Building a Core 2 Duo - share info here

[rameshuk]

I thought it would be good if we could share info/tips with fellow PH'ers here.

My choice of components:
CPU:Intel E6600
Motherboard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Ram:2 GB Kingston or Corsair

Can anyone recommend a good PSU and case (in black ideally and under £100)

I've learnt that for gamers ATI lead (due to better Direct 3d performance) and nVidia Geforce based cards rock with openGL apps.

Your thoughts ?

Edited by rameshuk on Saturday 14th October 21:42

[aldi]

I like the akasa PSU's with the 12cm fans in @ 40 squid ish, nice and quiet with plenty of connectors. The finish goes well with black cases too.

The second one down here: www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Akasa_Power_Supplies.html

I've had a few they've been allright!

Edited by aldi on Saturday 14th October 22:02

[roadsweeper]

What about being a bit different and trying ionic fans for silent running?

[tank slapper]

I've just built a system with an Asus P5B, Core 2 Duo and some Kingston RAM. It's quite quick.

The case and PSU were recycled from its previous incarnation so can't help there I'm afraid.

The Asus board has some pretty nice features. Fan speed control and automatic overclocking (if you're into that kind of thing) and a BIOS, including the ability to flash upgrade it from a USB key.

ATI drivers are not very good when it comes to OpenGL support, so if that is important it might be better to look at Nvidia.

[thepassenger]

tank slapper said:

ATI drivers are not very good when it comes to OpenGL support, so if that is important it might be better to look at Nvidia.

I've seen plenty of ATi equiped systems that randomly get IRQ_NOT_OR_LESS_EQUAL_TO blue screens and do so through sucsessive generations of card and software, I've even seen an ATi card (an old AiW) that would stop the Win2k install dead (crashed on the 'Loading Windows' final stage of the text install). Removed ATI card and software, put in generic card stable as anything.

ATi's drivers are renound for being buggy. Wouldn't touch one of their cards unless a client absolutley insisted on it.

Edited by thepassenger on Sunday 15th October 02:03

[thepassenger]

roadsweeper said:

What about being a bit different and trying ionic fans for silent running?

It can be done. Novatech sell a passive cooler for a Core 2 Duo. I'd assume it needs a strong fan somewhere to clear the air around it though.

[tank slapper]

thepassenger said:

tank slapper said:

ATI drivers are not very good when it comes to OpenGL support, so if that is important it might be better to look at Nvidia.

*cough* I will set the scene. A nice glass of wine, sitting down in a quite home office ready to go and munch metal. You double click the game and as it kicks in to the 3D engine the screen blanks. Suddenly it's replaced with a blue screen containing this peice of text.

IRQ_NOT_OR_LESS_EQUAL_TO

I've seen plenty of ATi drivers do that through sucsessive generations of card and software, I've even seen an ATi card (an old AiW) that would stop the Win2k install dead (crashed on the 'Loading Windows' final stage of the text install).

I do play around in Poser and Daz|Studio, which make use of OpenGL. Can't say I've noticed anything odd happening with my laptop's Nvidia card. And not all games are DX

The silly thing is that their hardware is actually pretty good. A pity they can't code some decent software to go with it.

Their policy on supporting (or not) Linux also sucks.

[rich1231]

rameshuk said:

I thought it would be good if we could share info/tips with fellow PH'ers here.

My choice of components:
CPU:Intel E6600
Motherboard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Ram:2 GB Kingston or Corsair

Can anyone recommend a good PSU and case (in black ideally and under £100)

I've learnt that for gamers ATI lead (due to better Direct 3d performance) and nVidia Geforce based cards rock with openGL apps.

Your thoughts ?

Edited by rameshuk on Saturday 14th October 21:42

Almost identical to the spec I built a month or so ago.

Akasa eclipse case and a xclio 750w modular power supply. The pc is running next to me and i cant hear it.

Oh and a 1GB 7950 GX2 gfx card.

Only thing id say is worrying is that the motherboard uses passive cooling and the mb temps seem high to me.

[thepassenger]

tank slapper said:

The silly thing is that their hardware is actually pretty good. A pity they can't code some decent software to go with it.

Their policy on supporting (or not) Linux also sucks.

Yep. When Nvidia were trying to brute force graphics power with the 5950 Ultra's ATi were comming up with elegant solutions. Which promptly crashed hard when the drivers exploded. Perhaps they should just ask Nvidia to code them up some drivers or something?

Well, at least their are not official drivers for Linux, they're kinda rubbish but there they are.

[Church of Noise]

I've got a new system for about a month now, these are the specs:
*Intel E6600
*Asus P5W DH Deluxe
*Kingston PC4300 DDR2 Value ram (533 MHz)
*Antec Sonata II case (includes PSU)
*Asus EN7600GS Silent 512mb ram
*2 x WD 250GB 16mb cache hard disks
*Zalman 9500 LED cpu cooler

I'd mainly wanted the computer to be silent (that's why I got the passively cooled asus card, these specific hard discs and the Zalman) and fast (hence the amount of ram and the cpu) and it had to have Dolby Digital Live (that's why I got the mainboard, WiFi was an added bonus there).

The only game I play is GT Legends, and it works great at 1280x1024, everything maxed out.

Edited by Church of Noise on Sunday 15th October 12:11

[rich1231]

Church of Noise said:

I've got a new system for about a month now, these are the specs:
*Intel E6600
*Asus P5W DH Deluxe
*Kingston PC4300 DDR2 Value ram (533 MHz)
*Antec Sonata II case (includes PSU)
*Asus EN7600GS Silent 512mb ram
*2 x WD 250GB 16mb cache hard disks
*Zalman 9500 LED cpu cooler

I'd mainly wanted the computer to be silent (that's why I got the passively cooled asus card, these specific hard discs and the Zalman) and fast (hence the amount of ram and the cpu) and it had to have Dolby Digital Live (that's why I got the mainboard, WiFi was an added bonus there).

The only game I play is GT Legends, and it works great at 1280x1024, everything maxed out.

Edited by Church of Noise on Sunday 15th October 12:11

Your ram has got to be slowing you down somewhat.

[Church of Noise]

In what way? Isn't this the 'standard' speed then? (1066 MHz fsb /2 = 533 MHz)

[rameshuk]

Windows XP - does it require an update to use the core 2 duo processors ?

to enable support for the second core ?

any web links .

thx

[thepassenger]

rameshuk said:

Windows XP - does it require an update to use the core 2 duo processors ?

to enable support for the second core ?

any web links .

thx

Nope. From Windows NT4 and up Workstation / Pro versions have been able to support 2 CPU's from the get go. You'll need to use the drivers that came with the board to get the most out of the system though; but that goes without saying.

[beanbag]

Chieftec tops the list for budget cases!

I've got me one of these:



It looks the part. Also weighs a ton but it's easy to assemble and has plenty of ventilation keeping everything nice and cooooool

Check out their stuff: www.chieftec.com/

[rameshuk]

I realise the Win OS supports multiple processors, but I remember seeing a screen shot last week where the second core was only detected after an update to XP was run.

Cannot for the life of me remember where though!

I've helped a mate build a system based on a E6300 and it really does fly !
We tried the Quake 4 demo and it was very impressive.

[tank slapper]

rameshuk said:

I realise the Win OS supports multiple processors, but I remember seeing a screen shot last week where the second core was only detected after an update to XP was run.

Cannot for the life of me remember where though!

I've helped a mate build a system based on a E6300 and it really does fly !
We tried the Quake 4 demo and it was very impressive.

That may have been to do with Intel's Hyperthreading processors. They are just a single core that presents itself as two. Dual core processors actually have two processors in the same physical package.

Does anyone know what happens with licensing for multicore processors? Windows 2000 pro supports up to 2, but you need Server to use more. Does the dual core count as 1 or 2 processors for licensing? This isn't a problem at the moment, but I wonder what will happen with the 4 core chips that are due out any time.

[beanbag]

tank slapper said:

rameshuk said:

I realise the Win OS supports multiple processors, but I remember seeing a screen shot last week where the second core was only detected after an update to XP was run.

Cannot for the life of me remember where though!

I've helped a mate build a system based on a E6300 and it really does fly !
We tried the Quake 4 demo and it was very impressive.

That may have been to do with Intel's Hyperthreading processors. They are just a single core that presents itself as two. Dual core processors actually have two processors in the same physical package.

Does anyone know what happens with licensing for multicore processors? Windows 2000 pro supports up to 2, but you need Server to use more. Does the dual core count as 1 or 2 processors for licensing? This isn't a problem at the moment, but I wonder what will happen with the 4 core chips that are due out any time.

I believe the licensing refers to physical processors. How the OS can differentiate this I don't know, however with AMD bringing out he quad core processor out shortly next year and then an 8 core at the end of 2007 there must be a licensing agreement with MS since the 4 core was demo'd recently on Vista.