New member, new systems, etc etc.

[webdevour]

And so on, and so forth. These are all worth reading. If you don't take the time to read these, then you're not respecting your fellow forum members' time.

Done, and understood. It's part of the basic forum concept, right? If you don't want to read/respond, don't. The only person who can make you waste your time (online) is yourself.

Besides, other things can be brought up in posts; that's the beautiful thing about discussion forums.

EDIT: Guys, don't get the wrong impression about me just because I'm new. I'm a very open minded and accepting person, and will listen to your suggestions because I don't want to screw anything up with overclocking or water cooling, which are the only new concepts to me.

 

[johan851]

Cool. I hope you understand that I'm not trying to come down on you or be a jerk, and I'm happy to help with specific stuff. It's just easier on everybody if you do some reading first, and you'll end up learning a lot more from that than you would in this thread from a bunch of short, unexplained answers.

 

[webdevour]

I think it's my style/habit that has everyone here agitaged.... I like to gather information and then look at it, that reply you posted with all the links was what I was looking for. There are just so many stickies, and half of them are dated to 2005 I'm almost afraid to use them for reference.

 

[inkfx]

Those watercooling stickies dating way back are still fine for gathering information. Unlike computer hardware liquid cooling doesn't change all that much. It's like learning to build a computer; pretty much the same method each time just new/improved parts.

 

[PrometheuSBoxeR]

I noticed your planning on having 4GB in your off-computer. I definitly don't see any benefit of having 4GB over 2GB in a outdated computer.

I like most of the stuff, what are you going to be using your computer for?

I'm not sure why you went with a older chipset on your motherboard, as well as basicly joining the bandwagon on the E6850 vs Q6600s.

 

[webdevour]

I plan on 4GB in this machine just to keep it current with the times, I don't feel like 2GB won't be lasting me much longer.

Mainly gaming, but a little of everything (Photoshop, video editing, media center)

Older chipset? There is something newer than 680i? Crap I'm way behind. Now I guess I just need to figure out a good overclocking motherboard, Digital SP/DIF Out would be nice but not necessary as I'll be getting a soundblaster.

EDIT: Would the IFX-14 fit on this motherboard? It doesn't look like it to me...

 

[fritzman]

I plan on 4GB in this machine just to keep it current with the times, I don't feel like 2GB won't be lasting me much longer.

Mainly gaming, but a little of everything (Photoshop, video editing, media center)

Older chipset? There is something newer than 680i? Crap I'm way behind. Now I guess I just need to figure out a good overclocking motherboard, Digital SP/DIF Out would be nice but not necessary as I'll be getting a soundblaster.

Re the 4Gb... great idea, but realistic only if you plan to use 64-bit XP or Vista otherwise you may as well stay with 2Gb (32-bit only recognises 3-odd Gb)

4Gb is perfect for photoshop/video stuff, as is the Quad-core (either Q6600 or X3220) but definitely source yourself a GO stepping (not B3) if you can... should overclock higher/run cooler.

680i... move onto the new P35 chipset boards... I have just grabbed an Asus P5K-Premium board and absolutely love it. There are a whole range of boards running this chipset, but stay with the major players = Asus / Gigabyte / Abit. Make your decision again by what you read (most seem to be using Asus & Gigabyte) and the level of fruit you want hanging off the board.

These boards (mostly) come with the ICH9R chipset onboard, which enables you to be running an Intel Matrix with your harddrives. There is an awesome (if not long) thread (here: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=467848) dealing with the Matrix, started by bing and is well worth a read. In short, there are huge benefits in having 3 or 4 identicle drives which the array treats as one, then you divide it up into a Raid0 partition (for your O/S, App's & swapfile), and the balance in either a Raid1 or Raid5 array.

You have a big read ahead of you, but for the use you are talking about... it will be worthwhile.

 

[shirker]

There are a whole range of boards running this [P35] chipset, but stay with the major players = Asus / Gigabyte / Abit. Make your decision again by what you read (most seem to be using Asus & Gigabyte) and the level of fruit you want hanging off the board.

I couldn't agree more, current P35 chipset offerings from all three manufacturers have all proven their excellent performance, especially when overclocked.

For the same price as the MSI P6N Diamond pictured above (I assume that's what it is), you could settle down with a cheaper Asus P5K deluxe, Gigabyte ga-P35-DQ6, or an Abit IP35 Pro (with $75 to spare). either three of those are miles ahead of 680i chipset boards when it comes to quad-core performance

 

[webdevour]

Who makes the P35 chipset, is that VIA? I haven't been reading up on the new motherboard chipsets.

On this machine I am already running Vista, so the 4GB is a definite upgrade. Only thing is this board doesn't support DDR2 so it'll have to be old DDR400 RAM.

And thanks for the board suggestions, I'm always open to money-saving opportunities

EDIT: And yes, that is the MSI P6N Diamond.

 

[fritzman]

P35... Intel all the way!

 

[webdevour]

I updated the list with a new motherboard. I chose the MSI P35 Platinum because, frankly, MSI has been a good company to me. Now, I'll take considerations for good OCers and whatnot, but I'd prefer to stick with MSI. Call me silly.

 

[JamesXP]

I've always had bad experiences with MSI and I don't know much about how they are today or if there boards are up to scratch.

The current widely used P35 boards are the:

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3/R/P
Asus P5K Premium
Abit IP35 /Pro/Non Pro.

 

[fritzman]

Don't know about 'bad' experiences, just they don't seem to have been on the cutting edge lately with the likes of the main 3 (Asus/Gigabyte/Abit).

Great chipset though, and if I know MSI... there will be plenty of fruit with the board. Will be interesting to see some results.

 

[shirker]

early MSI P35 Platinum boards were absolutely crap when it came to overclocking. be sure to get a revision 1.1 P35 platinum, as rev. 1.0 couldn't overclock worth a damn.

 

[webdevour]

Thanks for the replies, all good info! I'll definately keep you guys updated, but it probably wont be built for another few months.

 

[shirker]

Thanks for the replies, all good info! I'll definately keep you guys updated, but it probably wont be built for another few months.

be prepared to switch and change roughly half of your selected components so far then

 

[fritzman]

Thanks for the replies, all good info! I'll definately keep you guys updated, but it probably wont be built for another few months.

As Shirker said mate... if you are serious about not building it for another few months... why the heck didn't you say so earlier... We've all been trying to be helpful, but I'd have to say you probably shot yourself in the foot a bit (well at least I didn't pick up that sort of a delay anyways...)

Given that the new X38 chipset will most likely be out by the time you assemble your rig, and who knows what the pricing of (even) bottom-end DDR3 will be by then, plus you will most likely only be able to buy GO stepping cpu's by that time, and believe me... you want one of them...

You may want to consider returning bits & pieces if you can, and waiting.

 

[webdevour]

No, I haven't ordered any parts other than cooling for my current system.

I planned on building a Q6600/Xeon rig in the next couple of months, and then building a K10 rig after a couple of revisions (which should be at least a year, right?). Should I just focus on upgrading/maintaining my current rig and wait until the K10 altogether?

EDIT: How would this do for an upgrade?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3001041&CatId=1948

 

[PrometheuSBoxeR]

Good review on the MSI P35 Platinum new revision, thought you might find some of the information interesting none the less.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/31/msi_p35_platinum_makes_a_comeback/

 

[webdevour]

Oh wow yea, supposed to be one of the best overclockers. I can't wait

We continue to use our early-stepping Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 for overclocking stress tests, which is a part that constantly challenges motherboard stability by not having much FSB tolerance. Top boards typically push it to 3460MHz at a 10x multiplier and 1.50V core, and the highest FSB we've reached in recent months was 459MHz at a lowered 6x multiplier.

A maximum stable FSB clock of 463MHz (FSB1852) is a new record for our stubborn processor and a tribute to MSI's engineering efforts.

Conclusion
The former MSI P35 Platinum Revision 1.0 won the performance portion of our earlier P35 DDR2 shootout, but by too small an amount to offset its staggering defeat in overclocking. Today's P35 Platinum Revision 1.1 maintains all of the original board's performance but with huge gains in overclocking stability that beat every board covered in our previous review. MSI could have easily won an Editor's Choice award had the firm presented such a beast for the original competition, but because all of its competitors have also continued their development work, it's unfortunately too late for such accolades.

And would this be a suitable upgrade for my current system? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3001041&CatId=1948