Im pieceing together a new computer, need alittle advice.

Aecliptic

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Ive had a Dell computer for 5 years now, and its getting old... so Ive decided to go ahead and put together a new computer.

After searching around I came across the Intel Pent. D 950 chip, and I liked what I saw about it... than my newbish self stumbled upon the Core 2 Duo/Extreme chips, and these apparently are the chips to get.

Im building the computer just for regular use, and some music production.

Ive read some reviews on the E6400 and for the price, people say there is nothing better. As far as the motherboard, I have NO idea what to get, because apparently some of these chips work better in particular motherboards. Another thing I saw is that these processors are demanding and to OC properly you need DDR2-800 RAM.

So yea... my limit on this computer is $1000. Any help on parts for this would be greatly appreciated.

PS: Is it hard to OC the Core 2 Duo chips? Ive never OC'd before. :p
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So far, the only thing I know I want is the E6400 chip and a pair of the OCZ Platinum RAM cards (2x 1024) since they are cost effective.
 
Ok... so after some further research... I have this so far...

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe
Asus P5W-DH Deluxe (I hope I dont have to call Asus and have them send me an updated BIOS chip)
OCZ Platinum (2x 1024) PC6400 DDR2-800mhz

Ive read that there are power requirements for the E6400, what kind of power supply should I get for this?
 
Can anyone recommend what kind of power supply wattage Im gonna need for this system? Should I play it safe and go with 500+ since Im gonna OC it?
 
Get a decent power supply, but don't worry about getting massive wattage - 500 watts will be more than enough. If you have the money, I would recommend a Seasonic S12-500, which although being expensive is a very stable and efficient power supply. If not, Akasa PaxPower supplies are also very good, and quite cheap too :)

Core 2 Duo chips, at the moment at least, look like excellent overclockers :)

And don't worry about getting Asus to send you a new BIOS chip - just flash the old one. Download the latest BIOS off the Asus site onto a floppy disk which is an MSDOS startup disc also (you can specify this when formatting one in XP), and then download a BIOS flash utility and unzip that onto the floppy disc. I think Asus might supply a DOS flashing utility.
 
You should watch out with the ocz ram. I had an asus motherboard a while ago, and back then they were really picky about which ram was accepted.
 
I heard about this also, I dont know if they are still picky about... I think I might call them and find out before I go ahead and buy the pair. All I know is I cant afford the Corsair ones. :p

prosser, thx for the advice. But if they are gonna send me anything, might as well just have them send the chip... would be easier to just pop out the old one and put in the new one, no?
 
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