[moose69]

Hi
I have made a start on putting a new build together, to start with I have bought a processor an Intel one “Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6300 1.86Ghz 1066 MHz FSB 2MB L2 Cache”. I would value your advice on putting a good quality motherboard and graphics card with this to give the best performance. I have decided to go for 2gb of DDR2 800 ram.



My main priority with this build apart from performance is that it runs as quietly as possible. I have been looking at “Gigabyte GA_965P_DQ6 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-058-GI)” as a possible board it’s compatible with the processor and will support the quad when it comes on stream.



The Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-152-AS) looks interesting but I’m not sure if it’s compatible with the processor.



The cards I have been looking at are the “HIS ATI Radeon X1900 GT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)” hopefully a quiet card.
I have also come across the “Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 GTO2” it’s used and on eBay.
I almost bought NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450 - 256MB on eBay.

Any suggestions or tips would be most welcome

moose69

[mooml]

Any Socket 775 Motherboard will support your processor. I prefer ASUS but that is just my opinion. It's really up to which board you want, either the GIGABYTE or the ASUS. The ASUS board you posted is REALLY nice. The only bad thing about it is the price.

As for being quiet i say stick with a 7200 RPM Hard Drive which is generally the loudest component in a PC. There are special Power Supplys that say you can't even hear them. The truth is your computer is always gonna make a little noise. If your really into keeping your new PC quiet and extra cool, maybe you should look into liquid cooling systems. Generally 1 or 2 fans are still need for liquid cooling systems. And again, money is a big issue as these systems are pretty expensive.

The only thing i have to say about the video card is that in my experiences, NVidia is the way to go. With ATI, i've had a more problems on past computers than with NVidia.

[moose69]

Hi mooml
Thanks for the input I have gone with the Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi and the card I went with is HIS ATI Radeon X1900 GT ICEQ card hopefully it will be trouble free.
I have decided on the Antec Performance One P180 case which has 3 case fans on board and an unusual location for the PSU and for that reason I have bought one of the recomended PSU's the Antec NEOHE 500GB 500 watt PSU. I have ordered a 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive.

Now the fun begins I have fitted the processor to the mobo and am waiting for the case etc to arrive. I have in the meantime being trying to make sense of all the bits that arrived with the MOBO. Its my first encounter with SATA et all and its also the first time with PCI express so its a huge learning curve. I just hope I dont have to update the bios using another processor fingers crossed.

Im hoping this comes together in the next week so Ill keep you posted. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

moose69

[mooml]

With that motherboard i doubt you'll have any troubles. For help with the pci-e and the SATA, look at your motherboard manual. It will tell you where the SATA connectors are and how to connect them. It's very simple. Hope everyone goes according to plan and have fun!

[moose69]

Hi mooml
Thanks for the vote of confidence, I have been reading the manual which is a first for me, I suppose it will make more sense once I have the motherboard in the case. Ill be in touch.
moose69

[mooml]

Yeah i found out recently that the motherboard manual is VERY helpful when it comes time to connect everything. Post back! I wanna know how everything works out for you.

[moose69]

My case etc got held up because they were waiting for a keyboard I ordered to come into stock. so I cancelled the keyboard and should have the case by midweek a week late. Ill let you know how it pans out when the stuff arrives.

moose69

[moose69]

The case has arrived first problem cant see where I should connect the front bezel audio to the motherboard

[moose69]

Hi I got past that minor problem. I got the machine to boot up and have access to the bios the psu ram and graphics card are working the sata drive is identified. However there is a problem. The optical drives asre not being identified. The message I get is as follows: "Reboot and select boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press press any key. I feel I have made an incorrect connection and any help would de appreciated.
moose69

[moose69]

Hi
I am up and running but I still have to figure out the remore setup and the wifi any help would be good. Im getting ready to set up the sound.

moose69

[x86]

Well i have Antec cabinet it is a great cabinet but the front panel is really flimsy.
so dont ever dare to move it and if u lift it dont do that holding the front bezel.

about the front panel in asus boards i believe there is the option for connecting front panel check the manual.
there shud be one single audio connector not the distributed pins way of connecting.
btw i havent seen this beast mobo yet... if it uses a riser card like DFI then you have to plug it in the riser card else look for the audio connector "in normal asus its near the pci connectors"__ check the manual it shud be there.

I have modded my cabinet using a blue led thermaltake fan works great

About the wifi just install the drivers and follow steps as with normal wifi.
hdd if u can get the 7200.10 seagate series the 320 gb one. it has 2 platters hence better.
for ram

check these two
1> great oc capability
TeamExtreme Gb Kit DDR2 (2 x 1Gb) 3-3-3-8 667 Mhz


they have real good ocbility, if u dont wanna oc go for any ram ddr2-800 based on d9 chips.

btw i love my cabby but its really heavy...... and that antec smps is awesome u cud have got the 550 one though as dx10 gfx cards are on the horizon.
also u cud have waited a month or so before buyin a gfx card now as dx10 cards are gonna launch soon within 3 months for sure hopefully.
.
for oc u can check this site www.techenclave.com its forums lots of stuffs so is there in xtremesystems and stuffs.hope posting links to other tech forums isnt violating the rules!

[x86]

btw get a sound card if possible return the gfx card and wait 3-4 months for dx 10 ones cuz dx 9 card wud be useless in dx 10 as its not backward compatible in hardware mode.
though microsoft is tryin to come up with something to make it backward compatible.
plus also remember full vista eyecandy u need dx 10 .

[moose69]

Hi x86
I sorted the front panel options the answer was in the manual but with so many features it was a bit confusing at first.

As for the graphics card its not an option to return it, also io am running XP at the moment and from what I have been reading of vista it sounds more hassel than its worth and it will be at least a year before it has a broad enough driver support for my liking.

Why would I need a sound card when the mobo has realtek 7.1 surround sound, its a step up from what I had before and I dont fancy investing any more in sound just now.

As it happens I have that Seagate drive and the responses are great.

For ram iI went for GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 CAS 4-4-4-12 I probably wont be oc just yet anyway.