mobo/graphics/noise/cost

[Nudey]

Right then, building my new system, have been for a few weeks infact trying to get prices that are right and waiting, but the waiting game is terrible for pcs, new stuff is always around the corner, and prices seem to bounce around a bit.

currently i have e6400 + 2gig of ddr2 ram, sitting a box, looking pretty but unopened.

The reason, no motherboard or pci-e graphics card.

Now i want to overclock when i get the cpu into a board, so i have been eyeing up the p5b deluxe as it seems to review the best overall, but at £130 anywhere i look i cant help but feel that maybe the £95 gigabyte ds3 would do me just as well. Hows the difference with the updated bios settings on them both now?

the graphics card is being a bugger too, ocuk sometimes shows up decent looking deals on this week only, and the 7900gs seems to be a good performance for price, it was £123 on scan but since i pressed the information button it magically went up to £130, only a few quid i know

im no hardcore gamer but i also would like a card that would last atleast a fair while, fps games are the ones i mostly play, at the moment i am running a p4 2.66 with a 9800pro, its served well for about 3 years.

so far i've spent around 290 on the ram and cpu, and i wasnt really wanting to break 500 when i decided to upgrade but i didnt realise at the time just about evreything needs replaced, ideally i'd like to keep my 350watt enermax psu, but i was going to add a new hdd, however with the p5b + 7900gs + hdd from scan it came to £320 exactly.

thats with stock cooler on both graphics card and cpu, which im not sure is really going to get overclocking done too comfortably (not really overclocked before, but all the sites where people do they always use a 3rd party cooler)

the rig will be used for gaming, 3d rendering and apps such as photoshop and flash, any ideas where to get the best price performance from? is the mobo worth downgrading from p5b deluxe to gigabyte? and the cooling solutions, scythe ninja seems not to be stocked anywhere, and the zalman fan would add about £24 on to the graphics card price

this thread could probably be split down to 2 lines or 6 topics, but oh well

[arthurleung]

350W won't be enough as the 7900GS is a lot more power-hungry than your old 9800Pro. the E6400 will be a bit more than your P4 2.66Ghz (and a LOT more if you overclock)

If you're looking for best bang of quid then the DS3 will serve you well.

7900GS is a good choice but you can get a 7900GT for just a bit more.

It depends on your budget.

You will definitely need a new power supply at least 430W rated (probably Hiper/Tagen) and 480W recommended if you're planning to do some heavy overclock.

While the Intel stock heatsink is pretty decent, check what is your CPU temperature now.

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
You can calculate power usage with this calculator
(Make sure you assume capacitor aging as you are planning to run the machine for quite some time, and it will have to be still enough after 3 years)

For example, at full load your CPU is at 50 Degrees, if you increase the clock speed by 50%, you will get another 50% more heat, i.e. your CPU will reach 65 Degrees (more if you also increase the voltage)

In summary, there will be a few things limiting your overclock (from less important to most important):
1. Motherboard
2. Memory (Using a lower divider works but affects performance)
3. Power supply (Less stable 12V rail could damage other hardwares)
4. Cooling (Pretty much the most important factor)

For 340 pounds you can buy:
£47 for a Hiper 530W PSU
£95 for the DS3
£130 for the 7900GS
£67 for Seagate 7200.10 320GB

That will be your bare minimum to get your system working.

If you are spending more time in Photoshop and Flash then it may be better to move down to a 7600GS (£74), then spend £30 on a CNPS9500-LED and another £6 on a Hiper 580W PSU.
You could run your games at a lower setting to get up to acceptable FPS.

[Nudey]

I got to around 459 watts :O

thats with 25% capacitor ageing (not sure what would be a realistic number to put in there) and 7900gt as the gs is not listed yet. would a good branded (tagan for example) stable 430watt psu actually cover that fine do you think?

how do the hiper power supplies do as noise goes, silentpcreview and the like certainly like the seasonic, but then the higher wattage inevitabley comes the higher price, my system is no aeroplane (it was in my old case) but i realise a change in all my parts will totally change the noise that is generated anyway, thats why 3rd party coolers are going to play a part at some point, although not vital just to get the system off the ground.

the overclocking since i haven't done it is going to require a lot more reading up on my behalf soon, and will be more conservative i imagine from the ones i've read about anyway, im not sure if just anybody can get an e6400 up to 3.4gig stable or if its people that actually know what they are doing and have experience in ocing

the ram is 2gigs of geil pc2-6400 4-4-4-12

as far as i can tell the graphics card is going to have to be around the 7900 / 1900gt level to achieve frame rates im happy with for a decent time, im not sure whether to factor in dx10 cards being not far off and go for the cheaper option now, as the waiting game sucks, and really i dont think the features will be used for a good while yet anyway.

its hard to tell what mobo to go with, i would have the money to get the p5b, but then i dont want to spend over the odds just because i've got the upgrade bug only to realise a few weeks after getting it that i really shouldn't have bothered.

how does the bog standard (none deluxe) p5b stand up to overclocking, there is even an intel board for £87 that i cant find much info about. Fanless cooling on the mobo and good stability with room for overclocking is probably all im looking for, as well as a good life span, ideally i dont want to be switching motherboard in a year or two. I already have an external sound card that does the job required, although better quality onboard wouldn't hurt, i just use headphones or plug it in to my reciever via the spdif connection.

the hdd i have been looking at so far is a 250gig western digital one with 16mg cache

[arthurleung]

You better not buy the Intel board as they are not designed for overclocking (i.e. little options in BIOS). I don't own any Conroe boards so I can't comment on those boards.

Really a 480W is not a lot more expensive than a 430W so there is not much reason not to go for the 480W unless you're really tight in budget. If you intend to add another harddrive the extra watts would come in handy

The Hiper PSU is not noisy at all.

Most people in SPCR run machines at stock clock and undervolted, therefore their CPU is practically silent. Or alternatively they're running water cooling with giant radiatiors with like 3x12cm low speed fans. Thats why they can hear the PSU fan buzzing (which is the case with the Hiper PSU).

At over 3Ghz the Conroe's cooling requirement means the noise level from the CPU fan easily drown the PSU fan (with the exception of water cooling) so noise from the PSU is not a huge factor.