Looking for advice on new rig

Hi guys,

Looking to build a new rig. ((DUO))
Now the chip i am looking at is Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor

Now i need some help with deciding on a good mobo and Ram.

Can you guys help?

 

how much do you want to spend on your motherboard and how much do you want to spend on ram?? Detils,details....

 

what are you going to be using it for? gaming? if so then we gotta decide on your video card and PSU. the case is pretty much up to u overclocking? then we gotta consider coolers

 

Well i had a change of heart. Savings of about $100.00.

The new chip i was looking at is this Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor
Also i here that the chip O/C'd would kill my current system any way.

This would be the board i am considering.
Also can someone tell me what the ((T)) means on this board?ASUS P5B Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

Now for the ram, I am lost. It says DDR2 800, but i cant seem to find something in that range with low timmings. Almost all are at around 4 4 3 4 15.

Now this is all new to me. ((So used to my socket 478)) So any comments you may have will be considered.

I'm looking to spend about $2,000.00 but maybe less i hope!

 

Sorry for the double post.

But yes gaming mostly and burning music and backing up my movie collection.

 

as far as timings go, DDR2 timings are much looser (higher) than regular DDR memory. Pretty much whatever u get will be good, as long as its not budget/value RAM.

A 7950GT for your video card would be great and wont break the bank at only $280. For a PSU, OCZ GameStreams are good but if you dont need that much power, Antec makes good ones; try to go for 500 watts or higher (although Core 2 procs use much less power than previous chips...) Anyways, it would be better to be safe than sorry.

Back to RAM; id get 2 gigs, but if u must, 1 gig will do fine....for now

 

Go for the ATI Radeon x1900xt 256, its 250, faster than the 7950GT by about 10%.

 

So far this is my list!
Hope you guys can give me any info on hardware conflicts or other suggestions regarding this build?

Total as of now: $1583.92

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

ASUS P5B Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI ATX12V 600W Power Supply

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATAPI/E-IDE 16X DVD±R DVD Burner

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

SAPPHIRE 100150L Radeon X1900XTX 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 CrossFire Video Card

APEVIA (ASPIRE) X-PLEASURE-BK Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case

 

wow man, that is an incredible build for the price....im amazed.....

AWESOME job, looks fine to me

 

get tghe x1950XTX instead or the x1950XT, it has GDDR4 and can run the mem alot faster.

Get an Audigy 4 Pro instead of the X-Fi the Crackleing issues havnt been fixed yet for X-Fi, the rest looks fine though

 

http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/09/creative_labs_s.html

sorry to contradict u candle...again. lol but i think id have go with the X-Fi;

1) the Audigy 4 costs twice as much; you could get the Platinum or Fatal1ty version for less than that
2) "Without a doubt, the X-Fi is the best Creative sound card to date." (from Guru3d) It has better quality, its faster, improves overall performance (mainly gaming) from the XRAM

links to the reviews...
http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/265/10/ (X-Fi)
http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/09/creative_labs_s.html
http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/182/9/ (audigy 4)

Maybe we should get some more opinions? Dont wanna get into an argument, im just trying to help him. If you have something to back up your side id love to see it

 

Well i love the X-Fi Extreme Music card. I have not had any problems with mine after downloading the new drivers from Sound Blasters website.

Although i am having second thoughts about the mobo.
Reading the reviews on this board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136168
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/13-136-168-04.jpg

I'm thinking of going all out on the board beings its the heart of the system.
Also i'm going to go Cross Fire with the setup. I have always been an Nvidea fan, but i have heard ATI kills Nvidea with a Cross Fire setup.
Just so you no that i am going to wait for DX10 to pick out my video setup.

Any thoughts on this board?

 

Alright man, you are making the first time builders mistake... Dude you gotta search 24/7 on reviews... some times you can not always take 100% advice ya know? Also, theres always a down side to everything you buy so put in mind your getting good stuff yes but do not over do it too much lol. Things should work out fine for you but on that ram you want... Bite the Bullet and get that Corsair stuff man or what ever the board reccomends for it to use. Man if your getting a Mobo buy it from the store and not online, less hassle that way if it comes to u dead.. yeah it cost a lil more but it helps u solve a problem fast . Eh man? you need a case lol dude I bought this freaking tank -->http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133021

Dude its a great case. Yeah Im more of an AMD man now.. all that over clocking on them INTELs is a bunch of hype lol cause the way people say about over clocking them, it sounds toooo easy! way too easy. but if u want to over clock look up a Zalman fan its freaking huge and very nice also check out more then one site cause sometimes its cheaper site hoping is nice


LOL oh yeah man, take in about 24% of what you have heard dude... If you been using something for years and like it? Get it Get what works for you and not what works for some one else I myself wont touch a ATi I had them back in the days and only reason I did not like it cause the software sucked man but they may have changed it since then So make your decision count!

 

LOL I just realized we're essentially getting the same machine. I'm merely upgrading, hence the older parts (Santa Cruz).

It's funny you should post about upgrading when I just purchased nearly everything you see in the signature last night. I chose the E6400 over the E6600 as well; my reasoning was that I could easily OC to 6600 speeds.

I agree with frankzro: ATI's software (aka Bloatware) is pretty awful, but their cards typically have more pixel pipelines and excel at gaming scenarios with FSAA and Anisotropic filtering over their nVidia counterparts.

One suggestion I have is regarding the motherboard: the Gigabyte motherboard I got had received positive reviews not only due to its increased ability to OC (if that's your thing), but also due to its solid construction (very solid transistors-- no cheap parts). I have built machines in the past with both ASUS and Gigabyte boards (my current machine has an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe), and I basically made my decision based on those two features.

Also, since you have a budget of $2k, I would highly recommend you splurge on this puppy-- Intel's "Bad Axe": http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121016.

 

Update guys,

Since my last post i have dump a few bucks down on a few components. But am still in the air on the mobo. Still got alot of ready to do on this!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133154
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/238Ky9gB/7011.jpg
But i got it for $144.00 and a $25.00 mail in rebate!

And this, but wont get it till tomorrow ((Wednesday)) Will post a pretty pic then!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341001

 

Well i'm back to let you no i did it.

Got my rig up and running, Lots of fun building and tweeking.

Current specs:
EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor
BFG Tech BFGR88640GTSE GeForce 8800GTS 640MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner included extra White bezel, with 12X DVD-RAM Write Black IDE Model LH-20A1P-186
Sound Blaster Xf-Extreme Music sound card
OCZ Game-Extreme 600w power supply
All tucked in my ThermalTake full tower.

http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/238Ky9gB/9077.jpg

http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/238Ky9gB/9169.jpg

http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/238Ky9gB/9171.jpg

http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/238Ky9gB/9173.jpg

 

very nice man...how much did it cost u, if u dont mind my asking

 

Now for the fun part.

E6600 2400Mhz clocked to 3312Mhz
Ram still at stock speeds.
This board has tons of options for me to fool with. If fact way to many.
This O/C is 100% CPU O/C only. With in the bios, it give this option to do so.

So ran some test for you all!

3Dmark05
http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=12&XLID=0&UID=8026893

3Dmark06:
http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=8027086

And of course Aqaumark3:
http://www.blazingpc.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=979&d=1171776490

 

About $2100.00 after all the little things.

Edit
Thanks for all the help guys!