gaming rig

[TriEclipse]

Way to bring up an old subject.

Why are people on this forum so quick to take offense to every little thing that's said on here? Jeez, let it go.

 

[Ste]

An Old subject? Was replied to today..

Why do you think I took offense to it?

Cause I didn't.

 

[Phrantic]

Alright, next item up for revision. The Asus P5B motherboard.

While I'm convinced it is a good motherboard, I'm unsure whether to go for a nice and flashy (but cheap) soundcard, or stick with on board if it's good enough.

Basically what I want is good surround support to match my Speedlink Medusa headset, combined with good microphone quality. Does the onboard sound of the P5B provide enough quality in both of these areas?

I've heard some bad words about the P5B driver support which would make it hard to get the sound to work, if I know this is a common problem I'd like to be ahead of it and buy a cheap soundcard...

 

[TriEclipse]

Be careful on reviews about the P5B though. There's three versions; the vanilla "P5B," the "P5B-E," and the "P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP." The one you're talking about is the P5B-E, which is a revision of the vanilla P5B, with most of the problems fixed.

Onboard sound quality isn't anything great on any motherboard really. Even I bought a cheap sound card for my old system and it wasn't anywhere near top-of-the-line. As long as you don't drop the motherboard, I would suggest getting a soundcard.

 

[Phrantic]

No I've actually got the P5B... suppose I can just add some $20 and get the E version if it's exactly the same as the P5B otherwise and still worth the extra money. It should be.

On soundcards I'm thinking Creative X-Fi Xtreme OEM or Audigy SE 24-bit.

 

[TriEclipse]

The P5B is a mediocre motherboard, nothing special. It's the P5B-E that's got the overclockers excited, since its a relatively cheap motherboard that overclocks farther than any of it's competition. I really suggest you switch to the P5B-E.

As for the sound card, I'll leave that up to someone else. I know the X-Fi XtremeMusic is an excellent card, but apparently they released some new ones like that Extreme Audio that some say aren't as good as the other ones.

But if all you need is better sound quality than the motherboard can provide, I'd say the Audigy SE isn't a bad choice. Its better than what I got for my other PC.

 

[Phrantic]

I've decided to stick with the P5B-E onboard for a bit and then I can always buy a soundcard if I don't like. The onboard of my Dell Dimension 4700 (family pc ) gives acceptable surround sound already so I expect the P5B-E sound to be no worse.

The memory I was trying to get just went out of stock, this means I'm looking for other memory, and I'm giving the DDR2-533 ones a chance now, as well. I'm not too keen on getting DDR2-800 memory, given the price and the marginal different with the 667.

This has shed another light on things, because the DDR2-533 memory should be more appropriate if I don't plan to overclock... The C2D FSB runs at 1066Mhz which is quadpumped from 266, so that would make it go well with 533 mem in dual channel for my memory to run 1:1.

But on the other hand, I will likely o/c the CPU (over time) and I could get DDR2-667 memory and up the FSB to 333Mhz * 7 = 2.331Ghz. This should be a little under what I've read it can handle, so that should be safe, but I don't know if the P5B-E motherboard can handle a FSB o/c to 333Mhz.

I see no other useful overclocking possibilities if I get the 533 RAM, but if anyone has a good rate, I'd like to hear it. I don't know if it's hard or even possible to unlock the multiplier on the E6300, which would enable me to fine tune the 533Mhz mem better. Or... maybe the DDR2-800 after all. The P5B mobo is capable of running cpu:mem at 4:5 so it would give more possibilities.

Thoughts?

P.S.: suggestions for the best brand out of the following are welcome:
Buffalo, GEIL, Kingston HyperX, Kingston ValueRAM, MDT, OCZ.

P.S. 2: I could also get an E6400 for the higher multiplier (8x) and possibly save a few bucks by getting DDR2-533. I haven't looked into the stock and o/c ratio possibilities yet, though.

 

[TriEclipse]

You are correct that DDR2-533 is the stock memory for a non-overclocked Core 2 Duo system. However, once you start to overclock it, the Core 2 duos overclock so well that you need to buy higher-rated memory to keep up with the processor.

2.33Ghz? Try more like 3.33Ghz. The Core 2 Duos are excellent overclockers, better than anything else before them. 3Ghz+ is common on all models, even the E6300. There is no way to unlock the multipliers on the Core 2 Duo processors (does not include Core 2 Extreme). There are some motherboards that will let you lower the multiplier, but none let you raise it. Because of that, you need high-speed RAM to keep up with these monster overclocker CPUs. DDR2-667 would only let you get to the 2.33Ghz that you mentioned, but that would be an injustice to this processor. It would be akin to buying a processor that runs at 3.0Ghz+ and lower the speed to 2.33Ghz, capping a lot of it's potential. DDR2-800 lets you overclock to 2.8Ghz, and with the 4:5 memory divider on the P5B-E, you could take it even further.

There is not that much difference in the prices of DDR2-533 and DDR2-800 memory if you don't get the fancy stuff. These G.Skill 2GB DDR2-800 sticks are available for $200. It'll still get you to 400FSB guaranteed, and has nice 4-4-4-12 timings. But the price for those is unnaturally low (note the $40 instant savings) so it may be a limited time offer. If you can't get it in time, then this pair should also serve you just fine. G.Skill is one of the best brands for enthusiast memory.

As for the P5B motherboard being able to handle 333Mhz; remember how I said it was the overclockers' darling? Its capable of well over 450Mhz, and quite often 500Mhz.

EDIT: Oops, my bad. Forgot that you weren't buying from Newegg. Mind linking the memory page for the website you're using?

 

[Phrantic]

DDR2-800
DDR2-667
DDR2-533

Although it wouldn't be a disaster to order from another (Dutch) store. But I don't think G.Skill can be found anywhere in Holland.

3.33Ghz? Like, LOL. I'm very cautious with overclocking, so I won't try to push it that far I think...

-edit- Found a Dutch site that offers the 2nd pair you linked, for a whopping $275. O_O Shipping time: two to three weeks... You'd start to think we live in caves here...

 

[TriEclipse]

Wow, memory is expensive over there. Assuming the prices are in Euros, this OCZ kit would cost around $323. It was one of the cheapest ones, and it actually overclocks well.

How much was the DDR2-800 that went out of stock.