Shoutbox

So, I'm helping a friend of mine build a PC and essentially he has the case, hdd, fans etc.

All that is necessary is the Mobo & Proc.

We are trying to keep the cost around $500 for the pair.

Any suggestions?

I came up with this:

http://www.a-power.com/product-2890

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=30295&...Q&manufacture=ASUS

Just a note that my friend is going to do a LOT of video encoding (avi to dvd), the other thing is that is installing XP 64bit edition a good idea?

P.S. I live in Vancouver, Canada. So a place close to me would be nice. The two places that are good for you guys to browse are www.ncix.com & www.a-power.com.

I've been looking at these for a while now:

Processor

Motherboard

The Q6600 is the best "bang for your buck" budget quad-core processor available these days, and if he wants something good for cheap, then it's his best bet.

The Core 2 Q6600 is by far and away the best Quad Core on the price performance market at this current time, but is in general not quite as fast as the AMD Phenom 9600... which I think it a bit more expensive (and the Phenoms which aren't xx50's are buggy).

For that price you may actually wish to look at the E8[4/5]00 instead. These are the 45nm Penryn cores which are supposedly slightly faster than the Q6600, and they overclock a lot better.

As for xp64, I used it for a while, saw no real benefit, and went back to xp32. Everything worked really, but there was some stuff that didn't fully - iTunes and my printer drivers.

Your motherboard is on sale.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=30295&...=ASUS&promoid=1074

Also

Purchase an Asus P5Q with any Intel Q9650, Q9550, Q9400, Q8200, E8600, or E7300 and qualify for a $20 Mail-In Rebate.

Not sure if you save money with a better Quad CPU, but just wanted to let you know

Thanks for all the help . I am going with the Q6600 and the Asus P5Q mobo.

What I'm wondering is, what about ram. I probably won't be over clocking it, and I'm not too sure what is the max it can use with it. Anyone have that info?

Four slots, 4GB maximum per slot, so 16GB total.

It's DDR2 so I would recommend 1066MHz. Unbuffered Non-ECC, in case you're curious.

Double check the manual - you can download it from Asus's website.

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Originally posted by andrewdodd13
Double check the manual - you can download it from Asus's website.

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Be sure to do this, as Asus mainboards tend to be very picky about what RAM they do and do not accept. My previous board was an Asus and it would only accept a few brands of memory modules (which I found out the hard way )

quote:

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Originally posted by andrewdodd13
Four slots, 4GB maximum per slot, so 16GB total.

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Of course if you want to use more than 4GB, you'll need to be using Windows x64 (XP or Vista).

quote:

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Originally posted by TheSteve

quote:

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Originally posted by andrewdodd13
Four slots, 4GB maximum per slot, so 16GB total.

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Of course if you want to use more than 4GB, you'll need to be using Windows x64 (XP or Vista).

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more than 3GB*