A couple of weeks ago I decided to build a new computer. It has been a couple of years since I build the last one so I had to go and do some research on the kind of box I wanted to put together. The one that I was replacing was an Athlon64 3400 with 2 GB of memory. That is still a good PC, but with a single core you have to be patient for it to complete one task before it starts another. Right…. “Patient”… that’s not me.
After spending a couple of days reading reviews at newegg.com I decided that I would go with an INTEL Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz on an ABIT IP35 Pro motherboard. I read good reviews for both of these components so I decided to build the system around them.
The next component was the CPU fan. For that I decided to go with the Zalman 9700. The rest of the components are listed below:
- Power Supply: Cooler Master eXtreme RP-500-PCAR
- Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA 3.0Gb/s
- DVD Drive: LITE-ON SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe
- Video Card: EVGA 256MB PCI Express x16
Picking the memory was tricky. Initially I ordered G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) because I thought it was very cheap. After the components arrived I started putting the box together and I had problems making it work. I spend a considerable amount of time at the ABIT support forums trying to identify which components had the problem. It came down to three of them: Motherboard, Memory, DVD-Drive.
The DVD-Drive was making weird noises so I decided to RMA it immediately. Newegg is top-notch on returns. They gave me the RMA number and then I placed an order for a new drive. This time I went with the ASUS SATA with LightScribe. This is a really good drive.
The guys at the ABIT forums, suggested that I should try different kind of memory. So I RMAed the memory and ordered a different brand (PQI) from a vendor in California. The chips I ordered were 4 modules of 1 GB each. I don’t know if I did the right thing spending the money on 4GB, because Vista doesn’t recognize more that 3.2GB (or so) of memory. I should have mentioned that the plan was to install Vista Ultimate.
Finally, after I changed the DVD Drive and the memory, the problems persisted. It came down to RMA the motherboard. Christmas eve the new motherboard arrived. I put everything together and the system went up with no issues. I restored Vista Ultimate to the new computer, using StorageCraft ShadowProtect Desktop Edition For me, this software is invaluable. I have used it over and over again for restores on the same and different hardware and never let me down.
The new system is up and running as of today and I’m a happy camper. What did I learn from this experience?
a. According to LITE-ON support (the vendor for the first DVD drive) their drives can’t read some of the Vista DVDs. I was using the one that came with the Action Pak and I couldn’t boot from it. I still wait for their ‘lead engineer’ to call me back on the issue.
b. The G.SKILL memory was ok. I didn’t have to return it. It would have been good to have that memory instead of the one I currently have because the motherboard can go up to 8GB so I could just spend another $100 and be at 8GB. Now, if I want to upgrade to 8GB I have to throw all 4, 1GB modules
c. The motheboard was defective. It happens. I think the ABIT motherboard is top-notch. Lots of features and easy to overclock the chip for those interested.
BTW… I never overclocked a CPU before, so I decided to do it. It was easy. I just changed a couple of settings within the BIOS and the INTEL Core 2 Quad 2.4 Ghz, right now runs at 3.0Ghz.
