Motherboard, HDD and CPU, help please.

NokkonWud · 4 Sep 2006 at 15:42

I've not been upto date for computing for a long time and now I need to update my CPU, Motherboard and HDD.

I want a 36gb Raptor HDD, so I need Motherboard and CPU, I don't really want to spend more than £300 on the CPU and Motherboard combined.

My GPU is PCI-e and I have 1gb Corsair XMS 3200 CAS 2.0 2-2-2-5 RAM.

Thankyou,
Karl.

semi-pro waster · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:01

Are you likely to want to upgrade again any time soon? The reason I ask is that due to your Ram you are probably looking at a socket 939 CPU which doesn't offer much in the way of upgrade options but on the bright side it should come in under your budget.

NokkonWud · 4 Sep 2006 at 18:14

Well, I currently use a Winchester 939 3500+ but I've been less than inspired by it's performance.

I ideally want to be rendering 3D Studio Max files etc.. so I will be upping my memory to 4gb in the not too distant future, but as for now I have RAM which will cover what I want.

If it's worth it extra money can be put into the purchase.

Are those Conroe chips better than X2 processors? If so, how and by what means?

semi-pro waster · 4 Sep 2006 at 18:28

Well Conroe is dual core(so are the X2s but not your current chip) so better for multitasking and even the basic chip, the 6300 is supposed to be roughly on a par with an X2 5000 but costs significantly less. They appear to be more efficient per clock cycle than AMDs offerings at the moment and offer significant overclocking potential.

However this would mean having to get DDR2 Ram as there are not many(any?) motherboards that support socket 775, Conroe and DDR.