Curse

hellyea526 · Sep 03, 2008, 05:52 PM // 17:52

Hey guys, first time building a computer, hope to get some advice on it. Been looking at a couple parts, read some reviews, and got some tips from a friend and this is what I came up with:

Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133058

Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153040
-I know 650W is more than I need but it came with a really nice combo deal with the case

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115037
-I was stuck between this and the Q6600. I heard that future games and applications will make more use out of the quad cores and dual cores may get outdated.

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131329
-Not sure whether I should get a better motherboard, I don't think I'll ever run SLI or crossfire though.

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184

Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121253
-Also not sure about this, I heard its much better than the 8800gt. I also heard that it runs extremely hot, will I have any heating issues?

Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148335

Dvd/CD Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106228

Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009126

At the moment, everything runs up to 875$ (USD) after rebates, shipping, etc. I was hoping to keep this under 900$, how does everything look? Thanks a lot guys for all the help.

Elder III · Sep 04, 2008, 10:53 AM // 10:53

I would get the 6600 myself, it overclocks to about 3ghz if you really need it to and Quad Core is the future. Right now most games run a little better on Dual Core, but your other activities, esp. if you do allot of multi-tasking will benefit from Quad Core.... you won't regret it.
Even if you don't think you will ever use Crossfire (aka 2 GPUs) - if you get a mobo with integrated graphics and are running Vista you can use ATI Hybred Crossfire and run with both the integrated graphics AND your dedicated GPU. It's not as much of an increase as normal Crossfire confogurations, but it IS a boost to your performance.

looks pretty good

Kattar · Sep 04, 2008, 12:20 PM // 12:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by hellyea526

I was stuck between this and the Q6600. I heard that future games and applications will make more use out of the quad cores and dual cores may get outdated.

By that logic, everything you buy will eventually be outdated. That's why I hate buying computer stuffs.

How long do you plan on keeping this computer? I don't mean to discourage you from buying a quad core, but if you're going to buy another one in a few years, it may not be justified to buy a quad core. If you're going to keep in longer than that though, gogo quad core.

hellyea526 · Sep 04, 2008, 12:57 PM // 12:57

thanks for the responses, I've decided to go with the e8400 since I plan on updating my computer in 3 years or so and don't do enough multitaskin to warrant buying the quad. I ended up buying everything on my original post, the main thing I'm worried about is the 4850 running hot but I heard that can be fixed by adjusting the fan speeds.

Elder III · Sep 04, 2008, 01:27 PM // 13:27

To make your 4850 run cooler do this:

Make a profile in catalyst after turning on Overdrive and make sure clock and memory settings are correct.

For Vista

Then go to the following location and open the following file for editing "C:\Users\Your Windows ID\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Your CCC Profile.XML. The xml file will have the same name as the Catalyst Profile you saved. right click and hit edit.

For XP

Then go to the following location and open the following file for editing "C:\Documents and Settings\Your Windows ID\Local Settings\Application Data\ATI\ACE\Your CCC Profile.XML. The xml file will have the same name as the Catalyst Profile you saved. right click and hit edit.

Now go down the page until you see the following lines in the XML file ...
HTML Code:

<Feature name=\"FanSpeedAlgorithm_0\"> <Property name=\"FanSpeedAlgorithm\" value=\"Automatic\" /> </Feature> <Feature name=\"FanSpeedRPMTarget_0\"> <Property name=\"Want\" value=\"0\" /> </Feature> <Feature name=\"FanSpeedPercentTarget_0\"> <Property name=\"Want\" value=\"23\" />

Change the "Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value=" from "Automatic" to "Manual"

Then change "Property name="Want" value=" from "23" to your desired fan speed.

Save the file then reload the Profile you just edited in the CCC. Done.

I set mine to 40% and it keeps it at 52-53 (C) when it is over 80 (F) in my room, whilst listening to music, surfing the web, with a couple other programs running. I can't hear it over the exhaust fans either, so it's not too noisy by any means.

Tamuril elansar · Sep 04, 2008, 03:00 PM // 15:00

if you do that make sure you can display ALL maps, else you won't see the application data.

moriz · Sep 04, 2008, 05:54 PM // 17:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elder III

Even if you don't think you will ever use Crossfire (aka 2 GPUs) - if you get a mobo with integrated graphics and are running Vista you can use ATI Hybred Crossfire and run with both the integrated graphics AND your dedicated GPU. It's not as much of an increase as normal Crossfire confogurations, but it IS a boost to your performance.

looks pretty good

btw, that won't work. hybrid crossfire only works on AMD RS780 chipsets, which allow you to run a low end graphic card in crossfire with the integrated radeon GPU. even now, the power saving feature is not enabled.

Lord Sojar · Sep 05, 2008, 08:31 PM // 20:31

The E8400 is a far better chip than the Q6600. You guys need to all come off this quad>dual core business. Until Nehalem and Shanghai release, dual>quad. The Q6600 is outperformed by the E8400 in 87% of tests, and those that the Q6600 lead in you guys most likely won't be using.

Personally, I would recommend dual 9800GTs, but each to their own.

They run much cooler, and your performance would be superb.

Everything else looks tip top.

hellyea526 · Sep 05, 2008, 09:24 PM // 21:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief

The E8400 is a far better chip than the Q6600. You guys need to all come off this quad>dual core business. Until Nehalem and Shanghai release, dual>quad. The Q6600 is outperformed by the E8400 in 87% of tests, and those that the Q6600 lead in you guys most likely won't be using.

Personally, I would recommend dual 9800GTs, but each to their own.

They run much cooler, and your performance would be superb.

Everything else looks tip top.

Thanks for all the comments everyone, bought the parts and most of it arrived today. I ended up getting the e8400. I'm sure the dual 9800GT's would run better than the 4850, but its a little over my budget since the cheapest 9800GT I could find was still like 110-120$ and I would still have to upgrade my mobo.

Just waiting on my powersupply and dvd drive which is coming Tuesday

.

Lord Sojar · Sep 06, 2008, 12:16 AM // 00:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by hellyea526

Thanks for all the comments everyone, bought the parts and most of it arrived today. I ended up getting the e8400. I'm sure the dual 9800GT's would run better than the 4850, but its a little over my budget since the cheapest 9600GT I could find was still like 110-120$ and I would still have to upgrade my mobo.

Just waiting on my powersupply and dvd drive which is coming Tuesday

.

Cool, just make sure you keep that 4850 cool.