Upgrade time.. with CPU choices..

[djglenn]

Hey,

I am going through a 2nd stage of a PC upgrade. The first stage (with the help of hexus members) I upgraded my graphics card and power supply. My current PC specs are as follows:

AMD 64 3200+ (S939)
Asrock dual sata
2GB Kingston PC3200 DDR
BFG 8800GT OC2 512MB
Corsair 460W PSU
Cheap & Nasty PC case

First things first, I want to change the case, as cooling airflow is a problem. I am currently favouring the Coolermaster Dominator (CM690). As its well priced, pictures look good & there is a lot of space for 120mm fans.

I also have saved up funds to do the CPU, Mobo & RAM. The last two being essential, if I am changing the processor.

However I am a bit stumped as to which processor to go for.. I am favouring the Q6600 as its quad core, and the price is pretty good £140 most places.

My budget is £400 max, for case, cpu, mobo & ram. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I mainly use my system for surfing, gaming (battlefield 2142, etc), photo editing (PS CS3), and occasional video format editing.

Would I be safer getting a good dual core cpu? I hear the Q6600 is easy to overclock to 3GHz?

Money saving options are also welcome :-)

Thanks….

ps, there is no point in quoting Scan hardware prices to me as I live in N.Ireland and Scan charge absolute crazy prices to ship here…

[Taz]

Check out the £500 system that I built last weekend. It's a 4GB, Vista-64 system:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...truggling.html

If I had to do it again, I would go for the Quad-core Q6600 instead of the Dual-core CPU that I ended up buying. Other than that, everything worked first go and the recipient of the PC is delighted with the system.

It should come in well under £400 for the components that you need as my system included Windows Vista 64-bit and MS Office 2007 (plus a DVD-writer and keyboard/mouse)

[rej156]

CPU: Intel Q6600 ~£130
Motherboard: Abit IP-35 dark Raider ~£65
RAM: 2GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 ~£30
Case: Coolermaster CM690 ~£50
HSF: Scythe Mine~£25

Credits to staffsMike from the The HEXUS.hardware £500-or-less computer building thread!

If you research reviews on all these parts, they're all top spec.
You could however change the ram but you'd want to change the timings and voltage anyway.

[WoLFe]

Been doing alot of research over the past few days, and value to power ratio at the moment, the Quad-core Q6600 is highly impressive stuff.

Plus if you wanted to overclock/cook it, you can.

[Eddd]

Prices from scan.co.uk:
LN21658 - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800MHz), Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, DHX - £68.90
LN13881 - Scythe Miné Quiet Heatpipe CPU Cooler S478, S775, S754, S939, S940 compatible - £23.84
LN19754 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L, iP35 Express, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, ATX - £56.27
LN22762 - Antec Three Hundred Case - £40.53
LN21218 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.66GHz, 1333MHz, 12MB Cache, Retail Assassin's Creed - £223.12
TOTAL - £412.66

I'd go for that if you're up for spending the whole of your £400 budget (+£13), if not then I'd downgrade the CPU.

[ikix]

Prices from scan.co.uk:
LN21658 - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800MHz), Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, DHX - £68.90
LN13881 - Scythe Miné Quiet Heatpipe CPU Cooler S478, S775, S754, S939, S940 compatible - £23.84
LN19754 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L, iP35 Express, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, ATX - £56.27
LN22762 - Antec Three Hundred Case - £40.53
LN21218 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.66GHz, 1333MHz, 12MB Cache, Retail Assassin's Creed - £223.12
TOTAL - £412.66

I'd go for that if you're up for spending the whole of your £400 budget (+£13), if not then I'd downgrade the CPU.

Wouldn't bother with the Q9450, just get a Q6600 (saving about £80) and probably an Abit IP-35 DarkRaider is a better motherboard for just £10 more. That way you can save money or decide to use the extra stuff on something fancier case-wise or even another 4GB of RAM (bit crazy but will show itself if u are going to multitask stuff while playing games or do some heavy graphics/video stuff)

[djglenn]

CPU: Intel Q6600 ~£130
Motherboard: Abit IP-35 dark Raider ~£65
RAM: 2GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 ~£30
Case: Coolermaster CM690 ~£50
HSF: Scythe Mine~£25

Credits to staffsMike from the The HEXUS.hardware £500-or-less computer building thread!

If you research reviews on all these parts, they're all top spec.
You could however change the ram but you'd want to change the timings and voltage anyway.

Just out ot interest, where did you get these prices from? Is the Scythe Mine better than the stock cooler? Is it still good if the Q6600 were OC to say 3GHz?

Thanks all for your help so far!

[Thorsson]

The Scythe Mine is way better than the stock cooler. There are other options, but this seems to work well in a case with good airflow judging by Blitzen's temps. He has an Antec 900. The 300 suggested by Eddd is a cutdown version of this. The CM690 is probably better unless you need a small case or want to save £10.

[djglenn]

thanks for the help so far.

I notice a few people refer to the Abit Dark Raider mobo, but why? I had a quick glance and I believe it lacks PCI Express 2 compatability? Also notice it doesnt support both DDR2 & 3 memory types.

[Thorsson]

You don't want a mobo that supports DDR2 & DDR3 types, because that means just two sockets for each and they're usually cheap and nasty too. By the time DDR3 is worth having for any but those with money to burn, you'll want a different board in any case.

[djglenn]

Just out of interest, is there much benefit of 1066MHz DDR2 Ram to the DDR2 800MHz, if both are close enough in price? (remember I have been using 400MHz for the past 2 years)

[Eddd]

I'd go with 800MHz and save the money that you'll save in doing so for a bigger and more noticeable upgrade later.

[Blitzen]

The Scythe Mine is way better than the stock cooler. There are other options, but this seems to work well in a case with good airflow judging by Blitzen's temps. He has an Antec 900. The 300 suggested by Eddd is a cutdown version of this. The CM690 is probably better unless you need a small case or want to save £10.

The Scythe Mine is a GREAT cooler.
I am about to adjust my temps as the were taken in colder weather but the results were still mighty impressive.

I loaded Prime 95 (new 64Bit edition) and stress all 4 cores too 100% for 4 hours.

Results:
Idle: Cores Range 30-33 degrees C
Load: Cores Range 47-50 Degrees C
Ambient Room Temperature 24 Degrees C
(I will post up some Everest screenshots of these later on when i get home)

For £25 thats great temps. As Thorsson says though, the Antec900 Case has terrifica airflow and that helps ALOT

Just out of interest, is there much benefit of 1066MHz DDR2 Ram to the DDR2 800MHz, if both are close enough in price? (remember I have been using 400MHz for the past 2 years)

Not if you are getting a Q6600. If you are clocking to 3.6ghz, with 800mhz RAM, you wont even have to clock the RAM to hit it

[Eddd]

I loaded Prime 95 (new 64Bit edition) and stress all 4 cores too 100% for 4 hours.

Results:
Idle: Cores Range 30-33 degrees C
Load: Cores Range 47-50 Degrees C
Ambient Room Temperature 24 Degrees C
(I will post up some Everest screenshots of these later on when i get home)

Are those temperatures with the fans on your antec 900 all on high?

[Blitzen]

Are those temperatures with the fans on your antec 900 all on high?

Nope.
All set to low.

The Antec 900 does have a 'non-obvious' design flaw though.
The fan that can be attached to the side window(although it doesnt come with the case) actually has a detrimental effect on the airflow.
If you get the Antec 900, dont bother attaching one. Just be happy with the 200mm top fan, the 2x120mm front fans and the rear 120mm fan.
Have them all set to LOW and the make the effort with the cabling being tidy (although mine isnt that tidy) and your temps should be sweet.

The fans are so big that anythig more than low just isnt needed.

[Eddd]

Nope.
All set to low.

The Antec 900 does have a 'non-obvious' design flaw though.
The fan that can be attached to the side window(although it doesnt come with the case) actually has a detrimental effect on the airflow.
If you get the Antec 900, dont bother attaching one. Just be happy with the 200mm top fan, the 2x120mm front fans and the rear 120mm fan.
Have them all set to LOW and the make the effort with the cabling being tidy (although mine isnt that tidy) and your temps should be sweet.

The fans are so big that anythig more than low just isnt needed.

Pictures of the inside of your 900?