How did I do?

[xxfirexx]

Well I finally ordered my parts and than cancelled it yesterday and reordered to a completely diffrent build . Did I do the right thing?

My conundrum with $1000 Canadian Dollars:

i7 920, gigabyte x58 ud3r, 3 gb ddr3, 640 gb wd, antec 300, bfg 550w, xfx 4850 and using my old 17" flat screen crt

I relized since my budget was tight I probably wouldn't have the money to get a 22" lcd any time soon. So I decided to downgrade a bit and change it to

q6600, asus p5q pro, 4 gb ddr2, 320 gb wd, antec 300, bfg 550w, xfx 4850 + 22" samsung

With pricematches at ncix.com it came out to be a couple dollars cheaper. I didnt get a after market cooler which Ill do soon. The computer will be primarily for gaming so was it worth the switch?

 

[b0dge]

IMO, you've done the right thing. That 4850 would be wasted on a 1280x1024 res, and the second build will handle anything you throw at it games-wise without a problem.

The only thing you lose is a bit of future-proofness, but if it was me I'd have done the same...

 

[veedubfreak]

Not bad, hopefully you dont get a bunk q6600. The more recent chips dont seem to overclock very well.

 

[jfenwick]

Ditto, either that or a phenom II build would have been it for me, I just can't see a quality i7 rig for $1000CAN including monitor. I'd rather have a 775 rig of quality components than lower quality i7.

If I'd known you were going to go with the p5Q pro I would have offered to sell you mine...ended up with a surprise second 260 and can't SLI with the p5q so am going to dump it for a SLI board.

 

[xxfirexx]

ahh ok thats good

And the p5q came with free shipping on the entire order so I saved $50 right off the bat

 

[Asylum]

That setup should treat you well for a couple years and you can always upgrade your processer and graphics later for cheap!!

 

[Pyrothrillah]

Sounds swell to me. Will hold up for awhile.

 

[xxfirexx]

Quick question. How much overclock can I do with the q6600 on stock cooling on average. I live in Toronto if that relevant?

 

[jfenwick]

OCing a q6600 on stock cooling is a sin! Not sure what your cap would be...is it GO or B3 stepping? Too many factors to give you a real solid estimate...only one way to find out. let the occing begin!

 

[meat_helmet]

OCing a q6600 on stock cooling is a sin! Not sure what your cap would be...is it GO or B3 stepping? Too many factors to give you a real solid estimate...only one way to find out. let the occing begin!

I dont know what Toronto is like through the summer, but it cant be any worse than Sydney here. I had my Q6600 working on stock cooling for a while at 3.3GHz. And that was an old B3 chip which overclocked similarly to the ones coming out now. The temps werent actaully that bad considering it was stock. I would say if you want to go over 3GHz though you should invest in an aftermarket cooler. The new Q6600s arent supposed to get much past 3.2Ghz though.