(Yet Another) New Build Thread

[The Codfather]

Greetings all, just because there's never enough of these around, I thought I'd throw mine into the ring.

I'm planning to build a system around the Intel Q9450/nForce 780i platform and I'm just starting to get a tentative build together. Budget isn't really an issue and graphics is thankfully already covered as I will be taking the 2x 8800GTs from my current system.

I'm just interested if you Hexites could throw any ideas my way on important parts. The main one I'm stumped on is a CPU cooler as I will be planning to OC a bit, I'm expecting good things from these Penryn parts, so I don't want it popping on me

Anyhow, this is how is looks at present, if anyone has any thoughts please let me know, this'll be the first system I've built from scratch, my previous one is something of a 5 year long ongoing upgrade, so I want to make this a good one!

--------CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 ----- £200?
CPU Cooler:
-------Mobo: Asus Striker II Formula ------- £190
--------RAM: 4GB G.Skill 4-4-4-12 ----------- £72
------Sound: X-Fi Fatality -------------------- £84
--------HDD: 2x 500GB Samsung HD501LJ -- £124.3
1x 36GB Raptor ----------------- £65.79
--------PSU: Tagan 700W Easycon XL ------ £106.93
--------DVD: Samsung SH-S203D ----------- £17.33
-------Case:
---------OS: Vista Ultimate 64bit OEM ------ £107.92

[staffsMike]

Quads look to be about £225 but we shall see.

Mobo is probably the best of the bunch so far.

RAM is good.

I wouldn't bother with the sound card unless you really notice a difference over the onboard sound.

500GB spinpoints are faster than the 36GB raptor in the reviews i've seen. Wouldn't waste your money on it.

I prefer the 620w Corsair HX, it can run SLi GTX's so it will handle the GT's no problem.

Looks good though

[cabooseUK]

I would recommend the antec 900 or thermaltake armor, for a case both have great cooling especially the antec and the armor has a load of driver bays and is very big and easy to work in. And i would agree with staffmike get the corsair 620 or 650 as they are both around 80-90 and have great reputations. And do you really need 4GB or ram? If not then you could get 2GB of Geil RAM for around £35 which for gaming is more than enough

[The Codfather]

Thanks for the quick suggestions. I 'll take a read over the reviews for the Corsair PSUs, but I've heard nothing but good things, so I guess they'll be solid.

The soundcard is a personal thing, I've had so much trouble with onboard sound in past machines that I just prefer to have outboard sound. I've had an X-Fi fatality in my current machine for about 3 years and haven't had a single problem.

Do I need 4GB of RAM? probably not, but with Vista eating up whopping amounts and games taking more and more added to the low price of it at the moment, I think it's more of a piece of mind thing.

I'll take a look at those case suggestions too.

Thanks guys

[Webby]

You asked about CPU cooler and that will really depend on what case you get (small cases can be a bit limiting!).

My suggestion would be the Thermaltake Ultima 90 paired up with a 120mm fan probably an S-Flex 1600 (or your preferred 120mm fan). Its the best you can get at that size, the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme beats it slightly in cooling performance but is more expensive and significantly larger.

Case Wise Antec P182, 900 are both good choices. If money is no object then the Silverstone Tremjin TJ-07, TJ-09 and TJ-10 are all very nice as well and all have extra cooling for the graphics card region which will be a benefit for you with SLI GTs.

I agree with Mike go for the Corsair HX620 a solid PSU with a 5 year warranty and I haven't heard of any problems with them, I have a HX520 and its great.

[staffsMike]

I would get the P182 for silence and decent cooling or the 900 for extreme cooling.

HSF wise the thermalright ultima90 is very good. The scythe range are fantastic to (infinity, ninja, mine)

[The Codfather]

The Ultima 90 looks really smart actually.

Scythes, I've heard good things of, but their usually ludicrous size scares me off a bit. I've been looking at Zalman for CPU cooling too, their CNPS9700-NT in particular seems to be receiving positive reviews and as I was very happy with their VGA coolers I'd think about using them again.

Had a poke around and I think I've settled on the Cooler Master Stacker 830. It's a big old beast, but looks like it has tons of room to work with and lots of cooling potential. Plus it looks nice and seems well built too.

[The Codfather]

Thought I may as well resurrect this one. PCs all bought now and I'm just waiting for the arrival of the parts and the case (est. 2nd week Feb)

I'm really pleased with how it's come together, thanks for the recommendations on the PSU.

This is how it came out in the end;

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 8400 ----------------------- £129.83
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9700-NT NVIDIA------- £38.13
Mobo: Asus Striker II Formula -------------------- £199.62
RAM: 4GB G.Skill PC8000 5-5-5-15 --------------- £95.78S
Sound: X-FI Xtreme Gamer Pro ------------------ £86.59
HDD: 2x 500GB Samsung HD501LJ --------------- £126.64
PSU: Corsair HX620W ----------------------------- £85.06
DVD: LG 18x GSA-H66NBAL ----------------------- £17.26
Case: Lian Li A71B --------------------------------- £172.94
OS: Vista Ultimate 64bit OEM--------------------- £107.97

-------TOTAL: -------------------------------------- £1059.82

After a bit of thought and reading I decided against the Quad, I simply don't do enough multi-tasking or use any apps that would validate it's worth, so I decided to go dual core.
I'm stunned by what I've read on the performance of the Wolfdale chips, so I hope it'll serve me well.

[hse180]

Looks a great system and you will be pleased with it. Wolfdales are fantastic overclockers can reach 4.5ghz on air.

[Blackmage]

Antec 900 is a very nice case, one of my favorites to work on.

[Thorsson]

I like the look of the new Antec 1200. Not sure when they're releasing it though.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

is it worth getting an 1066mhz ddr2 ram instead of a 800mhz one? how far can a cpu OC on a 800mhz? what would be the max fsb in other words when applying a 1:1 ratio?


Also doesnt anybody like ddr3 ram or is it a complete waste of money?

edit: what you guys think of this?

[staffsMike]

DDR3 is a waste of money really but as FSB's rise up passed 1333MHz it will probably come into play more.

PC6400 is enough to to get the Q9450 to 3.2GHz at stock settings 1:1

Decent overclocking PC6400 will get to 950 - 1000MHz probably more.

at 1000MHz you will be running at 4.0GHz (on the 9450). It may be worth investing in PC85000 but tbh my geil ram can do 1066MHz and is still running quite cool.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

but with tighter cas i should be able to OC a 800mhz ram? when i do get a q9450 i wish to AT LEAST oc up to 3.2GHZ. would i see a nice boost between 2.6 to 3.2?

[staffsMike]

depends what you do with it?

Audio Stuff, 3D work (rendering).. sure.

[Thorsson]

Tighter CAS means the square root of bugger all on a C2duo.