Recommend me a CPU!

[Frost-Fire]

Right, im looking for an upgrade on my rig.
Its about 2 years old, with currently a p4 3.2 and an x800XL gfx card.

Im looking to upgrade the processor and graphics at this point, since im pretty happy with the rest of the setup.

I have a 520watt PSU, a gig of ram, so that sohouldnt be a problem, and an ABIT atility AA8XE mobo, so that should do for 1066 MHz FSB.

I have about 300 pounds, excluding VAT, so about 350 including.

This is to get me a CPU and a graphics, the main goal of this is to play new games at 1024x1080 at pretty high settings with no major problems.

Its been a while since i have upgraded, and the Core 2 quad pro from overclockers looks like a good buy for 135 (without vat)

What would be your advice?
Should i get a slower processor and overclock it so i can spend more on the GFX, and which processor would be the most cost efficient.
Thanks!
James

 

[tomanders91]

£300 for graphics card and c2d/quad?

quad core energy effecient - 159
artic cooler/ninja - 17 or 30
graphics card, do you mean for 1280x1024? if not then a x1950pro would do nicely.

If you get a e2160/80 or something and clock it, you could get a 256mb 8800gt in there i reckon.

 

[jak731]

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £144.99
(£170.36) £144.99
(£170.36)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £147.99
(£173.89) £147.99
(£173.89)
Sub Total : £292.98
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 is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £52.72
Total : £353.95




or

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £135.99
(£159.79) £135.99
(£159.79)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £124.99
(£146.86) £124.99
(£146.86)
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775) £35.99
(£42.29) £35.99
(£42.29)
Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000 120mm Fan - 3/4 Pin £6.99
(£8.21) £6.99
(£8.21)

both are quite similar but the second specs will most likely give you better temps when ocing, either card should be fine at that res also make sure you can fit the cooler in your case as it is quite big

 

[Frost-Fire]

Yes, i did mean 1280x1024
I like your first list a lot jak, a 512 card would be nice!
I do overclock, but not majorly, any extra that i can easily get is fine, but im nomrally a bit too lazy to squeeze everything i can out of things.

 

[El Jimben]

Will his current mobo work with C2D chips? It might be the same socket but I don't think it will, I'm sure the voltage circuitry on the boards had to be redesigned for Conroe.

 

[jak731]

looking on the abit website, you need a new mb as well as your board does not seem to support core 2 duo/quad,

maybe this will be a choice to consider

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £144.99
(£170.36) £144.99
(£170.36)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £46.99
(£55.21) £46.99
(£55.21)
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £104.99
(£123.36) £104.99
(£123.36)
Sub Total : £296.97
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 is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £53.41
Total : £358.63

will support c2q and most likely penryn cpus. however requires you to overclock the cpu a bit and im also assuming you have ddr2 ram

 

[sulli]

Definitly a new mobo no mention of c2d support, only p4EE at 1066 fSB.

 

[Frost-Fire]

Oh thats a REAL bugger, i really didnt want to have to go through the hassle of having to redo the entire rig, and its going 2 cost a load extra as well.
Do we know why it doesnt support the Core 2 chips even though its the right socket??

 

[El Jimben]

Oh thats a REAL bugger, i really didnt want to have to go through the hassle of having to redo the entire rig, and its going 2 cost a load extra as well.
Do we know why it doesnt support the Core 2 chips even though its the right socket??

See 4 posts up or here - http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20060202133551.html

 

[jak731]

the spec that i put up on the 6th post should be capable of playing new games fine as many are not designed for quad cores yet anyway, however it gives you the choice of getting a quad when you decide to. it is also within your budget. also clock for clock, the c2ds are a lot faster then the p4s as even the low end c2ds tend to match or even beat the p4s in most benchmarks anyway.

have some fun and rebuild your machine or get the mb and gpu now and pester someone for a q6600 for christmas!