenom II 940 - price and OC ability on par with the Q9550, and that saves you almost a full $100 over the Q9650 (again, US prices). Case: Do you mean "not large" as in "smaller than standard" or as in "not full-tower"? - Diosjenin -
Antec 300 is pretty good. Although I know most Bit-Tech goers are fans of understated looks. So If possible the P182(my favorite if I had it). If you like flashy then the NZXT Tempest would serve you nicely.
The antech 300 an P182 are really nice cases And they aren't even that expensive , Now does anyone have any suggestions for a motherboard and memory?
So i have been looking around a bit, and found this motherboard: Asus P5Q Deluxe, P45 Does anyone have any experience with this motherboard? As for the memory i have these in mind: Crucial DDR2 PC8500 4096MB CL7.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188031 I had this board on my wish list for a long time before changing to an i7 build. Was going to pair it with the Q9550. I have owned an EVGA board before with no issues. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146777 Same goes for this RAM. Was planning on four sticks. Good reviews and a decent price. I was not planning on overclocking them.
I have a P5Q Pro paired with a Q9550 here. I had it OC'd to 3.4GHz, and a few days back I set all voltages manually and it wasn't stable, and reverted back to stock. As I can't be arsed to continuously reboot to Vista (takes about 1 min) I'm thinking of installing XP on an old HDD just for overclocking purposes. Oh that was a bit offtopic! Anyway, it's a very good board for what it costs, but it's not for the extreme overclocker. And it can't really cope with 4 sticks of RAM at over 800MHz, that's worth noting.
Thanks for the info I wasn't planning to put four sticks of memory in it anyways so thats not really a problem
I will second the mention to Phenom IIs that have been released just now, Im personally going for a Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition, its a 3 core CPU that has a rather ludacris money/power ratio. In most games it outperforms both the E8400-8500 because of the third core, and the q6600 because of the higher clock speed of its cores. Also according to newegg.com, the Phenom II X3 720 is half the price of the 9550, and $180 less than the Q9650. For the relative performance of these CPUs check out the review recently done by bit-tech: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2009/02/11/amd-phenom-820-810-720-710-am3-cpus/1 Of course that depends on what you want to do with it, and with how long of a timeline youre buying this computer for, since most likely games will start to utilise quad cores more effectively in the future. Also you could get the Core i7 920 for less than the q9650, thats the wonderful thing about computers, its all relative to how much youre willing to spend, and what you want from it. Happy parts hunting.
Q9550 + P5Q Pro. Or Q9550 + EP45-UD3P(which is a champ at OC'ing). I'm slated towards Gigabyte's motherboard purely because i've had such great luck with it(hitting 4.2 stable on E8400 w minor volt adjustments). However if you are a Nforce Chip fan then EVGA's 750i Cheesecake is a pretty good board.
Out of any of the 775 motherboards, the Gigabyte EP45-UD3P is no doubt the best board for OCing at its price and could hold it's weight against the higher end $300 beasts. I personally would choose the Q9650, as it has a 9x multiplier (vs the Q9550 8.5x) and a friend of mine has his running solid at 4.2GHz on air. Plus, its only $45 more. What is your plan for cooling?
I was thinking about only using a stock cooling, at least for a start. As for the Q9650 vs. Q9550, where i live the Q9650 is $100 more. What about the memory i have chosen, is that okay?
Save yourself the $100 difference by going for the 9550 and use it to buy a decent air cooler, that will allow you to overclock if you want to later and will give you a nice quiet and cool system.
A quiet system i definately something i would like does anyone know if the EP45-UD3P can use 4 2gb pc-8500 sticks?
It'll use them, but wont run them at 8500 speeds, you'll most likely be capped at 6400 speeds. A Q9550 is the best part of £200 here in the UK, which is maddness considering the potential that is locked inside a Q6600. Yes alot of people bang the drum for the humble Q6600, but there is a reason for it, Its cheap, and it overclocks well. Even has a high multipler of 9 rather than the horrid 8.5, which you'll most likely have to drop to 8 in order to gain a stable overclock. half multiplers are always unstable. and paying out ~£200 or so on old gen technology is a tad daft. Bit-tech, only recomends the use of a Q9550 in there high end HTPC, in which they want super queitness and a little overclocking headroom. However the money saved plus a tad more could get you a Q6600 plus a low end water cooling system for the CPU. Which would allow for higher clocks and almost silence.
I've got 8GB (2GB x 4) of G.SKILL DDR2 1066 PC-8500 running at max frequency in a EP45-UD3P. I only had to lower the MCH Core to 1.050V. Before it was lowered it would only run at 800 MHz (PC-6400). Here they are: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166
Thanks about The Q6600, i cannot seem to find it for sale one any danish webpages gonna have to stick with the Q9550 or get the 9650
Here is a short list of the components i have on my list so far: Saphire Radeon 4870 Toxic Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P Segate Barracude 1tb Antec Three hundred Crucial PC8500 CL7 2x2gb set, 2 sets What size of power supply would be needed to run this?
Case-wise you want the Antec SOLO. Or, as mentioned, the P182, which is a bit bigger. Do not go with the Antec 300, unless you want it noisy. That Seagate 1TB is probably the drive you are reusing. Otherwise I'd encourage getting a WD. Crucial is OK for the RAM, but even though Crucial is Micron's own brand (meaning Micron owns Crucial, who make memory modules with (mostly) Micron chips), I've had better luck with Corsair. PSU-wise I like to recommend the Corsair HX620W. Accept no substitution! Can't help with the motherboard since I never buy boards that cannot handle ECC memory (or non-ECC memory for that matter). Well, I did *once*. Needless to say I probably never will again. Excellent choice of graphics card by the way. You might get it cheapest at www.dustinhome.dk.
