Time for a new Box

Cronos

<div class="IPBDescription">Rate my new box to be!</div>It's been six years since I last bought me a new PC, since then I've been relying on hand-me-downs from whenever my brother upgrades his computer, which is so often I never need to buy anything truly new <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />

However, the time for that is over, I needs me a new compy and I prefer to buy the parts individually and assemble and install all the software myself.

Anyway, I ran the list by my bro and this is what we came up with. I'm gonna head out and buy up all the parts come morning but I figured I'd go ahead and see what the general wisdom of the forums has in store <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />

Case: Antec 900
CPU: Intel Q6600 Quad Core
HDD: Seagate 500 Mb Sata 32 Mb (Soon to get another for backup purposes since I tend to fill HDD's quick)
M/B: Asus P5Q Pro
RAM: Kingston 4Gb 6400 Twin
PSupp: Antec Neopower 650 Blue
DVD Burner: Pioneer 216 Sata

Only hand-me-down piece of hardware in this compy will be the video card, a Radeon 8800 that's served my bro well.

I go with Intel parts/processors when and where I can as I've had way too many issues/bad experiences with AMD in the past to trust them again. Asus brand products tend to do well by me, havent had significant issues with them for years and their warranty have always been good to me in the past.

I'm hoping to run Unreal Tournament 3 and Bioshock decently on this machine, they've been collecting dust long enough on the shelf and it's time to (ab)use them to my hearts content <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />

If I can keep away from Wrath of the Lich King that is D:

All up this thing should cost me a little over 1k AUD (700ish USD with current exchange rates), which isn't too outrageous though I think I may be able to score a bit of a discount since I'll be collecting all these items from a single spot.

Aaaaaaaaaanyway... Lemme know what you think! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />

sherpa

You seem to be using it mainly for gaming so I'd go for a dual core over a quad core. By the time the majority of games use 4 cores your Q6600 (the slowest Intel quad around?) should be out-dated.

I'd swap it for an e8xxx series if I were you.

Other stuff seems fine (though as I use nVidia gfx cards I have no idea what that ATI card is) but from personal experience I'd stay aawy from Antec PSUs (I've had 2 and both have exploded within 6 months)

Swiftspear

<!--quoteo(post=1693155:date=Nov 11 2008, 11:48 AM:name=Cronos)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cronos @ Nov 11 2008, 11:48 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1693155"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Radeon 8800 that's served my bro well...

I'm hoping to run Unreal Tournament 3 and Bioshock decently on this machine...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Haha. No.

[edit]Intel q6600 is obcenely overclockable. Stock, it's the slowest intel quad around, but it pretty easily clocks up to 3.2Ghz. With some nicer aftermarket cooling you can even get it to 3.6. Impressive as it's standard clock is 2.6

lolfighter

2.4 actually. Or at least that's what my system claims it's at. Supposedly, the stock cooler's good enough that you can overclock it to 3.0 with that one alone. Considering how cool it's running, I'm willing to believe it.

That said, my CPU is far from bottlenecking. I'll overclock it once anything actually needs it.

Corporal_Fortier

Are you <b>certain</b> your bro is giving you a Radeon 8800? If so, then it's a big joke man. I wonder if you can even run HL2 with that.

Now, if he meant a "NVIDIA Geforce 8800", now this is something else. Please clarify this with your brother, otherwise you clearly need to buy another video card if you plan on running Unreal 3.

Xyth

<!--quoteo(post=1693182:date=Nov 11 2008, 04:47 PM:name=Corporal_Fortier)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Corporal_Fortier @ Nov 11 2008, 04:47 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1693182"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Are you <b>certain</b> your bro is giving you a Radeon 8800? If so, then it's a big joke man. I wonder if you can even run HL2 with that.

Now, if he meant a "NVIDIA Geforce 8800", now this is something else. Please clarify this with your brother, otherwise you clearly need to buy another video card if you plan on running Unreal 3.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, not to mention he probably won't even be able to fit HL2 on his 500 mb harddrive.

Cronos

Ack!

Yeah, I made the post at 5 AM, so forgive my errors.

I did mean a Geforce 8800 and a 500 Gb HDD, Oi Vei.

And the overclocking aspect of the Q6600 is what makes it quite attractive for me. As it stands it's really a tossup between the Q6600 and the E8500, both evenly priced and both about as good as each other. While the E8500 may be slightly better for gaming, the difference is apparently negligible.

In any case, as I understand it the real bottleneck for gaming is in the graphics card and I've never been troubled by running things on mediocre settings before.

In the end the difference between the E8500 and the Q6600 is negligible for someone like me. The way I see it quad core allows me to run certain CPU intensive apps better then what a dual core can and I would find some use in that when I go to do video editing and file zipping and such.

Guess I'll have to leave it to a spur of the moment decision. I went for a completely different LCD then the one my brother recommended one time while I was in the queue because I literally thought "Screw it! I'm grabbing X!".

Thanks for all the advice people, I'm off to pick up the parts. I'll see if I cant take a few pictures of the new compy coming together when I start assembling it all <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />

Mastodon

Looks like a solid build. Pretty much the same system I built for myself this summer, save I went with a different brand of RAM and a BioStar board (freaking awesome, btw). Let us know how it comes out!