Upgrade time - AMD, Intel - Which one to get???

overcooled-xp

overcooled-xp

overcooled-xp

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Hello All,

Not sure if it's posted in right area, so if not I am sorry please move it.

The time has come and I am upgrading my pc. It is currentley a Amd 64 3200 with 1gb ram and 6600agp all housed in a silverstone tec LC20B. I am going to Overclockers tomorrow to get get a new motherboard, ram and cpu.

I am going for a mini atx board as I will be replacing my case for a shuttle, or something similar that is smaller than my current case. For short time I will use the motherboards onboard graphics, as my budegt is tight and cant afford a pci express card at the mo. This system is going to be used for running a few vmwares, a few games, downloading, general internet surfing and watching films (I understand the onboard will not be great, so I am putting playing games on hold till I get a better card). However the two boards I have chosen one for intel and one for amd are both gigabyte boards and both have nvidia chipsets with the 7100 onboard graphics.

What I want to know is with a budget of £140 max! what should I go for amd or intel?? I have been looking at the intel 2180s and also 2200 and I am quite tempted as they are good overclockers and I would like to overclock it aswell. But for the price I am also quite tempted to go for a AMD x2 4400 or 4800. I am going to be getting 2gb of ram for it aswell. Please can someone help me as I just seem to be going round in circles and can't seem to make up my mind.

Please can anyone give me some help/suggestions to which one I should go for?


Many thanks in advance and sorry for the essay,
 
If you can stretch a little further I'd go for a Q6600 "Go".

Four cores,and you'll get an extra 1Ghz easy.

Failing that, the E6750 come in at around £115 and is again an excellant overclocker.
 
Intel all the way. Best bang for buck, and you get a hella lot of bang! AMD are falling behind and have been for quite some time now :(
 
Just so you know, a mini-atx board won't fit in a genuine shuttle, as its too big. Shuttles come with their own custom sized motherboards, CPU cooler and power supplies, which is one of the reasons they are a bit pricey. They're usually good quality though.

If you do want mini-atx (because it'll be easier to upgrade) there are plenty of good looking small cases out there.

PK!
 
When you say a budget of £140 max, is that for motherboard, CPU and Ram? The budget is a little bit too tight for comfort if it is, particularly if you want to overclock.

Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD ATI Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99
(£28.19)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
Sub Total : £126.97
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 : £23.66
Total : £158.88

Also as another minor point your signature needs the spaces removing between the lines, cheers.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. The budget is max unfortunatly, I will be going intel but what are peoples views on Gigabyte boards? Are the boards easy to overclock cpu's?

semi-pro waster - You mentioned the 2160, would you go for one of these over a E2180 or E2200?
 
As asked, is the budget for total or just the CPU?

I wouldn't bother with the 2180, just get the 2140 and overclock it to 3Ghz, which is well above the 2Ghz of the 2180.
With the £15 you save, you can buy us all a drink :)
 
I have had a few Gigabyte motherboards, each were very stable and performed well. I have not had much luck overclocking Gigabyte boards, but I doubt it was the motherboard. It was most likely another component or my own poor skills :rolleyes:
 
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I know intel is the leader right now and most if not all (including me) will recommend it but with your price range and space limitations one thing to consider would be a 5000+ BE. The reason being is they are unlocked and the prices were just lowered on them quite a bit. The second reason is you can get a cheap 690x/nforce board that will be a micro as well as onboard and still overclock it silly and get great performance.

I do not have a link offhand and ill look for it but it was either tomshardware or anandtech that did a great review of the chip with the low cost boards and they got 3.0+ on the overclocks easy because its an unlocked chip. I live in the US so prices still might be cheaper going with intel but if as you said space is an issue as well that 5000+ BE might fit the bill while being able to crank it up on a cheaper micro board.

EDIT: Found that toms review http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/22/budget_overclocker/page10.html

really good review and a great chip. Theres no shame going AMD if it does the job:)
 
Heatsinked said:
Overcooled-xp, have you seen this article?

Linky

Interesting read! :)
Click to expand...


Thank you for the link, Makes me even more tempted to go Intel now. Yes the £140 is for everything unfortunatley.

Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H GeForce 7100 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £43.99
(£51.69) £43.99
(£51.69)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £38.99
(£45.81) £38.99
(£45.81)
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit

Subtotal £106.97
£125.69 inc VAT

Do you think this will be ok and is the memory ok? Will I get a gd overclock with this setup?

Also is my sig ok now?

T
 
I don't know how well the motherboard overclocks but you have an 8x multiplier on the CPU and the Ram is guaranteed to run at 400mhz (may go further but I wouldn't worry about that right now), 8x400 gives you 3.2ghz which would be a very decent overclock. You might be better settling for 375mhz on the Ram which would give you 3ghz on the nose but see how it goes.
 
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