New computer bits, reassurance/suggestions

Well, I'm not really looking for suggestions. I'm a student, I'm virtually always skint apart from loan day, which just came. I can stretch to a budget of 380-400 pounds (UK here) and this is what I've got right now: (it's also in my sig, but meh)

Intel Pentium 4 Prescott 3.0GHz 2MB HT
2GB DDR2 667MHz
Asus P5LD2 SE R2.0
Innovision 8800GTS 320MB
oodles of disk space...
Crappy 700W PSU
Lian Li PC-65 case

The prescott is the most horrid part. This is the reason why I want to upgrade, it is seriously holding me back in games, and long compiles are just getting annoying now. The 8800 isn't even breaking a sweat on full settings because of the CPU... Anyway, unfortunately I can't find any information on whether my current board can actually support a Q6600. I know it can do the FSB and everything else, but I can't even find one other person who's tried it and found out. Otherwise I could save a bucket by not getting a new mobo in the selection I have chosen:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail --- £168.01

MSI P31 Neo2-FR Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard --- £52.86

OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit --- 2x £56.38

OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply --- £52.86

Thermalright Ultra-120A CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775) --- £25.84

So that's the list. I know it's not good ram, a good mobo, but that's my budget. Anyone think the overclock is going to be possible on the nice little Q6600? Any other suggestions, or if anyone can find out if my P5LD2-SE R2.0 can take a Q6600, I would love to find out!

Any way you can change that motherboard to a p35 based one? I know that Gigabyte has one in the 45 pound range...I have no idea how the P31 overclocks.

Never heard of the memory brand before either, any reason that you need 4gb? I recently stepped down from 4 to 2 and won't look back for awhile.

I'd also change out the power supply to a Corsair (if you can get those).

I do need 4GB for Lightwave (monster 3D CGI app), 2GB is still limiting for many of my uses.

I've looked at the gigabyte range, but from the supplier I can get to, it's not available in my price range.

I also wish I could afford a corsair PSU!

DanFraser said:

I do need 4GB for Lightwave (monster 3D CGI app), 2GB is still limiting for many of my uses.

I've looked at the gigabyte range, but from the supplier I can get to, it's not available in my price range.

I also wish I could afford a corsair PSU!

Click to expand...

Ah, well, that throws all my ideas out the window

If you need 4 gig and can't get a better motherboard/psu for that price range, I'd say it is good!

I would get an E6750 and a P35 mobo. That way you have a good clocking mobo and a chip that doesn't need very good cooling...

To be honest, I'm not too particular about overclocking, it'd be nice, but stability is my main aim.

If you are going to overclock at all, make sure that you have good quality RAM to ensure stability.

At stock speeds almost any old RAM will do...

Other than getting some well known RAM, that setup of yours is great IMO!

OcUK ram is rebadged stuff from overclockers.co.uk. I bought some once and it had a crucial sticker underneath...

DanFraser said:

OcUK ram is rebadged stuff from overclockers.co.uk. I bought some once and it had a crucial sticker underneath...

Click to expand...

ha! mine too!

there's no point buying the retail version of the chip and the thermalright heatsink, if you're not planning on overclocking, dont worry about the 120 ultra, just lap your chip and stock HSF and you'll be fine at stock speeds (you could get the arctic freezer 7 for just over a tenner for almost the same performance as the ultra 120....)

you can get a 550W corsair PSU from scan.co.uk for £56

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=664337

in fact, if you bought all your stuff from scan.co.uk it might be cheaper overall (they're usually a couple of quid cheaper than overclockers) you might save enough to get a p35 board!

I have one problem with buying elsewhere - everywhere else doesn't do nip to their place and pickup. I have no card to pay online

DanFraser said:

I have one problem with buying elsewhere - everywhere else doesn't do nip to their place and pickup. I have no card to pay online

Click to expand...

shame, overclockers are pretty good though, and I reckon you'll be fine with the OCZ psu, several of theirs are recommended for power and stability, I've thought about the same one myself, bang for buck you can't get much better

my point about the retail version of the chip still stands, if you want to overclock, get the OEM version and buy a decent HSF (remember you'll need a decent 120mm fan for the thermalright 120 ultra) if not, drop the thermalright from your list. These new chips run really cool so even the piece of junk intel call a heatsink can handle it!

Ok, nice little update for ya!

My budget got cut a little bit more, but not by much. It's pretty much the same as above but for an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro and another PSU.

Guess what the idle temps were, for quite a while? 22c... Not kidding.

I've just been running four instances of prime95, to see what the full load is. Current forecasts are:

Separate update, separate post...

Working within the limitations of my motherboard (until I can get round them ) I have now bumped the FSB straight up to 320 and I am now at very similar temps at 2.88GHz