Critique my C2Duo build! :)

[SkyFire360]

Hey everyone!

I'm trying to build a C2D gaming/workhorse box, since my old P4 3.2/GeForce 6800 GT just isn't cutting it anymore (and I want a DX10 card to mess around with their geometry shaders!). The catch is that I'm a recent gradjit skool grajuwite and soon going to be going for my PhD, so I don't really have all that much money to work with.

I've been building it on Newegg over the last month, swapping parts in and out due to some reviews and price fluctuations. Some base benchmarks I'm going to try to hit are 9,000+ 3D Marks in '06, not having it sound like a jumbo jet taking off like my current one does, and hitting at least a 3.2ghz overclock with my 6600. The build is as follows:

Case - $89.99
LIAN LI PC-A05B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
* I don't need anything spectacular from a case, but it does come with 2x120mm fans (quiet!)

Harddrive - $200.97 (total)
3x Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA
* Raid 5, for 500 megs of space and decent performance (better than a single harddrive, I think?)

Video Card - $299.99
ATI Radeon 9800... kidding!
EVGA 320-P2-N815-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
* I've heard these overclock decently, and I won't be seeing much of a performance hit going with the 320mb at either 1280x1024 on my tiny 17" or 1920x1080 on my HDTV. Pixel pitch is more important to me than screen size, anyway.

Power Supply - $104.99
Thermaltake Purepower W0129RU ATX12V 600 W
* Um, it's 600w? I just don't want to underpower my system, and I've heard modular power supplies have some issues

Memory - $199.98 (total)
2x GeIL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
* 4GB of memory. I run a lot of signal analysis for my work in Matlab, so 4 isn't overkill. It's also got timings of 4-4-4-12, so if I had to go to 5-5-5-12 or 5-5-5-15 to get a stable overclock, they wouldn't be too bad.

OS - Free!
Vista Business
* ::shrugs:: I get it free through my university. I can't complain.
* I'm also going to make another partition for a dist of Linux for some work projects

Mobo - $199.99
ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP
* Now this selection has thrown me for a loop a number of times. I originally wanted to go with the MSI 975X V.2 chipset, but it got panned in the newegg reviews. I then decided to go with the Gigabyte DS3, but apparently the different revisions of the motherboard have HUGE differences in performances... and you're not guaranteed a specific revision when you get it. So I ended up with the ASUS P5W. I don't really need the WiFi (nice though!), but it consistently performed well in reviews, OCs well because of the 975x chipset, and isn't prohibitively expensive. Thoughts?

CPU - $223.90
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
* I'm just overclock the snot outta it anyway, and the additional $100 isn't worth the performance I'm going to surpass anyway

Heatsink - $57.99
Scythe SCINF-1000 120mm
* This thing is HUGE, but it's nearly silent with a 120mm fan and performs really well according to reviews. Watercooling would be awesome, but I'm trying to keep the performance/price ratio as high as possible.

TOTAL: $1,377.80 (before shipping)

Any thoughts, suggestions, jibs, or generally stupid things I may have decided to get?

[Stoneyguy]

Nice setup. I would probably go with the Seagate 320gig Gen 10 drives though.

[$n][pErMan]

Id go no less than the 640mb GTS.

[WeReWoLf]

All in all, a very nice setup. You'll be very pleased to hear that the 6600's overclock to about 3.2 with no problems, and are very stable. I got mine to 3.6Ghz on air a little while back.

[buffbiff21]

E6600 is perfect.
I always question 4gb of ram, no matter what work you do.
Get 640MB GTS.\
Ditch that Thermaltake PSU. Get a Corsair HX520. It will power that plenty, it's quiet, modular, black wires, and Corsair warranty
For the RAID, it's up to you. I've always thought RAID as too much of a hassle.. but if you don't mind the hassle then I won't stop you. I personally prefer one fast disk as boot (Raptor with partition on outer platter), and only 1 or 2 large capacity (silent) as storage.
Get DFI Infinity P965 for motherboard. I have one and @ $130 it is a GREAT buy. I'm at 475 FSB, in the process of stability testing right now while Im at work.

[XDanger]

or you could save a little bit and get a e6540 or whatever it is ???

[XDanger]

you dont want a large box tower sink with a p5b if you get one.
The Thermalright Ultra-120 EXTREME is the best air cooler and its nice n slim so the fan wont sit on top of your ram blocking airflow or indeed an ocz memory cooler if you choose to install one.

Also tower heatsinks with close fins need a nice powerful fan ,they dont work as well with slower ones which are usually quiet because of their low rpm's,I think its Better to use a fan controller and a leaf blower, at least then you have the option of making it faster when you want to.

I want this junk when the price drops (and also when they fix the slightly loose 775 mounting bracket thing):-

Originally Posted by nekrosoft13

i have one

will install it maybe today or tomorrow

got this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835109140

this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835202003

and finally, a fan for Ultra-120

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835220014
Air Flow: Max 110.03 CFM

[Inf1n1tyComplex]

Originally Posted by XDanger

you dont want a large box tower sink with a p5b if you get one.
The Thermalright Ultra-120 EXTREME is the best air cooler and its nice n slim so the fan wont sit on top of your ram blocking airflow or indeed an ocz memory cooler if you choose to install one.

Also tower heatsinks with close fins need a nice powerful fan ,they dont work as well with slower ones which are usually quiet because of their low rpm's,I think its Better to use a fan controller and a leaf blower, at least then you have the option of making it faster when you want to.

I want this junk when the price drops (and also when they fix the slightly loose 775 mounting bracket thing):-

Errrr... I read in another thread that the Ultra-120 Extreme has alot of issues... Those issues were listed on newegg in the comments most of them complaints about the quality control and mounting mechanism... Basically it's all the luck of the draw depending on which one is better...

Cons: Out of the 15 or so user reviews here and elsewhere that I've read, about 5-6 mentioned quality control issues, mine too is junk. The base where it meets the CPU is about half machined. You can actually see where it was machined and where it's not. Holding it up to the light it is clearly not even flat. Not to mention the fins are all crooked. Obviously a shoddy assembly job. They got a great review from those 'and' guys and decided to cut corners on the production run. Too bad. Buy this and you may get a fantastic heat sink and you may get junk. BTW mine cools exactly the same as the stock HSF. E4300 @ 3.0ghz, 4.56 Vcore, Silverstone case 2x12 cm fans, 36 degrees idle, 65-70 load (yes, really). Remounted 3x with Arctic Silver 5 til I inspected the bogus base. I'll try RMA but one more bad one I'm picking anything else.

Cons: Unless you plan on mounting your motherboard flat, it is too heavy. The 775 base is too flimsy to support its weight properly on a vertical motherboard (tower). The base design causes it to sag under it's weight when mounted on a vertical motherboard, to the point of causing the 2 upper cores to spike on Core Temp on my QX6700. I've watched temps realtime fluctuate as I take weight off the end, reducing sag. Tested while running Orthos, all 4 cores loaded saw upper cores exibit 15C fluctuations as I supported it with my hand and then released it to allow base to hold it up.

Cons: Mounting surface not even close to being flat I noticed without even doing a straight edge test. Also one heat pipe not soldered to base on either side.

Cons: I receive this and its Concave. A little high in the centre of heatsink and the difference in edge surface is about .5 mm after aligning my ruler with one of the edges. The way I tested it was used a steel ruler edge to confirm evenness. I dont know what this means in terms of temperatures, and how scientific is my finding. Am still working it out with Thermalright, trying to get their response.

[nvnews-reader]

Originally Posted by SkyFire360

Harddrive - $200.97 (total)
3x Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA
* Raid 5, for 500 megs of space and decent performance (better than a single harddrive, I think?)
...
OS - Free!
Vista Business
* ::shrugs:: I get it free through my university. I can't complain.
* I'm also going to make another partition for a dist of Linux for some work projects

I would consider RAID 1+0 instead. RAID 5 is good for increasing read performance but you will gain little if any performance with writes.

With only 3 disks I believe you will have better overall performance using RAID 1+0

Also instead of dual booting Linux I would dl the free version of vmware server and run linux in a virtual machine

[stncttr908]

What's wrong with dual booting? Also, GRUB is much nicer than the Vista bootloader.

[nvnews-reader]

Originally Posted by stncttr908

What's wrong with dual booting? Also, GRUB is much nicer than the Vista bootloader.

Nothing wrong with dual booting but virtualizing is a lot more convenient.

[XDanger]

Yes Inf1n1tyComplex the block REQUIRES lapping,
a rev.2 would be the one to go for if they ever decide to sort out their QC