Second PC and dual cores

Tomcat825

Tomcat825

Tomcat825

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Well, I've set up a second pc that currently has a P4 @3.2ghz... and a fairly high end AGP gpu, but I wanna change to a dual core or quad core if at all possible.

I will be overclocking it so i'd like one that is overclockable... but the downside is I need a mobo and the chip for £100 or less... :rolleyes: And also, if it's even possible now, I could do with an AGP slot on the mobo coz I don't really wanna buy another GPU!

Anyone got any ideas? CPU wise I was thinking of the E6500 or so... cheapish and good OC apparently?
 
Hi there,

You say you have a high-end AGP card, may I ask what the model number is? I was under the impression that the best AGP card was a HD 4670.

Also, may I ask what make and model motherboard you are currently running. Perhaps with a BIOS update you will be able to do a drop-in core 2 duo upgrade.
 
Thanks for the reply!

Well, it was high end back when I bought it... but the 4670 would spit on it so I guess it's not now. It's a Sapphire X1950 Pro.
The mobo is an MSI (Eugh, I know... Wanna get away from it ASAP) 865PE Neo2-v and currently has a 3GHz P4 in that's mildly OC'd to 3.3GHz.

I seem to remember recently looking at BIOS revisions and I have a feeling i'm running the most up to date one.

I was having a browse through the 775 mobo's last night (E series fit in them as far as I can see...) and none seem to have AGP slots so I'll have to pick up a cheap PCI-E card from our favourite auction site for the time being as I only really wanna upgrade mobo/CPU and possibly RAM if I can get it cheaply.

Secondly I was also looking at the AMD side as I don't care about preference on this PC... I just want bang for buck. I saw the AM2+ quad core which caught my eye but there was only 1 mobo for this and it was £51... that's assuming I can't use the 'NForce chipset' for this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-227-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1825
I've never even really looked at AMD chips so I'm clueless about their sockets etc.
 
Yea, in that case I think ditching AGP and going for PCIe is the way to go - otherwise you severely limit your options.

Unfortunately, your motherboard does not support any Core 2 CPUs.

If you are looking for second-hand PCIE cards for gaming I would suggest any of the Nvidia Geforce 8800 series (the 8800GT and 8800GTS 512MB are particularly good), 9800GT or ATI 4770, 4850, 4870. If you want to keep the budget low, but also buy something new then this is an OK card.

As for going AMD - at this budget it is the best option IMHO. However, I would strongly suggest against a phenom 1 CPU - these are old tech, slow, hot, poor overclocking chips and still relatively expensive.

Instead, on the of the Athlon II line would be my suggestion. Of this lot the Athlon II X3 445 is the best deal imho. A cheap motherboard like this will work with this CPU, however, if you want to do unlocking and overclocking with the CPU - I would go with a better board like this.

You will also need some DDR3 RAM to make this work - however DDR3 prices are now really down and second-hand DDR2 prices are up. So if you sell your DDR2, you should be able to get the same quantity of new, faster DDR3 without spending anything overall. This kit is a good deal.
 
Thanks for the input, really appreciate it mate.

Are the x2's unlockable too?? I'd like to try that as it could prove very beneficial.
Your link for the cheap mobo is the x3 CPU link :))

As a personal preference I wouldn't mind staying away from MSI as I've had a lot of problems with them in the past... so ultimately unless I have to pay a lot more I'd prefer to stay away from them. :) Overclocking and unlocking is definitely a necessity really and I'll probably pick up another Arctic Freezer 7 as I know they are good, having one in my current rig and it's cheap.

Why are DDR2 prices up so much then? This computer has 2GB of DDR2 in it atm but not sure on WHAT the ram is as it's an oldschool build.

Also, would an old old Enermax 350w be suitable to power this lot? I think it would have degraded in power output now... don't wanna replace it unless necessary though :S
 
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Happy to help :)

AFAIK, the X2s are not unlockable as they don't use a core that is just a disabled quad (unlike the X3s).

Sorry about the cheap mobo link - here is the correct one. This really isn't an overclocking board - so if you want to OC then get something better.

If you want a non-MSI good clocking board - then I would look at this one.

I believe DDR2 prices are up so much because all modern systems use DDR3 and the manufacturing has switched to cater for this. Hence the price of new DDR2 modules is higher and second-hand ones are sought after, since there is still a large market of users with older systems that want a RAM upgrade.
 
Just looking at the MSI board details.... and on the Core unlocking section it says: "2 core to 4 core, boost CPU performance 100%"

So theoretically I could actually get the x2 and unlock?? Or are you sure it's not doable?
 
You can get X2 CPUs to unlock - but that would be Phenom II X2 CPUs (not athlon II) - these phenom II dual cores are built on a quad core, with cores disabled (some of which may be faulty).

The Athlon II X2s are based on a dual-core only design I believe.
 
Tomcat825 said:
Just looking at the MSI board details.... and on the Core unlocking section it says: "2 core to 4 core, boost CPU performance 100%"

So theoretically I could actually get the x2 and unlock?? Or are you sure it's not doable?
Click to expand...

Pot luck afaik. Some X2s unlock to full quads fine, some need more volts to be stable.

Some success stories here: link Super cheap Athlon X2 5200+ that may unlock to a Phenom II X4. Maybe worth spending more for a better chance though, I'm no expert on modern AMD chips
 
Just put a bid in on a cheap quad core... and it's Phenom... not Phenom II :P Fail for me as i've bidded on an AM3 mobo too =P only £20 each tho so if I win or lose I'll get something for the other one I guess.
 
I had a 775 Asrock mobo with an agp.

Edit: Maybe I'm wrong, on the site it says it had 2 PCI-E and that the purple one was x4 I swear to god it said AGP in big letters under it on the mobo though.
 
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I've been using a dual core system for gaming (see sig) and while it's not the most high end piece of hardware it's still capable for medium end gaming. At the time, it represented very good value. With SandyBridge here, you may be able to pick up 1156 components at a very affordable price which will surpass what I have.
 
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