Mobo and Case

decidence

decidence

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So I dropped almost 1K yesterday purchasing my CPU, Ram and Video Card.

I still haven't decided on a Mobo and Case though, anyone have some suggestions?

CPU is E6600 so the mobo will need to be 775/Dual Core compatible. Also I don't want to spend more then $150 or so.

As for the case I am looking for something that is not only effective for overclocking (good airflow) but also quiet enough to sleep in a room with it on. I was looking at the Antec 900 because it's in my price range, but I'm not willing to go any higher then that (about $140), also I've heard conflicting arguments about its noise levels.
 
I'm about to get the following:

- Antec Nine-Hundred $140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811129021

- Corsair 620w CMPSU-620HX Power Supply $170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817139002

- ABIT AW9D LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Motherboard $180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127014

PSU & Mobo I MIGHT reconsider (probably not) but the case I will DEFINITELY get.

As for the rest of my system...

-Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz
-Corsair XMS2 2GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
-Seagate Barracuda 120GB
-Seagate Barracuda 500GB
-Lite-On 20X DVD +- RW
-Lite-On 16X DVD-Rom
-Asus 22" Widescreen LCD 2ms
-Undecided Video Card
 
Coincidence?

Just built 1 computer this week with that case. It's not quiet, in a noisy office you can't hear it, in a bedroom? probably..... but since I was running a raid server and wanted plenty of cooling, it worked out quite well. You can adjust the fan speed of the four fans in the case. At full speed its quite noisy, low speed its ok. You could of course not plug some of the fans in at all, this would make the case much more quiet espeically the huge fan at the top.
If you buy it locally at a compusa and such you can save a bundle on the shipping since cases are heavy, it's better to buy it local. At least if you buy this case you have the option of turning the fans off or not.

For information I always go to anandtech. The #2 board is a
GA-965P-DS3 Gigabyte.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2914&p=4

sold for $122
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280+50001314&name=GIGABYTE
 
Yea I've heard if the fans are all on low that it's not so bad, but then does that totally defeat the ability to overclock effectively? I'm waiting for Cmdfly to come to the rescue.
 
Possible Options for mobo, keeping in mind that I will be looking for something good for overclocking my OCZ Platinum ram and E6600 CPU. SLI isn't that important to me but it would be a nice bonus. Also I will need 800mhz or faster RAM support.

ASUS P5B ATX LGA775 Conroe 965P DDR2 PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 3PCI 6 SATA2 Sound Motherboard

ASUS P5N-E SLI Nforce 650I SLI LGA775 Conroe ATX 2PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Sound GBLAN Motherboard

Gigabyte GA-965G-DS3 ATX LGA775 Conroe 965G DDR2 PCI-E16 3PCI-E 3PCI SATA VIDEOX3000 Motherboard

Gigabyte GA-965GM-S2 mATX LGA775 Conroe 965G DDR2 PCI-E16 2PCI SATA2 Video Sound GBLAN Motherboard

Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 ATX LGA775 Conroe P965 DDR2 PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 3PCI SATA2 GBLAN Audio Motherboard

Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 ATX LGA775 Conroe P965 DDR2 PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 3PCI SATA2 GBLAN Audio Motherboard

Gigabyte N650SLI-DS4 Nforce 650I LGA775 ATX 2PCI-E16 3PCI SATA2 RAID Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard
 
decidence said:
Yea I've heard if the fans are all on low that it's not so bad, but then does that totally defeat the ability to overclock effectively? I'm waiting for Cmdfly to come to the rescue.
Click to expand...
I'm an AMD fanboy so my Intel knowledge is minimal, I won't be too helpful in this case. I can say that if cooling and acoustics are primary concerns, there are ways to feed those 12v fans with only 7v or 5v. It doesn't damage the fan at all but it does noticeably reduce the sound (and CFM) of the fans.

Requires some very minor labour involving pulling some wires out and moving them around. No soldering though, at most you might need some tweezers.

When it comes down to picking the mobo, I look for one thing primarily: USB ports. Sounds like a cheesy basis to pick a mobo around, but since you only have a choice of 1-2 chipsets there aren't many other options to consider. Onboard video is useless to you, onboard sound & NIC are de facto standards, memory banks have been pretty static over the past few years...

I have 6 USB devices that I need to plug in, 8 if I include portable media, so I demand a minimum of 8 onboard (monitor supports another 4). SATA connectors are useful to count as well, but most mobo's come with 4 and if you're running more than 3 hard drives you need to flog them and consolidate.

Pick a good company (my first recommendation is ASUS), pick a mobo that fits your CPU, pick either the i965 or an Nvidia chipset (the latter is probably better). A lot of motherboards will fit those 3 criteria so picking one from the resulting list of options is going to revolve around the accessories it comes with - onboard and in the packaging. Some mobos come with WiFi antennas, so the onboard NIC can pick up neighbouring wireless networks. Might be useful at some point down the road.
 
Also, if I get the Asus NForce 650i SLI I posted earlier, is it suggested that I get a southbridge heatsink?

Where do I buy that and how do I attach it, I've never done it before.
 
decidence said:
A friend told me today that Asus mobo's and OCZ ram make bad partners, anyone know anything about this?
Click to expand...
Never heard of that myself. My current system is ASUS + OCZ, no stability or performance probs. My last system was ASUS + Corsair I think, no probs there either. I'd ask for more details - maybe a specific line of RAM conflicts with a specific ASUS mobo, but in my research prior to buying this computer and reviews I've read following it, I am unaware of any outstanding issues between the two.

decidence said:
Also, if I get the Asus NForce 650i SLI I posted earlier, is it suggested that I get a southbridge heatsink?

Where do I buy that and how do I attach it, I've never done it before.
Click to expand...
I don't see a need for it. The southbridge handles far less than the northbridge, and even some northbridge's go without heatsinks. I've never added a heatsink or fan to my chipset components.

As for attaching one, should you choose to do so - there may be mounting holes around the southbridge, so all you'd need is a heatsink designed for southbridge use (should say that directly on the item description or packaging) and a handful of minutes.

If there are no mounting holes, you can buy thermal epoxy and go that route - epoxy the heatsink directly to the chipset. Must be thermal epoxy as regular epoxy does not transfer heat nearly as effectively, and would create a heat trap possibly resulting in permanent damage.
 
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