Need Inputs/Recommendations on These

[bachviet]

I'm ready to build a system for my wife's brother and I need your inputs or recommendations. Here are the parts:

1. Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale processor @ 1.8Ghz (will be overclocked to 2.4Ghz - 9x266)

2. ECS NF650iSLIT-A motherboard (he needs 2 IDE channels)

3. Foxconn FV-N79SM2D2-OC GF 7900GS video card

4. Kingston KVR667D2N5K2/2G, 2x1GB DDR2 PC5300 RAM

5. Xclio StablePower 460W power supply

6. Cooler Master Centurion RC-532-SKN1 case

He will reuse his hard drives, DVD burner, and OS.

[DarkFury]

Honestly, if it were me... I'd go for the E6600 Core 2 processor (unless you are on a tight budget)

[bachviet]

Honestly, if it were me... I'd go for the E6600 Core 2 processor (unless you are on a tight budget)
He's on a budget and the E4300 is a great overclocker so it's easy to get to E6600 speed (2.4Ghz) with just a FSB jump from 200 to 266. He rather spend the leftover to get a LCD.

[Jeffbx]

What's the total cost for the parts?

[Napoleon54]

Looks like a nice rig. I love the Centurion cases, good choice IMO. Is OCing really necessary? Yea it's not THE top processor available, but it seems to me like it should do just fine for everyday usage. I'm not familiar with that board, but if it and the HS are decent then I guess why not? Sometimes "'cause I can" is a good enough reason. :P :heh:

Vista or sticking with XP?

[bachviet]

He has XP Pro in his current gig so he's sticking with that. The parts total around $700-$800.

[bachviet]

Done building and installing Windows XP on this system:

Pentium Core 2 Duo E6400
Abit IP9 P965 mother board
Kingston 2x1GB DDR2 667 RAM
Xclio 460W StablePower PSU
Foxconn GF 7900GS video card
Enermax Chakra ECA3052B mid-tower case
Artic-cooling 120mm fan

Windows XP throws a fit because the Intel P965 Express chipset does not support IDE/ATA. Abit uses an ITE ATA/ATAPI controller for the two IDE ports. I got BSOD during the installation because of it. I had to borrow my brother's floppy drive so I could installed the third party driver. That got me through the creating partition/formatting hard drive but it still looks for the ITE driver in the Windows XP CD but it wasn't there. I finally had to slipstream the drivers into Windows XP installation CD so I could install. I tries to O/C the system but it hangs when I increase the FSB to 333Mhz. I have to read up more on it before continuing. At least the system is functional with CPU temperature (stock cooling) at 36 degrees C.

[DarkFury]

I see you guys changed your mind and went with the E6400 chip instead of the E4300.

What happened there? Get a good deal on a E6400? (Tiger Direct was selling E6600s last week for $279... honestly, it was VERY tempting with the 4MB cache instead of he 2MB cache of the E6400). :D

[bachviet]

I see you guys changed your mind and went with the E6400 chip instead of the E4300.

What happened there? Get a good deal on a E6400? (Tiger Direct was selling E6600s last week for $279... honestly, it was VERY tempting with the 4MB cache instead of he 2MB cache of the E6400). :D
He doesn't want to deal with O/C so we ended up with the E6400. I wasn' really a good deal on the E6400. If I knew about the E6600 deal on Tiger Direct, I would have gotten it.