New C2D system, please evaluate

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Sagboy

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Aug 22, 2006
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Putting together a new system and would like some of your feedback on it.


Update Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Model #: GA-965P-DS3
$152.99

Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PDC22G6400LLK - Retail
Model #: PDC22G6400LLK
$227.99


Update Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 1066MHz FSB LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6400 - Retail
Model #: BX80557E6400
$259.99

ATI 100-435801 Radeon X1900XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
$329.99

Im also using my old hard drives, dvd and cd drives, along with a thermaltake 460 watt powersupply. Do you guys have any suggestions? Price is kinda an issue so dont want to go to overboard with it. Do you think my powersupply will hold up okay?

Thanks much!
 
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TekDragon

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1. Get the 6600, a price/performance level of that kind hasn't been seen from Intel or AMD since... well... since as far back as I can remember.

2. Do any of the mother boards that support Conroe support standard DDR? You're getting a 1900xt, so obviously you're playing games. DDR 2-2-2-5 > DDR2 2.5/3-3-3-9. With the money you save you can afford that Conroe 6600. There's even an article here comparing DDR to DDR2 if you're not certain.

3. With the 6600 (or even the 6400) and with the 1900x you need to upgrade your hard drives. Either run 2 7200 SATA drives on a RAID or go for a 10k or even 15k rpm drive for installing your OS and applications.
 
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Sagboy

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Thanks for the reply, yeah the hard drives are sata 7200 rpm. I was originally going to go with the 6600 but seeing as the extra cache doesnt help if any in most of what im doing, I figured I would go with the 6400 and OC it.

Thats another good question about the ram, but what board is going to support 184 pin instead of the ddr2 pin?
 
Vile

Vile

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3. With the 6600 (or even the 6400) and with the 1900x you need to upgrade your hard drives. Either run 2 7200 SATA drives on a RAID or go for a 10k or even 15k rpm drive for installing your OS and applications.
Click to expand...

Why does he need to upgrade his HDDs... ??

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I'd recommend the Asus P5B over that Gigabyte board. I heard a guy had to RMA 3 times in order to get a board that was DOA!!

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I don't think there's a motherboard that supports Conroe and DDR.
 
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TekDragon

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3. With the 6600 (or even the 6400) and with the 1900x you need to upgrade your hard drives. Either run 2 7200 SATA drives on a RAID or go for a 10k or even 15k rpm drive for installing your OS and applications.
Click to expand...

Why does he need to upgrade his HDDs... ??

The 6400 (or 6600) will not be bottlenecks in that system, obviously. Neither will the GPU (the most common bottleneck) due to his ability to run crossfire later on with an additional 1900xt when the price drops substantially and it's needed.

That leaves memory and the transfer speed from the hard drives. My suggestion to him to seek standard DDR for the lower latency addresses any memory bottlenecks (as well as his already made decision to pursue 2x1gb dual channel). Now we're only left with the hard drives.

7.2k hard drives in RAID, or a 10k-15k for the OS and apps with a 7.2k for storage will eliminate any threat of his hard drives being a bottleneck.
 
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TekDragon

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2. Do any of the mother boards that support Conroe support standard DDR? You're getting a 1900xt, so obviously you're playing games. DDR 2-2-2-5 > DDR2 2.5/3-3-3-9. With the money you save you can afford that Conroe 6600. There's even an article here comparing DDR to DDR2 if you're not certain.
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Do you even have any clue of what you're on about?

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/03/31/tight_timings_vs_high_clock_frequencies/

Feel free to educate yourself, I said all I needed to.
 
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lcandy

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I'm sure someone else will be on hand with a link. Unforunately, all my links to Conroe stuff is on my old PC, ironicly not on my Conroe system :lol:

Conroe is very very forgiving with respect to memory timings. Do not consider DDR even if there is a motherboard that suppors it. That link shows a test with an Opteron setup, and not with FAST DDRII running at 800MHz, also without checking, I don't think it's running at dual channel either. Patriat DDRII has a great reputation for being stable and solid afaik, go with that you wont be dissapointed!

Like was already stated, go with an E6600, it's the best bang for your buck, by a country mile. Don't get me wrong, the E6400 is a great chip - but stock performance it's a fair bit behind the E6600 and if you are overclocking, reviews suggest more scope in the E6600 as well.

Additionaly, Gigabyte have not been so wonderful with their 965 range, it feels rushed and the latest BETA BIOS does not even make my board run as it should. I would say none of the 965 range stands out as a great board right now for any manufacturer, I went for a premium board and still feel a bit let down. If you can't wait for the boards to mature, a DS3 is "ok".

Finally, the graphics card. Ugh, I really wish I had gone with the X1900XT. Smart choice, or, obvious choice that I didn't take :lol: (not really a high end gamer though).

So other than your E6400 (which is still fine!) I'd say, great system and you wont be dissapointed. Powersupply wise, you never know, it could hold out. I went with 500W and the manual for my graphics card said best have 550W lol. Depends how many drives you have, here is a fantastic guide for powersupply requirements. Hope it helps (just a guide, not a guarantee).
 
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TekDragon

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You're dealing with the memory expert here, mate :D
Click to expand...

You? Or him? Can't be him. He came into this forum acting like a 13 year old fresh out of a game of counter strike.

I didn't notice the test system but, regardless, I still don't believe shelling out the extra (substantial) amount of cash for a DDR2 800 combo for a few extra percentage points of performance is worth it. If he's on a budget that money would be MUCH better served making the upgrade from the E6400 to the E6600.

If the OP is not on a budget, however, and doesn't need to strip some cash away from somewhere to make room for the E6600 then, by all means, drop the extra $$$ for DDR2 800 for the 5-10% extra performance boost.
 
Vile

Vile

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You're dealing with the memory expert here, mate :D
Click to expand...

You? Or him? Can't be him. He came into this forum acting like a 13 year old fresh out of a game of counter strike.

I didn't notice the test system but, regardless, I still don't believe shelling out the extra (substantial) amount of cash for a DDR2 800 combo for a few extra percentage points of performance is worth it. If he's on a budget that money would be MUCH better served making the upgrade from the E6400 to the E6600.

If the OP is not on a budget, however, and doesn't need to strip some cash away from somewhere to make room for the E6600 then, by all means, drop the extra $$$ for DDR2 800 for the 5-10% extra performance boost.

Yes, I was talking about Wusy. Dude he's the OCing god. Just look at his number of posts. Look around, he has pwned half the people in this forum already with his knowleadge on memory, OCing, etc.
 
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TekDragon

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You're dealing with the memory expert here, mate :D
Click to expand...

You? Or him? Can't be him. He came into this forum acting like a 13 year old fresh out of a game of counter strike.

Yes, I was talking about Wusy. Dude he's the OCing god. Just look at his number of posts. Look around, he has pwned half the people in this forum already with his knowleadge on memory, OCing, etc.

I don't care how long he's been here. If he thinks that the improvement between DDR400 with tight timings and DDR2800 with loose timings is worth the same as the improvement from the E6400 to E6600, he's wrong.

Dollar per performance increase, the processor upgrade is far more worthy.

The bottom line is that as long as you have enough memory - preferably 2 GB - the extra money you pay for more memory speed would be better invested in a faster graphics card. And if you don't play games, then the CPU and hard drive offer more room for improvement than the memory.
Click to expand...
 
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cptblackeye

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TekDragon

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This might help with the meomry issue.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2810
and
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2813

Because of these articles and my needs I'm going to save a few bucks by getting the DDR2 533. This way I can afford the E6600 which as everyone has pointed out is the best bang for buck regarding cpu. I don't do gaming or OCing so i'm looking at the Intel P965LT mobo.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121035
good luck
Click to expand...

Nice links, especially with the relevancy of the Conroe test machine. As I stated earlier, the performance difference was miniscule and not worth spending the extra money for the DDR2800 for a 4% performance increase (81.8 FPS on DDR400 vs 85.1 on DDR2800).

That said, I think you're making a good choice going with the DDR2 533 (remember - try to get the tightest timings you can!!) as it seems most of the good motherboards for the Conroe are going to be DDR2.
 
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