[Konovalov]

Originally Posted by joea

Wow just wow!! Good for you mate.

Thanks. Hopefully it won't be too much of a hair pulling experience.

Originally Posted by Iceman

Question....I always wondered why people over clock they're systems....Isn't it taking an uneccessary risk with your money you've spent.I bought a new system and it has the built in ablilty to do this as well but I am leary to make it run hot like that.....I mean if your already driving a kick ass car why take a chance on blowing the engine?

Because if you know what you are doing then you can attain improved performance without risk and importantly it comes for free. I paid just under £200 for my Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor which has a clock speed of 2.4Ghz. Now I could overclock this CPU to 2.67Ghz blindfolded and with zero risk which would effectively turn my E6600 into a Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67Ghz processor which retails for £330. Even better I could overclock the CPU to near 3ghz with ease or even further for performance akin to the top of the line Core 2 Extreme X6800 which retails for £600 here in the UK. So as you can see there are significant performance/cost saving benefits here.

From this AnandTech Article: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=2795&p=18

Enthusuasts have not seen overclocking like this since Socket 478 days, and in fact Core 2 may be even better. The 2.4GHz E6600, which outperformed the FX-62 in most benchmarks at stock speed costs $316, and overclocked to 4Ghz with excellent air cooling. With that kind of performance, value, and overclocking the E6600 will likely become the preferred chip for serious overclockers - particularly those that are looking for champagne performance on a smaller budget.

It is important, however, not to sell the advantages of the X6800 short. AnandTech never recommends the fastest chip you can buy as a good value choice, but X6800 does bring some advantages to the table. It is the only Conroe that is completely unlocked. This allows settings like 266(stock FSB)x15 for 4.0GHz, settings that keep other components in the system at stock speed. This can only be achieved with the X6800 - other Core 2 Duo chips are hard-locked - and for some that feature will justify buying an X6800 at $999. For the rest of us overclockers E6600 is shaping up to be the chip to buy for overclocking.

As you can see from that Anadntech article. To purchase the E6600 CPU and not overclock it would be crazy and a wasted opportunity.

Originally Posted by geetrue

Just one suggestion (probably too late, uh?) I would put two seagate med size GB 10k sata HDD's in a zero array (in place of the 72k HDD's) and use a big external sata or usb 2.0 or firewire for files like movies, photo's etc.

Yes, you have good taste ... Let us know how the duo-core works out ... Have my eye on that one too ... Don't hesitate to use water cooling if you over clock and take a look at the new ATI video card with plasma cooling built in.

I'll consider that hard drive option. I have never utilised raid before but I do plan on doing so by buying another identical hard drive further down the track. I don't know if I am that hardcore to have a go with watercooling. I guess it is that fear of water and electricals.