Any opinions

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by greenbrucelee, Jun 2, 2008.

  1. twizzle

    twizzle Gigabyte Poster

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    I bought my Q6600 quad core for £150 4 month ago so this should be a lil cheaper now.

    All in all i think the setup looks quite good, a 700W psu would do fine, the 8800GT is still a very good card and 2 in SLI mode will make the most of any games.
    The mobo may be a little excessive and you could save some money there (would you need all its features?)

    But it looks like a close to top end games pc.
     
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  2. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    Is DDR3 worth it at the moment? but then again I'd have to get another mobo if I went back to DDR2, anyone got any thoughts?
     
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  3. NightWalker

    NightWalker Gigabyte Poster

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    DDR3 has big CL times, I thing fast DDR2 with CL3 or 4 timings would be just as quick as some DDR3 modules.
     
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  4. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    mmmm...If I want to build a comp that is gonna last a while I am probably better of going the DDR3 route but it seems some mobos only support it really well.
     
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  5. NightWalker

    NightWalker Gigabyte Poster

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    Thats true. You can always upgrade the RAM when faster DDR3 modules are around, but your mobo is going to be the crucial part of the system. My Asus is amazing, the one you have listed should be just the ticket. 8)
     
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  6. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    My Asus mobo at the minute is good (P5NE-Sli) and like them although I heard recently of bad bios updates and the like, hopefully I wont have to do one and I should be sorted :)
     
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  7. NightWalker

    NightWalker Gigabyte Poster

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    I try not to flash the BIOS unless I really need to, and when I do its always done from a command line boot floppy... never use winflash....
     
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  8. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    asus have the EZ flash but I have never tried it. I am scared just like I am of overclocking.
     
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  9. NightWalker

    NightWalker Gigabyte Poster

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    I have not tried updating the BIOS on my Asus board. I did it three or four times on my ASRock with no problems. If I can do it from a boot floppy that would be my preferred method. Don’t fear overclocking. I have had great success overclocking my C2D E6600. It’s at 3Ghz now, the stock speed is 2.4Ghz. My RAM is maxed out at the moment at 667Mhz. I need to get some faster RAM so I can get my CPU higher. I think it should run at 3.4Ghz on 1.25 volts and not go above about 42 degrees c on full load. That Asus board your getting has all the settings to allow you to overclock, might as well make use of them :biggrin
     
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  10. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    If I get the Q6600 cpu that cpu is supposed to be overclocked so I could give it a go :blink
     
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  11. NightWalker

    NightWalker Gigabyte Poster

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    I can hook you up with a link to a beginners guide to overclocking a modern Intel CPU. It’s what I used to setup my overclock. It’s not just about increasing the FSB speed. You need to move away from most of the auto settings in the BIOS as they increase in proportion with the CPU FSB. You need to manually set your PCIe speed, CPU core voltage and RAM voltages etc. I really enjoyed doing it, but I love messing about with settings :) My system has been overclocked for over a month, no bad things have happened yet! The real killer for components is heat, have good case cooling and a good CPU cooler and you can get quite a good overclock without any real problems.
     
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  12. greenbrucelee
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    cool :D
     
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  13. nugget
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    nugget Junior toady

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    You will need to update the bios if you get that mobo.

    Using the asus updating utilities are great. You can do it from floppy or usb, through the bios itself or a bios utility or through the updater program when you've installed the OS and updater utility.
     
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  14. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    Why will I need to flash the BIOS if I get this mobo?
     
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  15. nugget
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    nugget Junior toady

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    Like anything electronic, it has support for components up to a certain time point, mainly the point of RTM (around Oct or so last year). This means that it will support CPUs up until that time so if you get anything newer than something released about that time you'll need to update the bios to support it.

    You're quite safe with anything in the Q6xxx range but if you get anything later you'll need to flash it. For the CPU support and bios needed check here. The board came with bios version 870 (or thereabouts). If you get the Q9550 then you'll need v1001 or later.
     
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  16. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    Thanks for that.
     
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  17. Raffaz

    Raffaz Kebab Lover Gold Member

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    The EZ flash utility works excellent, i just copy the BIOS file to my USB pen drive and it works no problem. My maximus formula comes with some preset OC modes so im guessing that the mobo you have selected will have the same option, i think its called CPU level up or something similar.
     
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  18. nugget
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    nugget Junior toady

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    That's the one. At the "push of a button" you can increase the performance of the CPU to a higher level. If you have a Q6400 then you just choose the run as Q6600 option, and hey presto, instant overclocking.:biggrin

    It only works if you have the right CPUs though. From memory if you have the mid E and low Q models then it'll work but if you have for example a Q9450 (like I do) then you already have more performance. It's a good way for people to increase the performance of a low end CPU without having to upgrade it.
     
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  19. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    Cool cheers guys, I think I am gonna go with that mobo and the QX6600 :)
     
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  20. Raffaz

    Raffaz Kebab Lover Gold Member

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    Good choice:) My Q6600 is OCed from 2.4ghz to 3.01 from just using CPU level up, just had to change 1 setting in the BIOS and the mobo done the rest.
     
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