Upgrade time - but boy am I out of touch

[albert]

Hi Folks,
 
Upgrade time for my old overclocked PC.
 
I'm looking to replace the following parts:
 
1) Motherboard
2) CPU
3) RAM
 
I have all the other stuff all quite recent but since my Athlon XP 3200+ is the most powerful CPU my nForce2 mobo can take. Also rather than invest in 2GB of DDR 1 easier to get myself future proof and upgrade the mobo.
 
So the question is would anyone be able to give me some recommendations and advice of these 3 parts I need above. I'm looking something more stable than my current mobo, having opted for the Epoc nForce2 model last time when everone was getting great results with the ASUS or something, the Epoc was a bad move for overclocking :doh: but has been very reliable. Any advice to help me get right up to date this time would be appreciated.
 
Cheers,
 
Greig

[GhostMjr]

First off i would suggest the most expensive motherboard you can afford. This will make you future proof and make sure it is compatible with quad and 45nm technology for lateer on. Cpu i would suggest a mid range dual core or quad 6600 as they are reletively cheap with a view to upgrading in the future. Ocz is the ram to go for. I have pc 8500 but they are now up to pc 9600. I am not sure if you should go ddr 2  or ddr3 though as kknd and a couple of the other guys said it was still very slow.

[Carr0t]

DDR 3 isn't just slow, it's also about twice the price of DDR 2 at the mo. However I believe the newest bleeding edge Intel CPUs require DDR 3 to get their bus speeds matched up nicely.

[BigFatCat]

You're never going to be future proof, by the time you build it and go to the toilet, you'll be out of date. I've you've had a bad curry, you'll be more out of date.

2GB of DDR2 ram is about £30 for some good stuff, 4GB might be an idea but you'll not fully use it for a while. If you can afford an 8800GT (under £200) then couple that with a decent C2D cpu (about £70 up) and that'll fit quite nicely onto a P35 mobo(£70ish). There are cheaper GPUs about, if you want to save a bit of bunce.

I've an E4400 C2D at 3GHz, 2GB of PC6400 at 900MHz and 4-4-4-12, an X1950 Pro (sub £100, weak link) on an Abit IP35-E. Rattles along quite nicely. Not uberspec but reasonable and affordable.

Got a decent PSU? You'll be better off with one. And get a decent watercooling loop too.

You can spend silly money on being bleeding edge, it'll last for a while bit so will a decent spec outfit that's not quite so funky. Your choice though.

[Gorion]

First off i would suggest the most expensive motherboard you can afford. This will make you future proof and make sure it is compatible with quad and 45nm technology for lateer on. Cpu i would suggest a mid range dual core or quad 6600 as they are reletively cheap with a view to upgrading in the future. Ocz is the ram to go for. I have pc 8500 but they are now up to pc 9600. I am not sure if you should go ddr 2 or ddr3 though as kknd and a couple of the other guys said it was still very slow.

 
the current high end mobos aint compatible with 45nm chips, they said they will be, but it seems intel cut a straight line. so in short, 45nm chips = 780i or the one intel releases in a couple of months
 
 
a tip if anyone feels the urge to upgrade, wait a couple of months or youre throwing money in the loo, even if youre not aiming high end, youlle be saving quite alot of money once the new chips are out in a couple of months (the current stuff will get alot cheaper)
 
regarding ddr3, its still in its mothers womb, dont bother with it for now

[Anonymous]

The Gigabyte boards (P35 and X38 chipsets) support the new 45nm processors at 1333 FSB. I got P35-DQ6 running happily with DDR2 (DDR3 is a rip off just now)

[Aquilifer]

Saw this bit late...

How much money are you going to put into it?

MOBO:
Intel P35 chip boards are a good choise. No sense getting X38/48 boars, as they expensive and not realy worth the money (imho). One good easy to get and cheap P35 board in Asus P5K, which comes with diffent sub-versions (some with WLAN etc). In Finland they cost around 100-110â,¬ (60£+ in GB?). They support 45nm cpus and 1333MHz FSB. Some sub models supported DDR3 (iirc). I'm still waiting mine to be delivered.

CPU: If you take P35 mobo, you can put only Intel 775 cpus. Actually the only sensible choises currently. Best bang for money currently C2D E6750 (1333FSB) or Q6600 (quad core, 1066FSB). If you are overclocker you could think also E21xx or E4xxx and overclock sh** out of it. In that case those will give better result probably.

Getting AMD Phenom and a proper mobo, might be a little more future proof idea as according to AMD the AM2 is going to stay bit longer. Intel does what ever it likes and who knows if they bring up a new socket next month. Phenoms are not as fast but you could read more about them e.g in toms hardware.

MEM: I say DDR2. DDR3 can get higher clock speeds, but what's the point. DDR2 can be get in high enough speed (for overclocking too) and DDR3 latencies are anyway higher. It was similar thing when DDR2 was new. 667MHz DDR2 isn't really cheaper that 800MHZ, so I say take 800. Take at least 2gigs, but especially if going to use Vista take 4gig. (in Vista take 64 bit version). If you plan to get 4G later, it might be safer to get it same way as some mobos and mems do not want to operate in dual channel mode especially if the memories are from different versions or manufacturers. You could check mem manufacturer sites what mem they recommend for the mobo you chose.

GFX: You didn't ask this but....I recommend see toms hardware VGA guide for what card they recommend for your price range. 8800GT is a cheap and powerful card (here 210-280â,¬), but like all the 8800 cards could be hard to get currently. Also their prices tend to be bit higher than the recommended prices (by NVidia). The new G92 8800GTS is faster, but not quite the worth the same money. For bit cheaper 8600GT/GTS or Ati HD 3850. Ati's 3870 and 3850 are actually dx10.1 compliant while 8800s are only dx10. Right now you won't see the difference anywhere as there are hardly even any dx10 games.


Cheers