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Recommend me a C2D mobo/CPU/RAM combo

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Illah

Illah

Member
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Joined
Mar 26, 2002
Location
San Francisco
So I've never built myself an Intel system and I've largely been out of the OC'ing game for a 1.5 years so I'm way behind the times. I hear the C2D's are 15-20% faster than AMD these days so I just want to see what's possible on Intel. What I'm looking for is bang for the buck - the best cheap chip that can OC like mad. I don't need a record breaking system. Here's what I'm looking for:

- Decent CPU
- Decent mobo with RAID-0 (required) and firewire (a plus)
- 2GB of RAM

Budget is around $300-400 or less if possible, rebates are fine.

Thanks!

--Illah
 
I'd suggest an E2140/2160. For about 80 bucks these suckers have been reported up to 3.0ghz from 1.6ghz on stock cooling.

Motherboard, Gigabyte 965P-DS3 is getting pretty cheap, but someone else may have better suggestions for those.

Ram right now is pretty cheap as is... I'd say some G.skill or maybe these guys (50.00 MIR!)
 
e6750 ($194)

P35-DS3R or DS3P (if you want firewire, but it'll put you over budget a bit) ($130 or $150)

Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 ($80 AR)
 
You budget is for just CPU, mobo, and RAM? Don't forget the PSU, you'll probably need to upgrade that too.

Prices are from newegg.com (might find better prices if you shop around).

CPU: E6550 $179 free shipping

Motherboard (has firewire and RAID): Asus P5K $135 + shipping
Budget Mobo (no firewire or RAID): Abit IP35-E $115 ($75 after mail in rebate) + shipping

RAM: 2X2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 4-4-4-12 $110 ($85 after mail in rebate) + shipping

The E6550 is the new G0 stepping and should O/C very well with good cooling (budget a decent heatsink).
 
Cool, thanks for the suggestions. So from what I can gather, the G0 stepping is where it's at? Anyone having good luck getting that stepping from a particular store? Would that E6600 deal be a G0?

Thanks!

--Illah
 
Sorry, I'm totally new to Intel :)

Edit: Anyone have a link to a general explanation of the Intel chips? I'm seeing E2xxx, E6xxx, X6xxx, etc. and am a little confused as to what the differences are.

Ah, remember the good old days when MHz were all you needed to think about? Damn model numbers :)

--Illah
 
Last edited:
How much are you willing to spend? IF you're just gaming, I suggest a 680i board as opposed to an Intel board. Better memory bandwidth, Intel has better hard disk performance. And 680i's you can go SLI down the road, while the X38 is still being speculated whether or not to have SLI (i've seen reports where they are saying definite, while others saying definitely not so my conclusion is, no one will know for sure til they're out.)

The E6xxx, the 1st x is the low-medium-top model based on pure mhz. the second x is the baseline bus speed, with the 0's being 1066 and 5's being 1333FSB.

How much are you willing to spend is better question because it's hard to say because E6850 and Q6600 being same price, etc etc.
 
I'm trying to spend as little as possible, preferably around $300 :)

While I do game, the real reason I need the horsepower would be video editing and other similar work (basically rendering, massive video files, etc).

--Illah
 
E6400 = 2.16Ghz 2MB L2
E6420 = 2.16Ghz 4MB L2

the xx50's are 1333 FSB

I'm not sure on the RAID abilities, but the Base DS3 is just $105 on newegg, it says 0/1 SATA RAID. An open box DS3 will only be $80

RAM: See above posts...

CPU: Really up to you on how much you want to spend, the E6550 looks nice for the price, cheaper and faster than a E6420, but a 1333bus.
 
Then I advise the intel board, if that's your main focus. Not to say either board performs worse vice versa, but their advantage over the other is as previously stated.

You can't really go wrong with any of the p35 boards, and you can't really go wrong w/ any of the new Intel chips, but like people have said, the E2xxx series is pretty good bang for the buck.
 
There's an E6400 in the FS forums that's reputed to goto 3.5GHz on air, I might jump on that. Price is right too :) What do you think (and don't go stealing it from me now ;) )?

As for the RAM that 2x1GB Patriot with the $50 rebate seems to fit the bill...

So I guess if I can nail down a mobo I might be set. I checked out all your suggestions and they all seem good, what's one of the better ones as far as OC'ing goes?

Thanks,

--Illah
 
E6420 OC'd @ 3ghz on stock volts and stock cooling.

That's how mine is running now. ;)
 
E64xx seem to usually be able to clock 3-3.2

3.5 is nice, but do you want the 2MB less cache? 1-2MB is a big difference, 2-4MB is less, maybe 1-5% I believe in some applications. I know there's a chart somewhere...

imo the extra speed if you can get it that high will offest the lesser amount of L2 is has.
 
I think E6400 to 3.5ghz is optimistic. It might be on air, but he must have great ambient temps, lots of fans in optimal configuration, even though it's... optimistic.
 
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