As you may remember, a while back I posted about a new machine I had just built, and then I posted that I was selling it, with a brief explanation. I did sell it to a good friend of mine, and I feel that it’ll be a great machine for him, and last him a long (long) time without needing any upgrades at all.

I just realized, however, that I didn’t update what my rebuild wound up being. It actually ended up being quite different from anything I planned, but I’m extremely happy with the end result.

CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q6600 (G0 Stepping Running @ 9×333 = 3.0GHz, stock 1.25 VCore)
Cooled by a Xigmatek s1283 120MM HSF.
This is probably the biggest deviation from what I was looking at, but I did a *lot* of research, and not only will the Q6600 go down as one of Intel’s greatest CPU’s of all time, it really is the epitome of "Bang for the Buck". It had several things going for it. A call to NewEgg confirmed that I was *guaranteed* a G0 stepping, also it’s the cheapest Core2Quad with HW Virtualization. Also, it’s so easy to clock to 3 GHz that a blind, one-handed monkey could do it with one finger cut off (just change FSB from 266 to 333 and change the VCore from "Auto" to what your VID actually is for your CPU, so the Mobo doesn’t automatically overvolt it for no reason)! You also REALLY don’t need an aftermarket cooler, I just wanted one to minimize heat anyway…

I played with it some over 3GHz, and that’s the only time I really only felt that I was OC’ing. I actually made it all the way too 3.37 before I needed more voltage even, and got to 3.6 (9×400) with 1.35 on the VCore (and probably could have gone further) but backed back off and settled on a nice round 3.0GHz at 333×9 which basically equals a QX6850.

At 3.0 & stock voltage there is 1C-2C difference under full load than at stock. Honestly, I doubt that Intel is still selling many of the QX6850, and since the Q6600 is STILL the best selling C2Q (according to my contact at NewEgg), they are probably just slapping the Q6600 label on nearly every G0 that comes off of the line, because they know people will buy the heck out of them and just clock them to 3GHz+ anyway…and I’m sure they couldn’t have been selling a heck of a lot of QX6850’s @ $999 compared to Q6600’s at $185 (but I guess there ARE people out there that would drop a Grand on a CPU).

Not only did I get the G0 (which was guaranteed), I also lucked up and got a 1.25 VID, which gives me lots of VCore headroom if I *did* want to go over 3GHz (but I probably never will…why waste energy and generate heat for such little gain?).

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
The EP45-UD3R and it’s Crossfire enabled brother, the UD3P (the boards are identical otherwise) are constantly rated as two of the best DDR2, Socket 775 boards available…period. Love the layout too.

Memory: 2X Kingston DDR2-800 4GB Kits (8GB total)
I had priced out some "premium" RAM, and I just couldn’t convince myself it was worth an extra $40…I’m not OC’ing my RAM anyway - it’s running at it’s 800MHz spec. I also had thought at one time about getting the DDR3 version of the same Gigabyte Mobo, but decided to just stick w/ DDR2. All the benchmarks I’ve read have shown that memory has very little impact on Core2 performance (outside of Synthetic benchmarks such as Everest and Sandra)… Kingston just makes nice, solid dependable RAM that just happened to be on my motherboards verified compatibility list.

Primary Hard Drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10,000RPM HDD
Probably the only thing I bought that had no logic behind it, other than I’ve always wanted one. This *is* the new (SATAII) version of the drive, and it’s a lot faster than the old Raptors were…quieter too.

Secondary HDD (Virtual Machines): Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200RPM HDD
Although I had one of these in the AMD, it was an older drive that had been moved down from machine to machine about 3 times… I decided to re-buy for no other reason than to get the "new" version which was a single 320GB platter w/ higher data density and much better performance.

Third HDD (Data): Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB HDD
While not the "fastest" drive around by any means, it’s very energy conscious, and makes for a nice data drive. Picked it up actually before ordering most of the other stuff since it was a daily "Shell Shocker" for $89 & Free Shipping.

Case: Antec Nine Hundred
I was worried about this, since I disliked the "Three Hundred" so much, but I couldn’t be happier. The 900 really is in a different class. There aren’t any "roars" or "rattles", and with the top and rear fans on Med and the 2 fronts on low, I can’t hear it, and I still get awesome airflow. Not sure about the LED’s, I might end up swapping them out for non-led fans, but they are there for now.

PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W
Plenty of power for what I needed, and was a good deal w/ a combo on the case @ $169 for the combo.

Optical: LG 22X DVD+-RW
Cheap…works…what else do you need from a DVD burner? I wouldn’t use Light Scribe…
Thought briefly about a BluRay drive, but decided I probably wouldn’t use that either, so I’ll just wait for now.

The only other thing I bought was this extension cable to make cable management easier w/ the bottom mounted PSU.

For a GPU, I simply used my XFX 9600GT "Alpha Dog Edition" (which has a decent factory OC) for now and saved that money. This card was in the Core2Duo system that I was running before I started all of this. I had a 256MB “spare” PCI-e 7200 that I put in that C2D as it’s not doing anything graphically intensive now. I’m toying w/ the idea of using the money saved by not buying a new GPU to buy a Dell Mini 9, or just hang onto it until I actually need/want something else. The 9600GT really plays all my games at more than acceptable levels so, I’m probably not going to worry about a vid card until some game comes out that I want, that I can’t play.

Anyway - there you have it - my rebuilt machine, that I’m happy with and not second guessing myself about.

I rushed into that AMD build too quickly, didn’t think it through, and I never would have been completely satisfied with it. Not to mention, this machine clocked at 3.0GHz beats what the Phenom was doing clocked at 3.53GHz, AND uses less power doing it, AND generates less heat!