775 or AM2 upgrade for low end system

[pzurek]

Hello,
I want to upgrade my CPU and motherboard but I am having trouble figuring out if I should go the Core 2 Duo/775 or AM2 route. At this point I'd only like to purchase a new mobo and CPU (since I recently found out my Intel D101GGC doesn't support C2D).

Celeron D 341
Intel D101GGC
Antec 350W PSU
1GB Ultra ult31664
GF 6800 PCIe

I'm looking to spend between $200-350. The C2Ds seem nice, but from what I understand, I won't be able to O/C them because of my slow RAM. Because of that, I am considering the AM2 because I read that Athlon overclocking is more forgiving with cheap memory.

Basically, can someone suggest the best bang for my buck cpu/mobo upgrade considering my existing system and price range. Not necessarily looking to o/c, but willing to it if gets me the best deal.

Thanks!

 

[tersome]

You should get a P5N-E SLI and an E6300.

The P5N-E lets you clock the ram pretty much independantly of the fsb, so your slow ram won't be a problem. Also, the board will hit 480-500 fsb, so you could potentially overclock your E6300 to 3.5ghz.

 

[Markfw]

nforce boards for conroe haven;t benched well, and shown to be bood overclockers. Get a 965 chipset board. You can allways upgrade the ram later.

 

[tersome]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
nforce boards for conroe haven;t benched well, and shown to be bood overclockers. Get a 965 chipset board. You can allways upgrade the ram later.

The nforce 6xx series has fixed all the overclocking problems of the nforce 5xx series. The P5N-E benches fine.