RAM speed for Q6600 + other Q's?

[Clondike7]

I haven't had any experience with Shuttle PCs, but I have with OCing Core2Duos.

The price difference between DDR2-667 and 800 used to be large but now is 800 is very inexpensive. A quick check over at newegg and I saw a pair of Corsair 2GB (2x1GB) for $113 with a $30 mail-in rebate. The RAM I got is even cheaper G.Skill which is now close to being under $100.

As for cooling fans. I got the Artic Freezer 7 Pro, and I think its an excellent cooler and can be found for under $40. I got my E6600 at 3.4Ghz with 54C temps under load. I'm waiting for a price drop on Intel so I can get the Q6600.

My motherboard is a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 and at newegg is about $100. Had problem with RAM when I got it, but after I flashed the BIOS everything worked perfect. Asus has a few other very good boards too (a bit pricier though).

hope that helped in anyway :wip:

[Squeakypics]

I use an Ideq SFF as a workstation but adding an extra HD, video card, audio card and memory taxed the powersupply a little too much so everything seems to run a bit slow.
Still in love with the form factor I have just ordered a Quad core silverstone SUGO from a company called the Glow lounge
http://www.theglowlounge.com/catalog/index.php/cPath/130

It is slightly more expandable than the shuttle and I've had a Corsair ultra quiet 520w power supply put into it. I was looking at the Shuttles but that swung it for me. They are a similar price to the Shuttle so may be worth a look?


(the Glow lounge have been VERY helpful -you can phone them regarding any non-standard requirements. - they are testing my machine at the moment. Oh Boy!)

[andytw]

If you are not planning to overclock it then a Q6600 will run happilly on 667mhz RAM and you will get no real benefit from 800mhz RAM.
The 400W power supply in the shuttle will be fine with either type of RAM unless you intend to install a powerful graphic card into the system.

If you overclock then the 800mhz RAM will allow you to overclock the FSB and CPU by around 20% without having to worry about RAM stability.
If you decide on 4GB of RAM and overclocking then get 2x2GB rather than 4x1GB as the latter can cause problems when overclocking on some boards.

The parts Clondike7 suggests are spot on if you plan to overclock.
Any of the Asus P5B series of motherboards should overclock well if you prefer them to Gigabyte.

Edited to add

There is a useful power supply calculator here (http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp). I would add at least 25% to its suggested figure to get the minimum PSU wattage which will safely run a system.

[lots]

I use an Ideq SFF as a workstation but adding an extra HD, video card, audio card and memory taxed the powersupply a little too much so everything seems to run a bit slow.

Power supply will not effect the SPEED of your system. It will only effect whether or not it turns on, OR how stable it is while it is on.

Also the Sugo is a Micro ATX sized case. Not quite the size of a shuttle, but it does use standard parts, making it easier and cheaper to build for. I believe it will fit a standard ATX power supply, and a MicroATX motherboard. With a few bays for drives. The case its self is rather pricy though...


If you decide on 4GB of RAM and overclocking then get 2x2GB rather than 4x1GB as the latter can cause problems when overclocking on some boards.
Many SFFs only take 2 slots for RAM. So it might be better to go for two anyway ;)

[CKPinson]

Is it true that Intel took a shortcut and just placed 2 dual cpu cores on one socket whereas AMD is taking longer because they're actually putting 4 cores on one silicon? If so, it seems that the AMD chip would be much faster and a "true" quad whereas the Intel would be more of an imposter posing as a quad.

[rob rhodes]

Sorry I wrote a reply but then my browser crashed and I can't be bothered writing it all out again! I hate it when that happens!

Anyway the jist of it was - I like the Sugo SG01 that has been suggested and think I might well end up making one of those to get better OCing oppertunities and should work out slightly cheaper than the shuttle. I have been looking at getting the Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD ATI Micro board which seems to get decent enough reviews - although it has the ATI RX1250 chipset which im not familiar with. Its the 2X2GB 800mhz ram thats the killer its about £170 but I guess its not that bad for 4GB. Does the quality of the RAM make a big difference - that sort of price range looks to be some quite decent stuff but you can pay more - not sure if its worth it.

As for Intel vs AMD then I don't really care if the intel is an imposter - a benchmark is a benchmark and if AMD can offer the same or better performance for the price then thats great news - however Im not holding my breath! I have been reading that the Q6600 is likely to drop by about %50 - is that right and what is that figure based on? In the UK you can already get it for £300 so is that going to drop to £150? I doubt it - is there any figures availiable for the projected UK price - everything seems to be in dollars?

Cheers

[davegraham]

Is it true that Intel took a shortcut and just placed 2 dual cpu cores on one socket whereas AMD is taking longer because they're actually putting 4 cores on one silicon? If so, it seems that the AMD chip would be much faster and a "true" quad whereas the Intel would be more of an imposter posing as a quad.

yes, but you'd be hard pressed to prove that this doesn't work well together.

I doubt you want to get into a CPU architecture discussion on this board, but....it can be done :)

cheers,

Dave

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.