Page 1 of New PC build - Core 2 Duo

Decided it`s time my machine was updated. Will be workstation type use - so Photoshop, Video Encoding, that sort of thing. The odd game, but not a lot, and no bleeding edge stuff.

Want to keep the thing as quiet as poss, and fairly cheap. So here`s my thoughts:

Asrock ConroeXFire-eSATA2 motherboard

Processor - am I best sticking with the E6300 rather than the 6400 (which seems to be running at a lower clock speed for some reason) - or stretch to the E6600?

Cooler - bearing in mind my desire for quiet, anyone used the stock cooler, or am I best going OEM and something funky in the cooler department?

2Gb DDR2 RAM - probably Crucial.

Case - Antec P150

Graphics card - here`s where I come unstuck. Currently using a Radeon 9600, so something to better that, but no need for the latest and greatest - I don`t play enough games (if any) that would require that.


Also, do PCI express slots take PCI cards? I have an MAudio Delta 410 I`d like to continue using.

Thanks for any advice, peeps!

The E6400 runs at a higher clock speed than E6300 - 2.13 Ghz as opposed to 1.86 on the E6300. Both share 2MB L2 shared cache memory. The E6600 provides 4 MB shared cache memory at a higher clock speed and is pound for pound the best value Core 2 Duo processor. The extra cache makes a big difference - it is the component that has the biggest bearing on the processing power. By the way, don`t be deceived by the term "shared" cache memory. It is an innovative feature which gives greater processing power despite the naming which seems to suggest it borrows memory from somewhere else - this is different and means in single core mode, all the cache is used whereas on previous dual cores and current AMD x2 processors, in single core code, the processor can only use half the onboard cache.

The motherboard you are considering purchasing is a 945P chipset based. This does NOT have true DDR2 800 RAM support so if you are buying RAM then it does not make sense in buying DDR2 800 RAM. Furthermore, for overclockers, the 945P does not support core speed adjustments.

A cheap but yet quiet cooler is the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. This heatsink and fan never ceases to amaze me with its ability to shift air at low speeds and is comparable with a Zalman Cu7700 at twice the price. At full speed it is noisy though but as the Core 2 Duo uses less power than any its predecessors or any current AMD processor you can safely lower the speed to 50% or even less which will be so quiet that you have to put your ear to the case to hear the fan. If you want totally silent then the Scythe Ninja fanless heatsink is an option but at a price. I don`t recommend this for anything but the Core 2 Duo, due to the lack of a fan. The Core 2 Duo is different as it runs a lot cooler due to its efficient power usage.

Antec P150 is a fabulous case. With its inbuilt acoustic insulation, you will easily get away with many "quiet" heatsink/fan but as mentioned above, the Freezer 7 Pro complements this case so effortlessly that it`s as though the 2 were designed for one another.

As for graphics, all the 7000 series nVidia and x1000 series from ATi are DX9 and VMR7/VMR9 capable for video encoding and photo editing. For occassional gaming, the minimum that I have tested which can run Doom3 or Call of Duty 2 at an acceptable speed would be nVidia 7600GS based or Radeon X1600 Pro based graphics. The X1600 Pro probably has the slight edge but the 7600GS is available with a passive heatsink.

PCI Express uses the same transfer protocols as PCI but each PCI e slot has its own direct access to the bus rather than having multiple components sharing the bus as in PCI. This gives PCI e full bandwidth whereas in the old PCI layout, the full bus bandwidth could be taken up by a couple of PCI cards (especially those using Gigabit LAN cards). The PCI e slots are physically different to those of PCI so unfortunately you cannot plug PCI devices into PCI e slots. Most boards that you buy should have standard PCI slots as well as PCI e though so you should not have problems using your mAudio Delta 410.

Thanks Mike. Been a while since I build a system, and everything`s changed so much - I used to be able to keep up...

Odd re the 6300/6400 thing - I must have misread the info, or there was a typo. Thought it was odd that a higher spec processor ran at a lower speed.

I may well stretch to the 6600 - one reason I was skimping on the motherboard, though it sounds like I may be better off with a different mobo - suggestions? I`ve read there are problems with the P150`s PSU and ASUS motherboards, though I think later revisions of the PSU have this sorted now.

Kind of wondering whether to hold off until a few more motherboards come available - but I really need to upgrade this PC, so off we go...

Any recommendations in the motherboard department? MSI? Gigabyte? Asus?