Decided to postpone conroe upgrade until Vista - please advise on a temporary other build

[Victorvdb]

Hello all,

after reading the comments in the other thread, and the reviews on Conroe on here, I decided to wait with buying the 2k system until beginning of next year when Vista will be on the market, and there are going to be better motherboards available for Conroe. From what I've gathered it'd be better to wait until there is NForce5 and SLI available for the Core2Duo's and when those are available (september?) it would be better to wait again etc. Although I hate waiting, it did seem to make sense, and I would be upgrading to Vista when it is released anyway, might as well buy it OEM.

However, I still need a system upgrade, and made a deal with my parents that I will sell the system I am buying now (minus the raptor disk) to them for 50% when I buy the new system beginning next year. My budget is about 700 euros (not including the raptor) for this for which I picked the following:

Asus P5LD2 i945P DUAL RAID, PCI-e, DDR2

Intel Pentium D 820 2.80Ghz FSB800 2MB Box

2x512MB DDR2 SDRAM PC3200 CL3.0

XFX PCI-e GeForce 7600GT 256MB

WD160GB SATA150 16MB WD1600YD

WD150GB SATA150 16MB Raptor WD1500ADFD

AOpen Midi Tower H500B ATX300W, 24pins

Asus DVDRAM DRW1608P3S

Until beginning of next year, the computer needs to be pretty good at multitasking, decent amounts of data processing in Access (database won't pass 8GB until next year) and gaming in Halflife 2 mostly (1920x1200 res)

Will this system be able to do so? Any places where I should do a quick or cheap upgrade? Am I missing anything important? Intel seemed to have the cheaper dualcore processors compared to the AMD setup. I am fairly sure it will more than meet the demands of my dad, who will be using it for semi-hometheatre and regular internet work.

Thanks again,

Victor

 

[Acanthus]

300w is very light weight for a Pentium-D, i would reccomend a 450w+.

PC3200 DDR2 is slower than PC3200 DDR if i recall correctly.

While the 7600GT will likely run HL2 and episode 1 at 1920x1200, you will almost certainly have to turn a few settings down.

 

[Victorvdb]

Thanks, I swapped the case for a Coolermaster Centurion 5, with a Case-Master X-Power III 450W powersupply. It has 4x SATA HDD power connectors, 1x PCI-E, P4 +12V Power Connector and 20+4pins, and a 120mm fan.

I think those two should make the computer a bit more silent too. It is a pretty cheap power supply though (26 euros)

Also swapped the memory for 2x512Mb Corsair DD2 SDRAM PC5300 CL4.0 (+15 euros)

Total is at 974? now, including assembly, excluding Windows (have those at home). 252 of that is the raptor disk, so the bare system is now at 722 euros, still acceptable.

Any other points? It is the first time I'm ordering parts from a webshop, and not at a computer store. It seems to be about 250 euros cheaper, but I am afraid I am missing some parts ...

 

[HannibalX]

What are you running on right now? Do you need a new system for a few months?

I would survive on what you have now. No reason to spend more cash.

 

[Victorvdb]

Currently working on an Asus laptop, 1.5ghz mobile processor with ATI Radeon Mobility 9600 graphics card with 64MB, Has a 40gig 5400rpm harddisk. Reason I really need a new system is that I need to start working on a 2nd 24" monitor, and need to start working on the Access database. This laptop cannot handle the shell the database works in when it becomes of some size (500MB+). I know my dad was looking to buy a system comparable to the one outlined above, and I'm ok with spending 350 euros on a system I'll have for approx 7 months. They will buy it from me for 350 when the time comes.

I would wait working on this laptop, except I basically can't. It's either buy the bigger system now and upgrade motherboard etc later, along with buying Vista, or buy this intermediary system which should be fine for those 7 months, then buy a Core2Duo system. Both options seem about equally expensive from my point of view (Vista + new mobo would be 350 euros too I guess) and this allows my parents to get a slightly more powerful computer than they otherwise would've gotten, for less money.

Victor

 

[Bobthelost]

Why get a computer for vista? Will you be using more than 2GB of RAM? If not then don't waste your money upgrading to an OS that will almost certainly be bug ridden for the first few months at the least.

Buy your computer now, any C2D/2GB with PCIe will be vista compatible, all you'll be doing is getting an extra copy of XP for the seven months. If you want SLI in the future then just get a bog standard board now and buy a SLI board when you need it. Since the odds of you doing so are slim it's a better idea than this.

 

[zephyrprime]

What I would do is just buy a retail system with an x2 in it. I have a p4 805D myself but since the price cuts in the X2 line, there's no reason not to get one unless you are buying a conroe. I'd go with the retail system because it is easier to sell on ebay or to friends.

 

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
What I would do is just buy a retail system with an x2 in it. I have a p4 805D myself but since the price cuts in the X2 line, there's no reason not to get one unless you are buying a conroe. I'd go with the retail system because it is easier to sell on ebay or to friends.

For a temp solution this isn't a bad idea. Then lije zeph said once you are ready to build the new one you can unload the retail box on eBay.

 

[Victorvdb]

@Bobthelost

Besides just the Vista thing, the notion I got from the reviews on this site is that although Conroe is very good, there is not enough supporting hardware yet. I might use more than 2GB Ram at that point, although it is unlikely. Furthermore, that system will probably have one 30" Dell and 2x 24" Dell monitors, and requires a bit more hefty spec than this one. I already have a buyer for this system at 50% the price I pay for it now, which would come down to that I'm paying about 350 for 7 or 8 months of this system, which seems fine.

@zephyrprime

The only retail systems with x2 I can find either have a lousy graphics card, or are over 900 euros, which would be outside the budget I put up for this.

Thanks all for the input, this is melting my brain!

 

[Victorvdb]

Originally posted by: Trinitron

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
What I would do is just buy a retail system with an x2 in it. I have a p4 805D myself but since the price cuts in the X2 line, there's no reason not to get one unless you are buying a conroe. I'd go with the retail system because it is easier to sell on ebay or to friends.

For a temp solution this isn't a bad idea. Then lije zeph said once you are ready to build the new one you can unload the retail box on eBay.

Like I said in the first post, my parents, who would be upgrading to a similar system in the near future anyway, will take over this system at 50% of what I paid for it. This is a pretty good deal for them, but it will allow me to pick and choose parts. I haven't found X2 to be cheaper than Pentium D though. Both me and my parents will be using this system primarily for office type application, with gaming secondary for me, and (humble) home theatre secondary for my parents

 

[jones377]

@zephyrprime

The only retail systems with x2 I can find either have a lousy graphics card, or are over 900 euros, which would be outside the budget I put up for this.

Thanks all for the input, this is melting my brain!

I thought you were buying the parts separately?

 

[Victorvdb]

I am for the system above. One recommendation was to buy a retail X2 system because it would be easier to sell on. Due to that recommendation I checked them out, and also the X2 prices seperately.

 

[jones377]

By the way, I wouldn't subject the 820 or any other 8xx on my worst enemy. For just a little more you can get a 915 which is Presler based and consumes ALOT less power. Also keep in mind that while the X2 3800+ is a little more still, you're likely to save all/most of that difference with a cheaper motherboard.

 

[jones377]

Originally posted by: Victorvdb
I am for the system above. One recommendation was to buy a retail X2 system because it would be easier to sell on. Due to that recommendation I checked them out, and also the X2 prices seperately.

You said in your opening post that you already secured the sale to your parents. You are confusing me now. It also sounded like a bad recommendation in general... Trying to sell a X2 shouldn't be harder than a 820.

 

[Victorvdb]

Originally posted by: jones377

Originally posted by: Victorvdb
I am for the system above. One recommendation was to buy a retail X2 system because it would be easier to sell on. Due to that recommendation I checked them out, and also the X2 prices seperately.

You said in your opening post that you already secured the sale to your parents. You are confusing me now. It also sounded like a bad recommendation in general... Trying to sell a X2 shouldn't be harder than a 820.

Ok, sorry if I wasn't clear.

If i buy this system, it will be for 7-8 months, until Vista is released. My parents, who were going to buy a new system soon anyway, will take over this system from me for 50% of the value I buy it now. In order to keep costs for those months down a little, I am looking at about 700/800 euros for the system. I hope that made it clear

Thanks for the advice on the 8xx, when I tried at that webshop to put in a 9xx from Intel I broke 750 euro mark, and decided to give AMD another try at this value system. Here is what I came up with

Motherboard ?91,50
Asus M2N-E nForce570 Ultra, SATA2 RAID, supports dual channel up to DDR2 800

Processor ?114,50
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz HT 1MB AM2 Box

Memory ?104,00
2x512MB Corsair DDR2 SDRAM PC5300 CL4.0 Value

Video card ?170,00
XFX Videocard PCI-e GeForce 7600GR XXX 256MB 2xDVI/HDTV

MainHDD ?67,50
WD 160GB SATA150 16MB WD1600YD

Casing ?56,50
Coolermaster Centurion 5

PSU ?26,00
Case-Master PSU X-Power III 450W

Along with cables and a DVD-RW for ?737,50. X2's with 2MB cache don't seem to be available yet.

Both systems are probably fine for what I need to do those months, and will be fine for what my parents will be doing. I plan on ordering the parts tomorrow, any more recommendations? You've all been a great help in figuring out what to do and get so far

Victor

Edit: Changed price, forgot a processor cooler

 

[Zinthar]

The 2MB cached 64 X2's are being eliminated from the AMD lineup. They offer minimal performance gain (<5%) and limit the headroom for overclocking, so they were just a bad deal in general. Stick with X2 3800+ AM2.