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AM2 Build for my brother? Any suggestions? Question about DDR2 ram speeds inside.

T

TriggerHappy101

Golden Member
Im building a gaming rig for my brother. The last gaming build I made was back with s939.

Any suggestions?

Here are the parts:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.4GHz Socket AM2 $120
eVGA GeForce 7950GT 512MB $215
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 $130
Epox EP-MF570SLI Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 $146
Fortron Source AX450-PN, 450W Power Supply $64
And he will use his old creative soundblaster live sound card (is that better than the onboard sound of the motherboard?)
He will also use a 160gb IDE 7200RPM Seagate for storage.

Questions:
I know AM2 now supports DDR2, and it has speeds up to PC2 6400 (DDR2 800.) If im not mistaken the PC 6400 part means I can have a CPU up to 6.4ghz and the RAM will keep up the CPU right? I assume I should purchase DDR2 800 for the extra 20-30 dollars over the slower ram for future upgrades?

Thanks!
 
Originally posted by: TriggerHappy101
If im not mistaken the PC 6400 part means I can have a CPU up to 6.4ghz and the RAM will keep up the CPU right?
Click to expand...

Umm... 😕

Not quite. It means you can run the memory faster than normal if you're not linking the CPU and memory speed. PC6400 is just a speed rating.

If you've got $700 to spend on just motherboard, ram, CPU, GPU and PSU you can get a Core 2 Duo out of that:

Core 2 Duo E6300
Gigabyte P965-S3
2Gb any brand DDR2-533 value ram (or whatever's on offer)
Radeon X1950XT 256
Seasonic/ 400W PSU
 
If you really want Core 2 Duo, wait few weeks after 4/22 price drop. If you can't wait, lower the CPU speed and find a cheaper board to get a 8800GTS.
 
This PC will be primarily be for gaming - nothing else.

Doesn't the 7950GT 512mb out preform the X1950XT 256? And if its the same price why wouldn't I get the 7950GT?

First you say to get any brand DDR2-533 then you post right next to it a DDR2-800. Will I see any performance difference?

The difference in speed between the Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz and the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz is small (If not slower.) According to Toms hardware speed charts.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=433&model2=467&chart=193
And thats comparing the faster E6400 w/ the X2 4600 (the site doesn't have the E6300.)
I rather get the X2 4600+ for cheaper and better gaming performance.

The CPU inst going to be the limiting factor anyways right? Its more dependent on the video card.

Thanks for the help. Comments welcomed!
 
Originally posted by: TriggerHappy101
This PC will be primarily be for gaming - nothing else.

Doesn't the 7950GT 512mb out preform the X1950XT 256? And if its the same price why wouldn't I get the 7950GT?

First you say to get any brand DDR2-533 then you post right next to it a DDR2-800. Will I see any performance difference?

The difference in speed between the Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz and the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz is small (If not slower.) According to Toms hardware speed charts.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=433&model2=467&chart=193
And thats comparing the faster E6400 w/ the X2 4600 (the site doesn't have the E6300.)
I rather get the X2 4600+ for cheaper and better gaming performance.

The CPU inst going to be the limiting factor anyways right? Its more dependent on the video card.

Thanks for the help. Comments welcomed!
Click to expand...

* The X1950XT is better (and cheaper) for gaming at 1280*1024 resolution and lower.
* Any brand DDR2-533 will do, yes, but that DDR2-800 is a damn good offer. You won't notice a difference unless you overclock (so I'm leaving that option open to you).
* The E6300 will perform around the same level as the 4600+ but if overclocked (and trust me it is so, so easy to do) even only to 2.8Ghz it'll blow any AMD CPU clean out of the water.
* The E6300 is one of the lowest models in the line for that socket; you can easily drop in an E6600 or quad-core (after BIOS update) should you decide to upgrade and get much more out of it than anything on AM2.
* The CPU is not so much a limiting factor, no. Should you be gaming on a very high resolution, though, you could save $30 by changing the E6300 for an E4300 and get splash out a little bit more for an 8800GTS 320MB.
 
Originally posted by: Roguestar
Originally posted by: TriggerHappy101
This PC will be primarily be for gaming - nothing else.

Doesn't the 7950GT 512mb out preform the X1950XT 256? And if its the same price why wouldn't I get the 7950GT?

First you say to get any brand DDR2-533 then you post right next to it a DDR2-800. Will I see any performance difference?

The difference in speed between the Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz and the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz is small (If not slower.) According to Toms hardware speed charts.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=433&model2=467&chart=193
And thats comparing the faster E6400 w/ the X2 4600 (the site doesn't have the E6300.)
I rather get the X2 4600+ for cheaper and better gaming performance.

The CPU inst going to be the limiting factor anyways right? Its more dependent on the video card.

Thanks for the help. Comments welcomed!
Click to expand...

* The X1950XT is better (and cheaper) for gaming at 1280*1024 resolution and lower.
* Any brand DDR2-533 will do, yes, but that DDR2-800 is a damn good offer. You won't notice a difference unless you overclock (so I'm leaving that option open to you).
* The E6300 will perform around the same level as the 4600+ but if overclocked (and trust me it is so, so easy to do) even only to 2.8Ghz it'll blow any AMD CPU clean out of the water.
* The E6300 is one of the lowest models in the line for that socket; you can easily drop in an E6600 or quad-core (after BIOS update) should you decide to upgrade and get much more out of it than anything on AM2.
* The CPU is not so much a limiting factor, no. Should you be gaming on a very high resolution, though, you could save $30 by changing the E6300 for an E4300 and get splash out a little bit more for an 8800GTS 320MB.
Click to expand...

He will not be overclocking.
He has a 22" widescreen LCD w/ res of 1680x1050. How can you say the X1950XT is better and cheaper? Could you please provide some benchmarks to backup your claim? They are the same price.

The 8800GTS 320 does seem like a better alternative for only 20-30 dollars more.

How does it compare to the 7950GT 512mb though? I can only find benchmarks comparing it to the 256mb.
 
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