LHC

So my friend was asking me about what motherboard he should buy because his family had to upgrade their computer... soo... I told him that he can buy mine since it's fairly new. Since he was upgrading the motherboard, he would need my processor and RAM too, so I'm giving him all that for about $265

Which leaves room for me to upgrade at a small cost

Paired with the DDR3 1600 Crucial Ballistix (ty DH) I'm getting:

Q6600 - Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor - Retail

HD 3870 - Newegg.com - DIAMOND Viper 3870PE4512SB Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

and the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe - Newegg.com - ASUS P5K3 DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

What ya think? Grand total after selling my old parts is about $350ish

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kris23

dump the Q6600 get a Q9300

dump the 3870 and get an 8800GT or 9600GT, 9600 is basically equivalent at a cheaper price.

go find an X48 board, i think zipzoomfly has them.

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Necrosis

Wow I can't believe how much Newegg is asking for the Q9300. I'd wait until a couple of months for the pricing to go down or find a nice used Q6600.

[hobo]eclipse

Will that mobo allow you to utilize atleast the default speed of the RAM? Not to familiar with the board myself, but the egg specs say only up to 1333 w/ ASUS Super Memspeed Technology?

LHC

The reviews I've read have had absolutely no problem getting DDR3-1600 RAM
back to DDR3-1600, and many have gotten it to even DDR3-1800 stable.

I plan on overclocking it, and I don't really like the multiplier for the 9300.. and with the video card, I've always kinda had something against nVidia cards

The x48 motherboards are a little out of my price range, but I'll have to see


EDIT: However, the 8800GT is as cheap as the 3870 now.. and DX10.1 really doesn't matter... hrm..

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kris23

why would the multiplier be of any importance since the Q9300 doesnt even have to go beyond 4.0GHz to outperform the Kentsfield.

its pointless when the q6600 cant even take full advantage of its own multiplier.....

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Necrosis

X-bit labs - The Youngest of Yorkfields: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Processor Review (page 6)

X-bit labs - The Youngest of Yorkfields: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Processor Review (page 14)

Veridian3

The 8800 GT is a far better card than the 3870, you really should go with that... also the motherboard is perfect for you. Dont think your memory is XMP so no need for an X48 really and as for the CPU... i think you would be equally happy with either so go for whatever is cheaper.

LHC

Yep, thinking about getting the 8800GT now since it is the same exact price as the 3870.. about a month ago when my friend was upgrading, the 8800GT was still in the $260 range, and I never bothered to take another look at them

Probably getting the MSI: Newegg.com - MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Yea, I read that review, and like it says, Q6600 would be better for overclocking.. I've also seen benchmarks of the two overclocked, and they are equal when OC'd to the same frequency.. and since Newegg has the Q9300 for $30-40 more than the Q6600, I just don't think it's worth it to get the Q9300

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PangingJr

i've seen all Gigabyte X38 DDR3 based boards specifications before, the latest version of the board, which is the "GA-EX38T-DQ6" and the older versions GA-X38T-DQ6, both rev. 1.0 and rev.1.1, they do support Intel XMP.

not sure about the Asus P5E3 Deluxe, whether or not it has support for Intel XMP, but it probably has.

more info about the Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP), and Intel XMP-ready DDR3 SDRAM DIMMs - Memory Tuning for Intel® Core™2 Extreme-based PCs

the Crucial Ballistix DDR3 could also support Intel XMP - Crucial Memory: Making the right memory upgrade easy to find.

i think may be, you might want to consider having a board that support the Intel XMP.

LHC

According to the site you gave, Memory Tuning for Intel® Core™2 Extreme-based PCs , X38 platforms support XMP..

I'm still thinking about getting the P5K3 though, because I'm going to get the open box for $130. I never need any of the additional things that come with the motherboard, and if I really needed an I/O shield I could easily modify my old one

The X48 boards seem a little too high in the price for me, and the X38 boards are almost as expensive

EDIT: Nevermind about the X38 comment, just realized you said that first thing in your post XP and on the site, it does show that it supports P5E3 Deluxe

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PangingJr

okay. you are lucky to have a good computer build at less money.

kris23

X-bit labs - The Youngest of Yorkfields: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Processor Review (page 8)

tell me, does that look very equivalent to you? still beats the Q6600 down at a clock speed disadvantage. thanks to the multiplier, the chip can still go higher than 3.6GHz
i believe the P5E3 can go to 500FSB and higher, my Maximus got to 525 with upped volts....

due to high heat from the Q6600, its pretty unlikely for you to hit any higher than 3.6GHz unless you got a VERY capable cooler.

the only thing that limits the Q9300 is FSB, but it still can beat a higher clocked Q6600, and you dont need a very big cooler to do it.

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LHC

Overclocked.. yea, they are basically the same performance.. and the first thing I said was that I plan on overclocking it

The numbers that are in the benchmark will barely be noticeable in the real world application.. SYSMark the highest is a 5 point difference, with most of them being a 2 point difference.. 3DMark has a 12 point difference... encoding there is a 1 second difference..

The Q9300 is not worth the extra money Newegg is selling it for

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kris23

the thing is it runs cooler.... it lasts longer. the Q6600 heats up greatly and a TR120E is needed to cool that for 24/7 use, ur not gonna be able to get 4GHz off it without liquid cooling and the Q9300 is just more efficient per clock.

you will most likely get much better speed once you get that thing to 3.7GHz..

going by the FSB and comparing it to my chip, going to a 500mhz FSB, you will get 3.85GHz, more performance per clock than the Q6600 and cooler running. the 500 FSB is well within the X38 chip's range.

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ChaosMinionX

Q9300 is a waste for overclockers period.

Q9450 is a little more bearable with the 8x, especially running X38/48 it will be able to do 475mhz FSB......

My Official statement on that Q9300 is the multi is absolute rubbish, I would take a Q6600 over it any day. A good G0 will do 3.6ghz+ with relative ease, or you can not rely on FSB so much and use the 9x multi.

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Necrosis

Only reason I "side-graded" from a Q6600 to a X3350 is I do a lot of video work, and I had a B3. Otherwise I would of went w/ a newer revision Q6600 never mind I only do moderate OC'ing.

PangingJr

only if you want to play around with a newer model CPU, and some extra money that you have to pay for the newer model CPU won't hurt anything, then go for Q9450.

but to me, Q6600 compare against Q9300, Q6600 is the winner in many ways. it most likely will be using more power and it will be hotter than the Q9300, But, right now Q6600 is cheaper to get and it has 9x multi.

kris23 is like a tech guru here, so don't get wrong idea. what you were talking about some of 500+ FSB on these Quad Core's, it did not seem to be the ideas of most Intel Quad Core based system.

Necrosis

http://microcenter.com/single_produc...uct_id=0257938

Zardon

glad you got the memory. some good advise in here from the gang too I see. whatever you end up going for, just make sure its a quad core cpu ............

Neshi

Is dual core already dead then?

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If one does not attach himself to people and desire, never shall his heart be broken. But then, does he ever truly live?

Life is just too damn short for if's and maybe's

ChaosMinionX

Dual Core was dead Jan 07 when Kentsfield hit the market

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LHC

Wish you posted that a bit sooner

Oh well, it's all good lol I already ordered my parts from Newegg.. the MSI 8800GT factory OC'd to 670 MHz core with a really nice HS/F installed on it.. which means it's going even higher and for $170 after a $30 rebate, really can't go wrong with that

The Q6600 processor, and the open box P5K3 Deluxe.. hope to get my RAM to around DDR3-1800 speeds with that

Thanks to all, and I'll let you know how they are They should arrive on Friday

Edit: By the way, the processor is the G0, so it should be good

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kris23

you got a decent cooler for the Q6600?

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