Building new PC, looking for potential helpful advice.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128359

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115054

CPU HS/F: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186134 (and Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound to go with it)

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231166 x 2 for a total of 8GB

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130400

Potential Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009145

Things I'd like to talk about:

• Overclocking the E8600 to 4GHz or higher is possible with the GA-EP45-UD3R, but I'm wondering how the RAM will take it. I want as much performance out of the CPU as I can get without moving up to DDR3 or going much further over the current price total ($1,216.89).
• The Freezer 7 Pro is a good HS/F, no doubt about it, but I'm wondering if I could do better for around the same price without having to cut plastic or deal with really tight squeezes (or other such nonsense).
• Monitors. Let's talk.
• General money-saving without hurting performance or ability to overclock.
• Vista Ultimate x64 vs. Win7 x64 for this particular build (actual technical data more appreciated than pure opinions)

Things I don't want to talk about:

• ATI GPUs.
• C2Q/i5/Phenom II/etc.
  -i7 suggestions welcomed so long as the proposed build falls close to above mentioned price.
• CRT vs. LCD
• Apple Inc.

RAM should handle it fine since it runs at 533Mhz which allows you to take the FSB up to 533Mhz (if necessary) and still retain 1:1 DRAM:FSB ratio. Given the multiplier of the E8600 is 10 then you will probably have the FSB around 400.

You could consider the cheaper E8400 or E8500 because both should be capable of 4Ghz, unless you get a bad chip. E8600 guarantees 4ghz plus though. Also handy when you later on you decide to buy a ss and take it to 6Ghz

Not too sure what you are looking for? Win 7 won't be out for a while so that means you would pretty much need Vista x64 until then, unless you currently have XP?

1680 by 1050 is not really the resolution for 2009 and beyond when there are rather cheap 1920 by 1080 monitors around. The higher res will look better and give the video card room to shine. E.g http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009163 is $20 more and has higher res and is 1inch bigger.

i7 can't be done at this price with still decent graphics/PSU. A Core 2 Duo rig with a GTX 260 216 is better at gaming than a Core i7 with a budget GPU.

Also dont forget optical drive and HDD if you dont already have.

Yeah. I'd like to go with an E8400, but I enjoy the guaranteed E0 stepping the E8600 offers too much to do so. Don't want to risk C0.Win7 Beta is functional and stable enough that I don't mind using it. Have had it running on a second machine for a while now, and am comfortable enough with the performance to use it on a main machine. Just don't know if it'd offer me any improvements over Vista with this particular setup that I'd actually care about at this point in time.Have them covered, but not posted.

Personally I would not go with a beta as my only operating system (I have the Win 7 beta installed but just used to try it out).

The pre release candidate, build 7057 in both x86 and x64, is "available" (if you know where to look). You could use it and if you encounter too many problems buy Vista later. For benchmarks try google, it came up with:
http://www.ithinkdiff.com/windows-7-...lder-7-builds/
http://keznews.com/5449_Windows_7_bu...past_XP,_Vista
Those articles suggest it outperforms Win Vista, XP etc.

win7 looks nice, very nice indeed... but would you consider a dual boot system? So that you can have either Vista or XP to fall back on if there are problems with win7? it is only a beta after all. You should be able to use the same install disc that you used before... just call microsoft and stay on the line about 5 min and you're all set....

if you want to go with the windows 7 beta route, keep away from build 7057 if you are going to be doing any networking. currently, networking features for build 7057 are broken. it is not capable of connecting to other computers in the same workgroup, while other computers in the same workgroup can connect to the windows 7 machine.

i found out about this the hard way :S

You can do i7 for close to your current price if you don't actually need 8GB of RAM. An i7 920 + Gigabyte mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128375) + 3GB of DDR3 will run you about $50 more than your Core 2 setup.

The Freezer Pro is popular for good reason; most of the better-performing coolers cost twice as much. One notable exception is the Xigmatek S1283V Dark Knight, which comes in at ~$40 and is one of the best coolers available, especially for low-noise setups.

Win 7 is fine if you're comfortable with using a beta. It'll save you the $100+ it would take to buy a Vista license that you would likely replace by the end of the year.

The monitor really comes down to price. Personally, I'd never go lower than 24" 1920x1200, but decent monitors at that size/res start at ~$300 (BenQ G2400WD). There are also a lot of other factors you need to consider: how much do you care about color accuracy? Viewing angles? How sensitive are you to input lag?

I agree with the Xigmatek cooler option. It is highly reccomended by bit-tech. There really isn't any reason to have more than 4GB of RAM either. Tests show that there is virtually no performance gain to justify more than that. I don't know why you don't want to talk about a better GPU than the Nvidia but that's your loss really. ATi is better at the moment and has a better price.

i7 for $30 more! How does this look?

CASE: COOLER MASTER RC-690
CPU+MOBO:CPU + Mobo combo: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz & GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216
RAM: G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W
HDD:Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB
CPU Cooler: XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm
Monitor: Acer X233Hbid Black 23" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD

$1245

BTW do you already have a DVD drive?