Its that time of year again ... when WT's surplus slush fund money from his part time job has overflowed, which causes him to yearn for a pile of new hardware (anyone ever open a box of PC parts and inhale the electronic smell from those new toys ??).
So this years update was complicated by the fact that my MSI 650i board, altho currently listed on the MSI website as supporting some of the Penryn CPUs, is in fact incorrect.
Funny thing is, boards that were RMA'd back to MSI for other reasons will work fine with the newer 45nm chips, so it appears that MSI is doing some mod to the board that fixes the 45nm support.
This does not make for a repeat customer, so I had given MSI a chance with that build, but I will no longer buy or recommend them unless the buyer knows what to expect.
OK, with that out of the way, I ended up settling for an eVGA 750i board. Its not much more than a 650i with proper Penryn support, so in essence it isn't going to do too much more than my old board, performance-wise, other than run the new chips.
Honestly, I wasn't dead set on an Nvidia board due to their video corruption bug that still lingers in the background, but this board would at least make my board swap (and my current Vista installation) less problematic since it is based on a similar chipset and would take no more than a Vista re-activation to get up and running again with all software still in place.
So, first let me offer up thanks and well wishes to Warhead, who bought this board based on my recommendation after having issues with his Gigabyte board. He soon ran into issues with the eVGA board, but I was at least able to solve his Gigabyte issues, so hopefully he has solved his issues.
Here's the pile o' parts:
Shown above are a Raidmax Smilodon Extreme case, eVGA 750i SLI FTW board, Intel Q6700 CPU, 4gb kit of OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2-800 RAM, Zerotherm Nirvana NV120 heatsink and a FREE copy of UT 3 !!
Parts breakdown:
Raidmax Smilodon Extreme - I loved the original, but couldn't deal with the 80mm fans .. they have since released this update to the case which adds 120s front and rear to resolve that issue. This thing was $50 after rebate !!!
Note to Juneau: This case doesn't go with this build; the parts that come out of my main rig go into the Raidmax case, so expect a dual upgrade/build thread outta this thread
eVGA 750i FTW SLI - FTW !!! Ughhh, I sorta hate that overused phrase, but its a great board, and after reading reviews, it was a clear choice that, again, replaces my existing 650i and doesn't require a repair install or other tomfoolery to get my existing Vista install operational.
Intel Q6700 - Here's where I caved and bought old skool. The Q6700 is based on the older 65nm core, and I really did want the 45nm Q9450. That's why I bought the eVGA, wasn't it ??
Welllll, yea .. it is. But after reading about each, and finding that both had the same overclock potential, and that the Q6700 was $50 less, it came down to simple economics.
Quad tip of the day: Quads run HOT !!! If you are overclocking one, you will hit your thermal limit before you even get close to your voltage limit. Don't even bother to pour more voltage into the chip if you cannot keep it cool.
OCZ Reaper RAM - I have never bought OCZ before, but thy are well regarded in the overclocking community for their high O/C tolerances. I'm not shooting for the moon here, but if I get 3.6ghz from this 2.66 chip, I will be very satisfied. OCZ spec's 2.0 volts for this RAM, but they can be bumped up to 2.2 to stabilize an overclocked chip.
Zerotherm Nirvana NV120 HSF: - Juneau asked me why I went with this instead of the OCZ Vendetta, which is one of the best budget HSF's available. Marketing .. purely marketing ! I read a review in Maximum PC on this cooler, then followed that up with online reviews. Its one of the top 4 coolers available for under $50, and unless you are cooling to water, this is a very competent air cooler.
Lastly - a free copy of UT 3 came with the chip ... sooo ... this game ...
geez, I remember the buildup to it, we were soooo hyped for it, and it really was quite a turd, for lack of a better word. Anyone wanna trade for something ?
Ohh, you want more pics ?? Sorry, I got offtrack there ....
Good grief !! These HSFs are getting bigger and bigger !! This monstrosity required a backplate under the board (a first for me) and I even had to read the instruction manual on how to mount it !
Remember my quad tip from above ?? Don't skimp on cooling a quad core. Keep in mind you have FOUR lil furnaces generating heat on that chip die, not two.
Don't fear the Reapers !! (Blue Oyster Cult fans, that was for you - more cowbell !)
Not sure if I wanna rip things apart and go any further today ... many pics to follow if I do, as I will have to do two builds to finish things up.
So this years update was complicated by the fact that my MSI 650i board, altho currently listed on the MSI website as supporting some of the Penryn CPUs, is in fact incorrect.
Funny thing is, boards that were RMA'd back to MSI for other reasons will work fine with the newer 45nm chips, so it appears that MSI is doing some mod to the board that fixes the 45nm support.This does not make for a repeat customer, so I had given MSI a chance with that build, but I will no longer buy or recommend them unless the buyer knows what to expect.
OK, with that out of the way, I ended up settling for an eVGA 750i board. Its not much more than a 650i with proper Penryn support, so in essence it isn't going to do too much more than my old board, performance-wise, other than run the new chips.
Honestly, I wasn't dead set on an Nvidia board due to their video corruption bug that still lingers in the background, but this board would at least make my board swap (and my current Vista installation) less problematic since it is based on a similar chipset and would take no more than a Vista re-activation to get up and running again with all software still in place.
So, first let me offer up thanks and well wishes to Warhead, who bought this board based on my recommendation after having issues with his Gigabyte board. He soon ran into issues with the eVGA board, but I was at least able to solve his Gigabyte issues, so hopefully he has solved his issues.
Here's the pile o' parts:
Shown above are a Raidmax Smilodon Extreme case, eVGA 750i SLI FTW board, Intel Q6700 CPU, 4gb kit of OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2-800 RAM, Zerotherm Nirvana NV120 heatsink and a FREE copy of UT 3 !!
Parts breakdown:
Raidmax Smilodon Extreme - I loved the original, but couldn't deal with the 80mm fans .. they have since released this update to the case which adds 120s front and rear to resolve that issue. This thing was $50 after rebate !!!
Note to Juneau: This case doesn't go with this build; the parts that come out of my main rig go into the Raidmax case, so expect a dual upgrade/build thread outta this thread
eVGA 750i FTW SLI - FTW !!! Ughhh, I sorta hate that overused phrase, but its a great board, and after reading reviews, it was a clear choice that, again, replaces my existing 650i and doesn't require a repair install or other tomfoolery to get my existing Vista install operational.
Intel Q6700 - Here's where I caved and bought old skool. The Q6700 is based on the older 65nm core, and I really did want the 45nm Q9450. That's why I bought the eVGA, wasn't it ??
Welllll, yea .. it is. But after reading about each, and finding that both had the same overclock potential, and that the Q6700 was $50 less, it came down to simple economics.Quad tip of the day: Quads run HOT !!! If you are overclocking one, you will hit your thermal limit before you even get close to your voltage limit. Don't even bother to pour more voltage into the chip if you cannot keep it cool.
OCZ Reaper RAM - I have never bought OCZ before, but thy are well regarded in the overclocking community for their high O/C tolerances. I'm not shooting for the moon here, but if I get 3.6ghz from this 2.66 chip, I will be very satisfied. OCZ spec's 2.0 volts for this RAM, but they can be bumped up to 2.2 to stabilize an overclocked chip.
Zerotherm Nirvana NV120 HSF: - Juneau asked me why I went with this instead of the OCZ Vendetta, which is one of the best budget HSF's available. Marketing .. purely marketing ! I read a review in Maximum PC on this cooler, then followed that up with online reviews. Its one of the top 4 coolers available for under $50, and unless you are cooling to water, this is a very competent air cooler.
Lastly - a free copy of UT 3 came with the chip ... sooo ... this game ...
geez, I remember the buildup to it, we were soooo hyped for it, and it really was quite a turd, for lack of a better word. Anyone wanna trade for something ?
Ohh, you want more pics ?? Sorry, I got offtrack there ....
Good grief !! These HSFs are getting bigger and bigger !! This monstrosity required a backplate under the board (a first for me) and I even had to read the instruction manual on how to mount it ! Remember my quad tip from above ?? Don't skimp on cooling a quad core. Keep in mind you have FOUR lil furnaces generating heat on that chip die, not two.
Don't fear the Reapers !! (Blue Oyster Cult fans, that was for you - more cowbell !)
Not sure if I wanna rip things apart and go any further today ... many pics to follow if I do, as I will have to do two builds to finish things up.
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