Conroe e6400 Build, Need Help

[RockyZ]

Hey TF members, thanks for looking at this thread! I frequently lurk TF and I have a few posts here and there, I personally NEVER look at the "MY NEW BUILD" threads because I am too lazy to always give the same answers to people who need help, so thanks again for taking your time to read this thread!

Originally I was going to have a 6600 build, but since they are not in stock anywhere, or WAY overpriced, I decided to give the lower range Conroes a try. They have 2MB L2 cache which is HALF of the 6600 and higher, but still the same as the top Am2's. And the prices beat AMD easily.

So here is a list of the things I will have on this computer:

Case: My old Lian Li V-1000B case, no help needed here.

Harddrive: Seagate 7200RPM 16MB 320GB Sata 2 $95 (Newegg always has great deals, this is cheaper than the WD HD with the same specs I bought a month ago for $100) (no help needed here)

CPU: Intel Conroe E6400 $299.00 (no help needed here)

Motherboard: DFI INFINITY 975X Socket T $240 (ok, I need help here, I want this computer for pure overclocking and experimenting, thats why I chose DFI, but there are NO reveiws on newegg, I think I can google some, but would anyone be familiar on how well the 6400 would OC on this board? If this isn't the best choice, which board is?)

Soundcard: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 $121 (this is the first time I bought a high performance soundcard, the reveiws seem good and the prices seem right)

PowerSupply: SeaSonic S12-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply $130 (my friend Andrew, know as aspire.comptech here on TF, suggested this PSU, it matches my case, has up to 85% efficency)

Videocard: eVGA 256-P2-N584-AR Geforce 7900GT KO 256MB $265 (20 dollar mail in rebate)

Memory: OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 $230

Grand total with shipping and tax: $1,494.49

I don't know, but the price tag is a little bit high. I expected to build a computer around 1200. Give suggestions please!

 

[Lord AnthraX]

excellent build.


Good luck finding a good board...I'l look for a review of the DFI for ya.

 

[TriEclipse]

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202730357&loc=101&sp=1&queryType=comp

$339. $23 over the price is hardly way overpriced, wouldnt you agree?

Not in stock ATM, but will be soon; ships in 1-2 weeks. Id say the wait is worth it for a much stronger CPU?

As for why the build is so expensive -- dont judge the overall price by the cpu. The e6400 is a very strong cpu, but also very cheap. Plus, you went with overly expensive parts there. look at the $240 motherboard, ffs.

get this instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012

 

[RockyZ]

oh I forgot to mention, I am in need of a computer FAST, that means before school starts, 6600 isn't THAT much stronger of a CPU, the 6400 actually has higher OC potential, the only advantage I see is the 4MB L2 cache, the 6600 is 400 dollars by itself while this cpu is around 310(with tax and shipping).

i was looking at that mobo, it is actually even cheaper when I combine it with the CPU, but I looked at the reveiw and it says it has some problems with DDR800 ram which is what I'm using.

edit: Read a reveiw on the gigabyte mobo and decided to go with it, still a 1350 final price.

 

[RockyZ]

sorry for double post, but here is updated list:

-e6400

-Gigabyte Ds3 965x mobo

-OCZ 2gb DDR800 ram

-Seagate 320 gig hardrive

-Seasonic 500W PSU

-Evga 7600GT Ko (thought about it and realized I don't game THAT much, this will do until 8 series comes out)

-Creative Xtreme Music Soundcard

Grand Total(which is pretty close what my budget): $1,258.05

 

[Ridlyn]

I never heard of a Seasonic PSU, so i cant tell if there bad or not.

If you were to change it, i would change it to this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931

$79.99 because of $10 instant savings.

 

[RockyZ]

cool, I wonder if those come in black, I'll check later, but I really want a stable PSU, I heard some bad things about Antec PSUs, or maybe it was one specific model.

 

[UA_Iron]

Go with the seasonic:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/11/stress_test/page30.html

 

[RockyZ]

Ok decided to switch to a e6300, I was thinking, if its the same stepping as the 6400 and it cost less, I can obviously oc it to be almost as good as the 6400, plus I'm thinking of upgrading to 6600 in a couple of months anyways!

Also decided to ditch the videocard idea, screw it, I'm sticking with my 6600GT.

That gives me a total of $949 shipped, while is pretty dang good for a core 2 duo system with 2gb GSkill DDR800 ram! I think I should be able to hit 2.7GHZ fine.

 

[aliasaid]

seems like you cheaped out in the wrong areas..

1) your PSU is good, but not in your budget.. get the antec 550watt true power for $80 (save $50!)

2) your motherboard is overkill.. are you gonna go crossfire? if not then go with the gigabyte for $150, it overclocks just as good. (save $90)

3) soundcard seems pointless... that would be first thing i would cheap out on.. use on board for now.. thats the easiest thing to upgrade... if you find yourself totally unsatisfied with onboard.. (save $121)

4) ram looks good but you could probably find similar for $200 (save $30)

if you take my advice, you save $291. you can get that 7900gt afterall! OR go to e6600 or you said you dont' want to wait so at least hte 6400.