It would be worth looking at the e5200 I mentioned, they should easily clock over 3ghz and hit 3.5 with reasonable air cooling, mines running at 3.125GHz on 1.14V on passive cooling at the moment, so should be easily capable of 3.5GHz, thats using a Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L that bit-tech recommended too. EDIT: Just got the new fan installed, 3.5GHz @ 1.25V (after vdroop), max temps are 64 degrees C at the moment, superpie 1M = 15.916 secs.
Good news... have come across with more money. So the budget has increased from £200 to £500! Which means I will need to re-look at the hardware setup again to get the best hardware for the money and allows me to overclock it easily. So... any recommendations?
Maybe I have gone overboard, but here's the listing of the hardware spec that I would like. I am still missing two things which are the video card and the memory as I'm still not sure which one to go with to match the performance with this new setup. The video card will need to have dual output as I have 2 x monitors @ VGA. LiteOn DH-20A1S 20X DVD±RW SATA Black Bare Drive – OEM Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Mid Tower Case - No PSU Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM Coolermaster 460W eXtreme Power Plus PSU - 20+4pin 4+4 ATX12v 4x SATA 6pin PCI-E Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor Zalman ZM-STG1 Thermal Grease Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler Asus P5Q3 DELUXE/WIFI-AP P45 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard Thoughts?
After reading this recently posted article: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2009/01/05/what-hardware-should-i-buy-jan-2009/1 I think I might have gone overkill. So will be reviewing this when I gets home tonight...
Right, here's my updated list. Items that's in BOLD are the items that I am not sure which one to go for. Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU *SPECIAL OFFER* Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L iP31 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard266 Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5 Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty Crucial 2GB kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Ballistix Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL4 Lifetime Warranty Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler ASUS HD 4850 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card Sapphire HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD?RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM Zalman ZM-STG1 Thermal Grease Anything else I might have missed out? I have monitors, keyboard & mouse along with some fans. Thanks all.
An E8400 would be much better matched with a Radeon 4850 than with a 4670. Besides, it's always good to futureproof for more powerful games. If the Corsair set of RAM is cheaper than the Crucial set, go with the Corsair. RAM performance doesn't make enough of a difference on the Core 2 platform to matter to anyone on any kind of limited budget. Try replacing the Zalman thermal grease with Arctic Silver or OCZ Freeze. - Diosjenin -
Thanks. I also saw the review at Tom's Hardware Guide and it seems that 4850 would be better than the other one. For the memory, Crucial is cheaper @ £23.42 while Corsair @ £31.68 As I am aiming for 4GB for future proof, it would make sense to get 2 x "Crucial 2GB kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Ballistix Memory" What's your thoughts for the motherboard? My only concern is that it only comes with 4 x SATA ports. I was hoping to have 6 ports "just in case", but then I am leaning toward more of overclocking which I hope to achieve 4Ghz. Thanks again.
The Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L should do fine. If the Crucial set is that much cheaper, absolutely go for the Crucial. Lower latency and lower price equals happy computer and happy wallet. - Diosjenin -
Shame ebuyer do not stock it... What's the difference between both of them apart from 31 and 43 numbers? GA-EP31-DS3L GA-EP43-DS3L Cheers
Definitely go for the crucial ballistix ram, i have it and it's rated to do 500MHz with 5-5-5-15 timings which should give you more room to overclock and have a higher up window for memory dividers. On the motherboard front, the EP43 comes with the ICH10 southbridge which supports more sata devices as well as being just a bit more advanced and feature rich, when compared to the ICH7 on the EP31. I've got the EP31 and the only thing I've found lacking so far is onboard firewire, other than that it appears to be perfectly capable. There might be a problem if you intend to upgrade to more than 4GB of RAM in the future as the EP31 is limited to 4GB of RAM, whereas the EP43 has a 16GB limit. I'd say if you can stretch to the EP43 then go for it. I'm slightly regretting it now.
Ah, but scan.co.uk does. The difference between the two boards is the chipset. The EP31 is P31-based, the EP43 is P43-based. Simple enough. The difference between the chipsets isn't just limited to the southbridge^^, though. Graphics card bandwidth can suffer slightly on a P3*-series or even X3*-series board, even with only one card, and overclocking headroom isn't always the best compared to a P4*-series board. So if you can stretch the budget enough to accomodate a P43 board, do so. - Diosjenin -
Thanks, looks like I'll go with the P43 then. Which means with that, I'm bursting into over £500 budget! lol Can't see anything to trim it down. For the memory, I'm looking at this - quickfind code: 119279 - it has the Memory Timings of 4-4-4-12 Which I assume is good as the lower it is, the better? Once again, thanks for the help. Dabs has GA-EP43-DS3L far cheaper than Scan when you add the P&P.
Lower is better, yes. Again, though, if you can find a 2x1GB kit at 5-5-5-15 or so from a decent manufacturer and for less money, feel free to spring for that (and maybe try to lower the timings yourself if you really want to), as it probably doesn't make enough of a difference to justify the extra cost. - Diosjenin -
Been searching around, seems that 5-5-5-15 costs more! Odd... so I will stay with the 4-4-4-12 setup. Anyway, here's my final list: eBuyer Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU *SPECIAL OFFER* Crucial 2GB kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Ballistix Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL4 Lifetime Warranty Crucial 2GB kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Ballistix Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL4 Lifetime Warranty Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler ASUS HD 4850 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD-RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM Arctic Silver ArctiClean 30ml Thermal material remover and thermal surface purifier Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Thermal paste 3.5gram Dabs Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L, iP43 Express, S 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1600/ 1200/1066/800, SATA II, ATX Total inc delivery (ebuyer is free): £505.58 Anything else I might have missed out? Thanks all for the help so far!
...are you getting four gigs of the Crucial? Because if you are, you might want to look at this OCZ Titanium kit. 4GB in 2x2GB form, DDR2-800, CL4-4-4-15, and about £6.85 cheaper than two kits of 2x1GB Crucial at £39.99... - Diosjenin -
Good find, thanks! Make sense to go with 2 x 2GB than 4 x 1GB as it uses up less slots. That brings the total price to £498.73!
One other thing, actually. Instead of going for the Freezer 7 Pro and purchasing thermal paste remover separately, you could (if you wanted) try purchasing the OCZ Vendetta - it cools at a level above the Freezer 7 Pro and the thermal paste doesn't come preapplied, so you can just slap on the regular Arctic Silver without having to worry about anything. The Vendetta is only about a half pound higher than the Freezer 7 plus the thermal paste remover, too, so it's still under the budget. Downside is noise - while it doesn't seem to be universally repeatable, there have been several reviews that touched on the fact that it's a bit noisy and that recommend replacing the fan. While you could do that, it would put you back over budget, etc., etc. So it comes down to your preference for the balance between noise and cooling performance. Other than that, you're golden. Have fun with the new rig! - Diosjenin -
