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New Conroe Setup

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bohansen

Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Yo, just wanted some input on a new system that i'll be making within the next few days hopefully.

Just some stuff i put together today after being up to date on most things for the last year or so

CPU : Intel E6400
MOBO: Abit AB9 Pro Socket T
Ram: Corsair XMS2 1gb 240pin DDR2 800 (pc6400)
Video : Saphire x1800gto2 512mb
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320gb SATA
Monitor : Samsung 204B 20.1"
Drives: Lite-on 16x DvD Burner.. (figured that i wouldnt need a dvd drive since i can just use the dvd burner for the same thing)
Case : Antec P180B black

total it comes out to about $1300

My price range is 1500 so any help or recommendations would be helpfull..
 
Get a Gigabyte DS3 or Asus P5B, they are supposed to be the best for the 2MB Conroes. The DS3 is a good board for the price you just have to get ram that will boot at 1.8V - either a cheapo part then change the setting in Bios or a regular part that will boot at that. The P5B deluxe is kind of expensive, there aren't many reports on the non-deluxe version does although I did find one thread at xtremesystems showing the latest Bios update makes it oc well.

Consider going with a 2GB ram kit as well.
 
p5b does not oc as far as the ds3 does. if you have the money the p5b-DLX ocs like mad without mods. other then that if $150 is about your range stick with the ds3 or if you would like the option of cf/sli the dfi infinity is 188 at newegg. Im about to give this ab9 to my mom or something atm the max oc i can reach is 280fsb not to mention the board doesnt like haveing the ram run in dual channle mode. gives errors in windows, dont believe me go read over at abit's site in the forums.

here is my thread on the board.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=472002
 
Looking at the parts he's chosen I'm assuming he doesn't have the extra 30-50 bucks for a P5B Deluxe.

I had hell on earth getting everything running on my DS3... in Windows XP. Everything worked fine in 2003 server.

But the Lan drivers installed in the temp directory... the lan drivers for 2003 server were ZIPPED (thank goodness windows has built-in unzip these days)... the Gigabyte SATA driver that comes on the CD doesn't work... there's more I'm sure.

Through eternal vigalence everything's running fine now and I can say it's a wonderful board once it is running. Only has two fan headers though... I want to add more fans but I have no idea how. The Abit probably doesn't have more. The asrock didn't either.

I was able to get 352FSB on stock volts with the Intel Heatsink/Fan. On an E6400 that's 2.8ghz. And that was with standard timings and without trying. Once the board is up and running in Windows I have yet to see it go down... unless because of overclocking instability.

There currently isn't another board in america (if you're in America) that can touch it at its price range. If you're in FINLAND however... you can get the TPForce Biostar that will walk all over it... if you're in Finland.
 
Evilsizer said:
p5b does not oc as far as the ds3 does. if you have the money the p5b-DLX ocs like mad without mods. other then that if $150 is about your range stick with the ds3 or if you would like the option of cf/sli the dfi infinity is 188 at newegg. Im about to give this ab9 to my mom or something atm the max oc i can reach is 280fsb not to mention the board doesnt like haveing the ram run in dual channle mode. gives errors in windows, dont believe me go read over at abit's site in the forums.

here is my thread on the board.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=472002
actually you've got it bakwards lol
ds3 doesnt oc as far as the ds3 does
i just rid mine because it wouldnt go further than 430fsb, granted some get higher but EVERY p5b-D gets above 500, if your talking the regular p5b - i hear they just released a new bios that ocs very well tooo
 
I think the AB9 series sort of got a bad rap initially. Yes, there was some memory issues, but they released BIOS 1.1 a while back that fixed some of the problems and they just released 1.3 which should really help. Not much available that is cheaper.
 
d94 said:
actually you've got it bakwards lol
ds3 doesnt oc as far as the ds3 does
i just rid mine because it wouldnt go further than 430fsb, granted some get higher but EVERY p5b-D gets above 500, if your talking the regular p5b - i hear they just released a new bios that ocs very well tooo
ok lets take the bios out of it then. say we wont see a bios update for 4-6months. now at this point in time would you rather be stuck with 430fsb @$150 or pay $250 just to get 500fsb. to me the xtra money for 500fsb is not worth it. the day of $100-150 killer ocing boards are gone, im talking like the days of the Abit AI7.

batboy said:
I think the AB9 series sort of got a bad rap initially. Yes, there was some memory issues, but they released BIOS 1.1 a while back that fixed some of the problems and they just released 1.3 which should really help. Not much available that is cheaper.

i am using 1.3bios and no it didnt help it was the same as bios1.1 for me. while the board will do 300fsb all day with dual fah and not give errors the moment i try to run dual 32m pi it resets evertime no matter what voltages. if you also check abits forums alot of people are still haveing problems tring to oc the board. pretty much it does what it does at stock and does it great. i personally love the board but im tired of being near stock speeds. funny thing is one guy at xs had his allendale running at 2.66ghz with 7900gt same speeds as my 7900gt and with my small oc to 2.2ghz i was getting 3k points higher then him in 3dmark01 and about 1-1.5k higher in 05/06.
 
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Evilsizer said:
ok lets take the bios out of it then. say we wont see a bios update for 4-6months. now at this point in time would you rather be stuck with 430fsb @$150 or pay $250 just to get 500fsb. to me the xtra money for 500fsb is not worth it. the day of $100-150 killer ocing boards are gone, im talking like the days of the Abit AI7.



i am using 1.3bios and no it didnt help it was the same as bios1.1 for me. while the board will do 300fsb all day with dual fah and not give errors the moment i try to run dual 32m pi it resets evertime no matter what voltages.
then i suppose its up to how much $$$ one is willing to spend
i spent $220 shipped on my board and got it in to days, worth the $70 for all the extra's imo
id have to mod that ds3 if i wanted to run the fsb @ that speed because the nb cooler got burning hot and that would run me about 30~ for a WB
so, to me its worth 30 bux more to just get a board thats got awsome cooling, wifi (im sure ill use it), dual pci-e, and the 500-550 fsb potential unmodded
 
bohansen said:
Yo, just wanted some input on a new system that i'll be making within the next few days hopefully.

Just some stuff i put together today after being up to date on most things for the last year or so

CPU : Intel E6400
MOBO: Abit AB9 Pro Socket T
Ram: Corsair XMS2 1gb 240pin DDR2 800 (pc6400)
Video : Saphire x1800gto2 512mb
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320gb SATA
Monitor : Samsung 204B 20.1"
Drives: Lite-on 16x DvD Burner.. (figured that i wouldnt need a dvd drive since i can just use the dvd burner for the same thing)
Case : Antec P180B black

total it comes out to about $1300

My price range is 1500 so any help or recommendations would be helpfull..
the things in red is what i would change. namely the video card shortly here the x1950xtx with gddr4 mem is out suppose to priced around $300 from guru3d.com review. if you want cf later look for a 975x board dont even consider the 965's. asus p5w-DH or IMO the dfi infinity, my next mobo to finally start ocing this e6400 is looking more towards the DFI board i like the layout alot and the price is 188 at the egg. I might consider the p5w-dh if i can get enough money later on.....all up in the air
 
Evil, I know you are having bad luck with your AB9. Maybe it's a lemon. But, I've seen others getting good overclocks with the AB9, especially with the new BIOS. I would probably not recommend it if you want max O/C, but I have no trouble suggesting it for a budget Conroe build. In fact, I'll probably put an AB9 in a system I'm building for a buddy at work who just wants a modest default vcore O/C with quiet cooling.
 
I would definetely spend another $100 for 2gigs of ram and the other $100 if you would like on a better gfx. I am not sure on the graphics though as I don't know anything about that card or any non flagship ati cards for the matter.
 
batboy said:
Evil, I know you are having bad luck with your AB9. Maybe it's a lemon. But, I've seen others getting good overclocks with the AB9, especially with the new BIOS. I would probably not recommend it if you want max O/C, but I have no trouble suggesting it for a budget Conroe build. In fact, I'll probably put an AB9 in a system I'm building for a buddy at work who just wants a modest default vcore O/C with quiet cooling.
im not looking for max oc im just looking for a board to do around 400fsb. i figured this board would be able to do it. imma give its sometime though, cant quit figure out whats going on. Well on waiting when i rma the board hopelfull i will get a c2 step 965.
 
Wow thanks for all the input guys. Well about the vid card i was thinking about switching it for a x1900xt but i thought that the gto would have been a better bang for buck if i could flash it.

Also, getting another gig of ram seems like a really good idea.


This is what i'm coming from.

AMD 3500+
asus a8v delux
1gig corsair ram
6600gt

Not a bad computer , but with all this new stuff i'm sure i'll cream myself when i start gaming
 
bohansen said:
Wow thanks for all the input guys. Well about the vid card i was thinking about switching it for a x1900xt but i thought that the gto would have been a better bang for buck if i could flash it.

Also, getting another gig of ram seems like a really good idea.


This is what i'm coming from.

AMD 3500+
asus a8v delux
1gig corsair ram
6600gt

Not a bad computer , but with all this new stuff i'm sure i'll cream myself when i start gaming
indeed you will...as when you can start gaming with aa and af on @1280x1024 you wont go back to non aa or af. Trust me, i cant!:)
 
Yea i seen that myself, but i never did a MIR before, so idk.

How long would u think it would take to get the rebate ? and WOULD i? :p


Also, is that ram i picked out decent? it seems to be good, and i used corsair ram in my last build and it did me fine (though i didnt OC much, did at the begining but after a while i just left it at stock)
 
I've never heard anything bad about MSI rebates so I would be fairly confident you would get it. It could take 4-8 weeks though.
 
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