The Dark and Secret Arts – Advice for an Apprentice

[Godolphin]

While I have heard of overclocking and water cooling like the rumours of some esoteric, dark and secret arts, I have never believed I could have been initiated into its mysteries, to be enjoyed by the adept few with the skills and knowledge forever denied to me. Hints only have I gleamed from the interweb and journals written in indecipherable glyphs. The opportunity to buy a new computer has got me thinking whether this unworthy novitiate could begin a practical apprenticeship in the arts?

I’m looking to make the purchase in November as I have not purchased a computer for some years I would welcome any impartial advice about the intended setup, possible conflicts, best configurations, etc.
At present I’m using a machine bought at the end of 2002: Pentium 4, 1.7Ghz , 768MB SD-RAM, a GeCube Radeon 9200SE PCI 128MB card (the only video cards I have ever bought were PCI because of an original motherboard, I missed out on the whole AGP thing completely), and a Xlerate Pro sound card that I’ve had since Windows ’98, my gaming experiences have obviously been limited.

My planned purchase:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz
ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe (described as last generation tech but a fast and most stable platform for Core2 Duo?)
Corsair DDR2 PC2-6400 C4 800 MHz Twinx 2 x 1024MB
Western Digital Raptor X, 10,000rmp 16MB buffer 150GB serial ATA
22" (55cm) CMV Chimei 221D Wide Screen LCD Monitor
Thermaltake Tai-Chi VB5000SNA (without the water cooling unit)
Swiftech H20-APEX Ultra Liquid Cooling Kit
I can’t see myself getting into a complete custom water cooling setup just yet, buying each individual unit, I want a good kit to start on. Will the Swiftech kit work with this processor and motherboard?
Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card
Dilemma in choice of video card either an ATI X1950 XTX or NVIDIA 7950 GX2
Is this motherboard better suited to a Nvidia card? The more I think about it the more I am leaning to the 7950 GX2 has the better performance but I am concerned about the noise and heat. I am not really interested in getting into SLI or Crossfire setup, in 12months will probably upgrade to a single DX10 card.
PSU, don’t know looking more to the future I might go for a Enermax EG701AX-VE (W)SFMA 600W

My first idea was to put it all in a Antec P180 case but after reading some negative comments about internal layout I began looking at spending more a quality case, so the Tai Chi then I thought about watercooling if I was going to spend that much. Does anybody know if the Swiftech unit will go with the Tai Chi case ok, and if the rad hangs on the back of the case what are the noise levels like?

thanks
GD

[Incinerate_IV]

Looks good to me. If you are not intrested in SLI or Crossfire, don't get the SLI motherboard, get a motherboard made for overclocking like This (click!). It can overclock far better than the ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe.

For the graphics card, I would choose the 7950GX2 over the X1900XTX, because it performs much better.

If you need any other help choosing parts, check out the PC hardware guide thats stickied on this forum.

[Frost, colonel]

Custom PC magazine(UK) still rate the Antec P180 as an excellent cool aluminium case, I recently recieved a Black one and I am very happy with it's lay out and cooling. I like the position of my Raptor at the front in the middle drive bay for max airflow, in the bottem of the case, in an encosed area with a 120mm fan behind it, drawing air over it . In a review of the new Raptors it said they run hot and may not last as long because of this!

My clocked system doesn't need watercooling, even though my CPU is increased 1Gig over stock.
I have read the Conroe clocks well on standard cooling as it is cool running, do you need Water cooling? I suppose it depends on how far you want to push it!
Are there any well reviewed Heatsinks that could replace the stock, that's if it needs replacing that is.

Whilst my Gig overclock would be ok on the reference Heatsink, I wanted to make sure regarding longevity and so fitted an Artic pro 64 cooler that runs it 17 degrees cooler and is quiet and looks good(incase looks matter to you). It cost £17 and is rated as good as low end watercooling systems.

The same mag recommends the Seasonic 600watt PSU, which I have found to be very good.

I don't go by just one source, but cross reference different reviews, to get a balanced opinion.

Like you I am content with just one GPU, and will change only when I need to for one of those DX10 cards, I hope they are as good as they say, partic the bit about taking some load off the CPU, which could hold off upgrading for longer.