AMD Phenom vs Intel Quad Core

[waynezo]

If I go with the Q6600 and overclock it is there a software utility or do I have to go into the bios? Is ASUS the preferred board?

[RamonGTP]

There are some softwares that will let you OC on certain baords/chipsets but most people would not recommend using them as they are not anywhere near as reliable and don't have all the settings you may need to tweak to get the best and most stable OC. Doing it through the bios is the best way.

[waynezo]

Thanks to all who posted with opinions and advice.

With your help I've narrowed the system down to these items.

Apevia X-Jupiter Full Tower

Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz

RAID-0 with 2 Identical Hard Drives 148GB (74GBx2) Gaming Western Digital Rapter

Asus P5N-T Deluxe nForce 780i SLI Mainboard
or
EVGA nForce 780i SLI Mainboard

2 NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express

CoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling System

750 Watts Power Supply Apevia Quartz Aluminum

Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-bit Edition

Any additional feedback will be greatly appreciated especially on the motherboards

[KarmaKiller]

Hi again..
Let me offer some suggestions...
First, DON'T GET A APEVIA POWER SUPPLY!! They are crappy power supplies. You'd be much better off with a OCZ, or Silverstone, FSP, Hiper, anything besides Raidmax is better.
Next, 2x 8500Gt's is pointless. You'd be better off just getting a ATI 3850, or even a 7900/7950. 8500's are pretty weak, and for the price, one card would outperform it.

I'm not trying to knock down your system or anything, but I just look for the best bang for the buck.
And the 780i board is bad ass!

[waynezo]

Which mother board?

I need 2 video cards to drive 4 monitors.

What about thermaltake PS?

[KarmaKiller]

I prefer EVGA anymore. But I hear the customer service isn't the best. So IDK. Asus boards generally are good, but lately I've heard more bad things about their boards. So honestly, it's a toss up. Also, IDK if you know, but EVGA and XFX boards are the same board, with different labels on them. And XFX has GREAT customer service.

I didn't know that about the 2 cards. Maybe shoot for something like this.? If that's out of budget, then even a good 7600GT is a better performer then the 8500 card.

Thermaltake PSU's are a hit and miss really. I've read about people putting them through hell, and they still work great. And others having a bunch of issues with them. So IDK what to say really. OCZ has a great PSU (the 1 I have) for around $80 that will power most anything you put in your case. That would be my suggestion. There are other good deals out there though.
Here's a link to another thread I made a couple of budget/quality PSU suggestions.

[vikeor]

OCZ for PSU, I recently aquired a Zalman and its wicked sick! love it :]

for the vids cards if u want 4 monitors, then maybe look into the 8600s?

As for the mobo, the 680i ASUS motherboard are really nice, I played with one yesterday.

[waynezo]

Now I'm considering the Asus Maximus Formula X38, since I like the water cooling features and want to learn to overclock.

[vikeor]

if ur new to OCing and stuff STAY AWAY from water cooling, its just a pain in the ass. The motherboard doesnt need as much cooling as the CPU, its just a marketing scam.

If u want a nice mobo get the ASUS Striker Extreme. Pretty nifty if costs arent an issue. Also, for OCing, CPU cooling = Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme... best there is

[waynezo]

What are the cons to liquid cooling?