Component upgrade advice - pretty please!

dlthorpe · 29 May 2009 at 12:11

Hi All,

Im looking to upgrade my PC...

-Athlon 64 4400 Dual Core
-DFI LanParty UT NF4 SLI-D
-2x1GB OCZ PC3200 Platinum

(yes its been a while!)

I only need to upgrade these 3 parts. So forget anything else especially GFX card (which is an XFX 8800 GTX 768 at the moment)

I was looking to do a cheap upgrade and was looking at this...

-Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
-Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail
-Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel (KHX6400D2LLk2/4G)
-Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

Which totals to only just over £230 inc VAT.

I am looking at this combo because a friend of mine has the same spec and hs clocked the CPU to 3.85 Ghz!!!!!. Compared to my current spec it will fly.

But im wondering if i should spend that little bit more and get DDR3 or anything. Or get a X48 mobo (im not interested in SLI though). Or get the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail CPU.

Not sure really. What do you suggest?

Thanks all.
D.

dlthorpe · 29 May 2009 at 12:14

Also ive not looked at AMD but maybe thats better for me with only a 3 component upgrade for my money?

Basically, what would you do with £300 and only upgrading 3 components?!

pastymuncher · 29 May 2009 at 13:36

First off, don't go getting your hopes up with a E5200. They are very random when it comes to clocking. Mine maxxes out at 3.6Ghz whether it's water cooled, air cooled, in a X38/X48 or P35 motherboard. Others have not been able to get past 3.2Ghz. They are that random.

The AMD X3 tri cores are well thought of on here. A lot cheaper than the Intel Wolfdales too. Coupled with a AM3 board would make for a certain amount of future proofing. Intels LGA775 is soon to be end of life. If i was building a new rig now i would certainly be considering AMD.

mp260767 · 29 May 2009 at 14:14

couple of options intel dual core and amd tri core, intel spec u could up the processor to the 74/7500 if you went to your £300 budget, amd spec is just over at £307.

as pasty said overclocks can vary, so while you may not be able to match your mates it should do quite well from what i've seen around here.

Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £99.99 (£86.95)

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £62.09 (£53.99)

OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel (OCZ2G10664GK) £37.98 (£33.03)

Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1366) £33.34 (£28.99)

Sub Total : £202.96
Shipping : £9.50
VAT : £31.87
Total : £244.33

AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £120.74 (£104.99)

Asus M4A78T-E AMD 790GX (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £98.99 (£86.08)

OCZ Platinum AM3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P1333LVAM4GK) £47.99 (£41.73)

Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM3/LGA775) £28.99 (£25.21)

Sub Total : £258.01
Shipping : £9.50
VAT : £40.13
Total : £307.64

dlthorpe · 29 May 2009 at 14:30

Hmmmm AMD eh. Do they overclock ok too?

To be honest ive not been bothered about overclocking for a long time but the appeal for getting the same spec as my mate is he can pretty much read out his settings to me over the phone. CPU tolerance withstanding of course.

I like the idea of better futureproofing of course

thanks for the advice both of ya!

dlthorpe · 29 May 2009 at 14:32

What about going tri channel memory?

user1453 · 29 May 2009 at 14:37

you can only go tripple channel memory with an i7 based system

dlthorpe · 29 May 2009 at 14:38

ahh thanks. and thats loads money then!

dlthorpe · 29 May 2009 at 14:46

The memory example you gave for the AMD mobo is DDR2...

OCZ Platinum Series 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel (OCZ2P10664GK)

Does that matter when the mobo is DDR3? Should i try to get DDR3?

mp260767 · 29 May 2009 at 15:16

dlthorpe said:
The memory example you gave for the AMD mobo is DDR2...

OCZ Platinum Series 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel (OCZ2P10664GK)

Does that matter when the mobo is DDR3? Should i try to get DDR3?

amd spec has DDR3 listed, the pc8500 you mention is for the 5200 spec, apologies for confusion

.

dlthorpe · 29 May 2009 at 17:29

mp260767 said:
amd spec has DDR3 listed, the pc8500 you mention is for the 5200 spec, apologies for confusion .

ahh yeh, sorry about that. i got mixed up looking at everything!

dlthorpe · 31 May 2009 at 21:34

How about this Mobo, it seems to have better features than the asus and an auto overclock feature which ive read is quite accurate?

-> MSI 790GX-G65 AMD 790GX (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

And any suggestion for different ram as the OCZ is out of stock