My new Gaming Rig...

[sygnus21]

I think you are probably right sygnus21, I just went to ebay and found a guy selling brand new (OEM) Q9650 for $290.00 shipped, I think that is a good deal and I think I'm gonna bite on it.

For $33.5 dollars ($323.50) more you get peace of mind and a warranty - Amazon.com: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0 GHz 12M L2 Cache 1333MHz FSB LGA775 Quad-Core Processor: Electronics

275.99 for the Q9650 - Amazon.com: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Quad-Core Processor, 2.83 GHz, 12M L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB, LGA775: Electronics - Again, peace of mind and a warranty!

With ebay you get an "as is" hope and pray the seller is honest item

Selling my new Ram is a possiblity but, even though is new, I won't be able to sell it for what I paid for it so I may stick with it. I'll put it on ebay and on another forum to see who bites and go from there

I'm sure you can get at least $50 for "4gig of Corsair Dominator PC 8500 RAM" to help offset the difference between $290 and 323.50 for the Q9650

Just some thoughts.

 

[AstaLaVista]

Well, the guy selling it at eaby has more than 150 positive feedback, says the OEM Q9650 have 3 yr warranty as well, besides... I like to live "Dangerously"! :D

Again, I am trying to sell the other 4GBs for 60 bucks shipped, if someone bites, they are out, if not... I'll make that board run stable with 8GBs even if it kills me.

 

[xguntherc]

even if you buy the RAM OEM from ebay, you still have Intels warranty right??

Also, I'd get the Q9650 as it's for Sure the E0 stepping the Q9550 sometimes can still be the Q9550.. Also, I saw a guy that had over 100 Q9650's on ebay, and he was selling them for $279.99 free shipping OEM.

now they are $289.99 you should take this deal, as it's pretty solid. and I'd also agree you should sell 4GB of RAM, and use that cash, for 2x2GB Dominators you could sell them for $70 I'm thinking. Since they now are no longer on sale anywhere and are back to over $100 new. I'd say $70 would be fair. they are $79.99 at the cheapest new on ebay. so $70 shipped.. would be ok.

do that, and get the Q9650, it's better than the Q9550, and for sure E0 stepping, that will really help with overclocking.
NEW Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0 GHz LGA 775 12 MB Cache - eBay (item 200314837607 end time Mar-29-09 02:00:51 PDT)

Also, is the PSU dying. or no? sorry to hear about the board. if you don't "Need" the 780i. and your not planning on running SLI. I'd say get a Gigabyte P45-UD3P as they are the Best boards to pair with the Q9650, that or the P5Q Deluxe, those 2 boards overclock the Q9650 better than any other board. but the 780i would still do 4.0 -4.3 Ghz easily. on air.

 

[becomingwater]

Can you list what you've bought for me..

also, eVGA is a great company and they have the best RMA support out there. but I'm thinking if you have the 780i SLI.. to upgrade it to the 780i FTW.. it's not much more, but it's a much better board the FTW edition..

Also, the Q6 series are ok, but the Q9 series are much much better. and for the current price on the Q9550. I'd say totally get one.. they overclock like MAD.

a good example. I have the 750i FTW and I had the Q6700, I was able to get her to about 3.5 Ghz stable, and 3.6 Ghz took some work and wasn't always stable. but the new Q9 series FLY past that.

not to mention clock for clock. a Q6600 at 3.5 and a Q9550 ayt 3.5 the 9 series are around 10% better/faster clock for clock, not to mention the increase in Cache size. I think it's totally worth it. and since they were $500 when I got mine, and the Q9650 is only $300 now. I'd get one. There are guys on ebay selling brand new Q9650's for $279.99 Free shipping. thats a steal, and I'll Guarantee you it will run 4.0 ghz Stable on air.. for Sure.. as all of the Q9650's do. I think the Q9650 is still the best intel chip to date.. yes i7 are great and all, but they are pretty expensive and put out way to much heat. my Q9650 at 4.0 Ghz idles ar 26c..

As for ram, eVGA boards struggle with ram, they don't get a long with G-skill very much. and OCZ worked ok, but wasn't the best, and didn't like overclocking. but I have a 2x2GB set of Corsair Dominator PC2-8500C5D.. the 1066Mhz 4GB kit. and they are the best ram my 750i FTW has ever had in them. they are very great and stable. best ram I have found for my board so far...

if you have any questions let me know. i know how to OC pretty well on the 7 series boards, and even more with the Quad CPU's as I've done decent 3.6 ghz + clocks on 5 different Quads on this Motherboard.

I think I might pick up a Q9650 soon then..lol That is a steal..Thanks

 

[AstaLaVista]

Yes, that is precisely the guy I was referring to, he's been nice returning my questions.

Newegg has the Q9650 now for 310.00 w/promo code but I won't get to choose between A or B. I really don't care about the fan since I will be using the CM V8 cooler but, do I go for the ebay deal or do I wander into the night with the one from newegg?

Another very important question for you guys... How tight do I have to, well, tighten the back plate of the CM V8 cooler? would to much pressure be bad for the board? Could over tighteing it cause the board to go bad?

Infortunately for me, my choices on the board are:

1.- Get an RMA from EVGA, hope they can send me one right away even if I have to pay for it and wait until they get mine to receive the credit and get a REFURB... week or less

2.- RMA it back to newegg, wait for theM to receive and get a brand new one... minimum of 2 weeks.

I am over thinking this but, perhaps, if I just wait a little longer I can find the Q9650 slightly cheaper!

This part of the game is the one I hate about building a new rig... I am not a very patient man because when I wait, I start doubting my decisions.

 

[smarteyeball]

Whenever you decide to buy, it will always be cheaper later. Buy now and then stop looking at prices

As for the back plate, overtighting it is indeed bad. When you feel the screw 'bite' and then it starts to 'resist' that's your cue to stop. ie Don't keep forcing it.

This part of the game is the one I hate about building a new rig... I am not a very patient man because when I wait, I start doubting my decisions.

I hear ya

 

[AstaLaVista]

Well, I have shipped my board back to Newegg and I will be waiting (patiently) for the new one. I expect to be w/o a gaming rig for about 10 days even though I shipped it 3 day saver so they should have it by Tuesday or Wednesday.

This gives me a few days to decide whether I want to buy the Q9650 from Newegg or the ebay guy. As explained by xguntherc, I will have better choices going with the ebay guy if I can make him send me a good overclocker chip.

My laptop is my main pc at the moment and I can't even hook up my monitor to it because I don't have a regular vga cable, mine came with the DVI one and I hate the small screen... my eyes are killing me. :D

 

[xguntherc]

need a vga cable?? lol, jk your new stuff will be there soon enough.

good luck with newegg.com RMA. they are one of the best sites around. and are very easy to work with. also try and stick with eVGA for Mobo's and GPU's in the Nvidia line, as eVGA has the best warranty's also. they allowing 3rd party coolers, they allow overclocking. if I take my GTX 260 apart and add a different cooler, and it dies. they'll replace it. most other companies wont. and NONE from ati will... just some FYI..

good luck with setup bro.

 

[AstaLaVista]

need a vga cable?? lol, jk your new stuff will be there soon enough.

good luck with newegg.com RMA. they are one of the best sites around. and are very easy to work with. also try and stick with eVGA for Mobo's and GPU's in the Nvidia line, as eVGA has the best warranty's also. they allowing 3rd party coolers, they allow overclocking. if I take my GTX 260 apart and add a different cooler, and it dies. they'll replace it. most other companies wont. and NONE from ati will... just some FYI..

good luck with setup bro.

I have heard that as well from other people, this is why I decided to go with the EVGA/Nvidia board and not the Asus/Intel board as I have read that Asus customer service can be a pita.

I had a funny feeling running in the back of my head so I went ahead and looked in my monitor's manual and it said my monitor came with both cables (DVI & VGA), just as I had thought, went to my PC supplies and sure enough, I found it so I am typing this from the comfort on my 22" LCD, resolution leaves a little to be desired but, what the hell... beggars can't be choosers, right? :D

My new comcast broadband is already installed, I haven't really noticed a difference betwee browsing speeds but, boy oh boy, downloading speeds are HUGE compared to before... this will be my next project, to find out why I don't feel a huge step up in browsing speeds. OK, ok, you guys can help me with this project again... arghhh, I can never say no to people trying to help me.

 

[smarteyeball]

Could be a lot of reasons why your browsing hasn't improved. Does Comcast use proxies for browsing?

 

[AstaLaVista]

Could be a lot of reasons why your browsing hasn't improved. Does Comcast use proxies for browsing?

I really have no idea about that... how can I check that? and if they do, what does that mean, why is it a problem or what can I do to fix it?

 

[smarteyeball]

I think if you check your account details / FAQ etc, you should find the info somewhere :huh:

I just had a quick look and I don't think comcast uses proxies, so I'm guessing the issue is elsewhere. It's either comcast itself or some settings at your end. However, there does appear to be a few customers unhappy with comcasts speeds.

 

[AstaLaVista]

I am using the laptop to browse the internet since my board is on its way to being RMA'ed but I do not believe this should be the problem as to the why I am not noticing an speed increase while browsing or navigating the internet.

Being said that, the blazing speeds come in when I am downloading something and I just don't know if this is normal.

 

[smarteyeball]

Is it all sites that are slow, or just the odd one here and there? Fast download, slow browsing could also be how comcast prioritise their bandwidth. It also depends where you are downloading from too. Is it fast d/l speed on every site, or just a select few?

I'm not familiar with comcast, so I'm just grasping at straws as to their practices

 

[sygnus21]

Is it all sites that are slow, or just the odd one here and there? Fast download, slow browsing could also be how comcast prioritise their bandwidth. It also depends where you are downloading from too. Is it fast d/l speed on every site, or just a select few?

I'm not familiar with comcast, so I'm just grasping at straws as to their practices

It could also be the way his network card is configured? But I'll admit network configuration is greek to me :eek: I just let Windows do it's thing and as long as I'm connected, I'm good LOL

@ AstaLaVista, How's that waiting game coming along? You haven't chased down any UPS or FedEx tucks have you? LOL

 

[AstaLaVista]

Is it all sites that are slow, or just the odd one here and there? Fast download, slow browsing could also be how comcast prioritise their bandwidth. It also depends where you are downloading from too. Is it fast d/l speed on every site, or just a select few?

I'm not familiar with comcast, so I'm just grasping at straws as to their practices

Not all of them are slow, just a few of them so I am guessing they are slow to begin with and it is not an ISP speed problem but a Host slow speed problem.

I use a download manager (IDM) and pretty much the download speeds are fast everywhere I donwload.

It could also be the way his network card is configured? But I'll admit network configuration is greek to me :eek: I just let Windows do it's thing and as long as I'm connected, I'm good LOL

Well, I am not 100% sure but I think my network cards are 10/100/1000 cards, I know the ones from work are, can't be sure of the laptop now and I am also sure that the ones from the 780i sli ftw or even my old 680i sli board were 1K as well.

As far as configuring them, well, that is something I have never touched and like you, as long as I have a connection, is all good! :D Hell, I didn't even know there is a right or wrong way to configure the ethernet cards :eek:

@ AstaLaVista, How's that waiting game coming along? You haven't chased down any UPS or FedEx tucks have you? LOL

They all run away from me now and only get to my house or office when they don't see my truck nearby... bastards!!!

I think the board will get to new egg tomorrow since I used 2nd day shipping to them, I am hoping that they will use that same day to inspect it and send the new one that same day or the next so I am looking, with good luck, getting it back by middle of end of next week since they are in California and I am in Florida! :sa:

To top it all off, I have just learn that Newegg.com, has lowered the price of the board by 20 bucks a few days after I have purchased it and with the help of xguntherc, I am trying to see if they are willing to credit me back those 20 greenbacks to use them as credit for my Quad... here's hoping for the best even though the guy at their live chat turned me down.

 

[sygnus21]

LOL...good luck in getting them to give you a credit; though if it's been less than a week between your purchase and the price cut, maybe they'll hook you up.

Also, some places will ship an item back to you using the same shipping method you used, i.e. two day shipping there get's it shipped back to you using two day shipping; Though that's usually aggreed upon by both parties in advanced.

Just a thought.

 

[AstaLaVista]

Yeah, at this juncture, I am not expecting them to issue me a credit but, it doesn't hurt to try so if they do, nice, if not... oh well.

Newegg usually ships everything 3 day service so I am counting on that as well, otherwise, the time will be even longer.

Typing at 1024 x 768 is no fun... at all!!!

 

[AstaLaVista]

The deed has been done folks... I finally pulled the pin on the Q9650. After procastinating for a few days, I lost the contact with the ebay guy so my only hope was to wait for the response on the e-mail I sent to Newegg.

Got the response back that they couldn't give me a credit on the 20 bucks but, this time only, they were willing to extend a 10 dollars off on my next purchase so I went with it.

Q9650 ---------- $ 324.99
Shipping -------- $ FREE
Promo Code ----- $ - 15.00
Credit ---------- $ -10.00

Total Cost ----- $ 300.00 :D

The one from ebay was going to cost me $ 290.00 (OEM), at least I can sell the Stock HS for another 10 to 15 bucks and I am In like Flynn

All I have to hope now is that I get one of those that OC well and not one with the stuck sensors. xguntherc, first thing I'll do when the package is receive is... check the batch #

P.S.: Watch them go On Sale for $ 280.00 in a few days... :sa:

 

[sygnus21]

Luck you. :D

Remember when I said..."For $33.5 dollars ($323.50) more you get peace of mind and a warranty".

It worked out even better as you got a boxed CPU with peace of mind with a warranty.

Lucky you!