Sorry another "spec me"

BigDannyO

BigDannyO

BigDannyO

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Joined
15 Jul 2006
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1,030
Hi everyone, hope you can help me out.

I've had my Dell for over 2 years now and have decided that the 3ghz P4 just cant cut the mustard anymore. So time to upgrade but I don't know which way to go. I cant spend any more than £200 and will be (hopefully) using all the components i already have:
PCI-E 7600GT
SATA HDD
2 x 256mb DDR2 PC3200 Non ECC
2 x 512mb DDR2 PC4300 Non ECC
Audigy 2
Random generic 350w PSU


I am leaning towards AMD but dont have a clue where to start (Athalon 64 3200 + MOBO?)
Or would i be better off just dropping in a Pentium D?
Or even getting a new LGA775 MOBO and going Pentium Duo?

I really don't know what to go for so any advice you can throw my way would be grately appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Dan :)
 
thanks for the response

no it's definately ddr2, will this run okay on a 939 MOBO?

I take it then that the athalon 64 would be better ultimately than the pentium D and my current mobo
 
Do you overclock?

AMD wise

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM) £165 (i believe other competitors are selling this for less)

Intel wise
Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN) £140

However if u go for that Intel chip you will need to change your RAM...and as you only have £200 you may be better off settling for something like:

Intel Pentium 4 945 Dual Core "LGA775 Presler" 3.4GHz (800FSB) - Retail (CP-132-IN) £130 in this weeks special offers...

Motherboard wise it depends which option from above u go for...either AMD or Intel so would have to buy a corresponding board i.e. depending on the cpu socket..

Also you will need to change that PSU sooner or later....

I hope this helps
 
I probably wont be OC'ing to an extreme level so it's not the most important factor for my decision, just short term bang-for-bucks really!

Looks like it'll be a athalon 64 then, it's what I was originally thinking but didn't want to commit when I could just as easily slot a newer pentium chip in my current board.

Thanks for your help!

xirokx said:
Also you will need to change that PSU sooner or later....
Click to expand...


Yeah what a bag of bolts it is... guess a new PSU wouldn't hurt :)
 
what socket is your current chip?

there is really not that much diff between the AMD X2 4400 and the second intel chip i suggested..

so if you merely wanted to swap CPU's then I dont see why its not poss...at least you wudnt have to change mobos then ;)

Instead of spending £200 you may only spend less then a hundred and be happy :) So would have more cash of PSU as well when the need arose..
 
the current chip is a Prescott p4 530 on socket LGA775.

As far as i'm aware I can put a pentium D on this board, but if i wanted a duo i think i would need a 775x board(?).

The reason I didn't know what chip to go for is cos I know a few years back AMD's were, as a rule, a better chip. Is this not the case any more?

Sorry for the stoopid question but I don't want to get a whole new mobo + chip when i could (as you pointed out) just get a new Intel chip instead!! :)
 
atm with conroe intel are the daddies...

however it makes sense just to swap the chip its purely a case of what option is better for u "bang for buck" wise..

I would say from what I have seen:

Intel Pentium 4 945 Dual Core "LGA775 Presler" 3.4GHz (800FSB) - Retail (CP-132-IN) £130 in this weeks special offers...

Thats what you **** buy, then it will be a simple cpu change...

if you went AMD it means having to change the mobo etc so more expensive for a worse chip then the one suggested above..

For starters that intel chip i suggested has a 2mb L2 cache where as the amd 4400 only has 1mb L2 cache..

So I guess its easy and I would say the intel chip above...however sit tight and see what others think...
 
no worries i would repeat to sit tight and see what others think....just so you can be 100% about ** decision :)
 
ha, guess i should have checked this out first -

just had a look on the Intel motherboard selector and it says with my current mobo (915g chipset) i cant use a pentium duo OR pentium D!!!

guess i'll be getting a new mobo then!!! :D woops...
 
and if u get a conroe u will also need new RAM...

well spotted batman :)

perhaps u **** hold tight for a little while until u get around £500 then u can go conroe, new mobo and new RAM...and yeh then definately new psu...lol
 
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