Possible C2D Build

J

jiffz

New member
Hi Guys :wavey:

Looking for a bit of advice / 2nd opinions here...

I'm going to uni late September and I'm thinking of building a 2nd PC at some point, to save me lugging mine between halls and home, and I despise laptops :p

I'm cut between 2 builds - a cheap AMD one where I can bring my RAM and graphics card home with me and get cheap 512 for my home one, OR a C2D build :yumyum:. C2D would make sense to me as it would be a ideal situation to move up to it!

I've been pricing up bits and pieces and have come up with this:

Asus P5N-E SLI NF650i SLi - £70.62

E6750 - £115.01

OR

4300 - £67.55

with either

OCZ DDR2 PC6400, Spec Ops - £64.00

OR

OCZ DDR2 PC6400, Reaper HPC - £79.00

WD 160Gb SATA2 8MB - £29.95

So the 4300 with the Spec Ops kit would cost £266.17,

whereas the E6750 with Reaper Kit would cost £328.63.

I'm really not sure of C2D stuff tbh and I'm wondering, is that mobo any good? Can anyone predict what kind of overclock I'd expect from the two builds on air? Also, I need something to power all this, after that thread about no need for <500 PSUs, can anyone suggest a PSU with enough power and at a good price? Bear in mind I'm not looking to spend as much cash as possible here, I'm looking for value!

I'll then be getting a 22" tft for ~£160, with these speakers, and this TV card.

Also - If XMS sees this - I'm wondering if that case is still available? :p

Cheers in advance guys :)
 
Hey mate.

I no longer need my commando if you are interested in that? You could have it for £75, comes with aftermarket cooling NB/SB/mosfets.

Also, I'll test my RMA replacement dominators in the blitz. If they work they will be up for grabs for a reasonable price.
 
That is the one mate.

Just so you know, this is the one XMS owned for 2 weeks, then sold to me. Boxed, comes ith GRAW and 3dm06. Original heatpipes have been retained. It had the aftermarket upgrades done and had a clear insulation spray coated for sub zero use. You can't tell. However, i think Jim used a strong adhesive on the SB heatsink so not sure if you can remove that... I think this had voided the warranty.

There is dielectric grease around the socket used for the pelt. It does not affect performance and most of it will be cleaned off before sending (some will remain as it is quite difficult to remove).

I took my e6600 to 3.8 on this and the q6600 to 3.7. OC's ram well too.

I did have a small spill on the watercooling front but the dielectric grease prevented any damage. I have since ran many benches (my 13K 3dm06 was done on here at was my 12.9 sec 1mSP) and hours of orthos and gaming with no problems.

Obviously you are one of 'the boys' so I'm telling you how it is, that is the life of this commando to date.
 
Cheers for the honest information, appreciate that! Lol - 'the boys' :)

I just can't afford for things to break tbh, I'm going to be in uni and I don't really know atm how things are going to go. Might not even build a 2nd PC, I'm just liking the idea of a 2nd PC being C2D also :p
 
name='Mr. Smith' said:
Just so you know, this is the one XMS owned for 2 weeks, then sold to me. Boxed, comes ith GRAW and 3dm06. Original heatpipes have been retained. It had the aftermarket upgrades done and had a clear insulation spray coated for sub zero use. You can't tell. However, i think Jim used a strong adhesive on the SB heatsink so not sure if you can remove that... I think this had voided the warranty.
Click to expand...

Yeah I used Arctic thermal adhesive on the mosfet sinks and southbridge - They are pretty much stuck there for life.

I cant guarantee anything, but I know a guy from Asus quite well. When my P5B muffed up he offered to RMA it for me despite it being modified and covered in grease. If you get any problems with this he might be able to do the same for you.
 
No problem mate. The offer is there if you want it. Obvouisly the board has been looked after and as you now know there is no warranty other than a possible swap via Jim's link up.

I can't predict the future so I can't say - it won't break. I can state it has been solid for me.

I'll let you think about it over the weekend. After that I'll probably put it on here and then ebay.

Good luck with the build :)

Edit: BIOS is updated, supports quad/133fsb and is on the list of ASUS mobos to support 45nm processors - Penryn.
 
I recently build a C2D system. I ordered them all from dabs.com as they had almost all the hardware I wanted so I saved a bit on postage etc. These are the (relevant) components I used:

Manufacturer : CRUCIAL

Product : 2x1GB 240DIMM PC2-6400 DDR2

Quicklinx : 444VWS

Quantity : 1

Price exc VAT : £69.76

Price inc VAT : £81.96

Rated for 4-4-4-12 @ 400mhz and 5-5-5-15 @ 500mhz. Uses the legendary micron chips (I forget the chip/model number).

Manufacturer : INTEL

Product : Core2Duo E6750 S775 2.66ghz4mb

Quicklinx : 4MMCWS

Quantity : 1

Price exc VAT : £98.99

Price inc VAT : £116.31

Speaks for itself really.

Manufacturer : ASUS

Product : S775 nForce 590SLI ATX A L

Quicklinx : 4DY5WS

Quantity : 1

Price exc VAT : £96.00

Price inc VAT : £112.80

Has two 16x PCIe slots, supports 1333 bus (for newer c2d's etc), and has all the usual extras plus wireless, which is working quite well.

I'm not sure those choices represent the best value you could get, but I also bought the silverpower 600W from tekheads, all the reviews I have read rated it very highly and it is therefore excellent value.

I can't tell you how it overclocks because I haven't done any, though I do plan to give it a go at some stage. Perhaps when I find a game that won't run at full detail.

The rest of my rig can be seen in my profile, I believe.

Interesting...

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/asus-p5ne-sli.html

"As you see, the main difference of the Nvidia nForce 650i SLI from the more advanced 680i SLI is that it has fewer PCI Express lanes, which affects the implementation of SLI technology. The nForce 680i SLI has a total of 46 PCI Express lanes, but the nForce 650i SLI has only 18. As a result, the senior version of the chipset implements SLI technology as PCI Express x16 + x16 and additionally offers a PCI Express x8 bus for a physics accelerator whereas the nForce 650i SLI supports SLI as PCI Express x8 + x8 and doesn’t offer any additional bus for a physics accelerator. It is easy to explain. Although the nForce 680i SLI and nForce 650i SLI are based on the same North Bridge chip (C55 SPP), they have absolutely different South Bridges. The South Bridge of the nForce 650i SLI chipset is far less functional and this is not limited to its having fewer PCI Express lanes.

Particularly, the nForce 650i SLI has only one Gigabit Ethernet controller instead of the senior chipset’s two, four instead of six Serial ATA-300 ports, and eight instead of ten USB 2.0 ports. On the other hand, the nForce 650i SLI offers two Parallel ATA-133 channels which is not a common thing for a modern chipset to have. It doesn’t seem strange, though, when you learn that the South Bridge of the nForce 650i SLI is nothing else but the nForce 430 MCP, which has been long known to us by the integrated nForce 6150 chipset. Nvidia knows the art of unification perfectly!

Besides the above-mentioned things, some capabilities of the nForce 650i SLI are disabled on the mainboard BIOS level. Thus, although it uses the same North Bridge as the nForce 680i SLI does, the cheaper chipset lacks official support for Nvidia LinkBoost technology and for high-speed memory with EPP. These limitations can hardly matter for experienced users who prefer to configure their systems manually, though."
 
What ever you decide on don't get the P5N-E SLI. I hate mine now and will be replacing it asap:mad: .
 
Hmm ok then! Tbh I saw it in ur sig and thought I'd have a look! Cheers for the advice there guys :)

So any advice on my two options of RAM and CPU. Will I be able to clock that 4300 up to say 2.8 - 3 ghz?
 
6750 is far superior but costs almost twice the price! Not sure about prices for 6550 - might be worth a look.

Ham has the 4300 clocked pretty high... 3.0 should be do-able on a decent mobo. As for ram, I have no experience with either of those kits...
 
Tbh the majority of C2Ds do 3Ghz. Ive got one of the 1st batch of E4300s and can reach 3.6ghz for benching. I use 3.0 for every day things.

Id go for an E6750 if i were in ya shoes dude. Coupled with a IP35-Pro and a nice set of Cellshocks or Balistix.

Edit: Just remembered the Asus P5K-E. Its basicly the delux - a few things that you don't really need. And its only like £100 or somthing silly.
 
im gonna be selling a c2d E6400 and DS3 rev 1 for £80 for both... dno if you'd be interested. Both good condition used for 9 months..
 
i doubt it.. i mean im thinking about it... but im either gonna go quad or just buy like a E6700-E6600 and overclock that..
 
difference between 6600/6700 and urs is the cache, and u won't see a diff, urs can EASILY hit 3.2, and i think 3.5, since u got good cooling!

try the thing in that link u showed with the green background, hit 3 and orthos for 8 hours while watching temps to be stable, and thats easy 3!
 
name='Pat123' said:
im gonna be selling a c2d E6400 and DS3 rev 1 for £80 for both... dno if you'd be interested. Both good condition used for 9 months..
Click to expand...

Wow that looks a good deal, if only i had £80 :(
 
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