Questions regarding my folding/gaming rig...

Guys, I have a few doubts...My cpu has arrived and I still lack the rest of the rig basically
I have an I7 2600k, and no cooler whatsoever, that's all.

-Memory-wise I'm not sure of what would be best for ppd: I can get a cheap 2x4gb Mushkin Silverline 1333mhz cl9 kit, or a bit more expensive -but cheap too- Patriot Viper 1866 2x4gb kit cl9 also. Suggestions?

-Motherboard...hmmm I was thinking on getting an Asrock Z68 Extreme 3 gen3 for future compatibility with pci-e 3.0 and Ivy cpus, plus it offers good bang/buck ratio, I think. What do you think?

-PSU...this should be one of my priorities as it'll be on most of the time. I'm thinking of getting a good, reliable 550-650w unit. Would you say the Antec VPBasiq series is good? Or this Gygabyte 500w psu?
Again suggestions are welcome.

-Cooling: I was thinking on buying a Venomous X I found for dirt cheap -I'll run stock clocks on passive cooling for a couple of days once I get the mobo/ram/psu (then buy some good dual fans and overclock)

-GPU: I'm not sure if folding with the gpu would be worth it with a 2600k chip...what do you think? Also, most likely I'll get a 7950/70 card when the time comes and I upgrade my crt 15" monitor to a 22" LCD @ 1080p

So, to sum it up, I'll be running stock clocks for a while, and onboard igpu too, at 1024x768 or similar for a month or two, whilst doing my SMP folding.

What do you think?

Thanks!

If you don't have the itch for playing BF3 at high resolution, I'd say it is a wise choice.

In a couple of month, plenty of new GPU's will hit the market, from Kepler to 7XXX low/mid range cards.

Memory makes a bit difference in FAH. My 2600Ks run with 2133 CL9 or CL7 ram. Speed amkes a lot more difference than latency. GSkill is my current ram of choice.

The ASRock board should be fine.

I'd looK at corsair PSUs. I have a junk pile of PSUs. It contains mostly Antecs. Ive never had a Corsair fail.

Thermalright makes good stuff, so the Venomous X should work well. I don't know what dirt cheap means, but bang for the buck, the Cooler Master H 212+ is hard to beat.

If you want to fold on your GPU, avoid AMD gpus. I don't run gpus on my 2600Ks.

I think I won't fold on my gpu, it seems to be poor for kwh/ppd ratio.
I'll try to find a Corsair psu, I'm tight on funds at the moment.
Also, I thought of getting an AMD gpu, first because of the reviews the 7970 got, and second because of Bitcoin -Perhaps I'll take a shot at that-
I chose that VenX at 60usd shipped instead of the Hyper 212 evo/+ because in Buenos Aires the VenX costs 120usd, and the cm hyper 212+/evo is around 50usd...and adding a couple of fans would cost me 10 bucks.
So, you reccomend the Patriot 1866 kit? I'd rather get a 2133 gskill kit, I don't care bout latencies either...it's not an AMD rig after all
Am I on the right track then? Got your blessing guys?

manu2b said:

If you don't have the itch for playing BF3 at high resolution, I'd say it is a wise choice.

In a couple of month, plenty of new GPU's will hit the market, from Kepler to 7XXX low/mid range cards.

Click to expand...

I'll do some gaming but at 1280x960 or so...till I save for the monitor and discrete gpu.

It may be interesting to wait and check the different new nvidia and amd cards...I normally prefer Nvidia, since 3dfx died and hating Nvidia for a couple of years -till I got my geforce2 and could finally run Soldier of Fortune 2 and Mount & Blade with good fps on my PIII 600b/VC820 mobo with rimm memory... That replaced my good ole voodoo3 3500agp which was killer since the year 2000.
Enough rant for the day

Also funny to note...my CRT lost it's base during its life-span. So now it stands on two woodblocks! It'll be the creepiest and more ghettoish 2600k rig on Earth -till I get a monitor, a full-tower case and/or I build an acrylic cube/case/thingy-
I'll post some pictures when I get the thing up and running...in all its stages.
Also, I'll be buying a Corsair sata2 64gb ssd -idilinx controller- and a 500gb hdd -almost forgot...you thought I was about to run Linux on a ramdisk!? -

ivanlabrie said:

Also funny to note...my CRT lost it's base during its life-span. So now it stands on two woodblocks! It'll be the creepiest and more ghettoish 2600k rig on Earth -till I get a monitor, a full-tower case and/or I build an acrylic cube/case/thingy-
I'll post some pictures when I get the thing up and running...in all its stages.
Also, I'll be buying a Corsair sata2 64gb ssd -idilinx controller- and a 500gb hdd -almost forgot...you thought I was about to run Linux on a ramdisk!? -

Click to expand...

Ghetto? Look at this one

I think you are good to go. Solid setup for a start.

manu2b said:

Ghetto? Look at this one

Click to expand...

Man, that's actually quite nice in a obscene way xD
My current case has tons of star wars stickers, 80mm sunon maglev fans, some cardboard ducts and hand-cut-ripped apart fan grills with all and rough vein cutting edges xD
Oh, and it has a top handle for lan parties
It used to house my sold 4ghz 24/7 prescott 478 rig, paired with a 6200agp card xD

Please, please, you've got a photo to post, right? I haven't seen it but I like it already!

Leonardo said:

Please, please, you've got a photo to post, right? I haven't seen it but I like it already!

Click to expand...

I'll post some now...

ivanlabrie said:

I'll post some now...

Click to expand...

Here you go!
You'll have a good laugh...

Here you can see my Core I7 inside pet rat: Coffee, my mutant case, my sunon fan and titan blower that used to cool my hard drive and 6200 agp card and my Hynix golden ram that did ddr500 on stock volts , my I7 chip, my freaky CRT monitor and a home-made mosfet sink that used to be attached to my p4p800-e dlx vrm.



ps: pics were taken with my Moto Q so don't expect sharpness...

You just made my day, thank you! What's your furry friend's name?

That's my pet rat Coffee...I also have a chinchilla, two guinea pigs, a dove I rescued that couldn't fly and didn't know how to it by itself yet, a dog which is half pointer half mutt and a turtledove. And also a girl who lives with here with me -people call her my wife- xD

An interesting household. Two questions:

Did the dove ever learn to fly?

How's the noise from that blower?

I took the dove out of its cage for a fly and now he's starting to gain height, much better...I've had him for a week now. I'll free him in a few days I guess, it'll be hard, he's such a nice feathered guy
The blower is not noisy at all...only a woosh of air. I once tried to attach it to blow air onto the center of my XP-90 and it did a GREAT job, cooling the same as a 92mm panaflo with only 20cfm, against 80cfm or something.
I never got my Hoot chute style blower, but I wanted one so bad back then xD

I have to go to the bank and get a loan or something, otherwise I'll have to wait till the 28th to buy the rest of the rig...and also I have to pay the rent today!
But well...I got the cash for that already.

There's a question for ya. How come we use so many fans, and so few blowers, in our cases?

So many are feeling the big pinch in this economy!

Adak said:

There's a question for ya. How come we use so many fans, and so few blowers, in our cases?

So many are feeling the big pinch in this economy!

Click to expand...

I feel the same too...blowers are MUCH more effective to move air accross obstacles/heatsinks/air filters and less noisy whilst doing so, cause of the "directed" airflow vs the more turbulent airflow fans produce.

Actually,I've just reseated my father-in-law's P4 640 heatsink and re-applied thermal paste cause his cpu was reaching 75ºC and throttling/restarting.
That lowered his temps during prime95 blend test to 55ºC max -mild oc = 210mhz fsb-
Then I added the blower as a second case exhaust fan, right below the mosfets -over the agp slot- and the cpu temp lowered to 50ºC...

So he now has a negative pressure case with air coming in through the open pci slots, cause the side panels have no holes whatsoever.

Great rat rig Ivan, literally and figuratively

I'd seen those blowers and considered buying one (or four) but heard they were loud so didn't. Yours is pretty quiet?