It's finished. Kinda. Still have the wire management to do. Gotta stop by Grainer today and pick up my techflex braided loom. I managed to get get it running at 3.0GHz, but am little unsure how to work with the RAM. I've got it "locked down" to DDR2800 right now until I can figure out how to squeeze some more speed out of the RAM. I'm a noob to the OC thing, just not PC and electronics. That friggin Tuniq is enormous! What a challenge to plug in and route some of those cables! JUst looking for any advice I can get to get it running sweet, smooth, and sexy!

First of all welcome to the best PC enthusiast community on the web, and kudos on providing a budget, really helps when helping

That looks like a solid setup there, but since we see quite a lot of these type of threads (nothing wrong with em, just saying) you'll find a plethora of good, up to date advice in this thread covering every budget under the sun.

Give that a good read and if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to post em up in this thread

I would buy a better Motherboard and Heatsink. 4GB of memory is cool but you'll
be fine with 2GB to start with. And it's easy to plug in 2GB more later down the
road. The Raptor Hard Drive sounds cool but it really won't help anything that
much. Get a regular drive and spend the money on a good overclocking mobo.
The Asus P5K Deluxe is worth the extra money. Yes it's expensive but you'll
get more from it. Get a slightly slower cpu if you have to. It will allow you to get
a better stable overclock.
And get the ThermalRight Ultra-120 Extreme Heatsink and a 120mm fan. It's only
a little more than the Zalman and you'll be set for the big time :-)

Quote: Originally Posted by Slaymate I would buy a better Motherboard and Heatsink. 4GB of memory is cool but you'll be fine with 2GB to start with. And it's easy to plug in 2GB more later down the road. The Raptor Hard Drive sounds cool but it really won't help anything that much. Get a regular drive and spend the money on a good overclocking mobo. The Asus P5K Deluxe is worth the extra money. Yes it's expensive but you'll get more from it. Get a slightly slower cpu if you have to. It will allow you to get a better stable overclock. And get the ThermalRight Ultra-120 Extreme Heatsink and a 120mm fan. It's only a little more than the Zalman and you'll be set for the big time :-)

Thanks for the advice. This is kind of what I am looking for. I can tell you up front, that I am not going to be interested in OC'ing. Just not my thing. I also just read that I can get the 8800GT 512MB for $200 after $20 rebate, so looks like I'll be scrapping the X3850. 4GB of RAM isn't necessary? That's cool. I figured it might be and didn't seem too pricey. As far as the Raptor drive. Real world you don't see enough of a diff to warrant it? Keep handing out the info. This is good stuff. I'm ordering on Friday, so it's crunch time!

I noticed this site is recommending Samsung drives. What's the hook with them? I was looking at these two.
SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

What about the 32MB cache versions? Any true benefit?

The Raptors may improve your load times by a couple seconds, but you really won't
notice that big of a difference. You may not be interested in overclocking now, but
next year when you think your slowing down. It like a free upgrade if you've bought
the proper equipment already. It may cost a few extra dollars now but it's worth alot
of cash down the road. I just built a new system for my office with the parts I recommended
and a E6750 and it's running at 3.6 GHz no problem at all and I also live in the
Heat of Florida (Jacksonville). Whatever you do, don't cheap out on the mobo or
power supply.

Edit: My 1st choice with a Hard Drive is Western Digital then Maxtor. I know alot
of people like Seagate, I'm just not one of them.

One thing to think about: The DS3L is a nice board, but it does NOT do RAID, so if you're thinking RAID in the future, keep that in mind.

If you want 4G of memory, do it as 2x2Gb instead of 4x1Gb; you'll leave two slots vacant and sometimes it's cheaper.

Quote: Originally Posted by Slaymate Whatever you do, don't cheap out on the mobo or power supply.

That being said, why not go with the ASUS P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard? It's the same money, has the x38 chipset, and has the PCI-e 2.0 support for my 8800GT?

Quote: Originally Posted by Durti Sahnchez That being said, why not go with the ASUS P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard? It's the same money, has the x38 chipset, and has the PCI-e 2.0 support for my 8800GT?

A perfectly valid option, and one I endorse.

Also, what OS are you planning to run? if it ain't 64-bit, then that extra 2 GB of RAM will never see the light of day.

already have a case? Fans? Water? What are you cooling with?

Also, the E8400's are this-year's replacement of the E6750, for less that $60 more, start at 3.0GHz and OC like heck on air alone.

As for the hard drives, look for high density platters! Some drives may be 300 GB on 5 platters, giving you 60 GB per platter, while others are 300GB on 4 platters, giving you 75GB per platter. More density per platter, better performance. (Those numbers are just examples.)

-godling

If you can tell me where you can get the P5E for the price of the P35-DS3L ($90), I'd like to know, because I'll buy it.

I like seagate because of the 5 year warranty.

I'd up the PSU, Corsair is good and all, but the Newegg.com - OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI ATX12V 600W Power Supply 100 - 240 V CB/CE/CSA/UL/FCC - Retail is a better deal, its cheaper too.

I've heard real good things about this PSU as well, real good price and free shipping.

Newegg.com - PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, cUL, CE, CB, TUV - Retail

Power PC & Cooling = win

Asus P5E = very crowded space around the CPU socket. The Tuniq Tower (my cooler) won't fit, so I got a Gigabyte X38-DS4. AFAIK it's the cheapest X38 board you can get atm.

All sound advice from everyone so far, but do yourself a favour and get an Intel E8400 - it'll outperform the E6750 by a fair bit.

Quote: Originally Posted by Hak Foo If you can tell me where you can get the P5E for the price of the P35-DS3L ($90), I'd like to know, because I'll buy it.

I was actually referring it to be the same price as the Asus P5K Deluxe.

Pricing on the Wolfdale and E8400 has changed dramatically almost overnight. A couple days ago, it wasn't an option, now it seems to be a clear winner.

This stuff is going to be going into an Antec 900 case. I'm going to be running XP-64, unless there's a reason I should be running something else.

Yea thats a good purchase, I received an E8400 for my birthday, just waiting for the rest of my crap to come in. Once thats's set, I'll report in and Let you know how awesome it is!

Quote: Originally Posted by Durti Sahnchez I was actually referring it to be the same price as the Asus P5K Deluxe. Pricing on the Wolfdale and E8400 has changed dramatically almost overnight. A couple days ago, it wasn't an option, now it seems to be a clear winner. This stuff is going to be going into an Antec 900 case. I'm going to be running XP-64, unless there's a reason I should be running something else.

I've heard drivers for XP64 can be hard to find.

Thats not entirely true, looking at all the hardware that he is buying. I'm almost 100% certain all those manufacturers have 64-bit drivers.

Looks like it's crunch time. I'm going to order tomorrow. Gonna do a little more research and check back for any more thoughts. Just want to get the most for my money. You know?

Quote: Originally Posted by Durti Sahnchez Looks like it's crunch time. I'm going to order tomorrow. Gonna do a little more research and check back for any more thoughts. Just want to get the most for my money. You know?

I have run into a snag. I have got to cut some corners. I need to know least expensive processor I can get away with. I'l OC it for now, then buy an E8400 in a couple months. Any help would be greatly appreciated. All the Conroe's are about the same price, so they're out. Thanks in advance.