New Hardware

Arthalen

Arthalen

Arthalen

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Joined
20 Apr 2006
Posts
2,024
Location
Leeds, UK
Choices, choices.... I need a decent upgrade to something that can be almost 'workstation class', but on a budget (Stop laughing at the back their).

My old setup is feeling long in tooth, short on power and decidely 'lacking'.

At present:

Asus K8NE-Deluxe Mobo - Socket 754 Nforce 4-4x Chipset
Sempron 2600 (128K, non-64-Bit) - Managed to Clock to 245Mhz HTT
512MB Kingston Value DDR400 - Stock Speeds
Asus 6600 non-GT Video Card - This will carry over for the time being

Hmm, bit sad really isn't it ?

These are what I want my new rig to have ...

1) Dual Core. Definitly.
2) 64 Bit. Not buying a processor without this, this time round
3) Plenty of RAM. And I mean plenty.... 2GB would be nice.

And this is what I'm contemplating:

Setup 1:
Pentium D 805
Asus P5LD2
2x 1GB Corsair Value DDR2 533mhz
Hiper Type-R 580W
Thermaltake Big Typhoon

or

Setup 2:
AMD X2 3800
DFI Lanparty Ultra-D
2x 1GB Corsair Value DDR 400mhz
Hiper Type-R 580W
Thermaltake Big Typhoon

So which one to go for - please bear in mind I'm no stranger to overclocking, and fancy having a crack at getting the PenD 805 upto 4Ghz. Also cost is a big issue - I'm saving over the 6600 this time so that I can spend more on the CPU/RAM/Mobo....

Suggestions & Idea's please.
 
What's it going to be doing? If a lot of gaming is involved then #2 if not then #1. That will also be way cheaper than the AMD rig. You can get that Pentium D 805 for £90 if you look around. Good overclocker too as i read in Custom pc mag.
 
Its primarily a Workstation based PC, i.e a lot of Photoshop and Dreamweaver, 3D Modelling and other Windows orientated tasks. Hence why I want dual core and 64Bit ... more and more productivity software moving this way...

However, I DO game a fair bit when the work is done and dusted, so I don't want to be left in the dark here. WoW, WC3, want to play Fear and HL2 and Q4. Although I'm a little hampered by my 6600 compared to the latest and greatest, It'll do for now while I sort out the CPU, Mobo and RAM.

Like I said I'm no stranger to overclocking - the heady days of running my barton 2500XP at 2.45Ghz on Air was fun while it lasted ...... I do believe that little bugger of a 805 clocks like a beast, and as has been said, the 805 clocks and clocks well.

I think I've just chosen myself, really.

So, I guess my question really is, is there any holes in the setup I've chosed.

i.e
Power - Enough Juice ?
Cooling - Enough for the job ?
Stable/Supporting Motherboard - Able to work with the CPU ok ?
RAM Decent enough for the job considering the amount ?
 
Custom pc mag found it easy enough. They raised the fsb from 133 (533 mhz effective) to 180mhz (720mhz effective) and raised the voltage to 1.4v and got it asily stable at 3.6ghz as opposed to it's 2.66ghz stock. I don't call that difficult. That was in an Asus P5WD2 premium motherboard with an intel 955x chipset.

If you want it for photoshop etc it should be better than the AMD option and as i already said a lot cheaper too.
 
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