New computer

[4RT1LL3RY]

I just ordered up some parts from newegg.com, can’t wait to get rid of this piece of crap Dell E310 and I can barely wait to ditch this Radeon 9250. How much better would you guys say Core 2 Duo is then Pentium 4 in your opinion. I can’t wait to get it, just hope none of my stuff is DOA when it gets here Wednesday. I’m just going to use the old DVD CD drive, and hard drive. So what do you guys think?

Case: Antec Sonata III Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply – Retail
Motherboard: MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor
Memory: OCZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory – Retail
Graphics card: MSI NX8600GT-T2D256E OC GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail

[Snowy]

*slaps forehead* I can't believe you got an Antec PSU! Video card isn't that great, but it'll certainly be an improvement over your Radeon 9250.

[Mr Buckshot]

Intel Core 2 Duo is leaps and bounds ahead of all Pentiums barring the most expensive ones like that 4.26Ghz Pentium D.

nice video card, too. Good job!

[Xetsuei]

Core 2 Duo vs Pentium is like Viper vs Civic. :|

[Roostervier]

I think you could have ordered a better card, that one isn't that great. I got one of the 8800 GTS cards and it kills laggy's 8600GT. For example, I have to set everything to highest just to try and get my fps down in h2v so my mouse can work. If I leave it on no vsync, it still stays at 120 fps. If I take most of the stuff off, it stays at around 250 fps. Teh lag only gets 30-60 fps :gonk:. No offence, lag, I wuv you. It was just an example.

Also, that's the same processor I have, and it's loads better than my P4. Also, you've got the model of mobo as what I've got, just MSI instead of ASUS.

[FluffyDucky™]

Woooo, i have e6700 tbh. :) New pc looks pretty good. :D

[4RT1LL3RY]

I'm looking forward to not being able to hear my computer when its running. I just need a graphics card that could play most of my games on 1280x1024 at high setting I'll be fine. But I am lookign forward to playing games at resolutions higher then 640x480 at fps of more then 30. I am so happy about the price drop earlier in the year. The power supply isn;t supposed to be too bad most peopel say, I think it has a very high efficency, but it'll work for this computer. The Geforce 8 seires has lower power requirements then the 7 series in the mid range cards. I got the card because it is pre-over clocked, it can over clock to over 700 mhz it is almost as good as the 8600gts accept with lower memory speeds.

Review and benchmark (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2146&page=1)
The card runs pretty good in most games, and will give me all I need at my resolution. I wonder how well it will run Bioshock and Crysis?

[343guiltymc]

Bioshock I'm pretty sure should run pretty well, My crappy ATI Radeon X1300 PRO somehow ran the game on medium at a playable frame rate. but Crysis I don't know.

[Digikid]

MSI is not the best of motherboards. Their product is questionable but the tech support treats you like a 1 yr old at best...plus their RMA is dreadfully SLOW.

I would go with a better mobo if you can afford it. EVGA makes the best boards followed by Gigabyte and XFX ( for motherboards ONLY for XFX...their vid cards are not that good either )

Try the EVGA 680iLT. Exact SAME performance as the 680i but without the useless features.

[4RT1LL3RY]

I looked at some of the 680i mobos but in some of the benchmarks they have where they have the same setup, it was right up there, only behind by a few points.
Motherboard review (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2099&page=1)
It is also one of boards with the customer choice award, which I don't really care about but there are very few DOA I hear. I also have a few friends with MSI boards and theirs have been working fine for the last 2 years. Its also a pretty good over clocking board they say and it has some extra video card over clocking options in the bios. I don't plan on doing an OC until its stable and I can't trust not frying it. But its too late to change things now, I ordered it yesterday.

[Warsaw]

I had an MSI board, and it was fine. I now have an EPoX board, and it runs fine as well.

[ImSpartacus]

I just ordered up some parts from newegg.com, can’t wait to get rid of this piece of crap Dell E310 and I can barely wait to ditch this Radeon 9250. How much better would you guys say Core 2 Duo is then Pentium 4 in your opinion. I can’t wait to get it, just hope none of my stuff is DOA when it gets here Wednesday. I’m just going to use the old DVD CD drive, and hard drive. So what do you guys think?

Case: Antec Sonata III Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply – Retail
Motherboard: MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor
Memory: OCZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory – Retail
Graphics card: MSI NX8600GT-T2D256E OC GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail

I would suggest moving down to an E4400 or E4500 if you are going to use such a cheap graphics card. The extra processing power is not necassary.

If you think you will upgrade your gpu in 6-12 months, then stick with the cpu (the E6550 is a great mid range choice), but if u dont want to upgrade, then dont waste time with a better cpu that can't be utilized.

Also, I would suggest getting a p35 chipset motherboard instead of an SLI motherboard if you are looking for SLI with 8600gt's, it just isnt worth it. If you had an 8800gts, then maybe I could see SLI helping 12-18 months from now, but not with 8600gt's.

These are great P35 mobo's for at or under the price of that 650i mobo

- msi (in case u like the brand) budget p35 that is quad compatible, and under 100$ (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130095)

-decent abit board, i would suggest it or the p5k (its cheaper @ 115$) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127031)

-great asus board, but the most expensive, but still cheaper than the outdated p6n (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131180)

Remember, you aren't always getting a better product when you get a more expensive product. Go check out an E6600 on newegg, 230$, and 1500 reviews, but its still inferior to the E6550 (and the fact that 6600 > 6550 doesnt help much either). I'm sure you were aware of this case, but its just an example.

Case and RAM look great though.

[Warsaw]

No sense in downgrading the CPU when he can get a more powerful graphics card to go with it later.

The only logical reason to ever make something in your computer worse than it already is, is for stability or compatibility.

[4RT1LL3RY]

I got a high end processor because I'm not just gamign on it, I plan on using soem of the cpu dependent programs, like for compiling video, ripping music, etc. Whats a good brand of that 'stuff' for bonding the Processor and heatsink? Two 120mm fans that flow 79 CFM each should cool my Antec case pretty well, right.

On another note
I can't wait to ditch this Dell and not be force to play games in bleeding eye quality/resolution.

After I have my new computer stable and running. I'm going to either turn it into a server for LANs or my house, or part it to my family's other computers.

[Xetsuei]

Arctic Silver 5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007) for thermal grease, AeroCool XtremeTurbine (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835129245) for fans.

[4RT1LL3RY]

Ok so I have to go to Radioshack for the Arctic Silver, but the only store around me that would have sold the AeroCool fans was a CompUSA that closed down at the start of the summer. How much of a difference in cooling is 8 CFM from the stock Antec Fan and the Aerocool, and is there any noticeable difference in sound levels from 17 dBs and 25 dBs.
Thanks for the help everyone.

[paladin]

I have the same mother board. It installed so easily into my Raidmax case. Thats a decent setup.

[Digikid]

Actually while the Aerocools are somewhat decent fans I much prefer to use the Yate Loons S120SL fans. Much quieter IMHO.

You can get them at NCIX.com for Canadians and NCIXUS.com for everywhere else.

[4RT1LL3RY]

It works, got my parts yesterday and finished building it but had to do a windows reinstall, and now i need to find a new kernal for Ubuntu that uses Core 2 Duo and a 8600gs.
In Halo I get 250-350 fps with novsync on max everything, compared to 30-60 on lowest everything. I am so happy. But I have to reinstall a bunch of programs, like CE and maps.
The case is working great, temperature at idle is 36 degrees celsius with fans set to low. Its nice, very nice. Now I can join the ranks of people who hate Dell and don't own them.

[4RT1LL3RY]

My computer started having stability problems yesterday, it froze every 30 minutes. I swapped out my first slot of ram with second and now its working fine. Can I RMA a single module out of a set or do i need to send back both. They are both normal clocked. It is the memory though. Time to contact OCZ.

[Bastinka]

Dude, don't double post also make your sig smaller.

[Masterz1337]

Errr, he was suppose to edit his post... from like almsot 2 weeks ago? I'm sure EVERYONE would have checked the topic.

Anyway, I'd imagine they'd want you to send back both, but if you yell at them enough they'll probably let you RMA 1. You could say if they wont RMA just oen modual you'll return it and just buy some other companies RAM.

[ImSpartacus]

My computer started having stability problems yesterday, it froze every 30 minutes. I swapped out my first slot of ram with second and now its working fine. Can I RMA a single module out of a set or do i need to send back both. They are both normal clocked. It is the memory though. Time to contact OCZ.

if it was a 2 stick kit, then u have to rma both.

[paladin]

MSI is not the best of motherboards. Their product is questionable but the tech support treats you like a 1 yr old at best...plus their RMA is dreadfully SLOW.

I would go with a better mobo if you can afford it. EVGA makes the best boards followed by Gigabyte and XFX ( for motherboards ONLY for XFX...their vid cards are not that good either )

Try the EVGA 680iLT. Exact SAME performance as the 680i but without the useless features.

I dont agree. MSI I think has one of the best motherboards. EVGA is good, but you pay for the name.

[X3RO SHIF7]

I dont agree. MSI I think has one of the best motherboards. EVGA is good, but you pay for the name.
agreed, MSI is one of the best.

[4RT1LL3RY]

The MSI motherboard I have goes good with the Video card from MSI because I can overclock it in the bios, not much but its nice a 10% overclock of it and its already overclocked. My computer froze up during me typing my post. I had BF2 open, pushed me onto the second module of RAM, removed it completely now. Its amazing the difference in loading games on 2GB and 1GB. Can't wait to get 4GB. Now I just need nVidia to release the linux drivers for the 8 seires cards so I can use ubuntu again. I can't wait to see how awesome beryl is with a fast computer.
Note to self, get new microphone.
xC5uEe5OzNQ
I <3 linux.