Bundle: A few questions...

jamieoliver22 · 25 Jun 2007 at 15:59

Hey everyone, I am new to the forums, but not to Overclockers. I wasn't quite sure on where to post this either, I hope it is ok in here.

Anyway, at the moment I currently have this spec and I fancied upgrading it.

AMD Athlon 2000+ 1.7ghz (well, less actually as it is overclocked)
MSI K4-Ultra motherboard
1gb PC-2700 DDR Ram
ATI Radeon x850XT (256mb - AGP)
2x IDE HDDs (80gb and 320gb)
2x Optical drives (DVD-ROM and DVD Rewriter)
Tagan 420w power supply

As you can see, the CPU is rather poor, so I wanted to upgrade it. I am currently thinking of going with this bundle from Overclockers:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail / Gigabyte 965P DS3 / 1GB GeIL PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Kit - Bundle (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-036-OK&groupid=701&catid=339&subcat=) - Has anyone had this bundle before? Would it be a good upgrade?

And also, this is a PCI-E board, so I need to upgrade my graphics card also, so I was thinking of getting this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-070-PC - Now would this be a lot better than my current x850 XT or not? Obviously, I need a new one anyway, but I was wondering how much better it actually is.

And I have a few questions, seeing as I arent that familiar with some newer standards:

Firstly, the website says that it is 1.8ghz - now does this mean that the processor as a whole only runs at 1.8ghz, or that each core runs at 1.8ghz. If its the latter, does that essentially mean that it runs at 3.6ghz?
The motherboard only has one IDE slot, so I can only connect one cable to my motherboard. So does this mean that I will have to connect my optical drives to the IDE slot and then my hard drives to a SATA connector using a convertor (and doing so, would it slow down the rate of transfer?) or the other way around?
I have also heard that Intel are reducing the prices on a number of their processors, does that mean it would be cheaper for me to get it in another month or so?
There are a 3 rev's of this motherboard also, which rev would I be getting with this bundle?

Thanks in advanced,
Jamie.

jamieoliver22 · 25 Jun 2007 at 16:28

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have edited my post just as you posted, I have a Tagan 420w power supply - it isn't very old.

The reason why I wanted a bundle was so I can make sure that everything worked together and makes it easier to choose when knowing that they do work together.

And I wouldn't mind using a converter, but which would I use it on? The IDE cable for my hard drives or my optical drives?

And I still aren't sure on the graphics card yet, but I did like the look of that one.

And budget wise, I don't have a great deal of money - looking for something around about the £300-350 mark preferably. I should hopefully be getting about £200 from a job I have been working on, and I was hoping to use that and some extra saved up cash to upgrade my computer.

jamieoliver22 · 25 Jun 2007 at 16:59

That's for the suggestion, muchly appreciated. I will have to have a look into them.

And my games will be running at 1440x900 resolution (the native resolution of my 19" Wide monitor).

And I wouldn't need to pay for postage as I live quite close to the Overclockers warehouse/shop.

And that ram is slower than that of the bundled ram? And what differences are there between those motherboards and graphics cards?

EDIT: And that motherboard you suggest isn't compatible with that processor I don't believe. What about this motherboard? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-121-AB&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=565

jamieoliver22 · 25 Jun 2007 at 18:33

steve258 said:
Where did you get that info from

Yes it does indeed support E6320

Well the Overclockers website it was under the 'Other Chipsets' category and on the Core2Duo page it said "Only compatible with new Intel 965 and 975X socket 775 Motherboards (Older 975 boards are not compatible)" so I assumed it was a different chipset and wouldnt work. I did look on the Asus website but it only meantioned quad core and pentium D, nothing about core2duo.

Sorry about that then, my mistake

And I probably will go for that motherboard, it does seem like a nice bored. And I did do a power supply calculator thing the other night, and it said I would only need about 320w for the above bundle with the XT card. And I assumed I had a good 12v rail? =\

And I was considering getting 2gb of ram, there is an offer for this week only for GeIL 2gb PC2-6400 actually.

And I still aren't sure on which graphics card to go for. I will have to see how much money I get also, I might not be able to afford a higher spec one.

jamieoliver22 · 25 Jun 2007 at 21:36

Thanks very much for the help, its appreciated.

One other thing I wanted to ask also, do you need to apply thermal paste when putting in a Core2Duo? Just wanted to make sure. And if so, what would you recommend?