New AMD Athlon X2 6400 Black Edition 3.2 GHZ

[Methious]

Well since I'm already set up for it I went ahead and got the X2 6400 Black edition at 3.2 ghz (expecting at least a 25% performance increase), that and my better half financially nixed upgrading to an intel based solution for now. Makes sense right now, the 6400 x2 ran me $179 over on NewEgg and it's compatible with every thing I have. I decided their was no point in going to a GeForce 8800 without a processor that won't bottle neck it, and the higher clock speed will do me better on games than a Quad core at lower speed, besides if I wait a month or so they might actually drop the price on the 880GT.

I'm excited it's my first build to go over 3 ghz with AMD. I'm using a nMedia PC icetank for cooling, the pic and specs on it are below, the new processor is dealing with 145 watt of thermal energy, is that going to be enough cooler to deal with the 6400? It has a 90mm fan and is reasonably quiet (barely hear it) on top of it I am running 2 120mm front and back in a push/pull config with an 80mm blow hole pushing cool air on top the icetank. Specs say it'll run an Intel up to 3.8 and all AM2, I have some doubts. Any ideas for better air cooling, I'm not against 120mm cpu cooling. (Or Nate could just send me that sweet Corsair water cooling kit they use and call it a day ) A reasonably priced cooler would be a good idea cause later on I do want to go to water cooling. (Oh yea I'm using Artic Silver 5 I believe, amazing stuff dropped 3C after replacing the copper based thermal I had)



Features: 4 heatpipes design + Extra aluminum "Northbridge" design base. Innovative easy clip for easy installation. Light weight. Fit most of the case. Fan Speed Controller is included on a PCI bracket.

Specifications: Model: ICETANK. Support CPU Platform: AMD Socket 754 / 940 / 939 / AM2. INTEL Socket LGA775 / 478. Dimension: 4.65" (L) x 4.06" (H) x 5" (W) / 118mm x 114mm x 103mm. (5" width including the Clip Length. Not the heatsink width.) Heatsink Material: 4 x Copper Heatpipe. Copper & Aluminum Base. Copper & Aluminum Fin. Fan: 90mm Dual Ball Bearing (Not propriety, changeable). Fan Speed: 2200RPM ± 10%. Noise Level: 18-28dBA ± 10%. Air Flow: 35.3-44.3 CFM. Thermal Resistance: 0.24~0.21. Support Processor: Intel 3.8gHZ / AMD 4800+ or higher.

[stev]

Nice!

See my PM.

[ibleet]

Congrats on the new X2!

[Methious]

Thanks for the congrats, after 25 years of enthusiast computing I decided to build some thing I wanted instead of some thing I could get by with. In order to slip it past the powers that be (my better half) it has to be a part at a time.

In the last month (maybe 6 weeks) I've gone to an Ultra Case with front and back 120mm and replaced the prescott ready side tube with a blow hole fan, took it to the car shop and taped and sprayed it with dull black lacquer inside so the light kit doesn't blind me but still shows the guts.

New Corsair 620 Power supply

Replaced the sound card with a PCIE Sound blaster X-FI; speakers with Creative Labs Speaker Inspire P7800 7.1

Ram with 4 gig Mushkin ddr2 800

Threw in two 160 gig sata 2 to run vista from, eventually a raid 4x array striping (when I get off the fence about Vista)

What I have left to go is A nice MB supporting the new pcie standard, and an 8800 video card then this build will be done for a while. lol

The hold up is the new 790fx chip set boards are kinda jacked right now, every time I see one I run over here and there is some kinda flaw with the board, that and I'm waiting for ASUS to do some thing good with the chip set. I don't like that AMD bought ATI and now it seems like every thing they do is geared toward Crossfire cause I'm a Geforce fan.