Core 2 Extreme rebuild and reloaded

dragoon20005 · January 4, 2016

Hi Guys Dragoon20005 here,

before I talk about the build here

Disclamer for this build log:

(For anyone who thinks that I am stupid to waste money on this project should leave this tread now. (yes I am talking to you))

Also the PSU is already what i have, and no I didn't buy it. I won it from a contest

here is the proof

https://www.facebook.com/asus.sg/photos/a.123814264319257.12245.103663889667628/721623284538349/?type=1&theater

https://www.facebook.com/asus.sg/photos/a.123814264319257.12245.103663889667628/755997631100914/?type=1&theater

Prices were in Singapore dollars converted to USD so yes the prices are higher than US prices.

This build was inspired by the Scrapyard Wars PC first battle on the LinusTechTips forum.

the original build was here

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/304146-operation-core-2-extreme-revivial-for-just-40usd-building-80-done/

the reason for the rebuild was the PSU finally gave up on me and the casing was in bad shape after so many years with rust and unable to fit long GPUs. So yea the reason for the new casing

My buddy donated his HD6850 1GB to me as he has no use of it ever since he upgraded at a Skylake iTX system which could not fit the GPU. So that's how i got it for free

It was the same person who donated the Gigabyte mobo and 8GB DDR2 RAM that i am using now.

Before anyone say "you dumbass, the Pentium G3258 will be way better!"

As mentioned in the disclaimer, please leave this topic unless you want me to report you.

This whole build took me the whole afternoon and evening to complete.

one thing I loving this build is now I could test the system in 3DMark Firestrike which needed a DX11 GPU.

The original 8600GT was a DX10 card which only has 512MB of DDR2 RAM and had a non-working DVI port. So it could not run 3DMark Firestrike.

Also when I did a Cinebench R15 test with the CPU, even at stock clocks of 2.93GHz. It beats the Intel i5 Core 3317U. Not sure if this is legit or not but I will take it. :]

But this build is not all smooth sailing

first the case is a a** to work with!!!

no kidding!

Even with a full modular PSU, cable management for this Enermax Fulmo Q casing is non-existent.

took me an hour to fix the bloody cables and it still look messy. As you see my finger.

The rear hardly have any gaps to stuff the cables and it took a lot of effort to even cover the side panels.

Second was the GPU mounting is not perfectly aligned. With the GPU installed, will still droop slightly and need to be fixed using more screws than expected to make sure that the GPU will not droop.

Mounting the drive was also a pain as they have to be mounted the other way and it was a tight fit to even slot the HDDs into place. No HDD drive caddys to speak of.

Note to self: Never cheap out on casing ever!!!

The casing only comes with a 120mm casing fan at the back and it hardly move any air when powered on.

So to improve airflow, I swapped and added the 120mm Coolermaster casing fan from my old casing into the new case so there is a front intake fan and the rear exhaust fan.

As the system is always in my room, I can't run LAN cable from the router which is in the living room to my room.

I went to invest in the Intel AC wireless adapter which is the best adapter in the market and has a decent antenna to receive the signals as compared to others which are only sticking out the back of the PC.

Yes I know the PSU is overkill for this system, as mentioned in the disclaimer. I already got the PSU which I won in a contest and it is pointless to keep it as it is already collecting dust since 2014 in my storage.

Some of you may ask where did the R9 270X go which was in the Asus Facebook contest?

Sadly that GPU was sold away, as I was jobless one time for 6 months without money for food. So i have to sell it off or get hungry

After completed the build in the evening, I installed Windows 8.1 and all the drivers for the system and downloaded and install 3DMark and Cinebench to test the performance of the system at stock.

I did try to do some OC but when I got it to 3.7GHz, it failed to boot. I tried 3.33GHz, and the GPU/AMD drivers keep crashing. Even 3.2GHz gives me a weird issue where the PC refuse to shut down.

So now it still back at 2.93GHz until i find a way to OC the CPU.

the QX6800 is an unlocked CPU where the multiplier can be turn up or down, unlike Q6600 which need to OC using FSB. If any kind souls could help. I will be glad.

The other two HDDs you see are IDE or PATA 133 HDDs which are still working to this day and CrystalDiskInfo shows them in healthy status.

The reason for the Hybrid Seagate HDD is because I still need storage but need to boot to the OS faster so the 8GB cache on the hybrid drive is better.

The Toshiba hybrid drive which was used in the previous build got bad sectors and needed RMA but due to work, I have yet to make a trip down to file a RMA for it.

It currently using the Intel stock cooler but it has a copper center which help maintain the temps on this 130W CPU. I may go for a CoolerMaster 212X Hyper, but not after changing the casing first.

Thanks for reading

Regards Dragoon20005