Conroe Upgrade: Advice Required

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25 Oct 2005
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Hey guys,

I have been meaning to upgrade to Conroe for some time now as I am tired of my mediocre socket 754 rig, but I wanted to wait until the processors themselves dropped in price and better motherboards appeared on the scene. It certainly seems to me that now is the time to go for it, and I have a budget of around £400 to get me started.

All I need right now is a motherboard, processor, cooler, and memory. I have got the rest covered, and my PSU is a rock-solid Akasa Paxpower2 460w so don't worry about that. I was warned against buying the Asrock ConroeXFire-eSATAII motherboard on the grounds of it being a poor overclocker, so I have currently got my eye on the current spec: -

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 @ £89.95
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 @ £107.95 (This Week Only)
Cooler: Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe Cooler @ £26.95
Memory: GeIL 2GB (2x 1024MB) DDR2-800 @ £109.95 (This Week Only)

Subtotal: £334.80
Shipping: £8.25
VAT: £60.04
Total: £403.09

I am handing over the torch to you creative people now, in the hopes of getting the best bang for my buck.

Thanks in advance everyone. :)

Sincerely yours,
Úlfhednar.
 
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When you say your budget is £350-400 is that all in or is that £350 + the £250 (e.g. £600) you get for your old parts? What parts do you already have? Do you have a good PSU for instance?
 
That motherboard is a very poor overclocker. I wouldn't consider it if you intend to overclock.

The Ninja is a great CPU cooler. I don't think you can go wrong choosing that one.
 
semi-pro waster said:
When you say your budget is £350-400 is that all in or is that £350 + the £250 (e.g. £600) you get for your old parts? What parts do you already have? Do you have a good PSU for instance?
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That's all-in, and my PSU is a relatively new Akasa 460w with great efficiency and plenty of juice (actually quite overkill for a Conroe/X1800XT system) on its rails so I'll definitely be keeping hold of it.

BillytheImpaler said:
That motherboard is a very poor overclocker. I wouldn't consider it if you intend to overclock.

The Ninja is a great CPU cooler. I don't think you can go wrong choosing that one.
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Aye I have heard nothing but praise for the Scythe Ninja so I am definitely considering it.

What would you suggest for a better clocking motherboard at a decent price mate? Crossfire support would be nice, but is by no means a must. Feel free to do away with it as long as the board is worth it.
 
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I have edited the opening post to be clearer, and to change the motherboard. I am hoping this one will be much better for overclocking, as it's a tad more than I usually pay for a motherboard. :p

Is the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 as good as the website says? I notice it has this written under it: -

"Consider (sic) a favourite amongst overclockers the Gigabyte 965P DS3 mainboard has been setting some new records when it comes to maximum FSB as overclocks of over 500MHz FSB have been reported. So if your looking for a great overclocking mainboard the DS3 is an exceptional choice."
 
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Looks a great spec :cool: Yes, the DS3 is a very good overclocker but I would definatley get this RAM over the stuff you specced especially with the price it's at ATM: GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) :)
 
Trigger said:
Looks a great spec :cool: Yes, the DS3 is a very good overclocker but I would definatley get this RAM over the stuff you specced especially with the price it's at ATM: GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) :)
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I didn't notice that, and it only takes me £3 over budget. ;) Added, thanks a lot.

Any other suggestions? Anybody? :D
 
I think it's pretty much settled then, should go nicely with my X1800XT when I get it back from Sapphire (damn RMAs), and I am thinking of upgrading that to an X1950 when they're out.

I got 10k in 3D Mark 05 on this mediocre rig, so I can't wait to see what I get after all this is fitted. :D

I would still love to hear more suggestions though. :p
 
Before I forget; I've heard of issues with the Gigabyte DS3 board and compatibility with certain types of RAM, will this GeIL DDR2-800 be okay?
 
Úlfhednar said:
Before I forget; I've heard of issues with the Gigabyte DS3 board and compatibility with certain types of RAM, will this GeIL DDR2-800 be okay?
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As far as I am aware the DS3 works fine with Geil, it was certain types of GSkill that it doesn't play nicely with. I'm glad the PSU etc is fine, I would have replied sooner but I was at work.
 
I looked at the DS3 myself, but from what other forum members were saying, the Asus P5W DH seemed the better buy to me (if you can stretch to it). The BIOS issues with P5W have apparently been resolved now (although it's still worth updating it to the new, new BIOS if you get it) so it shouldn't cause a problem. And it's Xfire ready - which is a bonus.

The only other issue was a questionable North/Southbridge cooler, but someone kindly posted a link showing how to remove, clean, reapply AS5 thermal paste and re-seat the cooling blocks. Some people reported no problems with it out of the box (around 40C idle), whereas others were recording a cpu temp of around 52C idle.

Thinking about it, there seems to be issues with both mobo's really! :p

The DS4 is also a decent mobo from what the forum have been saying.
 
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semi-pro waster said:
As far as I am aware the DS3 works fine with Geil, it was certain types of GSkill that it doesn't play nicely with. I'm glad the PSU etc is fine, I would have replied sooner but I was at work.
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Thanks for letting me know. :) And no worries about the replying thing, can't be everywhere at once.

Fatfish said:
Thinking about it, there seems to be issues with both mobo's really! :p
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Aye, seems to me that Conroe chipsets are still problematic, but it's to be expected with them being so new.

The reason I am drawn to the DS3 is because the comment on the site about it reaching record 500MHz+ FSBs led me to do some homework and supposedly everyone is raving about them because E6300s have no problem getting to3.5GHz on them on air. :) Hope I am that lucky, but with the amount I am blowing on memory etc. I should bloody hope so. :p
 
That's true - there is a lot of good praise for them as well. But they're not Xfire ready though are they? I thought that was one of features you wanted? Or was that just a preference and not essential?

3.5Ghz on the E6300 - so what would be an acceptable speed for the E6400 then? That's what I'm going to be picking up, and it would be good to know what it can go to. Never turn up the offer of a free performance boost! :D
 
Fatfish said:
That's true - there is a lot of good praise for them as well. But they're not Xfire ready though are they? I thought that was one of features you wanted? Or was that just a preference and not essential?
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Nah it was just a plus for me, one I would readily sacrifice for the overclockability this board supposedly gives. :D

Fatfish said:
3.5Ghz on the E6300 - so what would be an acceptable speed for the E6400 then? That's what I'm going to be picking up, and it would be good to know what it can go to. Never turn up the offer of a free performance boost! :D
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Dunno mate, not even bothered looking at overclocks for the E6400 because I had my heart set on the E6300 OEM on This Week Only. Too much of a bargain for me and my crappy Newcastle S-754 3400+ to pass up.

There's a Conroe OCing thread in CPUs or Overclocking with some E6400 clocks in, might want to try there.
 
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