My new system build: What do you think?

[Konovalov]

Finally after much procrastination I have taken the decision to build my own system from scratch. I thought what better way to spend my spare time over Christmas and New Years than to build my own rig. So here follows the specifications which I have ordered and that should be delivered over the next couple of days:

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Socket 775 2.4GHz (£199.74)
MOTHERBOARD - Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP (£124.94)
CPU HSF - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro HSF (£12.68)
MEMORY - Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400 (TWIN2X2048-6400C4D) DOMINATOR (£195.77)
CASE - Antec P180B Super Midi Tower - Black (£93.44)
POWER SUPPLY - Seasonic M12 Modular 600W Silent ATX2.0 PSU (£113.22)
HARD DRIVE - Seagate ST3250620AS 250GB SATAII 7200rpm 16MB OEM (£51.54)
GRAPHICS CARD - XFX 7900GS 450M core 256MB Dual DVI TVO PCI-E (£104.98)
DVD BURNER - Samsung DVD+-R/RW/RAM 18x IDE Retail Black (£24.48)
OPERATING SYSTEM - Windows XP Home SP2 with Vista upgrade voucher (£55.17)

All up it comes to under GBP £1000.00. My plans are to overclock the E6600 from it's stock 2.4ghz up to around 2.9 or 3ghz mark which should be fairly easy to attain. I cannot believe the great value of the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600. This thing is on par at stock speeds with the AMD FX-62 in many tests. In the UK the FX-62 retails for around £450 quid which is well over twice the price of what I payed for the E6600.

I opted for the Nvidia 7900GS graphics card as the best bang for buck card at present. I would rather hold off on the Dx10 cards for a year and a half before then making the move up. I expect my system to be fast yet pretty quiet also. Hopefully I will be able to post some pics of my build and benchies once up and running some time after the new year.

I think I will be in for a shock once my rig is built. My current system is an old AMD Athlon XP1900+ with 1024mb SDRAM memory and a Nvidia GeForce 4 4400 128mb card. It is noisy, slow, and getting towards 5 years old now.

The new rig should run SHIII, SHIV, Lomac series, Il2 Forgotten Battles series, RTW and MTWII in all their glory. Wish me luck.

[joea]

Wow just wow!! Good for you mate.

[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?

[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.

[geetrue]

Konovalov said:

We have the Ashes, we have the World Cup trophy, we have the I.C.C. Champions trophy, and lastly we are ranked number one in the world in both Test and One Day cricket. Quite simply we are the best and have been for a decade.

Yes, but you lack one thing ... "The Holy Grail" Perhaps one of your ancestor's misplaced it ...

[nightdagger]

Nice build

@ geetrue: The only company that makes hard drives over 7200RPM that he can use is WD with the 10k Raptors. All other ones are SCSI. That would eat up a PCI slot.

[AVGWarhawk]

YAWN............

Just kidding. Looks great! I heard about the Vista vouchers they are offering. Good thinkg for MS! I would hate to buy a new CPU with XP and two days later Vista is out.

[geetrue]

That sounds like a fun way to spend the end of the year getting ready for next year and Vista with DX 10 right around the corner.

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.

[XabbaRus]

One question. How did you hide it from the wife, or did you do a part exchange?

[Konovalov]

Simple. I didn't hide it. Rather I said that she should go on a holiday with her girlfriends for a week, relax, see the sights, and go shopping which is what most women love to do. That little holiday and expense of hers then allowed me to justify my own little Christmas/New Years gift. See, no need to be secretive about it all.

[nightdagger]

That system is crying out for overclockage!

[Konovalov]

Originally Posted by nightdagger

That system is crying out for overclockage!

I know and I intend to down the track. Just need to sort out my cabling and swap the HSF unit on my video card which is the only noisy component in my system right now.

[HunterICX]

DROOL!

I,m jealous......

nice system bud.
Enjoy