I hope your build goes well. I've recently put together, for my partner, a newer PC - even in 'rip-off UK', it came in at just over £200. Some things were new and other bits were got on e-Bay....

Case - Cooler Master Elite 330/331 (the 4th I've bought)... £30 new
PSU - 650W with the all-important 8 pin plug for m/b... £26 new
M/board - MSI P35 Platinum, new/recon with MSI guarantee... £44
CPU - 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6600... £40 used
CPU HSF - OCZ Vindicator... £10 used
RAM - 2 X 1GB Patriot Extreme DDR2 PC6400... £24 new
HD - 1 X 500 GB Hitachi P7K500 SATA 2... £35 new
Graphics - 512 MB HIS Radeon X1900XTX... £35 used
Sound - SB Live! 5.1... £ 2 used

It all runs very nicely and with the combination of M/board/CPU/HSF it will happily run at 2.6 GHz on S@H at a pretty respectable 43C. There you go, women can do it too!

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Don't take life too seriously, as you'll never come out of it alive!

It all runs very nicely and with the combination of M/board/CPU/HSF it will happily run at 2.6 GHz on S@H at a pretty respectable 43C. There you go, women can do it too!

I don't know if you're self-limiting it, or if the cooling is slightly off, but I have an E6600 currently running at just over 3Ghz, and I backed it off from 3.2Ghz just because I wanted the fans to run cooler...[edit] and quieter [/edit] so you could probably have it do much more than 2.6 if you want. Oh, and it's at stock voltage, too.

-Dave

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Patience Squirrell friend, all the nuts will be here when the bits bite. :)

That is almost Zen. (Wax on, wax off. . .)

Unfortunately, I am an atheist and I want my stuff NOW!

:P

Kenzie, as a fellow atheist I have some (possibly unnecessary) advice for you: don't rush it. I know you're all set to have your new machine up and running as fast as possible after getting all the parts. But take it slow and steady when assembling it. It's pretty frustrating to find out you messed up because you wanted to do it as quickly as possible. Giving the build all the attention, concentration and love you can may save time (and possibly money). I have been there a couple of times myself, screwing things up big time :-)

It's always a good idea to lean back and look at what the problem really is when you run into some difficulty during some phase of the build. Also makes the effort more worthwhile in a sense, gives you more feeling of achievement.

Regards,
John.

It all runs very nicely and with the combination of M/board/CPU/HSF it will happily run at 2.6 GHz on S@H at a pretty respectable 43C. There you go, women can do it too!

I don't know if you're self-limiting it, or if the cooling is slightly off, but I have an E6600 currently running at just over 3Ghz, and I backed it off from 3.2Ghz just because I wanted the fans to run cooler...[edit] and quieter [/edit] so you could probably have it do much more than 2.6 if you want. Oh, and it's at stock voltage, too.

-Dave

Yes, I probably am being a little cautious, but thats because I'm still familiarising myself with things and because there were only two fans in the PC - one in the PSU and one on the CPU heat-sink. We've just ordered a Nexus 120 mm PWM case fan to replace the fan on the heat-sink and two Xilence 120 mm fans for the case; there was also a strong temptation to get another one to replace the one in the PSU. I think we'll leave that for 12 months though! I have also got some Arctic Silver V compound which, if it works as well as it did on my s478 3.2 GHz Prescott, should be worth a reduction of around 4C or more.

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Don't take life too seriously, as you'll never come out of it alive!

I guess I am going to be busy this Holiday Sunday after all. :)

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Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Albert Einstein

Good for you Kenzie, and no more bloody fingers and tongue (from swearing).

Keep the beer cool, and the problems small.

Enjoy the holiday week end

I guess I am going to be busy this Holiday Sunday after all. :)

Very Good Choice Mac, That psu brand is one of only a few that I like in no specific order(OCZ, Antec, Enermax, Ablecom(Supermicro), Thermaltake and PC P&C).

Me too, But in a Different area and yeah I'll still be crunching, As eventually I'll be doing some online stomping. ;)

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Oh and I forgot to mention I like Silverstone psus too. :D

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

My Messy Bedroom


Okay, final checklist:

Computer bits: check
Wrist strap: check
Bandages: check
Booze: check
2 kg Gelignite and 200m Primacord: check
Cross referenced index cards of cuss words in English, French and Mi’kmaq: check

I guess that I am ready.

Thank you all for your help and encouragement. I will see you all in a few hours, days or decades, depending on how long this takes.

[Heath Ledger’s Joker voice on]

“Here. . .We. . .Go!”

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Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Albert Einstein

“Here. . .We. . .Go!”

Good luck Kenzie and enjoy the trip!

John.

The world has another operating computer! (Yeah!)

Q-Baby took her first electronic breath about 10 minutes ago.

I had a few interesting moments along the way. Strangely, installing the CPU and heatsing/fan combo went easy as pie. The fun part was when I tried to stick the mobo into the case: only 5 of the 6 mounting holes lined up! Oh well, 5 screws seem to be holding it in place for now.

Used up a few more bandages, too.

And that monster power supply OZ sent has a lot of extra plugs that aren’t hooked up to anything. Hope I didn’t forget anything vital in that regard!

All the fans are spinning. I had to put a couple 80mm fans in the case. And of course, my first try, I had ‘em in backwards. Only a few minutes to fix that goof tho.

Otherwise, it was a lot easier than I had expected.

XP is being installed at the moment. Then, I guess, the mobo and card drivers, then get XP updates, AVG anti-virus, coretemp, spybot. Then, I guess, download BOINC and attach to SETI.

Question: which version of AK V8 juice should I be using? SSE3, I guess?

Least ways, it’s working and no sparks or fire, so far.

I'll post a picture of the start-up screen when I start breathing again.
:D :D :D

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Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Albert Einstein

Not Miller time, but Lindsay and I have cracked a bottle of ‘05 Mission Hill Merlot.

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Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Albert Einstein

I missed which CPU you ended up with, but if it's a Quad Q6600, by the name you're referring to it, then likely SSSE3x is the correct application. (note the extra 'S', and the 'x')

If it's a newer 45nM quad, then the added choice is the SSE41 version which to choose goes something like:

No O/C to Low-Mid O/C: SSE41 application
Mid to Mid-High OC: SSE41 or SSSE3x will perfom fairly evenly, splitting hairs
High to Very High O/C: SSSE3x application

(The grace under pressure ratio, has to do with the 'x', and how it uses memory, bus and prefetchers)

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

The world has another operating computer! (Yeah!)

Q-Baby took her first electronic breath about 10 minutes ago.

I had a few interesting moments along the way. Strangely, installing the CPU and heatsing/fan combo went easy as pie. The fun part was when I tried to stick the mobo into the case: only 5 of the 6 mounting holes lined up! Oh well, 5 screws seem to be holding it in place for now.

Used up a few more bandages, too.

And that monster power supply OZ sent has a lot of extra plugs that aren’t hooked up to anything. Hope I didn’t forget anything vital in that regard!

All the fans are spinning. I had to put a couple 80mm fans in the case. And of course, my first try, I had ‘em in backwards. Only a few minutes to fix that goof tho.

Otherwise, it was a lot easier than I had expected.

XP is being installed at the moment. Then, I guess, the mobo and card drivers, then get XP updates, AVG anti-virus, coretemp, spybot. Then, I guess, download BOINC and attach to SETI.

Question: which version of AK V8 juice should I be using? SSE3, I guess?

Least ways, it’s working and no sparks or fire, so far.

I'll post a picture of the start-up screen when I start breathing again.
:D :D :D

Minimum of SSSE3 would be my guess and possible possibly SSE4.

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Congratulations on your first custom build cruncher unit :)
Bet it won´t be your last -- now that you are infected *lol*

Cu KyleFL

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Thanks KyleFL. arkayn and jason_gee.

Yeah, I meant SSSE3. Typo, sorry.

I am not planning to OC at the moment: I want to run it 'stock' for a month (enhanced apps, of course) to get baseline RAC data. Then I'll start tweaking.

At the moment: watching the hard drive format and sipping Merlot. . . :)

And thanks everyone else who came along with me on this little voyage. In a day or two I'll arrange the photos into some sort of storyboard and post 'em.

:)

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Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Albert Einstein

Niiiiiice.
I read this thread like a book before going to sleep and the last post was:
Good luck Kenzie and enjoy the trip!
Then I went back and saw "last post 4 minutes ago"
So I got back to the thread and saw the "birth"
Congrats.
I go to sleep with a smile.

I've been watching this one unfold with interest. Glad it's gone so well for you.
Might I recommend blackviper to you. He has listed all the services and what they do for xp and vista, and you might be able to streamline the resources it's taking, seeing as it's purely for crunching.

regards, Gizbar.

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A proud GPU User Server Donor!

Thanks KyleFL. arkayn and jason_gee.

Yeah, I meant SSSE3. Typo, sorry.

I am not planning to OC at the moment: I want to run it 'stock' for a month (enhanced apps, of course) to get baseline RAC data. Then I'll start tweaking.

At the moment: watching the hard drive format and sipping Merlot. . . :)

And thanks everyone else who came along with me on this little voyage. In a day or two I'll arrange the photos into some sort of storyboard and post 'em.

:)

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Thanks Zap de Ridder, gizbar and BroncoBob9.

@ gizbar: will check the link later. . .basking in the glow at the moment. :)

Quick calculation of cost: (all prices CDN funds and includes tax, shipping, etc)

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP5-DSL 92.44
Processor INTEL Q6600 190.00
Hard Drive Seagate 250GB SATA 62.74
Optical Drive 0.00 (borrowed from my desktop)
Case: 20.00
PSU: OCZ Stealth X Stream 600W 89.59
Graphics Card Gigabyte Radeon HD 2400 XT 5.99 (20 mail in, 20 instant in store rebates)
Monitor Dell 17" LCD 30.00 (Craigslist)
Kbrd & mouse 20.00 (yard sale)
Memory 2 X 1024 Corsair Extreme 0.00 (gift)
AS-5, wrist strap, incidentals 30.00 (approx)
Total 540.76

About 8 to 10% over original budget, but only because I got the memory for free. If I had to buy that, it would have put the cost in the $620 range, or approx 25% over budget.

Watching setup copy files onto the newly formatted disk. Boring stuff for you guys but new and fun for me. :D

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Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Albert Einstein