New Build Advice

[Kerotan]

Hi All, looking to upgrade some of the Key components in my rig, and just wanted to see what people thought of my choices or if anyone has any reccomendations to suggest.

The system will be used for primarily Gaming, also light CAD/3D Modelling/Graphics work, Media and music production, so it needs to be quite multi purpose.

This is the stuff I currently have:

Case: Antec 900
PSU: Corsair HX520
HDD: 2*160GB HGST's (SATA II, 7200, 8MB Cache), few 40GB IDE's for backup/ media storage
Optical: Emprex IDE DVD Burner (works fine for now, will eventually replace lol)
GPU: XFX 7900GS 256MB (currently seeking advice on a cooler, see this thread)
Monitor: 19" Cibox, 1440*900 @ 75Hz

And this is what my upgrade list currently looks like:

Motherboard: ASUS P5Q-E
CPU: Intel E8400 OR Q6600? - I can't decide because the quad may be more future proof- but virtually all the apps I use are Open-Source and atm do not offer quad-core support, also the higher-clocked dual will outperform it in almost any game.
RAM: 4GB G.Skill DDR2 PC2-8000 TT - all suggestions similar in price are welcome
CPU Cooler: I'm looking for something which will give me a healthy OC when I need it, but most importantly something which is quiet [obviously a lot of this is down to the choice of fan used with the cooler]. I have been looking at the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 which seems to be pretty decent, the TRUE which I'm not sure I can justify spending the extra over the Xiggy, especially as no fan is included, and also the old contender to the throne, the Tuniq Tower 120, which I like aethsetically and is still a pretty decent cooler in its own right. I'm not too keen on its looks, but I can't ignore how well it did in Hexus' LGA775 cooler roundup, so I am still considering the Thermaltake Big Typ 120 VX as well. I have removed the side panel fan bracket from my 900 so all coolers should just about squeeze in.

Thanks for reading, all suggestions are welcome

[staffsMike]

The fan on the xigmatec is silent as such. It's pretty good though. If you can can pick one up on a today only for £17 you could buy a yate loon for about £4 anyway

I use the scythe ninja in my quiet PC, it's fan is quieter than the stock antec tri-cools on low and can be run passive even with relatively small overclocks.

I'm not going to get into the quad/dual debate but if you don't want to do any heavy multi tasking, like using the programs you want to simultaneously giving a core or two to each then you are probably not going to notice much difference between dual and quad.

If you do choose quad however, I'd personally get the E7200. 2.5Ghz out of the box with easily enough overclocing potential to get you to 3.5Ghz (3.8GHz even, without pushing too hard). As it comes with a 1066MHz FSB you can also change the RAM to PC6400 saving £10 - £15.

On the sugject of RAM I would try to get some with standard height heat spreaders. These tall ones can conflict with certain HSF's on certain motherboards.

[Emirzan]

Your motherboard supports crossfire but not SLI and you're using an nVidia graphics card. Are you planning to upgrade to 2 ati cards in the future? Or were you thinking of adding another nvidia card, if the latter you'd be wise to pick a different board that has SLI support.

If you aren't going for any kind of multi gpu setup you could save a few pounds by dropping to a board with a single PCI-E 2 x16 slot.

On the sugject of RAM I would try to get some with standard height heat spreaders. These tall ones can conflict with certain HSF's on certain motherboards.

What would you consider a standard size heat spreader? Is the one typically fitted to corsair ram, such as here, a standard height?

[Kerotan]

Your motherboard supports crossfire but not SLI and you're using an nVidia graphics card. Are you planning to upgrade to 2 ati cards in the future? Or were you thinking of adding another nvidia card, if the latter you'd be wise to pick a different board that has SLI support.

If you aren't going for any kind of multi gpu setup you could save a few pounds by dropping to a board with a single PCI-E 2 x16 slot.

Cheers, I'm thinking about possibly 2 4870's at some point in the future when the price is attractive enough to do so, and when I get a larger monitor. I know the 7900GS isn't blazing but it still runs most stuff OK on my current monitor and I got it for £35 so I'm not looking to upgrade in a hurry.

@staffsMike: I was thinking about the RAM, but with the orientation of the tall-narrow type HSF a la TRUE, if I position it so the hot air is blown upwards out of the top exhaust fan on the 900, then it should have its longside parallel to the RAM if you get what I mean, although I wouldn't mind looking into one of those OCZ ram coolers if I got ones with smaller heatspreaders.

[staffsMike]

Standard size heat spreader would be this (standard height) http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=402849

[Nelsaidi]

Youd be better of trying to buy it all from one retailer as it saves you money on the delivery and the hassle of waiting for it to deliver at different times. I would say e8400, its faster and can be heavily overclocked . The memory is good tbh, as for the mobo, i dont know, im getting it on tuesday and hopefully it will be good, in which case i would recomend it

[staffsMike]

I wouldn't debate the fact the E8400 is better, but the E7200 is better bang for bucks given it's overclocking potential.

[Kerotan]

OK, well I'm putting through an order for some case modding parts at ChilledPC, and I thought I might as well chuck in some thermal paste whilst I'm at it. Can anyone reccomend me some good stuff, I've heard people recommend both AS5 and MX-2 as top-dog, but ideally I'd want one which won't fluff my motherboard/graphics card if i spill a little [non-conductive].

Well I did a little research and in the end I went with the MX-2, so hopefully should do the job.

I now have a new problem, which is that the fit for most tower-style heastsinks is pretty tight, not due to tall memory but because of the large heatsinks surrounding the CPU on the ASUS board. I have found that owners of a moderate heatsink such as the AC Freezer 7 Pro have had to bend several of the lower fins in order that the heatsink fits. I was wondering if anyone knows the relative clearance of the HSFs suggested earlier- which one would be the best?

[Kerotan]

I am now almost 100% sure on the P5Q-E as my choice of motherboard, but I'm still no nearer deciding between the e8400 and the q6600, or what RAM to use.

I'm actually thinking the Thermaltake Big Typ 120 might fit the best out of all the aforementioned coolers, but still not sure tbh.

[staffsMike]

The xigmatec is easily the best compromise. I'm not a big supporter of the top down coolers. Im my experience they only aid warming up the chipset and don't perform as well as the tower coolers do.

TRUE will give you pretty much the best temps on air. Scythe give you a great compromise, Xigmatec give you very good bang for buck

My money would be on the quad but I could make use of all the cores most of the time. Otherwise the E7200 will be best useable bangs for bucks.

4GB of PC6400 of decent brand RAM will serve you well with either of those setups. Overclocking the E8400, should you choose to go that way, may benefit from PC8000 - PC8500.