Topic: Thinking of a new build...

[Simon]

... anyone like to comment?  Any mismatches?  Will it work?  Anything else I need?  Got CD/DVD Roms from old machine.

1 x    Coolermaster Centurion 5 All Black Case + 550W eXtreme Power Plus PSU    £59.56
1 x    Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty   £52.50
1 x    ASUS P5KC AiLifestyle Series iP35 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard    £61.97
1 x    Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache (2x4MB (4MB per core pair) CPU   £127.65
1 x    Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache*   £49.22
1 x    Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler   £12.97

Just one thing, can SATA and IDE hard drives be mixed?  I have a 160Gb IDE on the old machine for storage, and would want to transfer it, if possible, to the new one.

Oh, and what sort of graphics card would I need?  I have a spare AGP one, but I guess that won't work with this mobo.

[Sandra]

May be an idea to look for a diff mobo Simon looking at this :

http://www.custompc.co.uk/reviews/125932/asus-p5kc.html

No PS2 mouse port for some reason 

Seems to be a lot better performance using DDR3 rather than DDR2 but DDR3 is a bit expensive at the moment.

[Sandra]

Typical, I was looking on the ASUS site for a similar priced but better mobo Simon and its gone down for essential maintainence 

I dont like it when they miss something as significant as PS2 mouse and keyboard connectors off mobos.
OK you can use USB ones but its always nice to have basic PS2 available for trouble shooting.

How many of us would still prefer a car equipped with a starting handle for that once in a million times that you may have needed it, they should never leave things off, just add more 

[sam]

another thing, do you need all that cooling?

[cookiemonster]

Depends on what you really want to use your graphics card for Simon. If your an avid gamer like myself then i would be looking at the 8800GT or 8800GTX both are very well priced and give good performance. If your not into gaming then something like the 8600GT or the ATI 3850 pro.

The above mentioned cards are fairly cheap and i think the 8800GTX is proberly the cheapest you'll find it and the best bet value for price vs performance i'd say.

Oh and all the cards are PCI-E and i think so is your Motherboard, so you spare AGP one wont work i'm afraid.

Also found cheaper RAM for you, OZC 4GB PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel £49.34

And yes you can mix and match IDE and SATA.

[Simon]

May be an idea to look for a diff mobo Simon looking at this :

http://www.custompc.co.uk/reviews/125932/asus-p5kc.html

No PS2 mouse port for some reason 

Seems to be a lot better performance using DDR3 rather than DDR2 but DDR3 is a bit expensive at the moment.

Hmm... thanks for that Sandra.  Not the best review either, is it?   

[Simon]

another thing, do you need all that cooling?

I don't know - don't I?    I thought you couldn't have too much cooling.  Are you talking about the heatsink & fan, Sam?  Apparently the CPU does come with it's own one, but I had assumed that would be pretty basic. 

[gmax]

another thing, do you need all that cooling?

The "Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler"  would be quieter & more efficient than the standard one, good price too!

[Simon]

Depends on what you really want to use your graphics card for Simon. If your an avid gamer like myself then i would be looking at the 8800GT or 8800GTX both are very well priced and give good performance. If your not into gaming then something like the 8600GT or the ATI 3850 pro.

The above mentioned cards are fairly cheap and i think the 8800GTX is proberly the cheapest you'll find it and the best bet value for price vs performance i'd say.

Oh and all the cards are PCI-E and i think so is your Motherboard, so you spare AGP one wont work i'm afraid.

Also found cheaper RAM for you, OZC 4GB PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel £49.34

And yes you can mix and match IDE and SATA.

Thanks for that, Jester!  I'm not really a gamer, so I think the 8600GT would do me fine.  Also, a bonus about mixing SATA and IDE.  Do all mobos allow that, or is that something I should be looking for?

[Simon]

The "Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler"  would be quieter & more efficient than the standard one, good price too!

Yes, the price made it a bit of a no brainer for me.  Also, being extremely cynical, I wouldn't expect the standard one to be all that wonderful, as after all, they want the CPU to cook after the warranty expires, so you have to buy another!

[Sandra]

I have 2 Intel based pcs Simon, both socket 775, ones a single core 660 3.6ghz and the other has a dual core D945 3.4ghz, not the core 2 duo unfortunately.
Like you I thought that the freezer 7 pro seemed to be the needed one and bought one.
It made very little difference to my dual core one.
The standard Intel 775 cooler is very good and the later core 2 duos and quad cores run cooler than the earlier D945 dual cores like mine, so I wouldnt bother unless you are going to be overclocking the CPU to some silly speed 

[Simon]

I wouldn't know where to start with overclocking, so that won't be an issue, San.  Just need to find another mobo now.  It's a shame, because that one had great reviews on Ebuyer. 

[gmax]

Sandra, Do you find the  standard Intel 775 cooler noisy?

[cookiemonster]

Thanks for that, Jester!  I'm not really a gamer, so I think the 8600GT would do me fine.  Also, a bonus about mixing SATA and IDE.  Do all mobos allow that, or is that something I should be looking for?

As far as I know all mobos will run IDE and SATA simultaneously. They use different controllers I think.

[Simon]