Before I finally press the 'buy' button.....

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heitjer

heitjer

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Mar 28, 2009
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I have been reading up on this forum and arrived at this stage. Before I now finally order I like to get your opinion on this system:

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
GA-EP45-UD3P LGA

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
Quad Q8200

Memory:
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory – Retail
G.SKILL 4GB

Graphic Card:
HIS Hightech H467QT512P Radeon HD 4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
HIS Hightech

Case:
not sure - I need your help here. I like slick & tall housings, not more then $100, something like this:
link

or this one with power already:
link
 
Ooops. You have to place a title for the link in between the ] and [.

Are you planning to overclock? That's a pretty nice board, and a rather weak processor.


NZXT Tempest

That's a big no on the cheap Apevia PSU. You need decent power.
Corsair 650TX It's a great price, but more power than you actually need.
BFG LS-450 Would be another one, but not really the same quality as the Corsair.



 
Fixed the links - sorry - kinda missed that.


I much appreciate the comment on the power. I have not thought about that yet. I need to read up on this? What should I look out for?


On the processor - what would be your recommendation - I definitively don't want to go into gaming, I stopped that after "Lost Vikings".
Q6600...?


I need my machine for web browsing, programming web sites, managing pictures, picture editing, occasionally movie editing. I just wanted to have a real stable machine. My last build was/is still quirky sometimes.


I will run Ubuntu 8.10 (converted now finally after a too long dance around it) but occasionally will run XP Pro for the stuff that I might still need (Tax Stuff...?).
 
You'll find a link or two in my guide, linked in my sig or at the top of the page, if you would like to get an education on PSUs. Frankly, I would only dive into it if it's a real interest. It's not light reading, and might take a good long time to come to grips with it.

There are A FEW sites that have the equipment and knowledge to properly test a PSU. If they don't have a review of a certain PSU, it's because the PSU company doesn't want to send them one.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/
http://www.hardocp.com/
http://www.anandtech.com/
There is two. You can just go by the reviews you see at those three sites, and skip the heavy reading 😉 I have them bookmarked and check them daily.

The two best quads, price/performance, are the AMD 940 and the Q9550.

If you skipped the 4670, you could probably get by quite well with an AMD 940 and a 790GX motherboard, which has a very powerful onboard GPU. The 790GX is also quite comparable to the P45 in stability.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.165047
That gives you a pretty beefy processor , solid MB, and good GPU.
 
great reading - the combo looks good too but I read that the onboard graphic card is difficult to support in Linux. Somone out there that runs this combo with Ubuntu 8.10?
 
I recently built a Q9550 and it performs great. If you're not building a gaming machine, you should go with the UD3R board which only has one PCI-E x16 slot.

As for a case, unless you really need a full tower, an Antec 300 wouldn't be a bad choice. You shouldn't have trouble finding a good PSU for your needs. I'm no expert but 450 watts should be plenty for your needs.
 
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler

HIS Hightech IceQ Turbo Radeon HD 4670 H467QT512P Video Card

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1100 (PC2 8800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black Computer Case

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

Grand Total: $742.93

I need to sleep one more night on this......
 


Yet another aspect I have not looked deeply into. I am most likely not overclocking. What would be yor recommendation on RAM then.

Also - on the price and after sleeping on night over it I think I want to squeeze some money back out. So I am back to the processor. I think I am in position to upgrade this system later to an i7 when needed as the power and board is ready for it.

This way I can squeeze $110 for the processor and $30 on the RAM and bring this down to $600 bucks.
 
sorry to burst a bubble, but the board won't be compatible with i7, they have different socket types. 1366 for the i7 and your board uses 775. also the ram for i7's is a bit different. They use tri-channel ram not dual like you have. also the ram can't be over 1.5v for the new boards which utilize the i7 chips.

kurt
 
1.65v for DDR3

snag14.jpg

 
sorry about the misinformation i've never looked too closely at it, but read previously the 1.5v limits anyhow 1.8/1.9 is quite a bit over that with ddr2. The JEDEC spec for ddr3 is 1.5v, then the boards have a warning that anything over 1.65 can cause damage to the proc. so 1.8/19v ddr2 ram is most certainly out.

kurt
 
There are some issues with DDR3 going above 1.65.
I think 1.5V is the standard voltage for DDR3 like 1.8V is standard for DDR2.
DDR2 ranges from 1.8V-2.2V in some applications.
And DDR used 2.4-2.8V not that long ago.

 
 
no i wasn't confused i know that the ddr3 is lower than the dd2 i was trying to say i made a mistake saying that they ddr3 cant be over 1.5v as thats the jedec standard and that you can use up to 1.65 going over that will put your processor in danger. As heitjer had ddr2 selected for his build and was thinking that he could just drop in a processor to upgrade i was letting him know it wasn't that simple as ddr2 uses 1.8/1.9 typically i know that they can use up to 2.2 to o.c. there was no confusion. Just wanted heitjer to understand its not the same thing.
 
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