Newbie, 1st Build, Scared to Death, Input Please

[sk1llz]

WHAT'S YOU PROBLEM SK1LLZ ... GIGABYET MAKE SOME GREAT BAORD YES I SAID THIS... I USED SOME OF DS3 BOARD FOR SOME OF MY CUSTOMER ... IT'S AN EXCELLENT PRICE TAG ... YEA ...

WITHOUT ANY DOUBT ... BUT CAN YOU ADMIT THAT THE ABIT BOARD JUST ADDED SOME GREAT FEATURES (talking about the pro or quad gt) LIKE 90 DEGRES SATA PORT ON/OFF AND RESET BUTTON ON THE MOTHERBOARD ... RESET BIOS SWITH ON BACK PLATE ... DEBUG LCD ON MOTHERBOARD ... ESATA CONNECTOR ... LOT OF 3 PIN FAN CONNECTION AND A INTELIGENT BOARD DESIGN AND EASY BIOS ... IN FOR YOUR INFORMATION I JUST USED SOME ASUS, DFI ,EVGA, GIGABYTE, ASROCK, ABIT, MSI, INTEL, AND CHAINTECH ... BY THE PAST ... SORRY BUT THE ONLY ONE HOW SWEET MY NEEDS WAS ABIT AND DFI ...

OKEY HELLO, i can see you

Well, you didn't mention anything about the perhiperals, you mentioned the BIOS that's not the same thing, sorry.

If you want those kind of features, ofcourse you can't compare the cheapest board vs the most expensive, that's just not logicall.

Well, it doesn't show, that you've used those kind of MB's, other than abit. As you don't know about the ctrl+f1 thing in BIOS for the gigaboards.

I'm just trying to get a fair comparision here. Not to make anyone mad or angry with purpose.

 

[stdu007]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback!

Studoo7:
Great pics! I like that cooler but if there is a lot of prep work to do I’m not sure I have the knowledge or skills yet to make that happen. The ix38 quad gt is new and potentially buggy from what I’ve read. I’m not sure I should do that on my first build and then be stuck trouble shooting something I know nothing about how to do.

One of my biggest fears is installing the Processor and the chosen heat sink. I’ve read that some folks have cracked there brand new MOBO’s by over tightening and some poor fit up added to that.

Thanks again everyone

SK1LLZ start with this post ... he talking about the ix38 here ... and i show him that it's can be possible to have a new chipset motherboard without any problem ... and that's it ... after that he talking about the ds3l ... so i think these 2 board can t be compared ... but for the money the p35 pro still imho best bang for the buck ... according to the last post i adress to you ... (overall and oc capability and ease of use) and in his first post this is the board who he's talking about ...

Motherboard:
ABIT IP35 PRO. What is the latest revision for this board? Or a IX38 Quad GT

for the revision of the board you can ask this guy Lvcoyote on the abit forum ... maybe he can help you ...

 

[stdu007]

Some other good reviews on Raid ....

http://tweakers.net/reviews/515/9/raid-0-hype-or-blessing-pagina-9.html

http://techreport.com/articles.x/9124/7

here some quick bench under hdtach with my second rig ...

 

[jrank001]

Stdu00y:
Why didn't you go with 1066 memory on you Quad GT board?

 

[sk1llz]

stdu007, As we have the same southbridge (ICH9R). You can enable write back cache in Intel Matrix Storage Console, you will get way better results!
You should do it, the perfomance will be about twice as fast.

Here's what it looks like when i used 2(two) 250GB 7200.10 drives in RAID0:

 

[reclaimer122]

Stilletto I think is saying that even though benchmarks show improvements, there is no real world improvement (loading times, responsiveness, etc...). Those articles he linked to also seem to show that there truly is no performance gain to be had from RAID-0. I don't know how those articles came to those results, but RAID-0 had to be the best price/performance ratio upgrade I ever made, costing me only $50 for close to a 75% increase in REAL hard drive performance.

To the OP: That build looks great All of the suggestions here seem to be based on personal preference, so I wouldn't be too scared to make your own choices If you feel that a small loss in system performance is worth saving a heap of money, that is your choice. Just remember that if anything goes wrong or you missed a small detail somewhere, you can always return your product(s).

 

[jrank001]

Hi Everyone:

OK here is what I have on the way. I figured I’d spend the extra on the IX38 Quad GT and hope it will be good for at least the next five years.

I see that the IX38 Quad GT is rated for 1066 memory. I need some recommendations on proven, quality memory that works in this board so I can get that ordered right away. I want to start with 2X1gig sticks to start.

Motherboard:
1-ABIT IX38 Quad GT.

Processor:
1-Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, SLACR, G0 Stepping

Cooling:
1-ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

Memory:
?

DVD RW:
2-Lite-On LH-20A1L-06 SuperAllwrite Retail Lightscribe DVD Burner - 20x DVD±R Burn, 16x DVD±R Read, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD±R DL, 12x DVD-RAM, 48x24x CD-R/RW, Black, SATA

Video Card:
1-SAPPHIRE 100226L Radeon HD 3850

Hard Drives:
2-Western Digital 150, 10,000 Raptors.
2-Western Digital Caviar RE2 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s OEM WD5000ABYS

Sound Card:
Will use onboard with MOBO

Card Reader:
?

Case:
1-CoolerMaster Stacker 830 SE (Black)

Power Supply:
1-PC Power & Cooling / Silencer / 750-Watt / Quad PCI-Express / SATA-Ready / Black Power Supply

Am I missing anything? This RAID thing has me all confused. Should I just sell the Raptors and use the other two like a regular set up?

Thanks

 

[reclaimer122]

I myself would keep them Like I said in my post just before yours though, it is all YOUR choice. Consider this: Worst case scenario is that you lose all data on your Raptors if one fails and you need to buy a replacement (which happens anyway when a single drive fails, just RAID doubles the chances of this). If you think that the risk is worth the added performance, go for it. But, if you plan on using those drives for 5+ years, I would plan on it happening eventually. Just to be safe.

As for memory, I would imagine DDR2 800 would work on that board, but it supports up to 1066mhz chips if you want it.

 

[sk1llz]

jrank001, go for the crucial ballistix pc2-6400 (800Mhz) they will do just fine togheter with your CPU + overclocking it to atleast 3600Mhz.

Stilletto I think is saying that even though benchmarks show improvements, there is no real world improvement (loading times, responsiveness, etc...). Those articles he linked to also seem to show that there truly is no performance gain to be had from RAID-0. I don't know how those articles came to those results, but RAID-0 had to be the best price/performance ratio upgrade I ever made, costing me only $50 for close to a 75% increase in REAL hard drive performance.

Yeah i'm with you on that.
If you have experience of it yourself, then you know that it Does make difference.
But i can't say that i notice any performance from my RAID0 setup, when surfing the web hehe.

 

[jrank001]

Guys can I have a link for the memory? NewEgg, Clubit, or Tiger Direct? I want to make sure I get the right stuff. I had someone recommend memory but that was for the IP35 PRO board.
Thanks

 

[Drew@PSU]

J,
These sticks should suit you quite nicely:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148070

They have flashy LEDs, and for some reason ( someone will probably point out why ), they are cheaper than the non-LED version by 4 bucks or so. My advice on building is do it somewhere other than carpet ( kitchen tile is good ) to avoid static, just in case, and don't force anything. You'll probably be surprise by how easy things go together. It's fairly straightforward.

As for the RAID, there is a technique involving nLite that allows you to "slipstream" the necessary files onto a windows CD, allowing you to setup RAID without a floppy. The nLite software is available here, and like all good software, comes with a substantial forum for support.

Let us know how it turns out,
Drew

 

[Jsan]

OP:

....Dont let all the tecs and specs intimidate you. The actual assembly of a PC is pretty easy, if you have done your homework. Judging by your parts list you've done that, so my advice would be to get the "jitters out" ..start by disassembling your current PC.
Strip it all the way down. Put all back. Test , repeat.
....that way when the new expensive parts arrive you will have hands on experience under your belt, Just be sure that you have an anlternate internet source...in case you run into poblems...that and some AS5. cant forget TIM....

Jsan

 

[jimmsch]

If you absolutely MUST have the Q6600 then get the Thermalright CPU cooler. You will need the slightly better performance even at the extra cost of having to purchase a fan seperately.

If it were me, I would wait another two weeks (probably) and get a 45nm E8500 for just a little more money than the Q6600. This CPU will no doubt clock to higher Ghz (close to 4Ghz, if not higher) than the Q6600 and still be considerably cooler. Then you can keep the prettier Zalman, which isn't that much worse in performance than the thermalright.

 

[reclaimer122]

Honestly, I thought building my first PC was very easy. It all seemed natural to me, although some of the parts were being directly moved from my old PC to my new. Buying parts is the only part that bothers me. Whenever I spend a substantial amount of money, I ALWAYS start to second-guess myself after the purchase is made. For example, the same night I ordered my GTS I read about PCIe 2.0 and got myself reeeally nervous that my new card wouldn't work with my mobo. Then when I was trying to fall asleep, for some reason I thought my PSU only had a 4-pin PCIe connector (LOL!!!) and I knew that the GTS needed a 6-pin, so I got reeeeeeeeeally upset then. Turned out I was wrong about both and got nervous over nothing

If you think you've spent enough time checking and re-checking your build, then order it. Worry about sorting any problems out when (and if) they arise.

 

[Stilletto]

I don't want to hijack this thread into a RAID debate, but you guys that posted those HD Tach Benchmarks just demonstrated another reason NOT to go for raid. Sk1llz: You realize you are at 7% and 15% CPU utilization because of your raid setup? That is RIDICULOUS and counterproductive to any overclocking. stdu007: Yours are better, but the CPU should be 0% to 1%. The fact that the CPU has to get involved here negates any performance increase. And As I said, I have 2 Raptors in Raid 0. I used to have only a single Raptor, and this is what I am going back to due to 0% performance increase......I HAVE SEEN BOTH SIDES of this thing

jrank001: KEEP 1 RAPTOR for your primary drive, and the others as storage. Put one raptor for sale on eBay. Use money to buy something else off your list

 

[reclaimer122]

jrank001: KEEP 1 RAPTOR for your primary drive, and the others as storage. Put one raptor for sale on eBay. Use money to buy something else off your list

Boooooo!

 

[Stilletto]

Boooooo!

 

[stdu007]

stdu007, As we have the same southbridge (ICH9R). You can enable write back cache in Intel Matrix Storage Console, you will get way better results!
You should do it, the perfomance will be about twice as fast.

Here's what it looks like when i used 2(two) 250GB 7200.10 drives in RAID0:

Thank's i will try ...

 

[retsgtcas]

I did not see an answer to your question about Lapping so here is a link for you.

http://www.directron.com/hsflapping.html

I lapped my current heat-sink, total cost $8 and thats including the $3 dollar square of glass that I used as a lapping surface.

I had lots of fun building my first PC back in the Windows 3.11 days. After you build your 1st one its a life style. You will love it, hate it, research it, talk about it with your friends. . .

WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE

 

[sk1llz]

I don't want to hijack this thread into a RAID debate, but you guys that posted those HD Tach Benchmarks just demonstrated another reason NOT to go for raid. Sk1llz: You realize you are at 7% and 15% CPU utilization because of your raid setup? That is RIDICULOUS and counterproductive to any overclocking. stdu007: Yours are better, but the CPU should be 0% to 1%. The fact that the CPU has to get involved here negates any performance increase. And As I said, I have 2 Raptors in Raid 0. I used to have only a single Raptor, and this is what I am going back to due to 0% performance increase......I HAVE SEEN BOTH SIDES of this thing

jrank001: KEEP 1 RAPTOR for your primary drive, and the others as storage. Put one raptor for sale on eBay. Use money to buy something else off your list

Ok, here is the real deal. The others where with 2x Drives. And some other cpu utilz.

Since hd tach seems buggy when it comes to showing CPU usage.

I can't feel anything negative effect at all when it comes to cpu usage. 6% (2% +/-) makes me have atleast 92% available on CPU #0 and 100% on CPU #1.

Where should i feel that "big" difference of cpu usage?!