New Conroe base system

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OK, so I need a couple of upgrades and I have £750 (inc VAT) to spend on them.

I'm currently running the following:

  1. AXP 2500+ stock (for reasons I cba to go into)
  2. Abit NF7-S2
  3. 2×512MB PC3200 Generic RAM (there's one reason)
  4. 9600Pro (the 5 year old 9700 Pro died last month damnit!)
  5. 150GB Raptor
  6. DVD-ROM
  7. 600W Seasonic PSU (older one died and I was thinking about this next upgrade below...)
This translates into needing the new following parts:
  1. CPU (+ decent, quiet (important!) cooler)
  2. Motherboard
  3. RAM
  4. GPU (+ decent, quiet (important!) cooler)
So anyway, I would like a Core 2 Duo as they seem to be the dog's danglies right now (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2duo-e6300_11.html). I also, obviously, really need a new graphics card. I also want to overclock the CPU and, if poss, the CPU, all with air cooling.

2GB RAM is non negotiable, I have to have that much as 1GB is killing me right now.

So a couple of questions:
  1. I have been hearing that there might be reliability issues with the 7900GTs, and that the X1800XT is not only cheaper, but faster too, is this correct?
  2. Does the Asus P5B (vanilla) overclock well with Core 2 Duo?
  3. What is the overclockability difference between the Asus P5B (vanilla) and the Asus P2W DH?
Please post your thoughts on the below, and any ther suggestions you might have. Thanks ;)

Option 1 - £748.18

(CP-135-IN) Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £135.06625
(HS-003-SY) Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) £31.66625
(MY-108-CS) Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £199.69125
(MB-151-AS) Asus P5B (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £129.19125
(GX-047-CO) Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) £252.56625


Option 2 - £727.03

(CP-135-IN) Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £135.06625
(HS-003-SY) Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) £31.66625
(MY-108-CS) Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £199.69125
(MB-152-AS) Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £176.19125
(GX-018-BG) BFG GeForce 7900 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £184.41625


Option 3 - £726.97

(CP-135-IN) Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £135.06625
(HS-003-SY) Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) £31.66625
(MY-108-CS) Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £199.69125
(MB-152-AS) Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £176.19125
(GX-044-CO) Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £160.91625
(SY-002-AR) Artic Cooling Accelero X2 Cooler (X1800/X1900 Series) £23.44125
 
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what about this?

CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
£214.95 £214.95
MY-014-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR) (MY-014-GS)
£105.95 £105.95
MB-151-AS Asus P5B (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-151-AS)
£109.95 £109.95
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£136.95 £136.95
HS-003-SY Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY)
£26.95 £26.95
SY-008-ZA Zalman VF900-CU Quiet Copper VGA Cooler (SY-008-ZA)
£20.95 £20.95
Subtotal £615.70
VAT £107.75
Total £723.45

You should get a much better clock from the E6600 as you won't need such a high FSB. It is still under your £750 budget so you could change the motherboard or graphics.
 
Thanks rgzcampbell.

I have been thinking about the E6600... It will certainly be a lot faster out of the box and it should overclock better as well from the looks of things. I just wonder if it's a bit overkill for the X1800XT.

I'm currently running an ancient CRT @ 1600×1200, and I'm thinking about replacing it with a widescreen 20" flat panel (usually 1650×1080), so I need a graphics card that will handle that resolution nicely for the next 12 months, certainly 6 months at least.

From a gaming point of view, right now it looks like the E6600 would be overkill for the graphics card, so I would get more benefit from the X1900XT no? Also, I would hope to be able to get the E6300 up to around 7×350=2450, which is going to be sniffing around E6600 performance (I know, less cache, but it only makes 0-10% difference, usually 0-5%). It also looks like the vanilla Asus P5B will overclock the FSB to that kind of level successfully.

Having read up on RAM latencies with Core2 Duo I'm kinda tempted by the cheaper RAM...

So many things to choose from. I wonder if I can use the cheaper RAM and still manage to get the 975 mobo and X1900XT...
 
the E6600 is overkill for any graphics card at the moment because with Conroe its even being help back by the x1900xtx... hurry up dx10 cards!!! :)

Stelly
 
That's why I'm erring towards going with the cheaper E6300 and stumping up for the X1900XT instead. A 512MB gfx card should last me a little while hopefully, and mobos are (usually) cheaper to upgrade.
 
I don't see the point of a 6400 over a 6300. It's just a 266MHz speed bump no? Is there something I'm missing?

Thanks for the headsup on the memory though, missed that one! :D
 
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