I dunno about looks, but if you think a good, quality 5.1 sound system goes for 50$... Most of that money of that is for retail sales profit, transport, the fancy box with full color printing, packaging, publicity/marketing, the factory's costs to assemble them, etc. That leaves what, 6$ for the amp, 4$ for the sub, and and about 1$ per satellite speaker or so (the main part of the $ going towards the cheap plastic enclosure). I've never seen even just a subwoofer that sounded good at anywhere near $50. 6 ghetto speakers don't really sound better than 3 better quality ones. The sub is an anemic 5" driver (doesn't move much air, likely doesn't go much below 50Hz), the overall response curve is likely nowhere near flat, and while it probably sounds plenty loud, the specs aren't exactly looking great (I mean, who rates their stuff at 10% THD?). I mean, they probably sound just fine -- for budget speakers.


You already had good suggestions for cooling:

And no one can guarantee you you'll hit 4GHz, no matter what you get. Odds are, you won't quite hit it (more like 3.6 to 3.8 average). To get high overclocks, you'd have to increase the voltage, which most people prefer not to do. If you need more performance, look at the E8400 or such. The extra cache and such should help when it comes to games.

Besides, why lu computers? You'd save around $100 by ordering from ncix (and price matching with directcanada with what's cheaper there). That 100$ savings could go towards something else, like a better set of speakers. They also have a MUCH wider selection of parts.

BTW, no one seems to sell the P5K Pro, and Zxian said P5Q Pro anyways.

This post has been edited by crahak: Jul 4 2008, 12:01 PM

It's an alright case. Personally, I'd rather buy case and power supply separately, especially if you're going to go for maximum overclock (which means maximum heat). The Sonata III was advertised as a quiet case, when in fact, it's not really all that special.

If you want excellent cooling performance, get yourself the Antec 900. It's got venting galore and once you start using the bottom mounted PSU layout, you'll never really want to go back. I already mentioned that you should get a quality PSU. Corsair HX series and Enermax Modu82+ are on the top of my list.


As for overclocking - here's the scoop. It's not simply a matter of getting the right heatsink and motherboard. Each individual device overclocks differently. Some chips may hit 4GHz, while others might only make it to 3GHz - regardless of cooling. There's no simple mathematical formula that you plug numbers/parts into, and out pops your overclock. Some people might call it an art - requiring tweaking one way and the other to get the highest numbers.

That being said - my rule of thumb with overclocking is simple. If I decide to overclock a device, I consider that device expendable. You must be willing to accept that a part might die on you even with a "moderate" overclock. Chips are tested at their stock settings and guaranteed to work at those stock settings - not any higher.

If you want the best CPU heatsink you can get - look no further than the ThermalRight HR-01+ (make sure it's the "plus" version). Excellent cooling performance, good mounting setup, and a reasonable price make it something that can't be beat. For an excellent review (and review site), look at SilentPCReview's analysis.

I forgot to mention that im adding the optional 120mm 3 speed fan into that case
would that make a difference?

Btw i was also wondering what the chances were that I'd get the CPU to at least 3GHz?

This post has been edited by TheZeus: Jul 4 2008, 04:31 PM

Optional? That case comes with 2 12cm fans stock and some useless side fans, well, they don´t do much to cooling.

Why don´t you check out an Antec 900 for example?

The additional fans help, but only to a degree. The case itself is pooly designed in terms of airflow. Look at the hard drive cage. It's perpendicular to the length of the case, making it easier to install your hard drives, but it blocks front-to-back airflow (which is what you want). The "three speed fan" that you're talking about is the Antec TriCool. They're alright fans, but not really worth it to buy on their own. You can find other fans that do a much better job of moving air without sounding like a jet engine (which TriCools do at high speed).

3GHz is probably easily attained. The higher you push the clocks, the harder it is to keep the system cool and stable. Simply adding another fan to your case won't change how far the CPU that you get will go.

Crahak for most of my parts i chose NCIX, TDDirect and Direct Canada.
But the price of the E7200 at TDDirect rocked everyone else by 10 to 60 dollars.
I also just wanted to let all of you know that im on a 900 dollarish budget so i cant really afford all these extra cooling systems and things.
And finally...i found this mobo and its looks pretty sick soo..yeah

Note: This case has a 8cm fan that blows from the right side (seen from front) over the harddisks.

Then just get ncix to price match it Besides, making a separate order just for a CPU and paying shipping on that alone, would cost you extra (ncix has it for $10 more, and TD's shipping aint cheap)

Motherboard wise, that's the one Zxian mentioned earlier.

I'd take a couple minutes to re-read some of the mos knowledgeable people's advice. Much like puntoMX and Zxian said, you should look at the Antec 900 instead of the Sonata.

Right... but that still doesn't help the front-to-back airflow that I mentioned. The more twists and turns the air has to take from intake to exhaust - the less efficient the cooling.



@TheZeus - Have another look at your budget. You should be able to get all the components while staying more or less within budget. Here's a rough estimate of regular prices at NCIX for a complete system (minus taxes and shipping).

CPU (E7200) - $170
Motherboard (P5Q Pro) - $150
RAM (two 2x1GB OCZ Gold) - $65
Graphics Card (Diamond ATI 4850) - $190
Hard drive (Western Digital WD6400AAKS - much better than the Seagate you chose) - $110
Optical Drive (Pioneer DVR-212D) - $30
Case (Antec 900) - $100
Power Supply (Corsair HX520) - $105

This brings your total to $920. I'd bet that if you were to find some of these parts on sale, you should be able to get that price down as well. I know for a fact that the WD6400AAKS is on sale right now for less than $90. That takes the total to below $900.

E7200 is actually 139 now, but price matched with this, so $130
P5Q Pro on special for $139
RAM 2x2GB OCZ Gold is 70$ after mail in rebate
Graphics Card (Diamond ATI 4850) - $190
Western Digital WD6400AAKS $90 like you said
Optical Drive ... $30 (there's TONS of others in the $25 to $30 range)
Antec 900 price matched with this, $92
Corsair HX520, if he goes for that model, it's $80 after mail in rebate

So including 2 mail in rebates, his total cost is more like $850 even with 4GB of RAM, leaving 50$ for a better CPU HSF.

...............................................that's.......................................................PERFECT!
thanks alot guys! That basically finishes it all off except for one last thing.
Instead of a 500gb hard drive ive decided that i only need a 250 or a 320 because i cant even fill up my 80gig .
what brand and model do you guys suggest?

btw thx alot for finding me that 2x2GB, it looks great!

Just to save 30CAD? o.O

Remember that those smaller drivers are slower so I would keep it as it is, with that 640GB drive .

Exactly. The hard drive is by far the slowest component of a computer nowadays. I mean, RAM latency is in a few nanoseconds which is already a long wait for a CPU, and hard drives in milliseconds, so roughly a million times slower. So I wouldn't willingly go for something slow-ish.

And hard drives these days fill up very quickly. From software coming on DVDs now, some mpeg4 videos, TV shows if you use your computer as a PVR (with mce, mythtv or such), DV footage, large digital photos (and I'm not talking about pr0n here), some music (especially if lossless), vmware and ghost/trueimage images, different partitions if you dual boot (or more), ISO's you're working on and what not... I could easily go thru a 640GB in a week if I didn't limit myself. Storage has always been the first thing I run out of, on any computer.

Get the WD6400AAKS. You definitely won't be disappointed, or worrying that you've wasted your money.

I'd start off with the stock cooler to begin with. Put the system together, and then see how it handles your day-to-day gaming. If you feel that you're still not getting the performance you should, then go ahead and try to overclock the system.

well then..never mind
lol thank you once again guys....640gb it is!

My PC scored a whopping 140 (or 134 or something like that) Marks in 3dmark06 and I got Crysis to run.

So if you got a PC that can score better than that, yer all set.