New PC finally Up and Running!

[ChasP505]

My new PC built around an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 has been sitting on the dining room floor for weeks and I finally got a couple days off from work and the time needed to load the OS and software.

It went flawlessly. All fans powered up and the motherboard posted with no errors. Windows XP Pro SP3 loaded without a hitch. All drives recognized immediately and the internet connection set itself.

I ran the PC for about 24 hours to allow it to "burn in". Temperatures remained much lower than my older PC thanks to the excellent Antec 300 case with 120 and 140mm fans. Quieter too. I like the positioning of the front panel components and input/output jacks, right at the very top. I installed a mult-card reader directly below.

The Gigabyte motherboard I used made it super easy to "tweak" some settings, although I'm not going to overclock the processor. This MB has more USB 2.0 ports than I'll ever use.

So far the machine is running much faster than the old unit, and passed the rigorous test of running more than one demanding apps at the same time without bogging down or freezing up. I'm real happy. Bottom line cost after rebates, including the Windows XP install disk, was about $650. 90% of parts bought from NewEgg.com.

[Motley]

very nice...

[geoff5093]

Very nice, I love Newegg. I bought all my parts from them as well, and I must say the Q9550, X48 Motherboard, 4GB RAM, and 4870X2 work great for photo editing! :P

[BottomBracket]

Very cool Chas! Slight overclock to 3.0 can be easily done.

[MaxxuM]

It's nice when everything works w/o a problem - congrats and have fun :)

[mkohman]

Enjoy mate.. All the best :)

[ChasP505]

Very cool Chas! Slight overclock to 3.0 can be easily done.

Yeah, I know, but I want to run it for at least a month. Odds are, if nothing fails within the first month, it will be reliable for years.

The Gigabyte MB comes with a nice tuning/overclocking utility and I'll try it after a couple months.

[geoff5093]

The Gigabyte MB comes with a nice tuning/overclocking utility and I'll try it after a couple months.
Honestly I wouldn't use OS-based overclocking tools, do all your overclocking from within the BIOS. I had my Q6600 up to 3.5GHz stable as well on air cooling.

[ChasP505]

A little followup to confirm that it's absolutely worth it to go with a brand new computer rather than trying to update/upgrade a tired old PC. I brought some work home from the office this weekend. I had to batch process 1400 photos to make them ready for a real estate catalog. My old PC or my office PC would have taken forever to perform this task, and forget about trying to use the machine while Photoshop was batching the photos. My new machine ripped through the batch conversion task and still permitted me to work on other things while it was batching. I was astounded at how fast it performed this task.

Bottom line: Don't throw good money into a system 4 years old or older. Buy or build a new PC.