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Building a new Q9550 machine. Need some guidance.

540 views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  I has a bucket 
#1 ·
This is what I'm thinking so far:

Samsung model SH-S223F DVD burner
Western Digital model WD3000glfs hard drive
Sapphire Radeon 4870 X2 2GB
mushkin 2x2GB DDR3 1600MHz 7-7-7-20 (I think)
ASUS Rampage Extreme LGA 775
Vista Home Premium OEM
Antec 1200 case and
Antec TruePower Quattro 1kW PSU combo
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550

Clearly I'm looking for a very high performance machine. I haven't built one in a few years now, so I'm pretty far behind. (My current box is an Athlon 64 3500+ and GeForce 6800GT ... AGP
) I also have no clue what CPU cooling solution I should use. I don't want something with much of a maintenance or setup requirement; I'm not much of a tinkering enthusiast really, I just like to game. I've never used water cooling before, but I understand it involves a decent bit of maintenance.

So, my questions:
Will all of this work together properly?

Am I forgetting anything? I've already got a monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset, speakers, and sound card that I plan to carry over. I think that 300GB will be enough for a while for my use, so I don't really need a secondary drive.

Are there any items I should swap out that could be replaced easily by a cheaper and almost equally effective alternative?

Does water cooling involve much maintenance? If not, can you point me to a beginner's guide to water cooling? Otherwise, can you recommend a good air cooling system?
 
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#4 ·
Depending on your budget, i would suggest moving up to the Q9650.

Its E0 stepping and higher multi will give you more overclocking headroom.

With good air (like the TRUE mentioned above), you could easily do 4 ghz
 
#5 ·
TRUE = Thermalright Ultra 120 Exteme
 
#6 ·
Oh ok. Thank you too Robilar. Will I need to buy a separate fan with a TRUE? It doesn't look like it comes with one, but maybe I'm missing it. If so, any suggestions on one that produces a tolerable noise level?

Heh, I built a computer for my sister a few years back with a 120mm monster of a CPU fan. It got a great overclock from 2.4 GHz to 3.2 very stable, but the computer sounds like an aircraft while it's running.
 
#7 ·
they only thing the TRUE is missing are fans. if i recall correctly, the Xig and OCZ come with fans. if you want something that has decent static pressure and CFM, i'd say go for the Scythe S-Flexes (25mm thick) and i would go with a push/pull if you have the space. they are very quiet for their CFM but if you want really high rpm, then i would recommend either Panaflos Ultra highspeed or Scythe Ultra Kazes (these two are 38mm thick)
 
#8 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by I has a bucket View Post
Oh ok. Thank you too Robilar. Will I need to buy a separate fan with a TRUE? It doesn't look like it comes with one, but maybe I'm missing it. If so, any suggestions on one that produces a tolerable noise level?

Heh, I built a computer for my sister a few years back with a 120mm monster of a CPU fan. It got a great overclock from 2.4 GHz to 3.2 very stable, but the computer sounds like an aircraft while it's running.

You will need a fan. Somepeople like Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000rpm fans for cooling, but they are not really that quiet unless you get a fan controller. You could get some low-speed yate loons from petras. I also like Zalman ZM-F3 fans - pretty quiet, great airflow, cheap and durable.

Great Fan Review with ZM-F3
 
#9 ·
I ordered it today. The final order is the one in my sig, but with two of the Raptors. Going to put them in RAID 0.

Hopefully, building this one will go better than all the other computers I've built before.
Usually I end up having some random unforeseeable problem that takes me a few days to fix.
 
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