Need advice for Mobo and RAM

[Sagekilla]

I've been looking for the past week for components for a friends build and I've pretty much narrowed down the list to include everything but the mobo and RAM. Taking a quick look at various posts, it seems theres all kinds of problems specific brands of memory have with motherboards, so I really don't wanna pick a mobo/memory combo that won't play nice together.


What would be a good motherboard in general? I have a list of certain things that I'm looking for:

Good overclocker is optional (In case he wants to do so)
No RAID is necessary (He's only using 1 HD)
SLI motherboard is preferable (As he's using a NV card)
Onboard GB LAN (Though I'm pretty sure most mobos will support this)
Heat pipes for chipset would be great (So theres no chipset fans producing any noise)

I remember some motherboard someone suggested, DS3 or something like that. I honestly can't keep track of mobo names, it's not exactly as clear cut as it seems to be with a video card or CPU...

As for the RAM, I picked out OCZ S.O.E. 2 GB

Is it any good? Will this cause any problems with certain mobos?

 

[IcY18]

I've been looking for the past week for components for a friends build and I've pretty much narrowed down the list to include everything but the mobo and RAM. Taking a quick look at various posts, it seems theres all kinds of problems specific brands of memory have with motherboards, so I really don't wanna pick a mobo/memory combo that won't play nice together.


What would be a good motherboard in general? I have a list of certain things that I'm looking for:

Good overclocker is optional (In case he wants to do so)
No RAID is necessary (He's only using 1 HD)
SLI motherboard is preferable (As he's using a NV card)
Onboard GB LAN (Though I'm pretty sure most mobos will support this)
Heat pipes for chipset would be great (So theres no chipset fans producing any noise)

I remember some motherboard someone suggested, DS3 or something like that. I honestly can't keep track of mobo names, it's not exactly as clear cut as it seems to be with a video card or CPU...

As for the RAM, I picked out OCZ S.O.E. 2 GB

Is it any good? Will this cause any problems with certain mobos?

Well the fact that he has a nvidia card doesn't mean much unless he plans on going Sli anytime soon, i wouldn't recommend it for many reasons but also no SLi boards out Right now are good overclockers. A new Sli board, the 680i is coming out in a week or so, should prove to be a great overclocker while providing SLi ability, note that this will be a expensive board since it is just coming out

Good mobo and memory combinations would be a Asus P5B Deluxe/Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 (5-5-5-12)

or like someelse suggested the Gigabyte DS3/OCZ DDR2-800 (5-5-5-12)

just note that Asus motherboards and OCZ ram dont mix very well. i wouldnt get that ram cause there probably charging you extra just cause its a special edition for its "looks" and not its performance.

I assumed this was a Core 2 Duo build but you never mentioned anything about what CPU your going to use. Next time/next post give a price range and what type of system (intel or amd) this system is and what it will be used for most

 

[Sagekilla]

In that case, I'll just get him a regular C2D board/RAM combo. The rig is intended to be a somewhat decent gaming rig. Nothing too intense in terms of gaming, so I doubt he'll find use in a $300+ video card. As of yet he hasn't mentioned any intentions for overclocking, but I'd like to get him one that could in case he does. It's not completely necessary, though.

My reasoning for that particular memory kit was because when I searched for DDR2 + 2 x 1 GB in newegg, this happened to be one of the cheaper ones. Only $200 after rebate compared to the others for over $250

Current rig is set up as so:

CPU - C2D E6600 $312
Fan - Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro $30
Motherboard - Asus P5B Deluxe $185 (As per your suggestion)
Memory - Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 (5-5-5-12) $280 - $40 rebate (As you suggested, again)
Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 320 GB SATA 3GB/s $95
Power Supply - OCZ GameXStream 600W $120
Video Card - eVGA 7900 GTO $260

Total (Exlcuding Case): $1282


He says he has a budget of up to $1600, but he doesn't plan on doing intense gaming that would require an over the top video card like a 7900 GTX, or X1900 XTX/XT.



So how's the build look? Good choices? Bad? I'm leaving it up to him to grab the case he wants (If he can find one) and he has everything else he needs except the parts in the list.

 

[WR2]

Its a good looking list IMO.
The only addition I might suggest is an upgraded heat sink fan over the stock Intel HSF.
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler $30
Easy to install, better cooling and quieter: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro review

 

[Sagekilla]

I'm not sure if my friend even knows what case he wants to get, he said he kind of knew which one to get, but I'm really doubting this right now. Due to space constraints, he'll have to get a Mid tower.

I'm thinking the [ur=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811163036]Silverstone SST-TJ05[/url] will do great for him. Any opinions on it? From what I've read, Silverstone tends to make pretty damn good cases in terms of usability and appearance.

 

[WR2]

That is an excellent case choice - at a fairly premium price.
Go through some of the case reviews you can find on the SilverStone Temjin 5 web page (toward the bottom)
Also it might be slightly larger than you expect so be sure to double check its actual measurements.

 

[IcY18]

In that case, I'll just get him a regular C2D board/RAM combo. The rig is intended to be a somewhat decent gaming rig. Nothing too intense in terms of gaming, so I doubt he'll find use in a $300+ video card. As of yet he hasn't mentioned any intentions for overclocking, but I'd like to get him one that could in case he does. It's not completely necessary, though.

My reasoning for that particular memory kit was because when I searched for DDR2 + 2 x 1 GB in newegg, this happened to be one of the cheaper ones. Only $200 after rebate compared to the others for over $250

Current rig is set up as so:

CPU - C2D E6600 $312
Fan - Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro $30
Motherboard - Asus P5B Deluxe $185 (As per your suggestion)
Memory - Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 (5-5-5-12) $280 - $40 rebate (As you suggested, again)
Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 320 GB SATA 3GB/s $95
Power Supply - OCZ GameXStream 600W $120
Video Card - eVGA 7900 GTO $260

Total (Exlcuding Case): $1282


He says he has a budget of up to $1600, but he doesn't plan on doing intense gaming that would require an over the top video card like a 7900 GTX, or X1900 XTX/XT.



So how's the build look? Good choices? Bad? I'm leaving it up to him to grab the case he wants (If he can find one) and he has everything else he needs except the parts in the list.

Alright well everything looks good, a couple of things hopefully to keep his money rather than waste it on power he doesn't need

No disrespect to WR2 but i wouldn't recommend spending anymore money on the cpu cooling since you've said yourself you dont know if he is going to overclock or not and the fact that the stock cooling provides enough cooling to hit 3.0Ghz at decent temps

As far as the ram what you have is good stuff but there is actually better stuff for cheaper, i just recently recommended this to a friend and he loves it, it also got a good ratings in a very recent review at Anandtech

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2-800 (4-4-4-12) for $239

Also if anything the DDR2-800 is overkill if he doesn't plan on aggressively overclocking, or he wants to save a little more money, since DDR2-667 with 4-4-4-12 timings would be able to handle a overclock on the fsb to 333 and with the stock multiplier of 9 that would be 2.997Ghz

And lastly that graphics card is a good one no doubt but for its price its a little expensive, and i would recommend a SAPPHIRE 100176L Radeon X1950PRO 256MB

Just know that the 7900GTO would perform better but at that price its not a good bargain and the performance the X1950Pro will deliver will be almost equal but 80 bucks cheaper, the 7900GTO is great for overclocking but i doubt your friend would plan on doing that..so go with a X1950Pro unless you can find the GTO for cheaper

Everything else looks good though all money well spent

 

[Assman]

you can't go wrong with this Asus P5B Deluxe/Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 (5-5-5-12) combo. It OCes like hell

 

[IcY18]

you can't go wrong with this Asus P5B Deluxe/Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 (5-5-5-12) combo. It OCes like hell

Yeah like i said in the first post the P5B/Corsair combo is good but with the increasing prices of ram there is not point in paying for Corsair DDR2-800 with 5-5-5-12 timings when you can get G.Skill DDR2-800 with 4-4-4-12 for 50 bucks cheaper, it will overclock just as well if not better...

 

[Assman]

you may have a point there

 

[mad-dog]

The 7900 GTO is basically just a under-clocked 7950 GTX, it's a absolute steal for $250, i got one and it kicks butt.....the X1950 has got some major cooling issues and the fan will wake up the neighbors once you throw a load on it.
The only con i have about the 7900 GTO is i shoulda bought another one before they ran out.
a unintentional fool would purchase a ATI product with NVIDIA's G80 around the corner and EVGA's upgrade plan to trade in your old GPU towards the new one......i feel for you ATI fans .........i really do.....rofl

 

[IcY18]

The 7900 GTO is basically just a under-clocked 7950 GTX, it's a absolute steal for $250, i got one and it kicks butt.....the X1950 has got some major cooling issues and the fan will wake up the neighbors once you throw a load on it.
The only con i have about the 7900 GTO is i shoulda bought another one before they ran out.
a unintentional fool would purchase a ATI product with NVIDIA's G80 around the corner and EVGA's upgrade plan to trade in your old GPU towards the new one......i feel for you ATI fans .........i really do.....rofl

Ok well since you didn't go about this in a good manner my response isn't going to be polite

First of all the 7900GTO is not an underclocked 7950GTX if anything its a underclocked 7900GTX,
and of all things the 7900GTO is definetly not a "steal" at $260 especially when you can get a X1950 for $277
the X1950XT will beat the 7900GTO in every game and will last him longer than the GTO due to the extra shaders. and no one said anything about the step up program at all...and the op said

The rig is intended to be a somewhat decent gaming rig. Nothing too intense in terms of gaming, so I doubt he'll find use in a $300+ video card.

He's already close to the limit with the GTO at $260 which is not a steal, then if he were to "step-up" with evga he would have to spend about $300 MORE to get a 8800GTS and $350 for the GTX, thats TWICE the price he wanted to pay in the first place and since the stepup program is only 3 months, ATis R600 won't be out by to push the 8800 series prices down..so really good advice there...



and since the OP said his friend is not going to be doing any heavy gaming at all i wasn't going to recommend card at $260 when you can get very similar performance for $60 bucks cheaper, something the OPs friend wouldn't even know the difference between an X1950Pro or the 7900GTO but he will notice the extra money...

and since there is more than one X1950 why don't you elaborate on which one has sound problems, cause there haven't been any sound problems with the X1950Pro or the not even yet reviewed X1950XT, once again good advice there..(and since the X1900XT beats the GTO in every benchmark its easy to say the X1950XT will do so also)

Last of all things the 7900GTO is a good card and even better like i said for overclockers, but the op once again said he doesnt plan on overclocking very much, let alone is gpu which voids the warranty, its was a good card at $230 or so

And yes i really feel for your idiocy in saying that someone in this topic is a a fanboy, when all i'm doing is trying to get this guy the best price/performance and your just calling people names recommended things more than double what the op wanted to spend