2nd build

Building second system and need help. Want it to last a few years again.

Just bought 32 inch lcd flat panel to double as monitor.
Have a segate 80gig hd
Have sony dual layer dvd/cd recorder
Teac cd r/w
430 w power supply

Now I need the rest ==
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 6000+ (ADX6000CZBOX) RETAIL BOXED W/1MB X 2 CACHE 90NM (WINDSOR) BUNDLE W/
ASUS M2-CROSSHAIR
KINGSTON 2GB DDR2 667
(1GB x 2)


Will I need another graphics/sound card besides what's on the board , Not used for gaming. Or is this set up overkill . Not much time for research this system is dying now!!!! HELP ...money is not really the issue ,,,performance and compatablity is priceless. Thx in advance. Maybe more questions later ,

To push the monitor, you will want a better graphiocs card, something in the $150 range should work pretty well. You can read up on Tom's pick of cards at all ranges here:
The Best Gaming Video Cards For The Money

Ok, my only question. What is C2D stand for :?

U def need a 2nd hard drive

80 gig just wont cut it for a "few yrs"

look for a Seagate sata/300 500gig with 8 meg cache, if ur mobo supports sata/300.

I will throw out the standard system picks and you can adjust for budget.

Intel Core2Duo which one depends on budget and if you want to overclock.
Gigabyte p965 DS3. good all around board enough features for most users
2Gigs (2x1GB) Sticks. Speed depends on the processor you pick and how much you overclock
7950 256m pci-e video card. enough to push the monitor without high price.
There is a start on the list, input what you have in mind so we can adjust these items

Wrong motherboard, you want the P965 not the G965.

I have the crosshair, and it's a very nice motherboard, but get an e4400 instead, that will overclock far past what the 6000 is capable of with say the striker extreme with teh cash difference, as that's the intel equivelent of the crosshair, just asus's regular 680i board with some watercooling to take that cpu to 4ghz

Ok , so you say lose the cooling fan and go with water cool. Have not done that cuz I don't need the speed for games.what other advantage is watercooling ...but if I did decide to go that route what set up for water cooling would I get something like this?????

Would this be overkill if I don't overclock???

THERMALTAKE CL-W0005-01 BIGWATER SE 12CM LIQUID COOLING SYSTEM

and even tho I am JUST a girl (if you think that way maybe we should play a game of poker ) would this be pretty easy for someone to install ......Also would I have to adjust anything else such as tower size??

... Sounds like a plan 8). (We are talking about strip poker, right?)

As long as her friends are girls and hot, I really don't care if I lose...

I have two heads but I only think with one...

P.S. The second one is bigger than the one on my shoulders if you know what I mean... LOL.

Got my E6600 in and it is running at 3.01GHz. Gonna push it furthe tonight.

I will try for 3.5

After more checking the p965 looked like it only had one IDE connector where the asus has two ...If I am wrong please let me know cuz I would still like to use my cd and dvd drives from my old system. I also opted for a new psu and graphic card. Tell me what you think;::Approx cost 900$

Lian-Li PC-V600A V Cool Series Mid Tower Aluminum ATX Case with Front USB 2.0 / Firewire Ports

XFX GEFORCE 8600 GT 256MB PCI EXPRESS DDR3 620MHZ DUAL DVI

KINGSTON HYPER X KHX6400D2LLK2/2G 2GB KIT (1GB x 2) MATCH PAIR
PC26400 800MHZ CL4 4-4-4-12 240-PIN DDR2 DIMM W/HEAT SPREADER

COOLER MASTER HYPER TX-INTEL (RR-PCH-S9U1-GP) RoHS CERTIFIED COPPER BASE COOLING FAN FOR INTEL (SOCKET 775) PROCESSOR

ASUS P5N-E SLI nVIDIA nFORCE 650 SLI CHIPSET ATX FORM FACTOR 2xPCI-E(X16)/1xPCI-E(X1)/2xPCI/4xDDR2 W/SATA2 RAID,LAN(Gb),1394,USB 2.0 & AUDIO (CPU TYPE:INTEL - SOCKET 775

INTEL CORE 2 DUO E4400 (BX80557E4400) 2.0GHZ EM64T DUAL CORE W/2MB CACHE 800MHZ LGA775-PIN RETAIL BOXED W/COOLING FAN (3 YEARS WARRANTY

Yes , thanks, I am moving two drives that can be m/s,, sometimes the lights are on but nobody's home So is the asus still a good choice especially since I will prob want to up the cpu and mem in a couple of years.

Here was the psu , don't know how that got left off

ENERMAX ELT620AWT LIBERTY ATX 12V VERSION 2.0 620W UL FCC POWER SUPPLY FOR ATX CASES)


The GF8800 is pretty expensive sooo what about between these two.....

ASUS EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M RADEON X1950PRO 256MB DDR3 PCI-EXPRESS VIDEO CARD W/DUAL-DVI & HDTV-OUT *Built for Microsoft Windows Vista (Retail) OR
ATI RADEON X1950 PRO 256MB GDDR3 VIVO CROSSFIRE PCI-E DUAL DVI/HDTV

Would really like the HDMI/HDCP but will have to wait on price drop


AS for cooling , after doing some thought and checking out the reviews on this site , I am not sure I am up to the task of going the water route and since I won't be OC'ing.The T Tower and the Thermalright seem huge ......I think a good case and cpu should do the trick for me. Have you heard of this one::

:ZALMAN CNPS9500 LED-CU COPPER BASE CPU COOLING FAN FOR AMD (SOCKET 754/939/940) AND INTEL (SOCKET 478/775) PROCESSOR W/3 PIN CONNECTOR

Thanks for all your help ,,,it is really needed..

Since you are not going to play games the X1950Pro is overkill. You can get by with a X1650XT that HDCP. Even that's overkill, but it's cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102068

Since the PC will be sitting in your living room (I assume), you will probably want a quiet power supply. I suggest the Seasonic S12 500, it is more than enough for your proposed system with plenty of room for upgrades.

From personal experience and 3 months worth of research before purchasing it, I can definitely say the Seasonic S12 500 is extremely quiet.

You can buy it at XPCgear.com, $103 + shippping:

http://www.xpcgear.com/s12500.html

Newegg also sells this PSU, but it's more expensive and out of stock, $125 + shipping

If you live outside the US, then you'll need to look for alternative e-tailers.

Ok now I am really confused. What is the difference between LGA775 and socket 775. Am trying to research but no where is there a clear answer.

thx

Thank you.

I have heard some bad things about the reliability of the Liberty. Apparently it's a nice PSU while it works but a lot have been failing. Kind of disappointing really - I have an Enermax in this nearly 4 yr old PC I'm using now and it's been rock solid. I agree with jaguarskx, get the Seasonic. I used one in the computer I built for my sister and it's nice and quiet. (Her computer has HDMI too - right on the motherboard - integrated graphics rock !)

Other than correcting the Zalman to the 9700, some other cooling thought: Good call to stay away from water cooling, a lot can go wrong if you make a mistake. Yes the Thermalright is large and the Tuniq is bigger, I'm using the Thermalright on my new build (E6700). Have you considered just using the Intel cooler? It works fine for computers that aren't OC'd. The E4400 shouldn't run hot at stock, great value CPU by the way. We have a bunch of E6300s at work and the Intel coolers are very quiet for those computers (unlike my dual Xeon workstation that sounds like a jet preparing for takeoff and still can barely outrun the E6300s).

Just one more thought about LGA 775, what Land Grid Array means is that the pins are in the socket (on the motherboard) and the pads ("lands" ) are on the CPU. Supposedly lower contact resistance and tough to bend pins. You can read all you ever wanted to know about it here.

Thank you Senor Bob,

I think I will just go with the intel cooler ,,then I can stick that money into better Lian-li case I want. If I discover I need the cooler I can always get one.

What mb did you put in your sisters, I looked up hdmi and could only pull up two on newegg ,,both ran under a 100$ . What is the difference in getting the hdmi on the mb rather than the v card besides price?

I am going with the seasonic I has lots of good reviews but should I go with more than 500w??

I have also decided to stay with ATI for vga, I have a ATI 7500 AIW currently ....Any other recommends would be greatly appreciated..Thanks for the link..

Lian-Li makes nice cases. A little pricy, but great quality. If you decide to upgrade your heatsink later, make sure to clean all the thermal paste off carefully. I would be surprised if you don't find the Intel cooler adequate. It's also a lot easier to install than the big aftermarket ones. (And my knuckles are still bleeding from cutting them on my heatsink last night).

I used this AMD 690G motherboard with HDMI for my sister's computer - but that's no help with your E4400. In my opinion, this chipset owns any integrated graphics board available for Intel currently, but Intel's upcoming G35 may(?) change that. There's not really any advantage to onboard HDMI other than price for a desktop. If you are making a home theater computer the onboard graphics run cooler and draw less power than a discrete card -> quieter system. Well that and the reviews for the ATI cards currently available with HDMI aren't very good. You might want to wait for their new HD2600 series due out sometime in the next century (the rumors say May 14 last I checked). I'm not a real fan of HDMI - my TV isn't exactly where I want to direct my sound to, I'd rather put the sound over the fiber optic to the receiver. At least my TV has an output to reroute the sound off of HDMI back out to the receiver. I don't know how important that feature is to you.

I like ATI too - my 9800 AIW was the longest serving card I ever owned. As Tacos suggests, the X1950Pro and X1950XT kick butt, especially for the $. If you aren't really looking for gaming performance, this looks like a good deal on an X1650.

The computer you describe should run fine on 500W. You can go higher if you think you will upgrade later, but as long as you stay away from power thirsty video cards like nV GTXs or ATI XTXs you should be OK. People run two 8800GTXs in SLI with 3+GHz OC'd C2Ds with 750 Watt PSUs, so 1 normal video card plus a stock speed E4400 plus miscellaneous drives and fans should be comfortably under 500W. For a point of reference my sister's computer draws under 200 W from the wall (I used a clamp-on ammeter) so the PSU output is probably under 175 Watts - I used the 330 Watt Seasonic in that one and it works great, the fan is almost completely silent. My new PC has a 750 Watt Silverstone which is also quiet. I'm a big fan of quality PSUs because they can take out the whole computer if they fail. Good luck on your build

Thanks for all the help.

Although I know I went overboard on grahics and mb , I think it will work well for the rest of what I will be adding later. Hopefully asus' mb will hold up as long as the one I currently own. And from time to time a good game will come out that catches my interest and I play it in my leisure.

I plan on adding a nice printer and scanner. Just bought a new nikon d80 and want to print out some super cool pics. Also plan on buying a good video camera and putting those onto disc.

I did go
Seasonic 600W psu,
CASE LIANLI|PC-101B BK RT
asus p5n32 plus mb,
1950 ati graphics,
800mhz mem 2 g kingston,
e6420 cpu with intel cool fan,
HD 320G seagate hd.

If the mb holds out , I can upgrade the cpu & mem in the future. But then again we could have a hurricane this year a blow the whole thing to the next county

So once again , Thanks
(encino mans sister )