Boring I know, but can anyone doublecheck this proposed system build for PT8.

[001tony]

I already got an Asus P5K SE/EPU Board.
I need to run protools 8 and transfuser and stock plugins for now.
I just got the budget for componets as below.

Microsoft Windows XP Home OEM SP3
Z-Asus TA-250 Black/Silver Midi Case
800W Arianet Black HE Gaming PSU

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz 95W G0 Stepping (hopefully clock to 3ghz?)
Arctic Silver V Compound
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO (Socket LGA775)
Corsair 4GB Dominator DDR2 PC2-8500 1066Mhz Dual-Channel DDR2 (2x2GB) with fan
Graphics card: Point of View nVidia PCI-E 9400GT 512MB
system drive 500Gb Western Digital SATA2 - 16MB - 7200RPM
data drive 500Gb Western Digital SATA2 - 16MB - 7200RPM
LG GH22N40 22x DVDRW-RAM SATA Black
M-audio 2496 Delta
(may add firewire when I need to upgrade, just want to get some work done for now.)

thanks guys.

[001tony]

I hope it's a case of no news is good news, so I'm just off to guy my bits!

[sunburst79]

Tony that looks fine. The 800wat PSU is overkill - something in the 550-600 range would suffice. The Dominator RAM is probably overkill also unless your planning on overclocking (which the Q will do quite readily). You could shave some money buy just grabbing XMS DDR2 1066 @ 5-5-5-15. But I'm not seeing any problems as far as it all working.

Don't install all the ASUS krapware like ProbeII or the EPU engine. Load any drivers needed by right clicking the hardware in Device Manager and then pointing it towards the CD ROM and let it find the correct drivers. This will load the just the drivers with minimal bloat. You will probably have to run the actual Intel Chipset driver program but that not really bloatware.

[001tony]

Hi sunburst79

Thanks for the advice, actually went for better quality more stable 600watt psu, but stuck with the dominator.

Installed the asus stuff, but now I've seen what it is will get rid of it in a couple of days.

did the black viper thing and will experiment with the page file. the asus board seems OK (ebay) the rest is new...

Done windows updates, but blocked ie8 as that seems to cause problems from what I've read. This machine may occasionally go on internet via a home network which is the only reason I will keep a browser.

The prior owner had bios settings overclocked to 3.8 GHz, I bottled out and set it back to auto for now (2.4ghz x 4). Will probably overclock up to 3 GHz as that should be OK I think.

Can't wait to be able to use my plugins, as the P4 just wouldn't quite do it...

[TOM@METRO]

It looks like you will be fine. Consider running at stock speeds until you find a need for more. And that may never happen.

[ddwhitney]

Make sure you manually tweak the bios for the Corsair to run at 1066 because sometimes the auto settings run it as 800 which could cause problems later. Under voltage is just as bad as over voltage.

[001tony]

Seems to be running, thanks for support guys.

I am having teething problems trying to get dominator ram to 1066, so will have to some searching on here.

[001tony]

Just now acheived 1066 on dominator, now if I can just find time to test the system LOL.

[001tony]

test

[1Lowfreq]

001tony, I have similar set up and have been over clocking Q6600 for awhile. 3.0-3.2GHz is possible with that cooler, but really depends on the whole set up. Getting fresh air and the heat out of case is paramount. Mine runs about 40-55C @3.0GHz.