options for a new pc

[bobogs]

I'm back on the "build my own pc" track (instead of buying a Dell or the like), but I'm unsure of a few specs. I'm comfortable choosing the hard drives, optical drives and memory, but some of the other specs are confusing me.

CPU: I've decided to go with Core 2 Duo. Do I have to go with a Conroe cpu in a desktop pc, or can I go with a Merom? Are there any other benefits to Merom other than the power consumption and less heat? More importantly, does the extra 2mb of L2 cache in the E6600 provide any benefit over the E6400 (both Conroe, 4mb v. 2mb)? I will be doing zero gaming on this pc, but I will be encoding/transcoding video, editing video, and working with audio and images.

Video: Due to the lack of gaming on this pc, do I need to worry about DirectX 10 when choosing a video card? I want to drive dual monitors (1 dvi and 1 analog), but most cards can do this nowadays. Shoot, if I can get away with using a $150 geforce or ati card for my video editing and such, that would allow me to spend elsewhere. Is 128mb ram enough on a video card these days, or should I go with 256mb?

Thanks for any advice.
Gary

[vico1]

For your needs, I doubt if you'll notice any performance gains with
the 6600 over the 6400.
I think Merom is a laptop processor.

I'm gonna' wait a few months myself, (probably quite a few) then blow a
couple paychecks on a Kentsfield system...

[Soopafresh]

Look at the results of the Avisynth performance testing they're doing at doom9. Looks like the E6600 is the easy winner.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5305/20070110171101cj9.png

Might as well get a lower end video card until the Vista dust settles in a year or so, although you're not compromising anything by getting the card below.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121008

Make sure you get a fan for your Hard Drive....

[vico1]

Look at the results of the Avisynth performance testing they're doing at doom9. Looks like the E6600 is the easy winner.

I read that whole thread...
"which processor for avisynth encoding"
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=120371

Not one test with a 6400 (at time of this post)

I'd like to see the dif between it & a 6600

This vid card looks pretty sweet too: ($109.99 after rebate)
BFG Tech GeForce 7600GT 256MB (has GDDR3 too)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143049

[yoda313]

Video: Due to the lack of gaming on this pc, do I need to worry about DirectX 10 when choosing a video card?

No but if you plan on upgrading to VISTA you will want to make sure you have enough horsepower to run VISTA comfortably. www.microsoft.com has a chart of what you'll need for the various versions of VISTA.

Also consider getting a hdcp compatible video card and monitor should wish to get hddvd or bluray on your pc in the future. Only those certified will output at full 1080p.

Aside from that if you don't care about next gen dvds or vista than you can pretty much go bottom of the barrel if your not a gamer.

[bobogs]

Thanks for all the replies.

I'm leaning towards the E6600, to maybe future-proof for a little bit longer.

Regarding motherboards, anyone have any thoughts on this one?:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131030

I see that this mobo doesn't have built-in firewire. If I have a basic Belkin firewire pci card, is it possible to hook up the card to the 6pin firewire port on the front of the case?

I'll probably go with 2gb of Crucial DDR2-677. It's interesting that (currently) newegg has the same exact crucial memory at lower prices than crucial's own website.

Thanks!
Gary

[Capmaster]

I have the P5B in my new rig. I highly recommend it. But make sure you buy a full-ATX case and not a mini-ATX

The P5B also comes with a whole slew of overclocking utilities, if you're of that bent. The only thing I didn't like was it has no firewire unless you go with an upgraded model like the P5B deluxe. Of course that's easily solved with a $10 FW card

Crucial is good memory. Micron has always made a quality product. Also good, and particularly well suited to Asus MBs is Corsair memory. Corsair is also the best choice if you plan to overclock at some point. But I think I would go with DDR2-800 instead of 667. It'll give you room to play around with the timing a little later on, and it isn't that much more expensive.

[jagabo]

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2903

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/11/core-2-duo-overtakes-core-2-extreme/

[Capmaster]

Good links, jagabo 8)

The Core 2 is the best product Intel has turned out in a long time.

I was teetering on getting an Athlon 64 x2 system for myself after I bought one for my wife. It ran like a striped-ass ape And so cool - the fan never seemed to come on. Quite a contrast from my Preshott P4

The Core 2 CPU hadn't yet been released, and I was very impressed with AMD's CPU. But a buddy, a mod here and on my own forum, talked me into waiting for the Conroe to come along. I'm glad I waited. I ended up with a Kentsfield, but pretty much the same thing

[bobogs]

I assume "full-ATX" = "standard ATX," right?

Honestly, I'm not into overclocking at all, although it might be fun to try. I'm such a pessimist, I'm worried that I'd fry some component.

Re: DDR2-800 vs. 667...will the faster ram help much with video render/transcoding times? Noticeable difference (not just a few seconds)? Seems to me that those kinds of tasks are mostly CPU intensive.

From the anandtech article, it looks like it might be worthwhile to wait around for the 4mb L2 6400. However, just like all things regarding computer hardware purchases, the longer you can hold out, the more/better/faster you can get for the same price.

I've had my Dell P4 1.8ghz since June of 2002. I just need to bite the bullet and buy something. We're not talking a difference of thousands of dollars here...it's $100 between the 6400 and the 6600.

Thanks!
Gary

[Capmaster]

I assume "full-ATX" = "standard ATX," right?

Honestly, I'm not into overclocking at all, although it might be fun to try. I'm such a pessimist, I'm worried that I'd fry some component.

Re: DDR2-800 vs. 667...will the faster ram help much with video render/transcoding times? Noticeable difference (not just a few seconds)? Seems to me that those kinds of tasks are mostly CPU intensive.

From the anandtech article, it looks like it might be worthwhile to wait around for the 4mb L2 6400. However, just like all things regarding computer hardware purchases, the longer you can hold out, the more/better/faster you can get for the same price.

I've had my Dell P4 1.8ghz since June of 2002. I just need to bite the bullet and buy something. We're not talking a difference of thousands of dollars here...it's $100 between the 6400 and the 6600.

Thanks!
Gary

Yes. Standard ATX = Full ATX It's a taller board that will interfere with the PS in a mini-ATX case. I believe it's 12" tall versus 9 for the mini.

One good thing about the Asus P5B coupled with the Core 2 - the utilities Asus provides for overclocking don't allow you to hurt the CPU. Probably the most dangerous overclocking tweak is increasing the CPU core voltage, and their utility limits how high you can set it. I'm like you - I don't OC as a regular practice. Why tempt fate, especially with such a large investment But I've played around with mine a little, carefully, and gotten some impressive gains. My base core frequency is 2.67 GHz and mine runs rock-solid at 3.3 GHz. FSB is also very tolerant of tweaking, going from stock 1067 MHz all the way up to 1250 MHz with no stability issues.

Some day in the future, when this much power doesn't seem like it's quite enough, I'll tweak it a little. But until then, I need to hang onto something when I fire it up!

As far as the memory speed, why not use the fastest memory your MB/CPU will support? Yes, there will be a difference in memory-intensive apps like encoding/transcoding. Using slower memory will cause the MB BIOS to sense the memory SPD and throttle back the clock speed for the RAM if you use DDR2-667 memory. It'll work just fine, just at a slightly slower speed. The CPU and the MB support DDR2-800, so why not use all the speed available? The price difference is trivial.