Last minute advice

[DarkEgo]

Today, if everything goes well, I will be ordering the parts to finish my computer (finally!) I do need some last minute advice though. I need some help deciding what processor, motherboard and cooling to get. Normally this wouldn't be to tough but I have a $300 budget. I already have two SATA 80GB hard drives, a HIS 4850, 2 GB of Crucial Ballistix Tracer's, a Antec Truepower Trio 650 watt, i have IDE combo burners but i would like SATA burners. So all i need is a CPU, MoBo, and cooling for $300, any suggestions.

[Mussels]

i'd suggest looking at what people are running in their specs and see what comes up.

off the top of my head: Q6600/E8400 for CPU, DFI blood iron (or the mobo i have) paired with a xigmatex 1283 with optional retention bracket.

The board i have does 400FSB 'stock' and manages 500-550FSB with 45nm chips.

most modern boards have only one IDE connector, which may prove a problem for your IDE burners.

[DarkEgo]

Mussels, one problem. That is $50 over my budget with shipping and my Gf won't let me spend over $300.

[Mussels]

Mussels, one problem. That is $50 over my budget with shipping and my Gf won't let me spend over $300.

hey its not like i know your prices, im aussie here.

grab an E8200 then, its got a lower multi but the high FSB's of the board and your tracer rams OCability oughta let you get some decent clocks out of it.

[DarkEgo]

Would a
E7200
Biostar TForce P43
Xigmatek 1283 with retention
and a RAID Controller work OK?

[Mussels]

Would a
E7200
Biostar TForce P43
Xigmatek 1283 with retention
and a RAID Controller work OK?

E7200 is also a good CPU choice, forgot that one.

never heard anything about the biostar board, so no comment there.

[DarkEgo]

Do you know what a good CHEAP raid controller would be. I only need RAID0 for two drives.

[Mussels]

Do you know what a good CHEAP raid controller would be. I only need RAID0 for two drives.

not a clue. if you want cheap, just use the onboard raid. the board i have, and the DFI i mentioned both support raid via the onboard SATA controllers.

[DarkEgo]

Yeah I know but they have PCI-e 1 instead of PCI-e 2 and with the new cards doesn't the limited bandwidth of PCI-e 1 hurt performance?

[Mussels]

Yeah I know but they have PCI-e 1 instead of PCI-e 2 and with the new cards doesn't the limited bandwidth of PCI-e 1 hurt performance?

not at all. its PCI-E 1.1, not 1.0 which makes a difference, and the only card i'd think would even take a hit would be the 48070x2

[DarkEgo]

Ok thank you very much mussels! I've heard very good thing about the MSI P35 Neo2-FR, can these be confirmed or denied?

[Mussels]

the only P35 boards i know of and reccomend are the blood iron because its cheap, and my board, because its an awesome OCer.