2nd build help

How is quad out of his price range? Hes paying 170 for an E8400. He could easily get a Quad for about the same price. Newegg sells the Q8400 for the same exact price and the Q9400 which has more cache for 20 dollars more. He could also save some money on the vid card, you dont have to get the sapphire brand, they are selling a 4850 for around 90 bucks with shipping.
XFX 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150337
Save the 20 bucks and put it towards a Q9400. You can then overclock the Q9400 to probably around 3.7 ghz or more with adequate cooling, like an OCZ Vendetta 2 or Scythe Mugen since they esentially have the same design and fan size. I have my Q6600 running at 3.7 ghz.

My computer cost me about 750 bucks and im running pretty much the same setup that you are going to build except i have less ram than you and im not getting a monitor but i paid for hard drives. My comp is over a year old though and i paid a lot more for my setup, my Q6600 is still 200 bucks :O
 
PewPewBangBang said:
How is quad out of his price range? Hes paying 170 for an E8400. He could easily get a Quad for about the same price. Newegg sells the Q8400 for the same exact price and the Q9400 which has more cache for 20 dollars more. He could also save some money on the vid card, you dont have to get the sapphire brand, they are selling a 4850 for around 90 bucks with shipping.
XFX 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150337
Save the 20 bucks and put it towards a Q9400. You can then overclock the Q9400 to probably around 3.7 ghz or more with adequate cooling, like an OCZ Vendetta 2 or Scythe Mugen since they esentially have the same design and fan size. I have my Q6600 running at 3.7 ghz.
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Where to start...a Q9400 runs at over 300 mhz slower than the E8400 which will affect gaming performance more so than 4 processors vs 2.

Core 2 Quads are significantly harder to overclock than Core 2 Duos, because of the heat issue. With the heatsink/fan combo the OP chose, there is no way he could get up to 3.7 Ghz and remain under the average 70 C mark. For those type of clocks, within an acceptable temperature range, I'd recommend a Thermalright or Megahalem heatsink. I don't know what kind of temps you get PewPew, but I think the heatsinks you listed couldn't keep your processor at a good temp with that clock speed. However, I do think a 3.0 Ghz overclock is feasible on the Q9400 and might be worth the extra dough.

The reason I recommend the E8400 is because it's a solid processor at a core speed which doesn't necessitate overclocking but will get to 4 Ghz easily if desired.

As for the graphics card, I still recommend a 1 GB version of the 4850, dual-slots for a single card which is not OC'd is a waste of space, especially at 512 MB and from a brand like XFX.
 
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I just cant wait to start buying, I planned on getting to 4850'S and after shipping it ends up being cheaper to just get the 4850X2, plus 250+ fps sounds great for dods. I've already bought and recieved the case, and have started moding it. I must say swapping the blue Antec fans with red Rosewill fans makes this case look beastly. I'm also about to install the red LED feet i ordered.


 
Atleast you dished out the extra money for the 4850x2........that card is an excellent choice. It is built on the same architecture as a 4870x2 since its a non reference card built only by sapphire.

Where to start...a Q9400 runs at over 300 mhz slower than the E8400 which will affect gaming performance more so than 4 processors vs 2.

Core 2 Quads are significantly harder to overclock than Core 2 Duos, because of the heat issue. With the heatsink/fan combo the OP chose, there is no way he could get up to 3.7 Ghz and remain under the average 70 C mark. For those type of clocks, within an acceptable temperature range, I'd recommend a Thermalright or Megahalem heatsink. I don't know what kind of temps you get PewPew, but I think the heatsinks you listed couldn't keep your processor at a good temp with that clock speed. However, I do think a 3.0 Ghz overclock is feasible on the Q9400 and might be worth the extra dough.

The reason I recommend the E8400 is because it's a solid processor at a core speed which doesn't necessitate overclocking but will get to 4 Ghz easily if desired.

As for the graphics card, I still recommend a 1 GB version of the 4850, dual-slots for a single card which is not OC'd is a waste of space, especially at 512 MB and from a brand like XFX.
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I am actually getting max temp of low 60's with prime95....around 62 is highest and im running a 65nm G0 stepping. OCZ Vendetta 2 is a direct copper touch type of heatsink. They are very efficient. It has a 120mm fan and is equal in performance to a TRUE 120 even better sometimes with Q6600. Im at 3.72ghz and fully stable. 30's for idle and 62 max for load 100% but in realtime usage you never use 100% so its usually around 50's.

I have nothing against the E8400 i think it is an excellent card but the quads will last you longer especially now that 4 cores are being utilized in some current and more future games. But its his choice.
 
PewPewBangBang said:
I have nothing against the E8400 i think it is an excellent card but the quads will last you longer especially now that 4 cores are being utilized in some current and more future games. But its his choice.
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I agree, that's why I just traded up from an E8500, but I wouldn't do it unless I could get 4 Ghz. Your temps surprise me though, I should probably trade up my mid-tower for a full-size soon, even with a Prolimatech Megahalem I'm getting ~ 69 C on max load.
 
Yea OCZ Vendetta 2 is pretty much the best heatsink fan out there for the Core 2 series, adding a high performance fan cuts down the temps by around 2 degrees Celsius. Ill bring up the review site.
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/ocz_vendetta_2/4.htm
For the Core 2 Duos and comparison to True 120
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...8580-ocz-vendetta-2-cpu-cooler-review-10.html
This one has both Q6600 and E4600 along with high performance fan results. It smokes almost all the other coolers.

Yea the Cooler Master HAF 932 was an amazing upgrade from a cheap mid tower case, the HAF has the best airflow for the Full tower's pretty much. I like the stacker series though, fan bracket on side for 4 fans that covers up the whole side panel pretty much, its sweet and looks amazing.
 
Well, the Megahalem is definitely one of the top heatsinks out there and I really don't care for standard Intel mounting mechanism used by the OCZ, but it looks like a solid heatsink. I just think between my 3 hard drives and a 4870x2, there's no room for my CPU to breathe. Eagerly awaiting the Corsair Obsidian 800D to become available :drool:
 
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Just read an interesting review, the E8400 is overclockable to 4.2Ghz with a 1.45 volts stable. it's also reached 4.5 but not completely stable.
 
of course it is.......its only 2 cores, generates a lot less heat, wouldnt really expect anything less of it :)
But the i7 920 can also run at those speeds to with 4 cores which is insane WITHOUT WATER COOLING. People get over 4.0ghz with a decent/good air cooler. 4 cores at those speeds shreds anything and wont bottleneck any GPU setup you have (referring to things like Quad-fire 4890)
 
PewPewBangBang said:
People get over 4.0ghz with a decent/good air cooler. 4 cores at those speeds shreds anything and wont bottleneck any GPU setup you have (referring to things like Quad-fire 4890)
Click to expand...

Are we talking the 920 here or the 950? The 920 would take a whole lot of tinkering with voltages and a damn good heatsink/fan to reach 4 Ghz stable with good temps. The 950 is just too pricey. Also, I'm glad you acknowledged here that a dual-core would bottleneck a crossfire setup :P
 
lol i have read reviews with them getting over 4ghz on air cooling with a 920. The 950 is not worth it, anything over the price of the 920 is not worth it lmao unless you have money to spare. Yes lol i believe in bottlenecking....there are a ton of reviews where they tested setups like CF 4870x2 and 2xGTX 295 and i think they were bottlenecking at like 3.4 ghz or something with the i7 920 but i dont really remember.
 
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