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northwestdakota

northwestdakota

northwestdakota

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Joined
23 May 2006
Posts
346
Hi guys,

Many of you have helped me on my last 2 upgrades and the advice was great so I would appreciate any help you can give me on my next upgrade.

At the moment I have E4600 clocked to 3Ghz, G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400C and a MSI 975X Platinum PowerUp Edition Mobo.

I have quite a limited knowledge and managed to clock it to 3hz but when it come to adding another 2GB of ram it just never got recognized. I tried to sort the problem out but it seemed to be a bios problem and to be honest it all started to go over my head.

Anyway, I have been given a ATI 4870 video card which will be an upgrade over my 8800GTS so I thought it would be nice to upgrade my memory to 4GB get a better CPU and maybe grab a better motherboard. I don't really want to go over £300. What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance for any help
 
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-172-IN

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-151-AB

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-086-OC

Personally getting another dual core would be more of a side step rather than step forward, therefore a Q6600, but it is dependent on the users need you can easily put a 8200/8400 instead of a Q6600.

Also would need a cooler in there but not sure what you have currently, if needed i would say the Arctic XTREME. And overclock to atleast 3.2.
Powaaaa!
 
Your basket

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
CP-210-IN_60.jpg
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz Guaranteed to run at 3.00GHZ (1333FSB) - Retail £119.99
(£140.99) £119.99
(£140.99)
MY-068-GL_60.jpg
GeIL 4GB (4x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB8500C5QC) £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
MB-125-GI_60.jpg
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3 Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36) Sub Total : £254.97 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 : £46.06 Total : £309.28


the cooler supplied with the quad should allow you to overclock to 3ghz per core but a better cooler may e=give you a greater clock
 
Last edited:
PCDave said:
the cooler supplied with the quad should allow you to overclock to 3ghz per core but a better cooler may e=give you a greater clock
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bet on it, mine wont overclock at all with stock cooling with VID of 1.258, i think.

I my mates Q6600 can be overclocked, he is under better conditions, however he is running at roughly 66 at load with stock cooling and would be pointless under the circumstances. Not sure of the VID.
 
Blimey, that was quick guys thanks :)

I should have mentioned I use a 22" tft on a res of 1650 x 1050 and Vista premium 64 bit.

I had heard that the 8400 Wolfdale was supposed to be better than the 6600 for gaming, is that right?
 
I really wouldnt get a new cpu (sorry its no fun that way), at 3ghz i doubt its a real limiting factor in your setup.

Id get a good overclocking board something like http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (if crossfire could be on the cards one day) or say a P45 board if not (i havnt played with non p35 boards so someone might ahve a slightly better idea for one)

Then get at least 1 kit of this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...l Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) to get the best ram (well for a tenner a gig!)

Anyway the moneys left over should be used to consider either a new cpu (if your heart is set on one) or some decent cooling for the current one (again not my experties as im in the coolio matx sg03 club...)

But yeah all that will easily hold its own at 1680x1050 (i have a 4870 at that resolution) :)
 
Cheers, I like the look of that DFI board and the memory is a bargain. So I just need to decide if the cpu upgrade is worth it.

Is there that much more power in a E8400 over a E4600? I currently use a Zalman CNPS9500A-LED CPU Cooler to get my 4600 to run at 3ghz.
 
Hummm you'll find that the default clock will be helpful instead of refinding the overclock form the old cpu (and thus can overclock much further) but do you really need that extra speed?

The extra cache will help a little and being 45nm will improve cooling (as the thing will run cooler) but im not convinced it'll be the biggest upgrade....

Still could be fun to play with though :) (sorry cant really provide a deffinative yes or no)
 
Thanks Pingwing, I have just ordered the DFI board and the memory. I think that combined with the new GPU will be a huge upgrade, certainly enough to wait for the 9450 processors to get to around the £100 mark.

Thanks again :)
 
Ok, some tech help is needed now :(

I have installed the DFI board above and the memory above but now when I get to the windows screen my monitor loses signal :mad:

I have checked and reseated all bits in the pc, tried the latest drivers (and older ones for my card) but still no luck. I am using a Nvidia 8800 GTS320 while I wait for my 4870 to arrive. I am using Vista 64 bit.

Any ideas?
 
This may be a silly question, but did you reinstall windows? You'll need to do that if you've changed the board, unless it's indentical.
 
It all works fine with my new 4850, so I guess it was some random video card fault. Anyway, its all working really well and I could not be happier with the memory and motherboard. Thanks for all the advice guys.
 
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