To make a very long story short, my mom is not doing well and I am going to be spending a lot of time in Florida helping to take care of her. Basically running one or two weeks at a time with other siblings filling in.

I need to put together a computer with some of the stuff I have lying around. I want to be able to use my X-Fi so I am NOT gonna use my spare P5N-E-SLI mbo. I found this Gigabyte at the Egg.

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard

I am using my old e6600 and my spare 8800 GTS (G92).

Any comments or better suggestions? Price matters this time around. Mostly gaming and internet use.

Thanks.

Looks like a good board. I would get a Gigabyte or ASUS. I would get a SATA burner too and just forget about PATA as those intel boards require a driver for the addon PATA controller. Probably a Jmicron POS. That's one thing Nvidia has not abandoned like Intel has is IDE PATA. If you are not wanting to abandon PATA, I would get one of these as you already know how to set them up. They are nearly giving them away.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188017

Going SATA all the way on this one. I haven't tried an Intel chipset mobo in a long while so I figured what the heck.

Gonna use my big Zalman CPU cooler on this one, will see how far I can push the 6600. I won't have that much time to use it at first till I get mom squared away, she's 85 and took a bad fall.

What I have lying around:

e6600
8800 GTS
Big Zalman CPU cooler
10k rpm Raptor
7200 rpm WD 150 GB
2 GB GSkill 1100 mhz memory
X-FI Extreme gamer
Brand new 22 in Acer LCD

So I just need a SATA burner, input stuff and a case. I picked out this Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower , looks like it'll do the job.

I have the big brother to that MB (GA-P35-DQ6) and are very pleased. IMO high quality and nice features all around + I still needed the LPT1 + COM1 ports

/KC

Nice case. I just don't like those hinged covers on the front. I've worked on too many computers where that hinged door is messed up and about to fall off. If that one is durable, it would be OK.

That P35 board will do better with that fast memory than a Nvidia board anyway.

I wonder how far I can take that 6600 with that big Zalman Cooler....3.6 ghz I hope. The board already has nice looking NB and SB coolers. I'll eventually put the same Zalman set on the GTS that I used on my GTX.

Even if I only get to use it a couple of hours a day, I just gotta have a good puter there. I am spoiled now.

I've seen guys get that 3.6Ghz but only running vcore in the 1.5 or more range, which we know is risky.

I'm running my e4400 at 1467 FSB X 9 multi for 3.3Ghz with my vcore at 1.440.

Yeah 1.5v is a little hot for continued use IMO.

I might just take my spare Feezer 7 pro and save the Zalman for my next big home build.

3.3 to 3.4 Ghz is good enough for me.

I bought this when it was 26 bucks and free shipping. I guess the demand drove the price up.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

I use that board. Its a very well thought-off board as far as general opinion. I've used it for awhile, no complaints here. It has a decent amount of overclocking ability too, if you are so inclined.

I bought this board in December and havent had any problems

things to note.

This is a rev 1. The rev 2 has a couple more ... something. I think 2 more usb ports, anyway check the Gigabyte page to see.

Notice the ide connector is at the bottom of the board. I have two sata drives now but was using 3 ide drives initially (had to buy a ide card). It still use a ide burner (2 of them actually). I have a antec super mid and I ended up having to buy a longer cable to reach.

While I haven't OC my system yet I did bookmark a few things

Here's a over clock thread for the board

http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/254734-gigabyte-ga-p35-ds3l-thread.html

Hi Nixer, I have this board as well works like a charm, good luck!

FiveIron

Well the board went in like a snap, My easiest build so far. I think it only took a little over two hours to assemble, set bios and install Windows. (I upgraded to XP right off the bat to save trouble later ) I already had the mobo set up before I began.

Not really thrilled with the AC Freezer 7 Pro cpu cooler. The Thermalright on my other machine works better, this ones about as hot as a stock intel cooler....might try to reseat it.

On a side note it seems a bit strange overclocking on this board vs Asus boards with the NV chipsets. e6600 tooling along at 2.8 ghz ATM, temps barely break 60C at load so I doubt I'll go any higher.

Great onboard sound on the board too, I like the board so far. Was fairly inexpensive also.

Ah, I detect a hint of wishing for the unlinking as far as memory and CPU. Get the exposed heat pipe coolers like mine if you want the best.

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

if it's installed properly temps should be quite a bit under the stock Intel.
It's not the best HSF per se but it's very good vfm.


you should be able to get an easy 3.2 or 3.4 I would have thought before starting to get seriously imto tweaking voltages.

The memory linked thing is what's messing me up I think.

I have DDR2 1066mhz memory and it doesn't seem to like much over 1220mhz or it won't boot. I think I may try to reseat the cooler tommorow.

Those Intel plastic pegs for the heatsink that go in the motherboard are so finicky. It's hard to tell if they are all perfect or not. I don't think they put all that much pressure against the heatspreader so your TIM application has to be flawless. I read this whole article and it is really good so check it out.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=170&Itemid=38