Help me go dual core mad !

Conanius · 26 Jan 2007 at 22:41

Riteo...

Current spec is

AMD 64 3000+ Winchester @ 2.7
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra D
2 Gig DDR400 GSKILL ram
ATi x800se 128mb...

Want to sell this lil lot, ad a bit of cash, and get some core2duo lovin... only problem is, I cant work out what memory and motherboard I need... do I need this 8500+ stuff to run at 1066 fsb? is the 680 nforce mobo by far the fastest? (My god its expensive) what gfx should I get? which is the best core2duo to go for?

help !!!

Budget is the sale of those components + some cash... dont want to go mental, but happy to go up to about £4-500 if it gives me major increases

furnace · 26 Jan 2007 at 22:52

An intel 1066Mhz FSB is 266Mhz in reality, so you'd need 533Mhz RAM (which is also 266Mhz in reality) to run it at stock settings. But 800Mhz is recommended (PC2-6400). 8500+ is a bit OTT at the moment to be honest

Gigabyte S3
Intel C2D E4300
Giel 2GB 6400 RAM
Connect3D X1950 Pro 256mb
Tuniq Tower (if you plan to overclock? otherwise best get an E6600 or something)

Total of about £495 plus postage

oh, so £500 on top of the sale of the components, not including? For £650ish, I'd recommend this any day:

In that case, maybe change the motherboard for a DS3, and put an 8800GTS in there:

Intel E4300 - overclock to 3Ghz
Tuniq Tower
Gigabyte DS3
2GB Geil 6400 RAM
Gainward Geforce 8800 GTS

Total of about £635 plus postage

Conanius · 27 Jan 2007 at 11:31

cheers for the reply...

yeah, sale of components + the cash... will I have a noticeable improvement with that upgrade?

Big.Wayne · 27 Jan 2007 at 11:39

Conanius said:
will I have a noticeable improvement with that upgrade?

Tom's Hardware Guide CPU Charts 2005/2006
Venice 3000+ vs e6400, looks like a great improvement to me

furnace · 27 Jan 2007 at 11:52

Only get a 4300 if you plan to overclock

If you do overclock, you'd probably get:

E4300 @ 3Ghz
8800GTS

8,500 in 3DMark06..? I think it'd score somewhere around there.

If you don't overclock, you'd probably be best to get:

E6400 @ 2.4Ghz
X1950 Pro

6,000 in 3DMark06 maybe..?

The first option will be a lot more powerful than the second... So by overclocking you'd get a lot more for your money, and a DX10 graphics card.

After playing games on that, you'll soon forget about your old pc

Conanius · 27 Jan 2007 at 12:38

hehe ok,

ive put up a price check posting

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=8653484#post8653484

appreciate some guidance please!!

furnace · 27 Jan 2007 at 13:43

I can't access that post for some reason. Maybe it's in the MM and I haven't been here long enough :confused:

Conanius · 27 Jan 2007 at 14:13

furnace said:
I can't access that post for some reason. Maybe it's in the MM and I haven't been here long enough

heres the post

CPU

AMD 64 3000+ 'Winchester' Its been running at 2.7ghz since I bought it, details below

RAM

GSKILL - 2 gig dual channel DDR 400 kit. the model number on the side is ....

F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX, CL 2-3-2-5

I've never really messed around with the timings or overclocking it, so not sure what they go up to.

MOBO

DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra D (I think its an Ultra DR, but in honesty, I dont know how to tell)

GFX

ATI x800se 128mb, gets detected in windows as an x800gt... never overclocked (PCI Express)