Cheapest quad-core capable motherboard?

[mazeroth]

I'm trying to convince my brother into upgrading his computer from an A64 3200+ / 1 gig to a Core2 setup with 2 gigs of RAM for playing newer games (vid card is fine). He's resilient to doing it because he just upgraded a year ago but I figure for $110 for the CPU and 2GB of Super Talent plus XXX for the motherboard he'll be in good shape. Then he can sell his set for $50 or so and not have a huge amount invested, maybe $100-$120.

Also, do you think the E2140 will get him 2.2-2.4 ghz? I'm out of the loop as far as chips go right now.

Any info is greatly appreciated!

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

If I were you and I were out of the loop, I wouldn't suggest anyone do anything. If your brother doesn't want to upgrade his rig, let it be. If you want a new computer I suggest you get one. As for costs, yeah, it's cheap ($215ish) to upgrade, but what's the point? It looks like you're only setting him up to buy a quad next anyway. If he's fine with his rig, and it looks that way, leave him alone.

Of course, if he wants to do something look here or possibly here.

 

[Xvys]

Here's one for $22.99 after mir, which is about the cheapest new board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813186112

Or you could get a AsRock DualVsta for $35 and perhaps find an open box for $20.

 

[mazeroth]

This is the one I was thinking about:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128077

What's the big difference between the P31 and P35? Also, is it worth it to go to an E4x or E6x series or will the E2x series do the job? I'm running the E4300 (in sig) and couldn't be happier. I'm just not sure if the loss of cache is going to be that noticeable.

 

[Goldfish4209]

There's no big difference between P31 and 35, other than support for higher FSBs. A P31 is basically a P35 that wouldn't run at P35 speeds, I would guess. Aside from that, the boards themselves are kind of crappy. IMO a P35 would be worth it to me just for the extra features. A E4xxx is probably the best thing to go for now, as the E2xxx's tiny cache holds it back too much and the E6xxx's lower multiplier makes it not as good of a value, and the giant cache isn't really worth it if you're just going to upgrade in a few months.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: mazeroth
Also, do you think the E2140 will get him 2.2-2.4 ghz? I'm out of the loop as far as chips go right now.

Any info is greatly appreciated!

An E2140 should get you 3.2Ghz, with a tiny bit of luck, and some DDR2-800 memory.


If he's got a good video card now, why do you need to upgrade. Do you think that he is CPU-limited in games?

 

[hans007]

ddr1 ram is worth far more than ddr2 also.

you could sell his 1gb ddr1 ram for $30 by itself. his cpu and mobo maybe another $30-40.

i'd suggest you buy a g31 board (since they cost less than p31 most of the time and are the same chip, just p31 has the graphics disabled... ) and an e2140 or e2160. then get 2gb of ram on a rebate deal for like $30.

your total outlay of cash probably would only be $80 or so after getting rid of his old stuff. and g31 / p31 supports penryn

 

[imported_Scoop]

If he's not upgrading to quad core this year, then there's no point in quad core support. Nehalem will use a different socket so there's no boards to support that.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: Scoop
If he's not upgrading to quad core this year, then there's no point in quad core support. Nehalem will use a different socket so there's no boards to support that.

penryn will probably stay in production far into 2009...


first off nehalem is only arriving for enthusiast 3 channel DDR3 platform in q1 of 2009.


thats going to be an expensive platform.

the mainstream 2 channel ddr3 ONLY platform will not arrive until mid 2009 on a completely different socket.

and the value version that uses a chipset on yet another socket with ddr2 or ddr3 support will arrive even later than that (probably q3 or q4 2009) from reports on the internet.

so buying intel 3 series now even if you are upgrading to quad in say early 2009 still isnt too bad a choice, seeing as affordable nehalem probably wont be cheap until nearly the end of 2009 since im sure the enthusiast and even mainstream platforms will be expensive not to mention ddr3 ram in a year still probably wont be as cheap as ddr2.


honestly if you want to avoid the hassle just find a store that still has socket 939 x2 chips, and buy another gig of ram. its pretty hard to find them now, but stores that have say the 4200+ in stock , have them for like 60-70 and another gig of ram is probably $35. a 4200+ is probably about as fast as a non overclocked e2180 or e4400.