How would you recommend building my C90?

I'v decided for this over the G1s becuase I'v basically heard it's better and cheaper. I'v decided on getting it from gentech PC, because there's an option for them to install everything for free. What CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, and version of Vista would you recommend for it. I will use this alot for gaming (Crysis, BF 2, etc.) and school? FInally, what's the $3 extra Arctic Silver 5?

 

The Arctic Silver is a thermal paste made of %99.9 silver (AFAIK) and it's well worth the money.
I suggest you go for :
E6450/E6600
2GB ram (you can upgrade later)
HDD -> As much as you want.

 

CPU - The e6600 seems to offer the best performance to price ratio of the lot.
RAM - About 2 GB would do.
HDD - Select a Seagate 7200.2 as they are pretty fast
VISTA - Home premium is more then enough for gaming and school

The Artic silver is a thermal paste that is between ur CPU and CPU cooler that offers better conductivety coz silver is one of the best conductors and hence better cooling in the long run.

 

^^ Haah, u beat me to it!

 

Intel Core 2 Dup E6600, 2GB DDR2, 160GB 5400rpm and Vista Home Premium 32 bit.

Arctic Silver is a special paste between CPU and cooler. It makes a better thermal connections and helps keep the CPU cooler then with normal paste.

 

I would go for an E6420 as opposed to the E6600 that the others suggested. It has a slightly lower clockspeed, so it will run cooler. Plus, its cheaper.

For the rest of the config, I would go with what wave said. AS5 is a no-brainer at $3.

 

In reality vivek clock speed has almost nothing to do with the heat, thats mostly a voltage issue. a 6420 and 6600 are the same cpu with diffrent preset fsb's.

Go into bios and change the fsb of the 6420 to the same of the 6600 and it may as well be the same cpu. When people seriously overclock they raise the voltage to achieve higher clocks, thats where the heat comes from.

Of course this is not 100% you may get a really really bad 6420 that cant oc to the 6600 levels but I highly doubt it, most c2d reach 2.8ghz on stock volts without a hitch (even the bad ones) and the good ones as high as 3.2-3.4ghz.

In a desktop id shoot for the 6420 and save the $$$ and overclock it, however till we get feedback on the OC options of the C90 I would go for a 6600 so you know you get good speeds even when its not overclocked. From what little we know about this machine you cant manually overclock it, but rather its an auto thing that increases the cpu clocks by a %, so a 6600 will benifit more from this anyways, as well as carring the higher stock clocks.

 

thanks for the speedy replies.

1) Does this come with a mouse? If not could you recommend a good one at the same site?

2) are you sure it'll be able to run crysis (i know you can't be 100 percent cause they're not out yet, but a guess would be good) and BF 2?

 

Dunno about the mouse, but unless they give something like the MX518 i suggest on getting a good 1600/2000 dpi mouse like the Logitech MX518 or Razer CH.

It would be definately capable of playing Crysis but dont expect highest level of graphics. Something like medium graphics would be the best settings with the 8600GT.

 

as already mentioned the crysis will work but not on high resolutions, but as we all know c90s is all about the ability to upgrade so when a good graphic card comes out you will be able to switch it and then be able to play crysis on high resolution

 

I wouldnt worry about high res much on a notebook, its a big performance killer and its a small screen.

Id rather play lower res with more visual effects and details if it came down to it.