finally, building a new rig...

my family finally is giving me the go-ahead to build a new rig. i will be reusing some parts from my old comp.

heres what im getting:

-Intel Pentium 4 640 (3.2Ghz) - ive seen most 640's go above 4Ghz.
-Asus P5WD2-Premium motherboard - this is one of the best motherboards for intel so far.
-3D Fuzion Nvidia Geforce 7800GTX - lol its the cheapest one on newegg, and i want the best because...well just look at my current video card!
-2x1GB (2GB) of PQI Turbo DDR-667 Dual-Channel RAM - best bang for 2GBs and high FSB.
-NEC 3540 DVD-Burner (silver) - my bro has one in black and it writes dvd-r DL's.
-Western Digital Raptor 74GB SATA - apparently, its one of the fastest HD's out there.
-Thermalright XP-90/90C (havent decided which) - need to reduce the heat b/c its a stupid presHot

im reusing my case, PSU, 1x160GB seagate HD, cd-burner, and maybe monitor.

is this a good setup? i really want to get to 4ghz with the 640. i hope the ram i picked will make it to at least 250FSB on 1:1 ratio.

thanks for any comments/questions/suggestions!

On the RAM, I would bump it up to 2GB. You can get some PQI in 2GB for less than the 1GB of that Corsair, and it's really good RAM. Lots of guys are having great results with it, and they're having grwat results on that very same board you are using.

Yes, that's a heck of a system. No doubt about that. You've got a winner picked there.

On the RAM, that's really up to you, but personally I would go with the 2GB PQI, and if you can afford a little higher pricetag, there is a some great Mushkin RAM that is also giving great OC's.

If you are going to be gaming with thelatest games, or flying flight simulators then the extra gig will really help.

I can vouch for that PQI ram, i'm using 2GB of pc 5400 turbo running at 700MHz! This ram is awesome for the price. $181.99 for 2GB
EDIT: Nasgul beat me to it......

wow ddr2 memory is really cheap

What I'm afraid of is with that 8000 advertised speed on that RAM. My bet is it won't OC, and then he'd have to run a divider, and then he wouldn't be getting full use out of the RAM to OC the chip. For that kind of money it should run 3:5 at max OC, but I doubt very seriously it'll do it. I'd almost be willing to bet money on it.

thanks for the comments guys! i think i will get 2GBs of ram.

ill be taking a look at the PQI later tonight. gotta bit of stuff to do first.

will the pqi memory get me to at least 250FSB? i hope it works in the asus mobo im getting...

will the pqi memory get me to at least 250FSB?

Click to expand...

Yes it should. That stuff looks like a really great deal, it will be in my next rig if I stick with Intel again. I know I definitely want to upgrade from 1gb to 2gb of ram

I'd probably dump the raptor also and maybe get one of the Maxtor drives that has 16mb of cache. I know for me the raptor would not have enough space to install my programs on (mostly games,) and anyways I've heard those things are a bit on the loud side (high-pitched.)

That 3D fuzion card looks pretty good doesn't it? I have two BFG cards and love them, I'm tempted to try that same card that you are planning on (despite the shorter warranty/lower clocks) because the price is just so right Looking forwards to your results.

alright, the PQI memory it is...i really hope it gets me to 250FSB.

the raptor is for booting windows and installing games and programs. the music, movies, and other crap is on the 160GB seagate im reusing. is the maxtor and/or western digital SE much better than the raptor?

bastula said:

will the pqi memory get me to at least 250FSB? i hope it works in the asus mobo im getting...

Click to expand...

Guys are running that exact same motherboard with that PQI. As you know, there are never any guarantees with OC'ing, but they are getting oustanding results with it.

As I said earlier, mushkin also has some very good OC'ing RAM. OCZ does also. I would recommend going into the Memory forum and watching things closely. Memory is very important when OC'ing as you already know, and memory is constantly changing. By the time you order it could change again. Look at people's clocks, not necessarily what the memory is rated at. Also look at memory bandwidth benches from guys using that same board.

Memory is one of those things that will either give you great OC's or will kill an OC and make you have to use the dreaded divider. With this new DDR2 there is no reason why you should have to use a divider if you pick the right one.

Definitely stay away from RAM that has words like "Value RAM" or "Budget" and things like that. Picking the right RAM is an important as picking the right mobo, CPU, and Video Card. Most OC'ers are fanatical about RAM, becasue it's the one thing that can stand in front of a great CPU OC. These Intel's OC to very high FSB's so you really have to pick one that can handle very high FSB's.

You might wanna ask the guys which RAM will give you a 300FSB OC. That may sound high, but on some of these chips it's not...especially the 6xx chips. The 6xx chips can really go man. On water they are even better, and on phase they clock to incredible speeds.

I'm RAM limited right now, and I hate it. I have to run a 5:4 divider just to run 245, and it sucks. I will not make that mistake again. When I ordered my RAM, they were putting BH5 on it, and then all the sudden changed what IC's they were using, and didn't tell a soul. Infineon IC's are a far cry from BH5. What I basically bought was XMS Corsair Ram, but I got cheap "Value Ram" for the premium price I paid for it. Infineon IC's are the very same IC's they put on their cheapest RAM. I could've paid 100 dollars less and got the same thing.

I won't be making the mistake of not digging very deep, and really doing my homework on RAM again in the future. That just goes to show how important it is.

I debated on a Raptor but decided to get two Hitachi 7K80's on raid0. The two drives together cost about $50 less, you get more disk space 160vs74, they are SATA 2, and according to HDTach, the raid outperforms the single Raptor. Just a thought.