New Rig

[Wolfie]

Well, i just finished building my new PC.

This was an expensive upgrade, as i had to upgrade to PCI-e, DDR2 and Sata... so a new motherboard and CPU was required... but i must say i'm very pleased with the results.

So i ended up with the following...

Core2 Duo, 2.4ghz (will over clock to 3ghz soon)

4gb DDR2 (667mhz) Ram

500gb Sata Drive

XFX Geforce 8800GTS (320mg)

Shiney new box

Windows Vista generally seemed faster, with some of the slower tasks on the old PC much much quicker. Graphics very smooth. Fired up WoW and set all GFX options to maximum, and had a play for a few hours, FPS was steady at 65-75fps under normal load, dropping down to 50-55fps under extreme load.

Was concerned about the heat from the base unit, but every time i did my super scientific test (stick my hand in there to see how warm it was) it all felt very cool (the old PC was running very hot) My only concern was when i powered down the box and started touching the various components, the GFX card was quite hot to the touch.. but will keep an eye on that.

Over all, very impressed with the new PC. Significant boost to performance!

I would highly recommend this GFX card (GeForce 8800GTS 320mg) to any gamers out there, its a good high end board (not bleeding edge) and very reasonably priced at just over 12,000b in Pantip!

Total price for the PC (excluding Sound card, DVD writer and Monitor - which i already have) - 35,000b - bargain!

[chinthee]

Very impressive for the price. Can you hack into the Matrix with that bad boy?

[Tywais]

Was concerned about the heat from the base unit, but every time i did my super scientific test (stick my hand in there to see how warm it was) it all felt very cool (the old PC was running very hot) My only concern was when i powered down the box and started touching the various components, the GFX card was quite hot to the touch.. but will keep an eye on that.

Nice setup. Pics please.

8800's do run a bit warm, here are some temperatures of different brands of 8800GTS cards > AnandTech

Just use a temperature monitoring program (like Everest Home Edition) to see if it runs around the same temperatures.

[Firefoxx]

You could have gotten away with a cheaper Core Duo, the E4300 (1.8GHz), which also easily overclocks to 3GHz and more. The 500GB drives are really coming down in price. Only recently they carried a hefty price premium compared to the 250-300GB drives, but now they seem to be sold at roughly the same price per GB (about 10baht/GB). 4GB right now I think is a bit overkill, but with ram dirt cheap these days, anything goes.

Graphics cards tend to be hot, especially the higher-end ones, and the 8800's are higher-end. You could get better cooling with a better case, but most people really ignore this facet, going rather for "numbers" specs. The 8800GTS is indeed a good card, but most people won't even consider paying that much for a graphics card, more like 1,200 baht, not 12,000 baht. I myself got a 8600GTS, which can run 3D games at 1680x1050 (max for my 22" LCD) quite well.

[Wolfie]

You could have gotten away with a cheaper Core Duo, the E4300 (1.8GHz), which also easily overclocks to 3GHz and more. The 500GB drives are really coming down in price. Only recently they carried a hefty price premium compared to the 250-300GB drives, but now they seem to be sold at roughly the same price per GB (about 10baht/GB). 4GB right now I think is a bit overkill, but with ram dirt cheap these days, anything goes.

Graphics cards tend to be hot, especially the higher-end ones, and the 8800's are higher-end. You could get better cooling with a better case, but most people really ignore this facet, going rather for "numbers" specs. The 8800GTS is indeed a good card, but most people won't even consider paying that much for a graphics card, more like 1,200 baht, not 12,000 baht. I myself got a 8600GTS, which can run 3D games at 1680x1050 (max for my 22" LCD) quite well.

The ram was cheap, hence i went for the 4gb. I know its a little overkill right now but i was looking to 'future-proof' the machine for the next 12/24 months.

I think i paid something in the region of 1200b per gb of Ram, Kingston not the copied stuff... at that price i couldn't resist.

I did consider the lower cpu and over clock it to 3ghz, but in the end i opted to go for the best chip i could afford (and the cash was running out - the cpu was the last thing i bought) - working on the basis i might get brave and push the over clocking a bit more and see if i can get 3.5ghz.. or maybe 4ghz... but i will see what happens with that.

Right.. next on the list of purchases, a HD LCD TV thats capable of giving me a decent resolution with the card... i wanna be playing games on a 32"or bigger real soon!

[roog]

Which mobo did you buy?

[Firefoxx]

You'd need the 1080p capable sets. The ones from Samsung will cost around 90k, while the ones from Sony will cost around 100k+. My 37" Benq also does 1080, but it's 1080i, which is not good for static displays like the desktop, but is fine for games or HD movies. It's cheap, at only around 40k. Displays 720p just fine, but that's probably not good enough these days.

The E4300 actually overclocks better than the 6xxx series, because it has less cache. To get 3.5GHz out of anything, you'd need a very good cooling setup... air cooling would probably not be enough.

I bought Kingston ram, but it didn't turn out to be very good. Was only marginal at overclocking, and was the main factor that severely limited my overclocks. I think I should have gone for the cheaper but better-spec'd PQI sticks.

[Wolfie]

Which mobo did you buy?

Not the one i wanted, couldn't find it... ended up with the Asus P5B-E which seems a reasonable board

[ajarnmark]

Well, i just finished building my new PC.

This was an expensive upgrade, as i had to upgrade to PCI-e, DDR2 and Sata... so a new motherboard and CPU was required... but i must say i'm very pleased with the results.

So i ended up with the following...

Core2 Duo, 2.4ghz (will over clock to 3ghz soon)

4gb DDR2 (667mhz) Ram

500gb Sata Drive

XFX Geforce 8800GTS (320mg)

Shiney new box

Windows Vista generally seemed faster, with some of the slower tasks on the old PC much much quicker. Graphics very smooth. Fired up WoW and set all GFX options to maximum, and had a play for a few hours, FPS was steady at 65-75fps under normal load, dropping down to 50-55fps under extreme load.

Was concerned about the heat from the base unit, but every time i did my super scientific test (stick my hand in there to see how warm it was) it all felt very cool (the old PC was running very hot) My only concern was when i powered down the box and started touching the various components, the GFX card was quite hot to the touch.. but will keep an eye on that.

Over all, very impressed with the new PC. Significant boost to performance!

I would highly recommend this GFX card (GeForce 8800GTS 320mg) to any gamers out there, its a good high end board (not bleeding edge) and very reasonably priced at just over 12,000b in Pantip!

Total price for the PC (excluding Sound card, DVD writer and Monitor - which i already have) - 35,000b - bargain!

Keep touching it and you will screw up some of the components, either due to static charge or grounding.

[britmaveric]

Well if he grounds himself no worries.

[Richard-BKK]

Nice piece of computer, pity you went for 667Mhz memory, as this will somewhat limit your overclocking capability. Also 4GB is actual only closer to 3.5GB the 4 GB as for compatible reasons the current setup needs this memory addresses to address PCI, PCI-E and other internal devices. Some mainboard, have the option to relocate this memory, but this is a slower option, and again not advised to use when overclocking.

For me, Kingston is not the only brand name to look for, no-a-days you get better bang per Baht if you look and compare the raw specs of a SIM. The new kid on the block, SiS, offers relative cheaper SIM modules against a highly competitive price. Guess they want to make a name for them selfs.

Also why did you not selected the Asus P5K (Intel P35 chipset) the cost are about the same as a P5B-E?

The 8800GTS is in basic a factory overclocked 8800GT so not expect much overclocking with the VGA card

Edited July 3, 2007 by Richard-BKK

[Tywais]

Which mobo did you buy?

Not the one i wanted, couldn't find it... ended up with the Asus P5B-E which seems a reasonable board

Not sure what board you were looking for but I have the P5B-E Plus and find it to be an excellent board. Very good overclocker and rock stable, so I would say better then reasonable. In my case I went for the Corsair XMS DDR2-800 memory, but 2 Gigabytes which is just about perfect for me.

[Wolfie]

To be honest, the over clocking isn't a major factor for me, i just wanted a stable, fast system for gaming and something that would last me a year or two. Which i think I've got now. If i can squeeze another 10-20% out of the CPU through over clocking then thats great, but its not something that is a 'must-have' for me.

It was time for an upgrade, my old Celeron D system wasn't up to todays games and i was in a position to be able to afford mid-to-high range components to build my next machine.

Initial research seems to suggest the motherboard is a good over clocker, this will be my first attempt at over clocking!

[Jockstar]

Nice system Wolfie. I too will be building a new PC in the next couple of months. Just waiting on my Group cetificates to apply for my tax back. I'll be going along the lines a similar set up especially for gaming.

E6600

Corsair 2GB DDR2 Ram in 2x1GB sticks

500w "Ever Power" PSU

GA- 965P-DS3P Motherboard

8800GTS card.

Cant wait to get it. Did you build it yourself?

[Wolfie]

Did you build it yourself?

Yes, a morning walking around Pantip, getting the best prices for everything... then headed home, armed with a screw driver... only took about half an hour to put it all together and then another hour and a half to do the software build.

[Firefoxx]

Jockstar, you might want to go for the new P35 chipset boards instead. They're the "latest and greatest" and will eventually replace the 965-based boards like the GA- 965P-DS3P (which is a good board, just get the revision 3 board).

The "normal" air-cooled overclock for a E4300 chip is to around 3.0GHz, which is around 60-70% more than stock (1.8GHz). The "Core" series is really an overclocker's dream, since they're so easy to pump up the performance (with the E-series being the easiest). The last time we had something this easy to overclock was during the original slot-based Celeron days (original Pentium times).

Static electricity is very rare in Thailand. It's too hot and humid to get even a weak charge built up, unless you're in a very controlled environment.

[Jockstar]

Did you build it yourself?

Yes, a morning walking around Pantip, getting the best prices for everything... then headed home, armed with a screw driver... only took about half an hour to put it all together and then another hour and a half to do the software build.

Cool! Easy then?

[Richard-BKK]

I agree with Firefoxx, the Intel E4300 is a beast in overclocking I have one running at 2.99Ghz (in a room without airco, and Intel standard cooler). The max I can overclock the Intel E4300 is 3.6Ghz with a Intel cooler....But then need to change Core voltage settings....not a favorite option

If you anyway want to go for a Intel E6XXX model, I would advice to take a look at the E6420 which is only a fraction slower 2.14Ghz, and is serious cheaper then the Intel E6600. With a bit overclocking you can get a better performance then the E6600.

I got the Intel E6420 running at 2.66Ghz with the standard Intel cooler and still keeping the temperature within Intel specified limits. (333x8=2664Mhz). The Intel E6600 has much more problems with the heat, still with a good airflow in the case (standard Gview case) it is possible to get it running 2.99Ghz

Edited July 3, 2007 by Richard-BKK

[Wolfie]

If you anyway want to go for a Intel E6XXX model, I would advice to take a look at the E6420 which is only a fraction slower 2.14Ghz, and is serious cheaper then the Intel E6600. With a bit overclocking you can get a better performance then the E6600.

Well i did get a dream price on the CPU i bought. Everywhere in Pantip had them advertised at 8,600b but the guy i bought it off sold it to me for 6,600b

[Richard-BKK]

Maybe it was for the shop difficult to keep the numbers separate 8500 Baht or 6600 Baht, thinkin what was the model number...hihi

Anyway lucky you, sure for that price...anybody will buy a Intel E6600