Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

It has come to that time to build a new computer from scratch and so far I have chosen the following:

C2D E6600 - £140.94
Either this board (Gigabyte GA 945GM) which is only £42.89 or maybe one of the Gigabyte I965 board which come in at about £64 or so.
(link to them all)

The Power Supply - this one seems to have caught my eye (Xilence 420W PSU) for £29.32

Now my question is really, which is a decent price vs. features/performance motherboard I should be looking at. I am not bothered if it is mATX or full size but must feature 4 x Memory slots (DDR-2). Not really bothered also about 2 x PCI-Express but over clocking might be good but not an area which I am into or have tried with much success.

Is the Power Supply for example good enough? At the moment I will be sticking in a Gegorce 7600GT but maybe later might upgrade as the need arises - what spec does the 8800 or ATI ones need for example?

Any help would be great, I would rather spend the extra money now then have sub-standard parts type thing.

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

The 8800 or the X2600XT will require a lot of power, so on the safe side i'd be looking at a Kilowatt PSU.

As for motherboard, i have a 965p-DS3, which is rock solid, overclocks well as long as your RAM can take it, and so on... Really nice board.

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

PSU seems a little cheap maybe a nice seasonic ,as far as motherboards are concerned you will need to balance specs up and decide what you need and dont have a look at the manuals and see . I had a bit of bad luck with a DS3 but there liked as is the S3

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

PSU : Corsair HX-620 enough ump, quality and silence but you're looking at a ton inc but its worth it.

Mobo : My current fav is the DS3P not the DS3 or the p5n-e sli both are cheap and allow easy overclocking.

CPU Fan : ninja, tuniq or ultimately my choice : Noctua NH-U12F (Socket)

With that setup you'll get a good overclock from you CPU.

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

linky to the cooler dude I want a better one

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

As per usual I'm sure you can get it cheaper :)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=57&subcat=821

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

Ta mate :)

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

Thanks for all your advice everybody that replied, I have now placed the order which is as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Retail
ASUS P5N-E SLi NF650i 775
Seasonic 430w S12 Power Supply (yes I know only 430W but it got a good review)
Patriot 2GB Kit PC5300 667MHz 4-4-4-12
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO
Not bad deal - the lot inc postage etc for about £300

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

aria??? did you do it cleverly and order each bit and get a tenner off with google checkout? (ok with all the delivery extras you couls save £5 per deal)

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

Yes indeed - why? is it cheaper elsewhere??
Ah Bugger nope - thought it was a One Off thing - damm - too late now I guess

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

lol I know they are doing the patriot ram cheap ;) no its ANY order over 30 quid

Will be a good machine for that. Prices are wicked aint they now its never been so good :)

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

Nice budget machine which will get you far - a bit trickier overclocking with the RAM you got but it's not impossible.
AC Freezer Pro is OK but I found the fixtures a bit flimsy but if you get a good contact you should be able to get a minimum of 25% overclock from you CPU (oh reminds me you should have got some arctic silver pro thermal paste to apply between the CPU and the Cooler)

As so far as overclocking is concerned the C2Ds are one of the easiest CPUs I have found to overclock good luck.

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

but the board will let you set the ram to 533 and overclock the cpu without overclocking the ram . Also I read somewhere that the compound on the artic cooling freezer 7 is as good

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

Yeh the RAM should be locked as default (thought I wrote that :rolleyes: ) otherwise overclocking cheap RAM together with CPU would be a no no.

Nonetheless having said that I do like Patriot RAM as it does have some clocking ability albeit at the expense of CAS :)

ACF7 compound - I'll take your word for it ;)

Re: Good C2D Motherboard choice?
 

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/further_prod2.php?idx=60 little thing by Artic cooling ok silver 5 isnt there but ceramique is