I noticed in todays Frys Electronics ad they have a HP Pavilion A6152N for 799.99. It includes:

Q6600 Core 2 Quad
ASUS IPIBL-LA (Berkeley)
Vista Premium
3GB PC2-5300 DDR2
400GB 7200RPM SATA
16x LightScribe DVD
Power Supply - I couldn't find anything on it

I did a Google search on the Mobo and it didn't come back with anything, so I couldn't get any information on it.

But, it seems to me that for that $$$, it would likely cost something in that range to make one.

275.00 - Q6600
100.00 - MOBO(no idea since couldn't find it on net)
50.00 - Case
125.00 - Vista Premium
120.00 - 3 GB Memory
50.00 - Power Supply
25.00 - DVD
60.00 - 400 GB Drive
805.00 - Total

I also found it on the internet for 829.00 with free shipping and no tax.

Computing cost is dropping like a brick.

[EDIT - Oh, I forgot about fan's, and other cooling methods, so even more $$$]
[EDIT, EDIT - Double Oh, forgot the Geforce 8800 GTS too, even more, more $$$]

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from what I've read its quite the CPU. Very good for SETI as well. Could probably get around or above 5000rac with that one alone.

And that price definitely isn't bad.

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I am guessing, but it is probably an ASUS motherboard custom configured to HP requirements. The only people who can tell you anything about it are the HP technicians and owners of the HP computers with this board. It kinda narrows things down when it comes to technical support.

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I noticed in todays Frys Electronics ad they have a HP Pavilion A6152N for 799.99. It includes:

Q6600 Core 2 Quad
ASUS IPIBL-LA (Berkeley)
Vista Premium
3GB PC2-5300 DDR2
400GB 7200RPM SATA
16x LightScribe DVD
Power Supply - I couldn't find anything on it

I did a Google search on the Mobo and it didn't come back with anything, so I couldn't get any information on it.
Smoking deal... only thing I question is how well Vista/SETI will work with only 3 gigs ddr2, and can you configure for larger ram. 3 gigs itself is a bit odd in my book.. should be power of 2 for most effecient operation unless that MB only has 3 slots.. again a bit odd.
mslatter or batman could probably give you better info on the memory load running Vista & SETI on a quaddy.
My E6600 core 2 duo eats more than 1.2 gb under Vista.. and only about .8 gb under X64 with virtually the same apps loaded up.
Under Vista I would go with 1gb for each processor.
But, it seems to me that for that $$$, it would likely cost something in that range to make one.

275.00 - Q6600
100.00 - MOBO(no idea since couldn't find it on net)
50.00 - Case
125.00 - Vista Premium
120.00 - 3 GB Memory
50.00 - Power Supply
25.00 - DVD
60.00 - 400 GB Drive
805.00 - Total

I also found it on the internet for 829.00 with free shipping and no tax.

Computing cost is dropping like a brick.

[EDIT - Oh, I forgot about fan's, and other cooling methods, so even more $$$]
[EDIT, EDIT - Double Oh, forgot the Geforce 8800 GTS too, even more, more $$$]

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When we finally figure it all out, all the rules will change and we can start all over again.

I haven't done it yet, but I'm extremely tempted to purchase it unless someone can advise me (other then the memory short fall) otherwise.

I look for input ........

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Take a look at a similar quad-core HP desktop (M8120N) at Newegg. The interior work scares me a little. $1,149.99.

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Take a look at a similar quad-core HP desktop (M8120N) at Newegg. The interior work scares me a little.

Unless I made an error (quite possibly) the link only gave me pictures.

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Sounds correct to me, Philedelphia, it's a link to the pics page.
Not sure if the cheaper one is the same, but if it is, one thing that would concern me is upgrading the CPU fan, it looks non-standard in there and really tight. And the oddball positioning would make a lot of coolers/fans not fit, it seems. Plus which, they would be blowing at an angle towards the power supply, not optimal. Also, all the components are really packed in, so OCing might not be too smart. But if you just want to run it at regular speed, it sounds like a decent deal for the time being. I would bet, though, that within a few months, you may see the Q6600 systems down in the 5 - 600 range (at least the cheap-O ones).

Here's the product page

-Dave

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Take a look at a similar quad-core HP desktop (M8120N) at Newegg. The interior work scares me a little.

Unless I made an error (quite possibly) the link only gave me pictures.

Here's the main product page. There are two at newegg. One with a Cooler Master heatsink/fan and one without. The other is the m8150n. That one has the newer 8000 series graphics card.

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from what I've read its quite the CPU. Very good for SETI as well. Could probably get around or above 5000rac with that one alone.

And that price definitely isn't bad.

Don't expect that high a RAC with the Q6600. Unless you really overclock it, you can expect something in the just over 2,000. I have a QX6700 and at stock speed it is giving me about 3,200 RAC. I just put a q6600 on line last week. It was giving me 2,200.

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But for the price it's a bargain. Another option would be the XPS 410. It's about $1,149 with q6600, 2GB RAM, 320GB HD, Vista Premium, keyboard, mouse, DVD burner, 8300GS, and comes with a 19 inch widescreen display. Later.

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I've got a couple XPS 410 machines, they're really solid machines, well built, but you cannot OC them (as far as I know - if anyone knows different, please let me know!) Mine have the E6600 in them, but I popped a Q6600 in both for a little while just to see if it'd work, it did. Maybe if they get closer to $200 I'll relpace the processors in the boxes I have...

-Dave

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I've got a couple XPS 410 machines, they're really solid machines, well built, but you cannot OC them (as far as I know - if anyone knows different, please let me know!) Mine have the E6600 in them, but I popped a Q6600 in both for a little while just to see if it'd work, it did. Maybe if they get closer to $200 I'll relpace the processors in the boxes I have...

-Dave

Are they quiet though? For the q6600s to work, it means that it's a newer motherboard or Dell has been updating the BIOS.

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I've got a couple XPS 410 machines, they're really solid machines, well built, but you cannot OC them (as far as I know - if anyone knows different, please let me know!) Mine have the E6600 in them, but I popped a Q6600 in both for a little while just to see if it'd work, it did. Maybe if they get closer to $200 I'll relpace the processors in the boxes I have...

-Dave

Are they quiet though? For the q6600s to work, it means that it's a newer motherboard or Dell has been updating the BIOS.

Quiet: Generally, yes, it depends on the graphics solution. I have one with a fanless graphics card in it and one with a fan-cooled card. They're both fairly quiet when no graphics load is on, but when the fan kicks on (on the one with the fan-cooled graphics card), it's QUITE loud.
As for the bios, they're P965 based, so there's no reason they shouldn't work. I tested them out, I think, 2 bios releases ago. I tried it out because I saw on a Dell forum that the Q6600 was "officially" supported on the XPS 410. This was before Dell actually offered it for sale on these machines.

-Dave

[Edit] Noise - As a comparison, I have a Dell Dimension 8400 P4 3.4 that is only doing Climate Prediction right now - the 410s are much quieter than that box.

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I've got a couple XPS 410 machines, they're really solid machines, well built, but you cannot OC them (as far as I know - if anyone knows different, please let me know!) Mine have the E6600 in them, but I popped a Q6600 in both for a little while just to see if it'd work, it did. Maybe if they get closer to $200 I'll relpace the processors in the boxes I have...

-Dave

Are they quiet though? For the q6600s to work, it means that it's a newer motherboard or Dell has been updating the BIOS.

Quiet: Generally, yes, it depends on the graphics solution. I have one with a fanless graphics card in it and one with a fan-cooled card. They're both fairly quiet when no graphics load is on, but when the fan kicks on (on the one with the fan-cooled graphics card), it's QUITE loud.
As for the bios, they're P965 based, so there's no reason they shouldn't work. I tested them out, I think, 2 bios releases ago. I tried it out because I saw on a Dell forum that the Q6600 was "officially" supported on the XPS 410. This was before Dell actually offered it for sale on these machines.

-Dave

[Edit] Noise - As a comparison, I have a Dell Dimension 8400 P4 3.4 that is only doing Climate Prediction right now - the 410s are much quieter than that box.

I see. So it's quiet with a graphics card that doesn't have a fan. That's what I've been hearing a lot of lately. The reason I asked is because I've heard that Dell desktops are the quieter in comparisons of the three (Dell, HP and Gateway). But since those were slightly different models I can't say if the Dell would be quieter than the particular HP. If I had to take a wild guess I'd say that they are about the same in terms of case fan noise but the one with a better CPU fan would be a little quieter.

I made an inquiry about a Dell Core 2 around 5 months ago and they told me it wouldn't support anything other than Core 2s. Yeah they said that their "newer" systems would though. Go figure. :D

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I haven't done it yet, but I'm extremely tempted to purchase it unless someone can advise me (other then the memory short fall) otherwise.

I look for input ........

Whereas a build-your-own is probably quite overclockable (subject to component choice) the pre-builts usually aren't... something to watch out for.

A gigabyte p35-s3 or ds3 could get you to over 3ghz or more, although you'd need ddr2/667 or 800 for that. Still, generic in those speeds is dirt cheap and would be fine.

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Crunching SETI@Home as a member of the Whirlpool BOINC Teams

from what I've read its quite the CPU. Very good for SETI as well. Could probably get around or above 5000rac with that one alone.

And that price definitely isn't bad.

Don't expect that high a RAC with the Q6600. Unless you really overclock it, you can expect something in the just over 2,000. I have a QX6700 and at stock speed it is giving me about 3,200 RAC. I just put a q6600 on line last week. It was giving me 2,200.

That surprised me Carlos.

I have a E6600 (not overclocked) and I float around the 2,000 range and it's the same speed, 2.4, but with only two cores vs four cores. I would have expected something in the range of 4,000 with an extra two cores for the Q6600.

[EDIT: Can we hear from those with a Q6600 that is running SETI 24/7 to see what RAC you're getting? I checked the leader board and they're all over the place with the highest at 5,307. But what I can't tell on any of them is if they're 24/7 or something less and maybe spread over several projects.

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But for the price it's a bargain. Another option would be the XPS 410. It's about $1,149 with q6600, 2GB RAM, 320GB HD, Vista Premium, keyboard, mouse, DVD burner, 8300GS, and comes with a 19 inch widescreen display. Later.

That sounds like a similar configuration but it's 350.00 higher and I think Dell charges sales tax too, so that's ~94.00 bringing it close to 444.00 more but you do get a monitor which I don't need.

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The only problem with buying the Dell is that you get a Dell.
No OC ability, generally no upgrade paths, questionable customer service (on-site service is not bad, but expect to play phone tag for several days (repeating all the information each time) before getting through to someone who can actually help).
Ex-Dell Owner (sold Dimension desktop (at a loss) still under warranty to a friend).

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Boinc Button Abuser In Training >My Shrubbers<

The only problem with buying the Dell is that you get a Dell.
No OC ability, generally no upgrade paths, questionable customer service (on-site service is not bad, but expect to play phone tag for several days (repeating all the information each time) before getting through to someone who can actually help).
Ex-Dell Owner (sold Dimension desktop (at a loss) still under warranty to a friend).

I agree, which makes that HP (1st posting in thread) at 799.99 look even better. If people with a Q6600 are getting in the 4,000 RAC range I'll probably pick it up.

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