Intel Core 2 Extreme + Picking a processor

[veg1992]

Most Mid-Tower cases can fit an 8800gt, a good board is an EP35-DS3L, its a little short on features like RAID or many SATA Ports, but its still a good overclocker, another one I like personally is the DFI Lanparty DK p35

 

[thirdshiftdj]

Did you read his first post? His budget is $1500. The only reason he's considering a qx6850 is because he's getting an amazing deal on it.

thirdshiftdj, I have to recommend against a Zalman. I had a 9700 and it didn't do the greatest at cooling my qx6700.

how hard were you pushing it. He said he might not even oc. Maybe in the near future

 

[Pinscher]

I wasn't pushing it at all because the temps were terrible. At stock it would idle around 42-45 and jump up to high 50s during load.

 

[Spit-wad]

Quick question - I was wondering about onboard sound.
If I got something like the EP35-DS3L, will it have a "What You Hear" function?
Don't know the best way to describe it - but I use Ventrilo a lot and it would be nice if I could play music without holding my microphone up to my speakers. (did I explain that clearly?)

Also, I am a first time builder - how difficult is it to setup the BIOS? I read that the DFI Lanparty DK p35 might have a difficult bios to set up for a first-timer.

 

[veg1992]

Onboard Sound Quality has improved immensely over the past 7 years, I mean most Boards out there have some sort of HD audio onboard

I don't know what you mean by "WHat do you hear" Function

And don't mess with the BIOS, the default settings should be fine, unless you change the board to boot from the CD first when you install your OS (unless you're also Overclocking)

 

[Spit-wad]

What I mean is that when I go into my sound options, there is Playback and Recording options.

Under Recording options, I want a "Stereo Mix" feature, or something similar to that. Right now I do not have that - I'm just wondering if that is something that's standard on most boards now. Basically, I'm trying to do THIS

 

[veg1992]

Oh.. Stereo Mix so you can record through your speakers

but even my old P4 Rig that I had like a week ago had Stereo Mix on it, so its easily doable on my new PC

 

[Spit-wad]

so... thats a yes? most new boards have good enough onboard sound to have stereo mix?