New Rig Advice

Hi guys,

I need to decide what components to get for my next system and am looking for some advice and suggestions.

I fly X-Plane quite a lot and build planes and scenery for it also, usually at the same time - therefore I am decided on a quad core CPU, but not sure which one!

I'm undecided between the Q6600, Q6700 or one of the newer 45nm Quad's. I think that decision would come down to price.

I plan on OC'ing the CPU as much as possible on air, whilst keeping it 24/7 Prime stable. I have never been one to buy the best and most expensive gear out there, so, as nice as a Striker Extreme would be, i don't think i can warrant the extra expense.

I have no idea which mobo to go for, ideally it will allow for a bit of future proofing so PCI-E 2.0, 45nm CPU support, and both DDR2 and DDR3 memory support will allow a couple of upgrade routes in the future. I have no use for SLi, but have always been a fan of nForce chipset's, so some advice on a chipset for my purpose would be most appreciated!

As for RAM, I want 4Gb's, preferably in 2x2Gb sticks to allow for a further 4Gb in the future. I have no idea what type or speed to go for, i guess it will depend on what will work best with a Core 2 Quad overclock, I see no point in getting PC8400 if I'm not going to make use of it, or will I?!

I'm going to need another PSU, something around the 700w area, I don't think I'll have the need for anything more, especially when I wont be looking at Sli.

I currently use a 7900GTX and will probably stick with it for the time being until i have some more cash for a replacement, so no need for GPU suggestions for the time being!

The only other bits i can think of are an HSF and HDD, I'll probably just get the most reasonable 250Gb SATA drive I can and use that alongside my current IDE drives. That just leaves the HSF!

Any suggestions would be most appreciated, I'm finding the massive selection of differently compatible parts a bit mind boggling at the moment!!

Thanks in advance!

Well you raise one good point and ruin it with another :D

You say you won't need PC8500 (which for the Q6600 and Q6700 is certainly true) but you want to leave room for DDR3? There is no point in haivng DDR3 with a core 2 setup that I can see unless you are into insane, post water cooling overclocking.

I would get a P45 board. If you're really into overclocking then this one
http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=884418

PC8500 however might be handy for getting the very most out of the 1333MHz Core 2 Quads (45nm's).

Which CPU to go for...
I'd probably still get the Q6600 but if the budget allowed for it maybe the Q9550.. nothing inbetween for me though.

If you want something more feature rich then the Asus P5Q-E or Deluxe are pretty nice.

Hard drive wise I would either get a 320GB single platter (Samsungs are easist to find, available from scan) or a 640GB Western Digital Caviar Blue which is currently £44 on scans today only page and a fantastic buy as these amongst the fastest and quietest drives around :)

Okay first things first, Intel are about to release i7 which changes the socket to 1366 so the is no upgrade path if you buy a socket 775 CPU and motherboard now, that said if you have an overclocked quad it will see you well for a couple of years at least I would think.

So assuming you still want to look at the currently available chips (the new CPUs motherboards and DDR3 will set you back a whole load of cash!) I would be looking at the following,

CPU: Q6600 - £120 - Should overclock to mid 3GHz on air, the Q6700 will not really go an further.
Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro - £90 - P45 chipset much better than the nVidia offerings for overclocking.
RAM: 4GB of Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 - £50 - You will not need anything faster due to the low FSB of the Q6600
HDD: Western Digital 640GB AAKS - £48 - Storage is cheap :) and this drive is fast and quiet.
PSU: Corsair HX520W - £65 - Modular for easier cabling you will not need a larger PSU than this for an OCed quad and a single graphics card.
CPU Cooler: Scythe Ninja 2 - £30 - Large but quiet. or Thermalright Ultima 90 + 120mm Fan - ~£30 - smaller tower but very efficient needs a quiet 120mm fan.

Ok so thats my suggestions only other things I will mention are the majority of modern motherboards come with a single IDE channel so that means a maximum of 2x IDE devices, personally I would just move to SATA a DVD writer is less than £15 and I have already speced lots of storage.

DDR3 is a waste of money for the current Intel CPUs so don't even consider it an option, by the time you need to upgrade again DDR3 or maybe even DDR4 prices will be more realistic.

Finally if you are going to be overclocking make sure that your case has sufficient airflow the best coolers in the world will perform mediocre if the case air gets to hot!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by staffsMike

Well you raise one good point and ruin it with another :D

You say you won't need PC8500 (which for the Q6600 and Q6700 is certainly true) but you want to leave room for DDR3? There is no point in haivng DDR3 with a core 2 setup that I can see unless you are into insane, post water cooling overclocking.

PC8500 however might be handy for getting the very most out of the 1333MHz Core 2 Quads (45nm's).

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Thanks for your reply!

I think I may have confused the issue with the DDR3 bit. It may not be worth it, but my thinking was that if I had DDR3 compatibility I could do my next major upgrade in several stages, instead of having to buy all the main components again. i.e change to DDR3 in the future when the price comes down, and keep hold of that in the event of me getting a Nehalem. (hopefully that clarifies it a little, and doesn't confuse the issue further!!) What would be best in this respect, get a DDR3 compatible mobo to allow me to upgrade gradually, or just accept that i will need to upgrade everything again for the Nehalem chips, and not worry about it for the time being?

Thanks for the mobo suggestion, i'll add it to the shortlist!

In my opinion getting s DDR2/3 board is a compromise to your system as I believe the P5K-C which did this was a bit flakey. Might be wrong.

I just wouldn't bother. The gradual upgrade won't save you any money in the long run unless you snag a real bargain. If that happens just put it to one side and wait until you are ready to upgrade everything else :D

Future proof.. gradual upgrades.. all a bit of a false economy to me but that is just my opinion.

I forgot about the PSU and HSF before but Webby has said what I would have.

500W is more than enough for any single GPU setup right now and that PSU is a peach. Buy it from scan and you get 5 year warranty straight to them so limitted shipping costs :)

The scythe ninja 2 would be my choice as it comes with a fantastic fan and is altogether one of the best HSF's i've ever used (I have the older Ninja but the 2 is just better..).

Thanks for those suggestions Webby, i'm liking all of those bits!

Thanks for the clarification on the DDR3 thing too chaps, I'm from a long list of tight-arse's so i always try to keep some kind of upgrade route open and never look forward to paying out for a complete new system, maybe i'll get used to it one day!!:embarrassed:

I hadn't noticed that the newer boards only had 1 IDE port, so thanks for pointing that out! A few suggestions for a decent dual layer DVD would now also be appreciated!

Going back to the PSU, am i right in thinking that there is no 100% reliable adaptor for the Intel 8 Pin plug? I currently have a 520w OCZ Modstream, a very nice unit but lacking an 8 pin! Would be nice to be able to keep hold of it if poss!

Many thanks fellas!

You only require the 4pin (even if the board has an 8 pin) but obviously if the board has 8 pin and yo use it then you get the benefits of the potential for more power, you will not need it so I wouldn't worry about it.

The samsung available on Scan for £14 is good enough not really all that much to choose in DVD drives, some people are saying the pioneer drives are quieter but they cost a bit more ~£17 and I am currently using a Samsung the Optiarc I had previously was quite a bit louder but it didn't bother me wouldn't have replaced it if I hadn't snapped the sata connector off!