Just Bit The Bullet - New Guts on the Way

[Major_A]

I got tired of waiting on Yorkfield to go to retail so I bought this...

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX
Scythe SCINF-1000
Tuniq TX-2 Thermal Compound
A-DATA 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR2 800

Adding what I already have...
8800GTS
750GB Samsung HDD
160GB WD HDD
Lite-On LH-20A1S
Crap old Chieftec case
Windows Vista x64 Ultimate

I'm debating in using my old SB Audigy MP3+ card or just using the onboard Realtek HD audio. None of the features the SB card has are available to me in Vista anyway. Thoughts?

I have that bad feeling that once I put this all together Yorkfields will be running wild in the retail channel in under a month.

The Opteron will become my new HTPC and my old HTPC will become my nephews and niece's new surfing box.

[ibleet]

Nice, nice, nice!

Not to worry, I love my E6750 and I had the same reservations that you have.

I have the same board and the Realtek sound isn't too shabby.

[Major_A]

When I built my my parents a computer for Christmas I bought the same motherboard. I really like Gigabyte products but didn't buy them for a long time due to their lack of overclocking abilities. Now that they're on the ball I have no reservations about buying their products.

I guess I'll try the onboard audio for a while and see how goes. If I change my mind I can always put this old Audigy in and see how it sounds.

[Methious]

The X-Fi Pcie series run good in Vista and XP, took a while to find one that runs good in my dual boot system, but my X-Fi extreme audio runs good full features.

[stopthekilling77]

trust me, you will LOVE your new rig compared to that Opteron

:D

[Major_A]

Lots of encouragement here. Former Opteron guys?

[stopthekilling77]

friend upgraded from one... night and day man.

[Major_A]

When I built my parents their Christmas present I played around with it briefly. I bought an Allendale E2180 (2.0Ghz) and overclocked it to 3.0Ghz and did some video compression tests. That little 1MB Cache Allendale at 3.0Ghz smoked this Opteron. At that time I was bit by the upgrade bug but wanted to wait on the Yorkfield. Well since Intel is taking their time getting these to the market I figured I'd just get a Conroe and buy the Yorkfield down the road.

Thanks Intel now instead of buying one CPU you have likely made me buy two. Once I get the CPU I'll post some benchmarks and see how the new compares with the old.

[dgood]

trust me, you will LOVE your new rig compared to that Opteron

:D

But Opty's have nostalgia and wicked overclocking for their time. Nice improvements made.

[ibleet]

I try to be conservative with what parts I buy. I normally don't go "big" unless the improvements are big as well. The E6750 more than meets my needs and will last me for some time to come. I did bite the bullet and spring for an 8800GTS 512, but the performance increase more than merited the purchase. Yes, I could be sporting an E8400, or E8500 right now, but at 3.2Ghz using stock cooling, I am completely satisfied. There is a fine line between "wanting" and "needing" something, and I think long and hard before crossing that line.

So, once again...you made a fine choice!

Bring on the pics and benches.

[Major_A]

Bring on the pics and benches.

Should all be up Sunday night. I'm being a loser and putting this thing together Friday (so no drinking there). Saturday I have a wedding thing for one of my friends so by Saturday night I won't be any good. Sunday I have to myself (no work/event) so Sunday night everything should be up.

[Major_A]

Tick tock....
By this time tomorrow I'll be getting home from work and the fun begins. I say fun, that is until I have to put that HSF on and cut my hands all up.

*EDIT*
I have run a handful of benchmarks on my Opteron already. So now I just need to get the other rig put together, install drivers/apps and admire the time saved with the upgrade.

Hopefully now I can Recode a DVD to iPod without having to start it before I go to bed.

[Zertz]

Have fun

Hopefully your build goes well!

[martini161]

trust me, you will LOVE your new rig compared to that Opteron

:D

But Opty's have nostalgia and wicked overclocking for their time. Nice improvements made.

dude dont get me started on overclocking old amds. i remeber back in 2001 or so i was teh badest mofo in the dorm with my athalon xp clocked to 3.5 (yeah i went to a geek school)

[Major_A]

Update 1: Parts arrived and the rig is put together. The HSF wasn't that big of pain the butt to put on but it uses the stock Intel style hold design. For such a large piece of metal I don't trust the mounting system one bit. Another bummer is I can't use my Scythe Ultra Kaze (120x120x38) so I'm stuck with the fan it shipped with. I'm installing Windows now so hopefully in a few hours I'll have some initial pictures and benchmarks.

Update 2: Still tweaking. I always tell people to not worry too much with the RAM. I actually wouldn't be bothered with mine but I've already run out of dividers. So now my RAM is holding me back. Hopefully I can tweak around this limitation.

[Major_A]

Well after tweaking with crashes this is what I have settled on for the time being. I really think that with faster RAM this CPU could get close to the 4Ghz mark.





EDITED - The overclock results were getting cut off.

[ibleet]

Congrats! Thats a very nice OC! Certainly nothing to complain about there.
I would be interested in seeing a 3DMark06 score.
What are the advertised timings of your ram?

[Major_A]

3DMark06 kept locking in the Forrest Firefly benchmark. It did this when the CPU was stock, so it's an issue I'm getting elsewhere. The RAM is rated at 800Mhz 5-5-5-18. Even if I change the timings of the RAM add more voltage it still crashes eventually.

[ibleet]

I had similar issues and I decided to drop mine to 3.2Ghz @1.35v...been as stable as a rock ever since and the difference in real world apps is negligible. You can hit 3.2 without any increase to any voltages...at least I did. Your lockups are most likely from the ram. You're running the advertised timings, but at 926Mhz. Not all ram will like that, I know that mine wouldn't. For me to increase my ram speed, I need to increase voltage and loosen the timings. I finally just set the FSB to 400 so the ram would run 1:1 @ 800mhz, 1.8v. Plus my motherboard is a bit more finicky because I am running with all 4 ram slots filled.

So, your system won't even run stable at stock?

Our systems are pretty similar, so keep me updated.