Pre-Purchase Check

MADMAN69UK

MADMAN69UK

MADMAN69UK

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Joined
26 Sep 2005
Posts
875
Location
Midlands
Hi,

I'm looking at upgrading, but don't really know what I'm after... so much choice these days!

I was looking at THIS bundle.

I thought the 2.4 core duo is the best cost/performance at the moment? And I wanted a m/b with 2 x PCI-E 16x slots so that I could add dual graphics cards in future.

Can anyone confirm that the above linked bundle is a good purchase?

Or recommend better single item purchases or another bundle?

Thanks :)
 
It's a good bundle and will clock well :)

EDIT:although that board does not support SLi so you may want to take a look at either an SLi supporting motherboard or crossfire (depending on what GFX card you will be using :))
 
Doesn't support SLi? Damn.

The graphics card that will be going in it is THIS one.

What bundle would you recommend for that?

I won't be getting the 2nd graphics card to SLi for quite a while. But I read it requires the m/b to have 2 x PCI-E 16x slots.
 
U read correctly yes, the motherboard you choose must support SLi otherwise it will only come with 1xPCI-E slot and therefore only allow 1 GFX card.

Unfortunately none of the bundles have a motherboard that supports SLi..any reason you wanted a bundle? It probably costs about the same to get the individual parts, plus how much do you have to spend?

EDIT EDIT:D How about something like this:

Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
Intel Core 2 DUO E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail

Sub Total : £249.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25
Vat : £45.19
Total : £303.41

It is cheaper and will clock well, the 9X multiplier on the E4300 will mean reaching 3GHz I presume, plus the board is cheap and supports SLi :), u can always change the CPU to an E6600, and the board to this one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-209-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=205

if you can afford it :)
 
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If you aren't planning to SLi for a good while then you'll be fine with a bundle and a single card.

At upgrade time, sell the card and buy the current fast card.

I don't rate all this future proofing..... PC's change all too often.

in 12 months we could well have PCI-E(2)

My AMD 170(2.9Ghz) and 7800 GTX are less than 12 months old but now passed over in favor on newer and much faster components.

Regards

AD
 
kmistry said:
how much do you have to spend?

It is cheaper and will clock well, the 9X multiplier on the E4300 will mean reaching 3GHz I presume.
Click to expand...

I don't have a huge amount to spend really. I'm still a little annoyed about a past experience. I purchased a £350 AGP graphics card and a week later I learned of PCI-E :eek:

So I'm slightly reluctant to buy anything in the higher end of the range these days. As long as I can run the latest games with the graphics turned up without frame rate loss I'm happy. I'm told the graphics card I linked above should manage that.

I'm clueless about over clocking too. I'm always nervous when playing around with expensive things, and I get annoyed easily when things don't work :D

I'm thinking about what the above poster said now, about not bothering with future proofing, it might just bite me in the ass again.

As for bundles, the main reason I was looking at those was because I have lost track of what's good and what's not in todays market. I thought it would be easier to buy a ready picked bundle.

So... assuming I don't require SLi capability anymore, what other good combination of E6600, memory and motherboard would you recommend to go with the graphics card linked in my previous post? Bundle or otherwise.

Cheers :rolleyes:
 
TBH with you you can future proof if you want to although as stated 1 card will do you fine. The only reason I chose the SLi mobo is because its cheap (@£90) for SLi support, and is the same price as a normal non-SLi motherboard, so aside from future proofing, if its the same price then why not?

As for overclocking read the overclocking forum, believe me I didn't know how to overclock until I bought this CPU and its a sin not to overclock an Intel nowadays ( didn't you know ;)) The overclocking forum is a great place for info, and if that doesn't elp then always post back here, many people are always willing to help :)

If you dont want to spend that much money then tbh with you getting an E4300 and clocking it will be pretty much the same as getting an E6600 and clocking it, the E6600 really shines when doing things such as rendering video because of the 4MB L2 cache...couple that with an 8800GTS/x and you are laughing :)
 
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I don't think SLI or xFire is worth it to be honest, like, by the time you get the second card you're probably better off just selling your first one then combining the money to get a new one altogether. Or you could just get a dual core graphics card and save needing an SLI mobo!
 
Like kmistry said, I guess with THIS board being at that price and having the SLi support, it wouldn't do any harm to go with that one anyway.

I think I have settled on THIS CPU as I do do a lot of video rendering. And I might possibly have a look into overclocking at some point.

Those 2 items total £286.68.

So I'm just after some nice memory now. These bundles seem to come with 'Low Latency' stuff, but I don't actually know what that means, other than it might perform slightly better?

What memory would you recommend for the motherboard linked above? I'd say something like THIS? But so far, all my decisions on upgrading have been over turned lol.

With that memory it totals £421.79 including VAT.

Thanks again! :)
 
That memory is good, there is also:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL

which has proven very popular as many people have purchased it and know the price has dropped significantly!

there is also:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-072-OC

That is good stuff too :)

Basically long as you get a decent brand memory it will give you a good overclock (Corsair,GeiL,OCZ)The Team Xtreme and Cellshock stuff is very good stuff also, but its more expensive if you can stretch it :)
 
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