x2 vs. C2D

[2smoothbooth]

First of all let me say its good to finally be an OCUK member, i've been a longterm reader but finally mustered the effort to sign up!

So...at the mo i have a s939 x2 3800 overclocked to 2.5 but i'm getting tempted by the 775's. If i get a e2140 and overclock it to 3ghz +, will it be a big improvement? Bearing in mind i'll have ddr2 ram instead of ddr like i have currently

 

[2smoothbooth]

lol believe me, it goes against everything i stand to move to the darkside! I've always been an AMD fanboy but intel are taking charge!

I was originally going to go the quad route but i heard there's no point unless you're encoding a lot?!

 

[2smoothbooth]

yea i'd probably get the the 2gb of geil 6400 as its so cheap, timings ar pretty damn good too! Does anyone know if overclockers is selling the M0 revision of the e2140's? Apparently they overclock better?

Thats exactly where i'm coming from paradigm. I only have 1gb of pc3200 and its killing everything i do...like when i play crysis for example which took up 900mb of mem lol. Would it be a noticeable difference then? I do want to upgrade for the sake of it so if anyone wants to put me off here's your chance

 

[2smoothbooth]

i'm leaning towards the gigabyte p35c. its had good reviews and i want a solid board for the overclocking. i'm willing to go to the £100 mark (or just over) and the gigabyte p35-ds4 is enticing, mainly because of the heatpipe cooling. Whats the verdict on cpu coolers? Thermalright ultra or thermalright ultima?

 

[2smoothbooth]

So the ddr2 ram wouldn't make much of a difference in the everyday performance? I managed to buy myself an 8800gts 320mb for £100 the other day, i know its mid range but it should be good enough for the time being

 

[2smoothbooth]

i'd be lying if i said i wasn't worried about the thermalright ultima not fitting on the p35 ds4, doesnt look like theres enough room for a cpu cooler with a 120mm fan!

Would the Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU be enough to power an overclocked e2140 and an 8800gts?

 

[2smoothbooth]

i've heard good things about the corsair psu's and i'm on a bit of a budget (being a student and all that) Some things i want to budget on like cpu, psu and ram but other things like motherboard and vga i dont want to.