Poor 1st o/c experience leads me to build dedicated o/c rig, help decide

[donimo]

Hi all, I recently attempted a very mild o/c on my new rig (400fsb, from 333), and it corrupted my HD boot sector, forcing a full reinstall.

This pc unfortunatly is also my wifes and she was kinda pissed that I toasted the nice new pc by "farting around with it when it worked fine"

So I now want to build a new rig, but as it is all coming out of my personal wallet and will be out 4th pc (may replace one with this one) it needs to be in the "awesome bang for the buck" category.

Here is what I have so far, but I need to place the order today so any help is good help.

Mobo: XFX 680i LT SLI ($90)
cpu: e6750 or e2180 ($180 or $100)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 1066
Cooler: scythe katana II

So, I have the RAM, and the board I cant pass up unless its a dud (anyone? oc'able?).

The CPU, I will def o/c, so will the 6750 be worth the extra 80 bux or with the 2180 be better for the money?

I already own the katana so its that or an a/c freezer 7 pro till something goes on sale ;)

Suggest away please

[JD]

Video card, hard drive, power supply, case?

The E2180 has a 10x multiplier and the E6750 only has a 8x multiplier. Assuming both can run 400MHz (1600MHz) FSB, the E2180 would be at 4GHz and the E6750 only at 3.2GHz.

So in theory, the E2180 would probably overclock better but you never can really know for sure. It also has less L2 cache too though.

BTW, how did that OC corrupt your hard drive? If you set the OC in the BIOS, like you should, I don't see how that could of done anything. If you were OCing from within Windows then that makes more sense I guess.

[donimo]

video card is my x800XL till I decide on what to get (3870/8800?) or a sale to make my mind up for me...

HD dont know yet, just a 20GB maxtor till I decide/sale

Case is my nMedia HTPC case, again, until I find something better

Power supply is going to be an old HP one until I upgrade to something better.

I am peicing this together as I go, I can get it up and running with just the CPU and mobo

[donimo]

Nope, attempted the o/c, got 3/4 of the way into booting into windows and then it started a BSOD loop that could not be recovered from.

Couldnt even boot off the vista dvd because if you have the HD attached it will write/read off it before it gets to recovery console, and BSOD.

I am really pissed about it, putting chkdsk in the startup options menu would solve this.

I doubt you can come up with something to try that I didn't...

But back on topic, I need a rig I can screw up without upsetting my better half

[werty316]

I can tell you that those E21x0 CPUs are quite amazing; I got my E2140 from its stock speed of 1.6GHz to 3.0GHz with ease.

Most of the E21x0 chips can reach 2.8-3.0GHz.

I would honestly go for the E6750 as the cache helps where the E2180 suffers.

[JD]

As for using the old HP PSU, I would highly advise against that. I doubt you'll be getting anywhere near your maximum overclock with such a thing.

[donimo]

agreed that is a "for now" thing, no o/c until a better one is bought.

[3.0charlie]

E21xx series. Definitely. My E2140 did 3.3GHz.
A very, very good PSU.
As for the board, you have to find one that can hit 500+ FSB, if you want to have some "fun". My GA-965-S3 can do 525, abd I have read that Abit's AB9 can do 550. Another one from Abit is the AW9D-Max. From Asus the P5K Deluxe.

Now you can play with max FSB, max speed, fine tune ram, try different HSFs... I have 2 rigs just for that (1 and 2 in my sig).

[donimo]

I go the board and will re-use my p4 2.8 for now, along with its Antec smartpower 2.0 500w, hope its enough, bought it before I found this board

So it looks like it will be:

mobo: xfx 680i lt
cpu: P4 520, 2.8Ghz
ram: ocz gold 6400/crucial 8500
p/s: Antec smartpower 2.0 500w
case: nMedia HTPC 300SA
cooler: scyth katana II/mini ninja
HD: 2x250gb WD caviar se 16mb in raid, not wure which yet?
gpu: ati x800 XL w/ accelero s1

total upgrade cost $200

will get new cpu and gpu soon

[enaberif]

Personally after running a 680i board I'll never run one again.. just too many small finiky things I don't like. I'll be buying a p35 soon or if the 780i proves its worth maybe that.