$800 C2D setup

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Boltaction

Gawd
Joined
Jun 10, 2004
Messages
939
Hey, I have hard drives and a case already, I just need a processor, ram, video card and power supply. What should I get for $800?

Here is what I have so far:
2GB DDR2 667 CAS3 ram from hotdeals, $225
E6400
X1950 pro from ZZF for $199 shipped
Gigabyte 945P board

Any recommendations?
 
$184 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz
$100 - Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
$210 - G.SKILL 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
$200 - Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M Radeon X1950 PRO 256MB (Free Shipping from zzf)
$50 - XClio GOODPOWER 500W ATX 500W
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$745 + tax and shipping

Here's a review on that board:
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/963/6/page_6_bios_and_overclocking_foxconn/index.html

Here's a review on how the E6300 OC's on stock cooling:
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2802&p=2
 
Wow, I didn't know the foxconn could handle 2.4 on the DIMM. Along with it being P965, this looks like a surprisingly good board.
 
Will you be overclocking? If not then don't bother spending extra on faster RAM than you need.
 
This is for a friend, and while he hasn't overclocked intels he has (under my guidance) overclocked his 754. He is interested in trying it out, and besides we all know that these C2D's overclock really well.
 
Boltaction said:
Wow, I didn't know the foxconn could handle 2.4 on the DIMM. Along with it being P965, this looks like a surprisingly good board.
Click to expand...
Yah, I plan to use one for my own build soon. :D

Also worth noting: The P965 Express and I975X chipsets are Kentsfield (Core2Quad) compatible.
 
Check out the PSU buying guide on the PSU forum. For $12 more, the XClio is a much better buy (and is on the recommended cheap-but-good list). I've been told XClio uses Channel Well, which is also used by Antec. Rosewill is NewEgg's house brand that doesnt consistenly use one manufacturer, so you never know which model you're actually going to get (which is why its on the list of PSUs to avoid). I'd spend the extra few bux and get an FSP or XClio... You wouldn't want all that new hw fried by a bad psu. If anything, it'll give you a bit more peice of mind.

$42 - FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX400-PN 400W

List of recommended PSUs:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1000883
 
Most (all?) of the Fortron AX series and Channel Well PSUs use Fuhjyyu capacitors which may have a shortened lifetime compared with other brands.
 
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