[RJM]

I’m looking to build a new system and I could use some advice from experienced builders.My budget is about $1800 USD. I am looking to replace my old and slow PIII 600mhz 256Mb Rambus rd600, FX5500 256M video. (Doom 3 5FPS, not really playable, hoping to do better)
I mainly will use it for circuit board design and gaming. At the moment when I try to route a 16 layer 12X14 boards Orcad can take all night routing. This is what I have so far and I am open to your opinions and sugestions.
I should be ordering the system about the end of November when I get my bonus check.

CPU Core2 duo E6600 $315
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819115003

Motherboard ASUS P5W DH Deluxe $259.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813131025

Memory Gskill F2-6400-CL4D-2GBPK $259.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820231087

Video Sapphire X1900GT 256M $197.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16814102022

Hard drives 2X Seagate 7200.10 250G $79.99 ea $160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822148141

Case Thermaltake Soprano $74.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16811133147

Power Supply Xclio Goodpower 500wATX $48.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16817189005

Cooler Arctic Freezer 7 Pro $29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16835186134
( I only plan to over clock to about 3 to 3.2 GHZ)

Display 19” Philips CRT monitor $198.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16824133167
( No, I don’t want a LCD. I use several different resolutions and LCD’s only are
fairly passable in their native resolution. I have a Dell LCD at work and hate it!)

DVD R/W Samsung 18X $28.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16827151133

Mouse A4tech NB50 wireless, no batteries $22.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16826129132
(no more breaking mouse cords)

Keyboard Benq X800 $12.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16823121113

WinXP home upqrade (from 98SE) $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16837116194

Modem and floppy from old system, On-Board sound for now.

Total so far $1710.89

[ripken204]

lucky you

may i suggest a slightly better vid card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....;SubCategory=48
pretty good deals on the 7900gt right now.

as for hdd, why ide!!!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822148140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822148144
these are amazing drives ^^^

my friend has that case, seems like its built well, his has a window so its kinda loud.

im not too sure about that power supply. i would recommend an enermax liberty or ocz gamexstream but those would cost 2x as much...

great dvd drive here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16827152058

now if u really wanted to save some money, you could get an e6300 or e6400. thats if you dont mind losing 2mb worth of cache. but the performance and overclock is still as good. and since u dont plan to overclock much at all, i dont really see the point of the e6600.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....SubCategory=343

here is a nice 2mb vs 4mb comparison:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/07/1...ocessors/5.html

[RJM]

Ripkin204, you're right about the hard drives that is what I meant to link to, I just saw the 7200.10
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822148144

Video Card, the 7900gt might be a better idea
http://www.pureoverc...hp?id=36&page=9

In Oblivion, it's only saving grace, the performance was quite impressive. The X1900 GT outperformed the 7900 GT by a large margin and instead traded blows with the X1800 XT 256MB. Sadly the X1900 GT performed rather poorly in the next three games, FEAR, HL2, and COD2. Most notable of these was FEAR, the 7900 GT was clearly faster and not just by a few frames per second, in fact a stock 7800 GT was faster in FEAR than the X1900 GT.

Power supply
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/829/1/pag...tion/index.html

DVD - The only difference that I see is that the Samsung doe 18XDVD-R andthe NEC only does 16XDVD-R

Thanks for the reply, Any other recomendations for a case?

This post has been edited by RJM: 20 October 2006 - 06:00 AM

[puntoMX]

Those Thermaltake Soprano cases are really toys, flimsy cheap looking build. i would make an other choice if I was you. Did you look at the Coolermaster cases? Spending 1700+ bucks on a system and having a cheap *ss build case, that’s some thing I would not do .

[RJM]

I looked into the 7900gt and it seems there are a lot of heat related problems.

http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard...?TOPIC_ID=14558

And I'm still wondering about the case
(I still have 3 weeks to go before I order, hopefuly RAM will drop a little more. )

Updated System

CPU Core2 duo E6600 $313
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819115003

Motherboard ASUS P5W DH Deluxe $249.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813131025

Memory Gskill F2-6400-CL4D-2GBPK $249.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820231087

Asus EAX1900xt 256 $269.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16814121029 <------

Hard drives 2X Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS $160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822148144

Case Lian Li PC-g50B $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16811112104 <------

Power Supply Xclio Goodpower 500wATX $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16817189005

Cooler Arctic Freezer 7 Pro $29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16835186134
( I only plan to over clock to about 3 to 3.2 GHZ)

Display 19” Philips CRT monitor $198.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16824133167
( No, I don’t want a LCD. I use several different resolutions and LCD’s only are
fairly passable in their native resolution. I have a Dell LCD at work and hate it!)

DVD R/W Samsung 18X $28.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16827151133

Mouse A4tech NB50 wireless, no batteries $22.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16826129132
(no more breaking mouse cords)

Keyboard Benq X800 $12.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16823121113

WinXP home with Vista upgrade coupon $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16832116169

Modem and floppy from old system, On-Board sound for now.

Total so far $1767

It's been a while since my last post - modem problems.

This post has been edited by RJM: 27 October 2006 - 10:42 AM

[puntoMX]

I would reconsider that case; you don’t want your power supply on top of your cooler, looks more like a PII case to me from the old times .

That mouse... I don’t know, its A4 tech and to tell you the truth they are cheap *ss to me. Nothing you like from Logitech?

[RJM]

PuntoMX
Any good recommendations for a case? The reason I went with A4 tech is that
The mouse is cordless and without batteries. They are the only ones that I could find
that were cordless and without batteries.

[puntoMX]

Some thing like:

COOLER MASTER Praetorian 730 RC-730-KSN1 Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail at NewEgg

LIAN LI PC-61 USB Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail at NewEgg

Those are great cases, I personally like the Coolermaster more because of it’s design.

[ripken204]

RJM, on Oct 27 2006, 12:32 PM, said:

I looked into the 7900gt and it seems there are a lot of heat related problems.

http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard...?TOPIC_ID=14558

thats with the first models of the card. evga's latest model works just fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16811112099
this case is nice too, it has 2x120mm fans

[puntoMX]

ripken204, on Oct 28 2006, 04:18 PM, said:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16811112099
this case is nice too, it has 2x120mm fans

2 12cm fans are nice but the case isn’t the real LIAN LI quality that you would expect trough .

[ripken204]

how so?

[jftuga]

Two 12cm fans are going to be VERY loud. I have a system that has two of these...it is so loud, I hardly ever used this system because of this.

-John

[puntoMX]

ripken204, on Oct 28 2006, 05:39 PM, said:

how so?

Doesn’t have the same look and feel; Materials are different and way cheaper build then the "real" Lian Li cases.

jftuga, on Oct 29 2006, 10:10 PM, said:

Two 12cm fans are going to be VERY loud. I have a system that has two of these...it is so loud, I hardly ever used this system because of this.

-John

Get some new ones John, that make only 18dB/A (together that will be 21dB/A ). It could be the air in / out- takes that are not well designed. What case do you have any way?

[jcarle]

No no no! This is all wrong!

Do yourself a favor, get yourself an Antec case. ANYTHING that Antec makes in cases is reliable. So you can pretty much pick anything on their website and feel safe that you're buying quality no matter which model you pick.

If you want a simple, quality case that includes a good sized (400W) reliable power supply without any bling bling, then you an excellent suggestion would be the Antec TX640B NewEgg.

As for ram, I'd see if you can afford to move up to 1066MHz memory. Then you'd be running clock for clock with the CPU. You will see more of a difference with a 266MHz boost in memory speed then you will in low timings.

Hard drives, same price will buy you 320GB Western Digitals with 16MB cache.

With the money you'd save by having a reliable power supply come with the suggested case above, you could get a much much better CPU cooler/heatsink. I HIGHLY recommend the Zalman CNPS9500.

I'd suggest a BFG 7950GT for your video card. At the risk of creating a heated debate. 90% of games run better on nVidia hardware nowadays.

All around great burner at a good price is the Pioneer DVR-111D.

And if you're going to shell out so much for a box, you should at least put a bit more into your comfort. Get yourself a nice keyboard and mouse!

[puntoMX]

jcarle, on Oct 29 2006, 10:46 PM, said:

No no no! This is all wrong! ...

Why that , Antec is nice but they are outdated, there power supplies rule still.

Why buy another cooler when the stock cooler is good? The new ones are not that noisy.


The cooler from AC works better then the stock cooler at a lower dB/A and can compete to the Zalman .

[Zxian]

jcarle's the guy to listen to... I was about to suggest an antec case as well. They might not have all the flasy bells and whistles of other cases, but they're solid, well built, and often come with good power supplies as well.

Another option for the case is the Antec P180 or TX1050B. They're a bit more pricey, but the P180 was built for sound dampening, and the TX1050B would give you a bit more room. I dunno about you, but I ran out of space with 8 drive bays in my old Antec 2650 case.


@puntoMX - The AC7 stand up to the 9500? Not a chance... The only thing so far that can beat the 9500 at low very airflow is the Ninja. The Intel stock coolers might not be as noisy as they once were, but when you sit next to one of them compared to a quiet heatsink - you'll wonder how you ever went back.

- Zalman CNP9500 LED - Review
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - Review
- Scythe SCNJ-1000 Ninja - Review

[RJM]

The Lian li PC-61 USB looks good. Ill go with that.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16811112025

As for the cooler I only plan to overclock to about 3 to 3.2 GHZ whatever I can get out of
the stock CPU voltage and from what I have read even the stock cooler would do this but
the AC 7 will do it quieter.

And still for the video the X1900XT 256 but I'm still reading the reviews.
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Vi...pict203123.html

Thanks for the comments

Jcarle:- The P5W DH Delux only supports DDR2 533/667/800 and runs 1-1 with the DDR2-533 at 2.4GHZ
with a /9 divider (266X2). Conroe benifits from faster memory more than tighter timings which is why I went with the DDR2-800 memory instead of 667 which I would have to over clock to 711 at 3.2GHZ.

This post has been edited by RJM: 30 October 2006 - 12:20 PM

[puntoMX]

Zxian, on Oct 30 2006, 03:55 AM, said:

@puntoMX - The AC7 stand up to the 9500? Not a chance... The only thing so far that can beat the 9500 at low very airflow is the Ninja. The Intel stock coolers might not be as noisy as they once were, but when you sit next to one of them compared to a quiet heatsink - you'll wonder how you ever went back.

You are saying it right, on low airflow it can’t keep up with the 9500 but I wonder how many people will use there fans on 7v with an iNTEL. If it was an AMD it should work fine on 7v but it’s not. I was talking about 12v on the fan(s).

I like the Antec case too, recommended it to a few people before, but the door is a bit flimsy. Personally I like more cases that can take up some beating and abuse like the CoolerMaster and the Lian-Li .

[Zxian]

@puntoMX - Did you look at the temperatures of their system with the 9500 at 5V?

Link

The CPU they're using has a TDP of 69W - which is on par, if not higher than the Conroes. Load temps of 40-44C with a Conroe? I'll take that anyday. The AC7 hits the thermal throttling barrier at lower speeds/volumes.

[puntoMX]

Yeah I know .