Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 build

[xpronic]

Rght my current system has just packed up....well my GFX card has (7800GTX) and I'm tempted to just sell the parts of my current X2 system to build a new Core 2 DUO system.

I plan on building the system around the Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 since I've heard very good things about it. I want to spend about £1000 on the internal parts of the system like the CPU (duh! =P), RAM, MOBO, GPU, and PSU.

What parts should I consider buying with the E6600? I plan on overclocking it on air (watercooling not my thing lol), and I'm looking for a relatively cheap GPU to use with my 24" monitor. No point in buying a top end card now since DX10 is only months away lol.

Parts that I have chosen so far:

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600
Asus P5W DH Deluxe / Asus P5B Deluxe



TIA

[arthurleung]

You sure you want to spend a thousand for something not a whole lot faster than your X2?

[taqies]

Wow...what a dignified way of spending money..

[ExceededGoku]

I know its OCUk but they have pricing and stuff for unreleased stuff: I was looking at this personally:
CPU: Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN) £252.57
MOBO: DFI Infinity 975X (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-020-DF) £152.69
RAM: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-092-CS) £156.86
PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W ELT620AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-024-EN) £99.82
GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP) £260.79


Total: £922.73


*GPU: and I would buy an X1900XT - you said you wanted cheap but you need to think about ATis pyshics implementation where they use ur old gen card for physics the btter your old card is the better the framerate in physics intensive game. It's months away but always nice to future proof

**NOTE to arthurleung, I am an AMD fanboy and I am impressed with core duo... so...

[sawyen]

Its your money really... But wouldnt it be better just spending £400 for a new 7950GX2? I bet the results will turn out much faster than spending £1000 and gaining a few measly max and average frames..

Just my 2 pence..

[aidanjt]

**NOTE to arthurleung, I am an AMD fanboy and I am impressed with core duo... so...

The first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem

Thou I dunno why people feel they need their very own "help me build a new conroe rig" threads. There's two already, probibly a good idea to read em, my recommendations wouldn't change much between the two.

[-ChEM-]

PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W ELT620AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-024-EN) £99.82

the silverstone st60f is cheaper, more powerful, quad rail, more stable and modular

*GPU: and I would buy an X1900XT - you said you wanted cheap but you need to think about ATis pyshics implementation where they use ur old gen card for physics the btter your old card is the better the framerate in physics intensive game. It's months away but always nice to future proof

seeing as the ageia card is theoretically better than the GPU solutions in the future when physics really kicks off and it only uses the PCI bus i dont think that is necessary at all, ATI recommend a low range card, an x1600 as the x1300 is discontinued (btw HIS have just brought out an x1300 in an x1 PCI-e slot for this kind of thing)

**NOTE to arthurleung, I am an AMD fanboy and I am impressed with core duo... so...

is it worth spending at least £400 to upgrade your 939 system for though? obviously there are people with old systems that need a new cpu, ram and mobo and there are people that use cpu-intensive stuff... but it seems most people (everyone into computers that i know in RL and most people on here) have a decent 939 system that gets used for stuff which would barely be different after a £400 conroe upgrade... basically if the only intensive stuff you do is games and you have a limited supply of cash conroe isnt good value... and AM2 is even worse

[xpronic]

is it worth spending at least £400 to upgrade your 939 system for though? obviously there are people with old systems that need a new cpu, ram and mobo and there are people that use cpu-intensive stuff... but it seems most people (everyone into computers that i know in RL and most people on here) have a decent 939 system that gets used for stuff which would barely be different after a £400 conroe upgrade... basically if the only intensive stuff you do is games and you have a limited supply of cash conroe isnt good value... and AM2 is even worse

Well I do re-encode a lot of movies from my digicam and DVDs, as well as tracks from my large selection of CDs.

Its your money really... But wouldnt it be better just spending £400 for a new 7950GX2? I bet the results will turn out much faster than spending £1000 and gaining a few measly max and average frames..

Just my 2 pence..

Well I'm not really going to spend £1000, but going with the intel root, I know it's going to be expensive to buy the parts (MOBO, DDR 2). Plus I don't see the point in me spending £400 on a new card when I can add about an extra £300 for a new (Faster) system. I might just buy a second hand 7800 GTX / 1800 to tie me over until January / February.

You sure you want to spend a thousand for something not a whole lot faster than your X2?

Well I had a X2 4400 when they first came out before it died on me, I returned it for a X2 3800 and used the money I saved for the 7800 GTX.

Wow...what a dignified way of spending money..

It's great isn't it? Tax refunds FTW!

Thou I dunno why people feel they need their very own "help me build a new conroe rig" threads. There's two already, probibly a good idea to read em, my recommendations wouldn't change much between the two.

Argh, sorry didn't see those. I will ask all further questions in those threads.

[kalniel]

It's no problem about the new thread - each person has their own specification and priorities so it's actually quite helpful to have individual threads.

If it's a theoretical 'what's the best complete build' etc. type post, then maybe adding to an existing thread is better, but if it's actually for your own use with your own existing equipment etc. then it avoids cluttering someone elses thread

[sawyen]

But spending £700 on an Intel Core 2 base system wont translate to better performance really..

I mean, one u have a E6600 system with a 7800GTX, which incidently u said your old GTX has given up on you.. so lets say u get Exceed's rig.. a E6600 with an X1900XT.. which adds up to say £800-900 if you shop conservatively..

Alternatively, spending only £400 for a 7950GX2 on your already super fast X2 rig would give you so much more speed.. I know that when comparing apples to apples.. E6600 still gets the cake.. but does that extra 10fps worth £300-500 more added on top of £400 for a new system?

[aidanjt]

Well, if all the OP does with his computer is play games all day then there probibly wouldn't be much of a point upgrading to Conroe at this point, but as he's already pointed out he does a good deal of media intensive work, in which case an upgrade would definatly help there.

[-ChEM-]

if you spend lots of time watching progress bars a good chip is always nice

btw i was going to say, why did you choose the E6600, midrange chips have never been the best in the past

wait until OC results start coming in and you could get faster for cheaper

[arthurleung]

You may not know, but I'm also into quite a lot of encodings

I would recommend you to do the following:

Buy your conroe rig and move your GPU over, buy a cheap card like 7300GS for your X2 rig.

Use your X2 rig for encoding (please, be more environmental friendly), and if you need more speed, use the conroe rig to encode too (4 threads total)

That way you get slightly faster gaming (on Conroe rig), twice as fast encoding speed (maxing out both rigs), higher performance/electricity ratio (in terms of encoding), or encode + gaming at the same time.

That's what I'm doing with my 3 rigs, if I need the speed I turn them on, if I don't I turn them off

[aidanjt]

if you spend lots of time watching progress bars a good chip is always nice

btw i was going to say, why did you choose the E6600, midrange chips have never been the best in the past

Simple, specifications, 4MB Shared L2 cache, a multiplier of 9 isn't too high (or too low!) for overclocking, and since they run colder than an eskimos nads they should overclock quite nicely, and it's the CPU 'sweet spot' in the Core2 range at only £250.

[kalniel]

Agreed - the cache looks like it makes quite a difference for conroe. The E6600 is the slowest one you can get with the full cache.

[xpronic]

You may not know, but I'm also into quite a lot of encodings

I would recommend you to do the following:

Buy your conroe rig and move your GPU over, buy a cheap card like 7300GS for your X2 rig.

My GPU is dead X_X.

Use your X2 rig for encoding (please, be more environmental friendly), and if you need more speed, use the conroe rig to encode too (4 threads total)

That way you get slightly faster gaming (on Conroe rig), twice as fast encoding speed (maxing out both rigs), higher performance/electricity ratio (in terms of encoding), or encode + gaming at the same time.

That's what I'm doing with my 3 rigs, if I need the speed I turn them on, if I don't I turn them off

I was planning on selling the parts from my X2 system that won't work with the E6600, mainly the CPU, MOBO & RAM.

How good is the 7600GT at playing the latest games at 1280 x 1024? I don't want to buy another top end GPU now for my 24" monitor, when DX10 cards are just around the corner.

I was planning to keep my 7800GTX until late 2007, ohwell.