Feedback would be great

Wrekriem

Wrekriem

Wrekriem

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Joined
29 Jan 2007
Posts
115
I've been researching for an upgrade for a while now, I'm on a budget and am looking to upgrade with a large performance increase compared to my current system;

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
AMD Athlon XP3200 (A)
1.5g Kingston Value RAM PC3200 RAM (3x 512)
Sapphire x800 pro
2x 80GB Seagate NCQ SATA HDD's in RAID 0
1x 120GB IDE for backup
DVD-RW + CD-RW Drives
Logitech MX510
Microsoft Ergonomic Natural Keyboard

The upgrade;

Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower (Socket 939/754/478/775) CPU Cooler
(£32.89)

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM
(£119.84)

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£82.24)

GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB6400UDC)
(£82.24)

HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ 3 TURBO SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (H195PRQT256DD-R)
(£126.89)

Sub Total : £377.95
Vat : £67.71
Total : £454.61

As you may have guessed it is primarily a gaming system although there is the usual web browsing, some CAD for College, Office, F@H and other general use. The gaming is varied, I will be getting Supreme Commander which performs poorly in the beta, although I know the retail should be better. There is also the occasional 2142, Company of Heroes and I plan to also purchase Quake Wars.

I plan to OC the 6300 to around 2.5-2.8, this clock should bring me in line with the 6600? While operating the FSB at 400 the rest of the system should run at recommended top speed while the CPU is overclocked?

The guesstimate a 2x-3x synthetic performance increase and a very noticeable increase during use, is this accurate?

I’m eager I’ve put together a good specification and hope anyone can provide feedback on compatibility issues or poor choice.

Thanks :)
 
For gaming, 2gb of memory is strongly suggested, not essential, but it would a worthwhile investment.
 
I have considered 2Gb quite a few times, the problem is it costs more ;) and goes over the £500 barrier which isn't really a barrier, more of a guideline that I really would like to stick to.

The GeiL I have listed above seems best as it is cheap yet quality, the cheapest 2Gb GeiL is "Value RAM" and while I've always used it in the past, this time I'm trying to stay away for overclocking.

The reasoning is I go for 1Gb now and later in the year buy another 1Gb or 2Gb depending on price. By buying only 1Gb now I can wait for the price to drop and pay less than double for, double (or even triple) the memory.

Thanks for the Feedback.
 
Dark_Angel said:
What about:

Geil 2GB (146)
E4300 (110 or so)
Asus P5N-E (around 80)
Connect X1950 (around 115 from memory)
Click to expand...

I considered the 4300 and came to the conclusion that because I won't be overclocking over the 2.8 mark it won't be worth it value wise, I would have to OC it to around 3.6 in order to maximise the rest of the system with 400FSB, or run in A-sync.

The p5n-e is infact more than the Gigabyte mobo I've looked into by £30. After researching the Gigabyte it seems best for my needs as I don't really need the pretty Asus extras (even though I've enjoyed them in the past) and the Gigabyte has a good rep for overclocking/stability.

The reason I want the HIS is because of the exhaust cooling and simply because I love the make. While I've always been a Sapphire guy after installing a HIS in a client's machine recently I was really impressed.

Thanks
 
Dark_Angel said:
What about:

Geil 2GB (146)
E4300 (110 or so)
Asus P5N-E (around 80)
Connect X1950 (around 115 from memory)
Click to expand...

I'd seriously consider getting this rig - it is exactly what I would have suggested and will run faster with the 2GB of memory. Games and Windows will be faster with this spec.
 
Problem is it bumps the price higher than what it would be if I got 2GB intead of 1GB on my current setup.

Edit: Whoops I was looking at the P5B-E, is the motherboard you recommended really better than the Gigabyte?
 
Last edited:
Ok, it's done, I wanted to get the order in ASAP for delivery tommorow.
In the end I've gone for the 2GB of RAM

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC)

I stuck with the Gigabyte DS3 because the reviews are so good and the newer chipset appeals to me more, it also is equal to/faster than the p5n-e suggested in benchmarks I've looked at.

While I'm a fan on Asus I dislike SLI (waste of money as you don't get double the performance for double the cost, you are better off getting a very high end card for the price) and its newer chipset.

The RAM isn't ideal as the timings are higher, but I've heard people mention how they actually don't affect performance enough to make slightly lower timings worth more than double capactity.
 
melbourne720 said:
I'd seriously consider getting this rig - it is exactly what I would have suggested and will run faster with the 2GB of memory. Games and Windows will be faster with this spec.
Click to expand...

It is almost exactly what I am running actually. Apart from a few problems with XP Home not liking one of my partions (I brought a cheap OEM version a while ago cause it came with SP2 and all the updates, and I couldnt be bothered to update my XP Pro which doesnt even come with SP1). So that XP home doesnt work with dynamic discs.. looks like I will have to go back to Pro :/

Anyway, rant over. This setup is AWESOME. The only thing I dont have is a good GPU (running an 6200, waiting for a 8800GTS 320MB). It is amazing the difference windows and the rest feels. I used to have a Venice @ 2.7GHZ, and 1GB of crappy ram.

As for the overclock, I have the E4300 @2.8GHZ with ease, on a bad PSU (only 20 pins, and 400W, I recieved a bad corsair one so need to send it back to OCUK) and the stock cooler.
 
Out of curiosity, Isn't low FSB an issue with a 4300? Doesn't the FSB govern the speed at which the major components communicate so having it lower than 400 will slow everything down?
 
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