Ram MOBO help pls

[Akubane]

I've been doing tons of research and with a bit of aid managed to come up with a build. It'll be for gaming etc. (F.E.A.R., Supreme Commander, Prey, Crysis, Farcry/2, Oblivion etc (Max quality/options))

Now as far as I know the system looks pretty solid.. but two parts I don't know about when I think about overclocking in the future for a bit better performance on newer games.

My main 2 questions are for the ram and mobo. The RAM that was suggested was good (and good priced) but it was also mentioned not if I was planning to do any real overclocking. What ram would you suggest if I planned on OC'ing it to 3.2-3.4 ish.

Same question for the MOBO. Is the Gigabyte board overclock friendly? I've read yes and I've read no. I've also read Good and bad about the Asus P5B.

I've been reading dual/quad-core overclocking and benchmarks tests, ups and downs all night/day and was thinking I wouldnt mind bringing the quad as high as I could get it with air cooling. I've seen a stable 3.4 at good temp but it required lapping a thermalright ultra heatsink (little above my experience level right now. I don't feel like placing my cpu in a pool of water on sandpaper >.> the thought scares me.. lol) so I was thinkin 3 or 3.2 with aftermarket air cooling (watercooling is also a bit above my current skill level, for now lol gottas get the system built first)

System Final build (beta(lol)):

CPU:Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
RAM:Corsair XMS2 PC-6400
MOBO:Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6
GPU:XFX Geforce8800GTX
PSU:Zeus 750W
HD:Seagate cuda 750gig
CASE:Antec 900

I've been told that the HD might also cause a slight bottleneck. but quite frankly the raptor 10000 and most other 10000 are too damned small.. I could fill a terabyte in a couple months. So I was thinking if running a raptor or similar main with a 750 or a couple 500's would make any difference.

And I know 750w is overkill but I'd rather not drop below that like with a 620 corsair psu I was recommended. I've read nothing but good reviews on the Zeus and 750 is a good solid number.

Thanks for any more help ^^ muchly appreciated.

 

[san21893]

You will definitely not bottleneck w/ your hdd, 7200rpm is standard. I don't recommend getting an SLI board because SLI is pointless for the most part, the money you could spend doing that you could just a card of the next gen. And if you're looking to overclock 3.3 is going shooting high for a quad, so any board w/ a p35 chipset is good for o/c, none of them support SLI though. If you go for a p35 board then a p35 ds3r is good or an ASUS p5k deluxe if you want all the goodies, (or any p5k for that matter). For good overclocking ram, go for crucial Ballistix or G.Skill HZ. I don't really know why the Ballistix is recommended here so much as the G.Skill seems better. Don't take my word for that I'm just assuming because the stock timings are tighter. As for the PSU, yes it's overkill, but it's good if you REALLY want ALOT of headroom. Always keep in mind though, it's not wattage that's most important, it's the amps on the 12v rails. In this case it's 18 amps on 2 rails, for a total of 36 amps. I believe that the minimum amperage for the 8800gtx is 30, so with 2 rails for a combined 36 amps, you're fine there. If you look to spend alot of money on air cooling go for the thermalright ultra 120. Otherwise, you can get a tuniq tower for much cheaper, the cooling is not as good, but still very good. It's up at the top with the other air coolers, and it comes with a fan, unlike the tr-120. With hardware like that, it would be much better to use a full tower with good cooling. The Thermaltake Armor is good and so are the Cooler Master Stacker's (quite expensive though). If you go for a Thermaltake armor and a large heatsink like the tuniq, don't get the Thermaltake armor with the big fan on the side, as it may have trouble fitting. An 8800gtx would be awesome for all the games you listed, and yes crysis also. Just a question, what resolution will you be playing on?

 

[Akubane]

ah icic so you figure the ASUS p5k deluxe would be better. its cheaper too lmao so thats a bonus. I was leavign the SLI open jic but from what you just said pretty much does it for me. I doub't id ever need to sli the gtx anyway.

I do like the headroom PSU wise i hate cutting thing's close. do you know any other PSU's with a higher amperage rating.. or is that average? Thats one thing I didn't catch on to.

I'm pretty picky when it come's to towers, the antec is a nice case, even if its a bit small. I did take a look at the new cooler master case which looks really nice, if a little lacking on ventilation. And its just me but a window would be cool, not necessary though I guess, just preferred cause I wanted to tinker around with leds, cathodes and maybe some blacklight wiring for kicks. It's my first Real build.. and I don't have the cash to make it a hobby lol so i'm thinking somethign permanent.

Right now max resolution I can do is 1280 >.> 17" lcd. So I couldnt push the GTX even if i wanted to right now. monitors cheap. But once I put this together I'm gonna pick up a 22" flat lcd, they arent much anymore. I'd get a 24 or 30 but they're still way to bloody expensive.

You don't see any compatibility issues with my system parts and the ASUS p5k deluxe or G.Skill ram?

Edit~ Checked into it looks like Premium would be a better step, only an extra 10$ and still 100$ cheaper than the Gigabyte.
Edit~ Checked into the G.Skill and nothing but stellar reviews from everywhere. I'm sold.

Thanks a ton for the help!

 

[san21893]

ah icic so you figure the ASUS p5k deluxe would be better. its cheaper too lmao so thats a bonus. I was leavign the SLI open jic but from what you just said pretty much does it for me. I doub't id ever need to sli the gtx anyway.

I do like the headroom PSU wise i hate cutting thing's close. do you know any other PSU's with a higher amperage rating.. or is that average? Thats one thing I didn't catch on to.

I'm pretty picky when it come's to towers, the antec is a nice case, even if its a bit small. I did take a look at the new cooler master case which looks really nice, if a little lacking on ventilation. And its just me but a window would be cool, not necessary though I guess, just preferred cause I wanted to tinker around with leds, cathodes and maybe some blacklight wiring for kicks. It's my first Real build.. and I don't have the cash to make it a hobby lol so i'm thinking somethign permanent.

Right now max resolution I can do is 1280 >.> 17" lcd. So I couldnt push the GTX even if i wanted to right now. monitors cheap. But once I put this together I'm gonna pick up a 22" flat lcd, they arent much anymore. I'd get a 24 or 30 but they're still way to bloody expensive.

You don't see any compatibility issues with my system parts and the ASUS p5k deluxe or G.Skill ram?

Yes with SLI you only get 40 percent performance increase for double the price, bad tradeoff. For PSU amperage, you're fine, although I have seen PSU's w/ quad rails, but I already know that even the Corsair 620 can handle 2 gtx's, not sure about if this one is approved for SLI by Nvidia. I'm not too much of an expert on PSU's but I won't be surprised if other members of the forum say 620hx is more than enough. I'm not sure about the new cooler master but the one in my avatar is the cooler master stacker 832. The side is all mesh and allows up to four 120mm fans on the side panel if you don't mind blocking out your view of your hardware (and if you have a small enough heatsink to allow that.) The mesh is window-like, but it will be harder to see in the daylight, unless you have cathodes, which are as bright as the sun. If you pm me i can send u some of my pics of the case and it's size. It's very good if you want to do watercooling somewhere down the road. I know mgcook has an Antec 900 and it's just way too cramped for his ultra and watercooling. (I believe he's watercooled, or maybe he was speculating?) Many people will say that the stacker is overpriced, and it does have it's downsides, but overall its a good case to go for. For your monitor, once you pass 1680x1050 resolution (standard for 20-22 inch widescreen monitors), you will notice a small drop in performance. That's where your gtx will start to struggle. 22 inch monitors are the best to go for right now as they are small enough not to kill your gpu but big enough to multi task well, to some extent anyway. For a 22 inch, seems like the unanimous decision for most people on this forum (and many other ones) is the Samsung 226bw. And no, I don't see any compatibility issue, but someone else might, I'm just way tired.:freak:

 

[Akubane]

40% gain? thats ridiculous lmao! ok so noty there lol. Maybe if I won the lotto. So the corsair 620 Is a good psu? i think it's cheaper as well. Maybe i'll get that then. I just wasn't sure abotu wattage with future watercooling, overclocking, cathode's and led's and maybe a few cool peripherals from thinkgeek.com lol (they got some stellar stuff.. little bit pricey though.. The USB drink chiller looks sick tho haha)
Just took a look at that case and it looks pretty mean O.O I like it for sure. and lol no ventilation problems with that one XD the new cooler master is pretty much solid, with a vent on top and bottom. Looks like i'll be switching case again lol.
22" is a good size anyway lmao still a nice jump from a 17" and i could sell my current monitor to my old man for 100$ and get the samsung at 2/3 price XD and that's kinda good too cause I tend to like samsung products anyway. Usually pretty **** good quality. I know the cellphone and tv i had/have kicked/kick a$$.

 

[san21893]

Yes the Corsair is very good, but also wait for other people's replies, this place seems dead tonight, usually there are people replying at this time, tomorrow for sure. Yes thinkgeek is amazing, check out their fragpedal and binary watch, OMG. Yeah cm stacker is sweetness, I'm gonna try to figure out a way to secure an 80mm fan(s) on the bottom vent. I had also jumped from a 17inch dell to the 226bw it's a very nice transition.

 

[Akubane]

yeah I just read tons on the corsair and nothin but good reviews as well lol. so i'll switch down to that. if it can handle the GTX sli and everythign else you can throw at it I don't have to worry since I wont be SLI. and LOL Fragpedal is killer. yeah i'm pretty pumped for the monitor switch. be nice to watch thing's in widescreen as well. and instead of selling this one off maybe just keep this monitor and run dual for stuff like supreme commander. havent decided if im going to just keep both PC's or sell off this one for soem extra cash to throw into the new build. my rooms a bit small and since i had to moove back with my parents to save some cash my ol man would **** himself if i had 2pc's on 24/7 lol. I hate waitign for startup so i never shut it off. I try to tell him it doesn't consume all that much power idling with the monitor off but he wont listen >.>

 

[san21893]

Whats your current pc, I'm curious how much you could make off of it.

 

[Akubane]

probably not much.

AMD Athelon 64 3200+ 2.0ghz
ATI Radeon 300x 128Mb
1 GB DDR pc3200 (dont know brand) stock ram. 2x512
Unknown motherboard. i've looked all over it for serial numbers and did research and we came up with a couple possibilities but I can't remember them. Its 2 years old and no PCIex16
brand new 16x DVD-RW/RAM+- drive (fried the stock one lol)
seagate 250gb 7200rpm S-ATA HD
onboard sound
Altec lansing 2.1 speakers + sub (killer sub)
HP pav f1703 17" flat LCD monitor.
edit~ vista ultimate 32bit OS
(yes it has a bit of trouble with the lousy RAM lol runs okay if i dont use the aero vista theme.. but that gets rid of half the coolness >.>)

 

[san21893]

Keep your monitor and speakers, and if your vista is non oem keep it. Maybe you could sell this thing for 400 then. If you pick it apart you might make more.