Cheap OC micro-atx system with Q6600 or E8200?

[MÜSLI]

Hey guys,

I want to build a cheap gaming photshop surfing PC with as much bang for the buck as possible. After a long time on the internet i came to the following two configurations(I live in germany so price is in€):
PC1:
CPU: E8200 120€
RAM: G.Skill DIMM Kit 4GB DDR-1000 67€
Cooling: Thermalright SI-128 SE 34€

PC2:
CPU: Q6600 120€
RAM: TeamGroup Elite DIMM Kit 4GB 55€
Cooling: Water??? ca.80€

The E8200 should go up to 4ghz and i hope and wnat to go for a 3,6-3,8ghz 24/7 setting. The Q6600 is more of a problem with heat I hope the watercooling fits.
Question1: Anyone has an idea on a different cooling solution for both versions? The limiting factor is the height it´s 120mm in total minus 10-20 for MOBO and CPU so 100mm max for the cooling solution.

PC1 and PC2:
MOBO: either Gigabyte GA-Q35M-S2 76€ or Gigabyte GA-G33M-S2L 60€ Question2: Is the Q35 worth the extra cash for better OC(i heard if internal graphics disabled it performs like a p35 chipset)?
GPU: any suggestions welcome. I have trouble with this one i just dont know what to do it got to be small because of m-atx but it also got to be powerfull.
I want to be able to play crysis with high detail!
CASE: LC-Power 2039MB 40€ any suggestions on an other case?
Question3: Is 380Watt from the case enough for a Q6600? because there is no way to upgrade this component or only at unreasonable prices.
So what do you guys think is this possible at all?

Thanks,
Jakob

 

[Evilsizer]

if you can get it over there consider the E7200. other wise for gaming/photoshop get the PC1 you put up. with the MATX G33/G55/Q33/Q35, they oc the same the differnce is the onboard graphics.

starting gpu would be a 9600GT, if you got the money get a 8800GTS 512mb. GL!

 

[MassiveOverkill]

Asus P5E VM HDMI, this overclock is with 8 Gigs of RAM btw.



Ultra Micro Fly for the case, can fit an Ultima 90 or water cooling:

 

[MÜSLI]

wow thats one good looking and tight packed thing. How´s the CPU temp. diffrence between water and air cooling in this case? It think I´ll go for the e8200 because the e7200 is only 10€ less. And the case wont change to because it´s the cheapest one available. So the MOBO is going under a change i´ll take a 20€ cheaper g33 chipset. The amout of RAM is well chosen it´s more than enough for me.

 

[MassiveOverkill]

Thanks. Unfortunately water cooling both the video and CPU isn't much better than good air cooling with a single 120mm rad, although cooling just the CPU or GPU but not both is better than air.

 

[MÜSLI]

I bought the following stuff 2 days ago:
CPU: E8400 (the E8200 was only 10€ cheaper)
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Q35M-S2
RAM: Team Elite 4gb DDR2 800mhz
Cooling: Thermalright SI 128 SE
HDD: Samsung F1 750gb
Sound: X-Fi Xtreme Music(they send me the UAA version by accident and i think i wont send it back)
Case: LC-Power 2039MB

everything is here and up running. The CPU is at about 30°C. The cooling does not fit perfectly in the case because it´s 3mm to high. I think i will mod the case a bit so that i can close it. I will now have a look at the bios if it is possible to OC. Does anyone know if a "pin" mod is possible on this CPU´s in case that it is not possible to oc with the mainboard?

 

[MassiveOverkill]

Post some pics when you get a chance. I purchased that mobo for my GF's work PC and was able to mildly OC her Q6600 to 3.0 Ghz. I haven't tried for more since it's only using a cheaper Masscool heatpipe heatsink.

 

[MÜSLI]

Jesterday i installed a G92 8800GTS. It does not fit properly because it´s 2cm to long so the case will be modded a bit further^^ but it looks sweet when installed.

Pic´s wont come this week I think(maybe some of the case). I did a bios update jesterday and it went wrong i did this ago and i never had a problem but now all my boad does is diplaying something like this:
AWARD Bootblock BIOS
Searching for BIOS on Harddisk...

No matter what I´ve done it does not stop saying this and it is not searchign anything at all it does not work with USB stick diskette HDD CD. I found out in the internet that this is common in Gigabyte boards and that i have no option than to send it back to the store and hope that they give me a new one back. So I´ll send it back today and because i bought this one cheap on the internet the support will take 15-20 days i think.

@MassiveOverkill how did you OC with this board? I searched the bios and did not find any options to OC

 

[MÜSLI]

I got a new board and everything is up and runnign again...but there are no OC options on this board...The only options that would help with an OC are:
CPU clock ratio (x6-x9)
SPD (2,0/2,4)
CPU voltage (1,20v-1,60v)

But nothing else even after going into "advanced" mode in the bios. Maybe the new beta bios would help but i tried this once and it meade my board unuseable

 

[MÜSLI]

I´m thinking about a bsel mod. The picture shows the bsel mod i think would fit for my cpu

Would this work with my CPU? And how risky is this?

 

[Evilsizer]

if you indeed did get the gigabyte? If so then padding will not work, pad modding has never worked on gigabyte boards.

Otherwise yes that would work and there are no risks. As long as Pads are not miss connected.

 

[MÜSLI]

THX for this info Evilsizer! Jes i got the gigabyte board...hm i dont like where this is going...does anyone know if beta bios from gigabyte has more OC options? And there is no way of pad modding on gigabyte boards? What will happen in the worst case? board is booting up at stock settings?

 

[Evilsizer]

THX for this info Evilsizer! Jes i got the gigabyte board...hm i dont like where this is going...does anyone know if beta bios from gigabyte has more OC options? And there is no way of pad modding on gigabyte boards? What will happen in the worst case? board is booting up at stock settings?

yea worst case it boots but only at stock or doesnt boot at all. if it were just about any other board pad modding the cpu would take. somehow the gigabyte board ignores what the cpu says it is.

 

[benbaked]

Most likely it won't boot, it'll just sit there with spinning fans. People have politely requested Gigabyte to change their stance on this behavior and instead they repeatedly give their canned "overclocking not supported or guaranteed" response. It's kind of odd that the BIOS gives you voltage options, but no FSB adjustments. Did you try pressing CTRL+F1 in the BIOS to access hidden options?

The latest BIOS for that board is F3c, it's still a beta and was released on 12/26/2007. Nice one Gigabyte.

My advice if you want to overclock, return that board if you can and get a microATX by any manufacturer except Gigabyte. The ASUS P5E-VM is pricey, but from what I've seen that particular Gigabyte board is damn expensive too...the ASUS might even be less expensive and it is a far better motherboard for overclocking.

 

[MÜSLI]

Ok THX for all this help...it seems that you are right. I just did the bios update to F3a Beta bios and nothing changes in the bios(even with ctrl. F1) Just the optios i got with the F2 bios... hm i think that they wont take it back now because I´ve had it for to long...

So every other board will work with a bsel mod? The price is not that high with this board and if the price is 50€ or 70€ i dont care as long as it is stable and has OC options^^


I did some further research on my current board and found out that it is vPro every board that was released bevore in this series was not...maybe the non OC options are something intel requires for this "special" feature...and the ASUS is vPro to so maybe this does not work too...i think i will buy a cheap G31/G33 board if you had to chose between the following producers:
Foxconn
ASUS
ABIT
MSI
Gigabyte
wich would you choose?

I really apreciate the help of you guys!

 

[MÜSLI]

Here are the requestet pic´s