Quad core mainboard choice

External Since: Jul 31, 2007 Posts: 1

My niece is retiring her four year old Alienware gaming computer and she was
going to just buy another one until I showed her how much more computer she
could get for less by building it herself. She's very capable, technically,
and would have no trouble doing this.

We have now spent several days choosing components and everything but the
mainboard have been very easy choices. Basically, she's going with the
2.4ghz quad core Intel chip. She will only use one video card, a GEforce
8800 (brand not yet determined). She does need the computer to be powerful
enough to play games, but, since her main gaming is played on an X-box 360,
she no longer needs this to be a state of the art gaming computer. Her
husband will need to do some fairly intensive Photoshop still photo work on
the new computer, however.

I've recommended an Asus mainboard as I've been using Asus boards for
several years now. But there is a bewildering number of them. Can someone
suggest a board that will work well for her?

Suggestions for coolig the cpu, video card, etc., would also be appreciated.
The case will most likely be the Zalman GT1000.

Thank you.

External Since: Nov 15, 2003 Posts: 281

You could start by checking the compatibility list:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?cpu=Core%202%20Quad...Q6600%2

(link may wrap). The G0 stepping of the Q6600 is the latest revision, as far
as I know, and it consumes a little less power than the previous B3 stepping
(95W vs. 105).

The P5K mainboards use the P35 chipset, which is the latest. If your niece,
or her husband, wants RAID (I suppose that might be helpful for Photoshop),
and doesn't want to use an add-in RAID controller card, make sure to get one
of the higher-end P5K variants that uses the ICH9R controller (rather than
ICH9). The P5K3 requires DDR3 memory, which is expensive at the moment.

Why are you asking about coolers for the CPU and graphics card? If you're
not planning to overclock, the stock coolers should be OK, as well as free
(if you buy a retail boxed Q6600 CPU).

The highest performance (air) cooler for Socket 775 may be:

http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_ultra120_extreme.htm

I don't own one - I believe that it'd be too tall (160 mm) for my case
(cheapish Antec 900). It might be OK for the Zalman GT1000, which is approx.
15 mm wider than the Antec.

There aren't many aftermarket air coolers for 8800 cards on the market yet.
Here's a high performance (air) one:

http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_hr03_plus.htm

It's huge, though, and covers more than two slots. (I have one. It permits
my 8800GTX to run at 8800 Ultra clocks.)

The forthcoming Accelero Extreme from Arctic Cooling looks like a less
ungainly solution, but it's not available yet.

Let me add that for something that isn't supposed to be a "state of the art
gaming computer", she's going for a fairly high-end system. Make sure that
she gets a good PSU, especially if she intends to overclock the Q6600.

My latest mainboard is the Abit IP35 Pro. My previous few boards have been
Asus, but I thought I'd try a more Spartan Abit product. I can't say how
well it works with a Q6600, but I have no trouble getting an E6600 to run at
3.6 GHz (using a Thermaltake Big Typhoon HS/F). I won't have time to try the
Q6600 until the week end (it arrived today).

Have fun.

Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"HowardG" <hanknycNOSPAM.RemoveThis@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:zTNri.12933$tj6.1016@newsread4.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> My niece is retiring her four year old Alienware gaming computer and she
> was going to just buy another one until I showed her how much more
> computer she could get for less by building it herself. She's very
> capable, technically, and would have no trouble doing this.
>
> We have now spent several days choosing components and everything but the
> mainboard have been very easy choices. Basically, she's going with the
> 2.4ghz quad core Intel chip. She will only use one video card, a GEforce
> 8800 (brand not yet determined). She does need the computer to be powerful
> enough to play games, but, since her main gaming is played on an X-box
> 360, she no longer needs this to be a state of the art gaming computer.
> Her husband will need to do some fairly intensive Photoshop still photo
> work on the new computer, however.
>
> I've recommended an Asus mainboard as I've been using Asus boards for
> several years now. But there is a bewildering number of them. Can someone
> suggest a board that will work well for her?
>
> Suggestions for coolig the cpu, video card, etc., would also be
> appreciated. The case will most likely be the Zalman GT1000.
>
> Thank you.
>