$500 max for Motherboard, CPU, and RAM. Here's what I've come up with:

Motherboard: $160 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ ... aspx?Item=N82E16813128047

CPU: $205 - Core2Duo E6750 - 2.66GHz ($22 over batch price )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ ... aspx?Item=N82E16819115029

RAM: $105 - 2x1GB G.Skill DDR2-800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ ... aspx?Item=N82E16820231114

Obviously the goal is a decent overclock for <$500.

- Any blatent issues here?
- Any changes reccommended within +/- $30?
- Guesses as to how fast it will go (cooled by Zalman 9700)? (450x8=3.6GHz would be nice)

I'm building a PC for a non-gamer friend about to start college, so I figured I'd use it as an opportunity to gut my CPU, MOBO, RAM and PSU off on him. Here's what I've currently got (what he's getting):

Opty 175 @ 2.75GHz (X2 4800+ @ 2.6GHz :shrug
2GB G.Skill DDR400 (2-3-2-5 timings)
Asus A8n-Sli Premium Motherboard
Corsair 520HX PSU (Antec SmartPower 2.0 500watt)
---------------------------
I'm keeping the case, HD, GPU, Optical drive, CPU cooler, and G25 of course!

Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated!

Drop the E6700 and get something a bit lower down and O/C it nice and high. I believe those GA-P35-DS3P's have a pretty high FSB wall. Going 450plus. So yeah, going for something a bit lower 'class' could save you almost $100. The ram seems decent price, shop for some OCZ, they may be cheaper. Cheers on the build.
~Bryan~
EDIT: After looking at newegg (I'm Canadian, I use tiger-direct) I found an E4300 for $121, that will match the 1333mhz FSB of that Chip, get it a 3ghz clock speed, then you could start pushing easy/safe limits)

I don't trust Gigabyte boards to be honest. Have had friends buy numerous boards from them, and most of them were DOA when either bought from a store or online (newegg). Personally I suggest eVGA, but that's just me.

I own g.Skill ram, 2x2gb chips, and they run great. They should come with a cool little sticker too .

A stock cooler on the C2D had me around 50C normally, which isn't that great. I got the Zalman 9700 cooler too (dark nforce one), and it keeps it down to 30C easily, if properly setup with grease and case airflow.

Thanks for the thoughts!

-E6750 has the G0 stepping, which has meant cooler temps and higher OC's. If you go lower (and keep new G0 stepping) means a E6550 which has only a 7x multiplier. 7x multiplier means FSB of 428 "just" to get 3GHz... I know the later E6420's overclock well, and still have the 8x multiplier, but aren't that much cheaper, and aren't G0's.

-OCZ RAM, I'll see if any deals are out for them. The main thing was OC'ability which I read most DDR2 can do ~DDR2-900 speeds with a little boost in voltage. The G.Skill has 4-4-4-12 latencies, which are a little more appealing too, and I've had good luck with G.Skill in the past.

- eVGA, I'll have to read some reviews. I know they make quality stuff, I don't know if they've got something comparable price-wise to the DS3P. You suggest to stick with the P35 chipset though?

-Zalman, I love mine. I wish I had gotten that Zinc Plated with the Green LED. Mines the copper with Blue, still nice though.

I may at somepoint be switching back to nVidia, 8 series something GPU. Software TH sounds immensly appealing, but is a couple years in the future for me.

Thanks for the ideas!

If you don't need RAID the P5K is a much better overclocker and cheaper.

FTR you can pick up a Quad Core Q6600 G0 for $275 now...

The CPU is good, although an E6600 will overclock just as far, if not farther - and an E6320/E6420 should get within a few MHz of it when overclocked.

Hmm... I'll have to look at that motherboard. Asus has served me well, but it is always a mixed bag, lots of DOA reports.

I'm not interested in really RAID, you say the P5K is better for OCing? Can i ask how? The reviews show lots of RMA'ing, and not many results of big OC's. Lots of vdroop complaints too.

I fairly certain I want to stick with the new G0 stepping. Quad's aren't appealing to me yet, as my encoding/rendering interests are nominal. Gaming is mainly LFS, of which quad has no advantage. Quad = extra power draw + heat. Also potentially limiting max OC.

They're good for 500+ FSB (a few guys got 600 FSB with NO mods at all). Not seen any vDroop complaints, but the P5K is overclockers mobo of choice (Until the DFi P35 board is released, that is).

Can't say i've seen anything about RMA'ing the P5K either.

Lol... Take a look at the reviews on the link you posted It has about 75% approval (4/5 star reviews), whereas the Gigabyte has about 90% (4/5 star reviews).

Asus has worked well for me, so I think I might go with your reccomendation. If I could get 450FSB with my e6750 i'd be thrilled, and more than that would be ridiculous. If you think that P5K is the way to go, I'm gonna lean that way.

Just ftr - NEVER EVER trust NewEgg reviews, people only seem to review a product when it breaks or when they don't own it, and there are some absolute idiots on there (ie the "My sempron beats a core 2 duo coz it has a higher HTT, hahah Intel nubs!")

Agreed, but it gives you a glimpse into the issues/troubles the product can have. Some manufacturers take them seriously and will provide responses/guidance for people with troubles (my corsair PSU for example).

Thanks for the advice!

Oh BTW:

I had read about a "mid-night sale" of E6600's for like $125, but that sold out almost instantly. Other than that sale, the E6600 is still being sold for MORE than the E6750, so there's no real incentive to go for the slightly older model. Keeping my eyes peeled for sales like that one though

Edit - Some people are saying it needs a bios update before it will work with the 1333fsb chips...

Hahah, jeez who need such crazy precessing power. My E4300 does everything i need it to.

Quote from Stone in Focus :

Hahah, jeez who need such crazy precessing power. My E4300 does everything i need it to.

Quote from Patches O'Hoolihan :

Necessary? Is it Necessary that I drink my own pee? No, but its sanitary and I like the taste.

I've got the opportunity to upgrade, so why not?

Besides, since Jakg finally sold-out and went to the darkside I figured I might as well go ahead and jump on the bandwagon.

I'm still torn between the two mobo choices....

I "sold out" to performance a long time ago *devil face*

The E2160 costs naff all, and is good for 3.2 GHz with a decent mobo/cooler, it's almost the Opteron of the Core 2 Range. Only problem is it's "lack" of Cache (1 MB vs. 4 MB on the E6600, or 8 MB on mine), however that only makes 5% difference at must.

EDIT - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ ... aspx?Item=N82E16820146565 - Crucial Ballistix DDR800, THE best overclocking chips on the DDR800 range (Micron D9's if ya care).

And the E6750 is good for 4+GHz on water with a good mobo.

I'd like ~3.6GHz if possible, that's the goal anyway.

The "sold-out" was only that you had abandoned AMD, as any performance minded individual has been doing for the past... 12 months.

I might try to take a look at Gigabyte website for ease of use and downloads, as the Asus site is terrible.

EDIT - Ya, those are the RAM sticks I'm planning on.

Well this changes everything:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ ... aspx?Item=N82E16813136038

DFI Infinity P35 for $140.

Your thoughts?

The DFI "Infinity" used to be the cheaper board compared to the amazing LanParty. From looking on the internet it seems that it doesn't overclock any better than a P5K, and while it might have a few more options, DFi's are famed for being picky about RAM and PSU's.

So far Oskar (A genuis - he designs mobo's for DFI) has been sneakily uploading 630+ FSB's to CPU-Z, but no-one seems to be able to come close to this. The gimicky "Transpiper" seems like a PITA to fit to me, too.

It's up to you, but the "proper" LanParty will be a better overclocker, but be even MORE picky about PSU's and Memory. Or you could wait for the new X38 chipsets...

With air cooling the CPU will hold you back before the mobo will, but DFi has ALWAYS had a plethora of options (ie the 2nd tier of timings, that about 3 people ever understood)

Quote from Jakg :

With air cooling the CPU will hold you back before the mobo will, but DFi has ALWAYS had a plethora of options (ie the 2nd tier of timings, that about 3 people ever understood)

Good points, especially this.

I'm no OC wiz, and I imagine if I got more into it I'd build an rig just for it (prob w/ h2o). DFi out, Gigabyte or Asus in.