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For all my "true" budget enthusiasts.... help a brother out

J

janas19

Platinum Member
Hello everyone. I have a couple of questions that are probably very easy for the right person to answer, but am having trouble answering them definitively myself. But before I get to the main question, just a few details to fill in beforehand, if I may.

So a while ago I created a thread about an 1155 platform setup. I got a lot of really good information, and I still plan on using that information to purchase an Ivy Bridge cpu/mobo when they hit the market. But for the time being, things have changed just a little.

To make a long story short, what happened is that I was browsing Craigslist one day and found a socket 775 Gigabyte board for only $20. Turns out the seller pulled it after only a few days usage from a customers build due to a LAN device issue. Otherwise, the motherboard posts, boots to Bios, works just peachy, just doesn't have onboard LAN capability (hoping I may find a workaround for this, but it's not absolutely essential).

Soooo since I am now the proud owner of a cool new 775 Gigabyte board, I was hoping to get a little input from someone more familiar with 775 builds than I am who could help this noob out... Here's the deal: planning on an eventual Ivy Bridge machine in Q2 of 2012 or whenever, but in the meantime I would like something for just very general gaming on an assortment of mostly older games (but perhaps one or two new ones if they run). I have a budget of $100 for CPU and RAM, but I've noticed that DDR2 RAM is siginificantly more expensive than DDR3.

Having said all that, here is my question. Do you think it would be better to spend more money of a limited budget on the CPU and get a Core 2 Duo with bigger cache, and only buy 2 Gigs of RAM, OR, would it be better to get a lower-clocking, smaller cache Core 2 Duo (or even Pentium) and spend the extra $15 or so on 4 Gigs of RAM...

It may be that somewhere down the road the right bargain will come up and I can get a bigger Core 2 Duo and 4 GB Ram, but I can't count on that happening. So if I had to decide on either/or, where would you put the extra money if it was your budget build? Higher clock/cache CPU, or more RAM for the motherboard? Where do you think the bottleneck on an older 775 rig is more likely to be? (let's assume there is no VGA bottleneck).

You guys have helped me out so much before, I really appreciate your feed back. Thank you.
 
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I would not build on LGA775. The simplest solution would be to buy an Ivy Bridge compatible Z68 board, a cheap SB processor like Pentium G620, and 4GB or 8GB DDR3 1600. This would cost $200 or so. Then simply upgrade the CPU in 2012 to an unlocked multiplier Ivy Bridge, this should cost another $200 minus whatever you get for the Pentium.
 
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Sigh... I know that you're right Lehtv. I know you're right, I shouldn't be putting ANY money into 775 when I can get so much for so little on 1155... So this next part is going to be completely irrational, but dammit, I'm fixated on 775 now and I just want to see how far this $100 can take me! Lol... I'm a guy who loves going to yard sales and finding old stuff that no one wants and getting it for next to nothing! Lol...



Ken g6 said:
So, you say you have $100. How about:

- A mobo for $40AR
- A dual-core 2.4GHz processor for $57
- 4GB RAM for $15AR

OK, so that's $112. But it'll be better than any LGA775 processor/RAM you can get for that price. Edit: Rough comparison. The G530 is slower, but you can't get that much cache on a Core 2 for <$100 either.

Of course, a $98 mobo (including shipping) would be better for upgrading later. :whiste:
Click to expand...

You are also right KenG6.

I don't think my idea is gaining much traction, SO... I'm going to refine this thread with my next post which will be ....
 
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*UPDATE*

Since the respectable members of AT have brought to my attention that $100 will go a lot farther on 1155 than 775 (and they are absolutely correct, there's no argument there), I respect the input given to me and have decided on a different approach for my s775 "junker project."

What I think I will do now is find the cheapest Core 2 Duo or Pentium I can, lets say one of those E4300 which no one seems to pay much attention to - I will look for one of those at 1.8GHz stock and see if I can overclock it to 2.6GHz, and play some older games like Fallout 3 or ES: Oblivion.

If I can get someone to sell me their old Core 2 Duo and RAM at a bundle for $40, say, and successfully overclock it to 2.4 or 2.6 GHz, then I would be meeting the Recommended requirments for a number of older games I would like to play. This would drop the price down for $50 or below.

I think this may work. You guys think I can hit those OC's on a Gigabyte board?

I'd still love to fiddle with a junker 775 😀
 
I love super low budget builds. Awesome. Ebay is your friend. e6600, 4870, and 4gb for <$100 would be the target if I was trying what you are doing. I think it might be do-able. I've got 2 of the 4gb DDR2's you need up right now. It'll probably sell for less than $10 shipped. I've been watching 4850's for cheep crossfire setup and they are going $40 or less shipped.

If I couldn't get the above, or better, I'd probably just try to sell the mobo and do as Ken suggests.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys.

Well, I've done some searching on Ebay/forums and the results look a little depressing for the "super-budget 775 junker gamer" project thingy. Seems like the lowest "Buy It Now" price for Core 2 Duos on Ebay is about $45, and I don't expect an auction would drop much farther than $35. Plus the cost of new DDR2 RAM and I'm looking at about at least $65 just to fill in the guts on this bad boy.

The only feasible outcome of a 775 junker build is this: see if I can find a Wolfdale Pentium + RAM for a basement bargain of $40. If I can do that, I can play most games made up until about 2010, I imagine... If I had an Abit board I could overclock 775 Pentiums which would be awesome, but I'm not going to spend money on a new board when I already have one.

Thank you guys so much for indulging my fanciful whims, you guys rock! 😎
 
monkeydelmagico said:
I love super low budget builds. Awesome. Ebay is your friend. e6600, 4870, and 4gb for <$100 would be the target if I was trying what you are doing. I think it might be do-able. I've got 2 of the 4gb DDR2's you need up right now. It'll probably sell for less than $10 shipped. I've been watching 4850's for cheep crossfire setup and they are going $40 or less shipped.

If I couldn't get the above, or better, I'd probably just try to sell the mobo and do as Ken suggests.
Click to expand...

Thanks MDM, I appreciate the budget love! 😛 Thanks for the input, and hope you have luck with your 4850 search!
 
IMO grab a 45nm pentium dual core with 2MB L2 and 800FSB and OC that thing balls to the wall. you can probably approach 4.0 on the right chip.

with a successful OC, that should present you with the best bang for the buck on that used mainboard you bought.

this is the exact reason why intel killed OCing on non K or extreme chips.
 
Spikesoldier said:
IMO grab a 45nm pentium dual core with 2MB L2 and 800FSB and OC that thing balls to the wall. you can probably approach 4.0 on the right chip.

with a successful OC, that should present you with the best bang for the buck on that used mainboard you bought.

this is the exact reason why intel killed OCing on non K or extreme chips.
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That would be a great idea, excepting one small fact.

You can only oc the 45nm Pentiums on Abit brand mobos. They have a special BIOS to overide Intel's locks. All other boards can't 🙁
 
Which Gigabyte board is it and do you know if it allows you to change the CPU voltage and/or FSB in the BIOS? Don't buy anything below core2duo and spend more money on the CPU and settle for 2 rather than 4GB of RAM for your games. Most core2duos were good overclockers and if you get the right one, you likely can get it to 3Ghz by increasing FSB and giving it a small voltage boost if any. Look for the lower stock FSB and try to find out if your board supports the 45nm later models before you buy. Oh, and where are you? If you can deal with someone locally and avoid shipping charges, it might make the difference in your project succeeding.
 
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Thanks dbcooper, that really helps. I have a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L.

The factory specs of some of the Wolfdale Pentiums are the same as some Conroe Core 2s. The only difference is the Pentium core multipliers are locked. So, I'm wondering if the extra time and money spent would make a difference if we are talking strictly 3.0Ghz 2MB L2 1066fsb VS. 3.5Ghz 2MB L2 1066fsb (I'm not comparing the Wolfdale C2Ds, obviously much better but still fetch a fine price).
 
janas19 said:
That would be a great idea, excepting one small fact.

You can only oc the 45nm Pentiums on Abit brand mobos. They have a special BIOS to overide Intel's locks. All other boards can't 🙁
Click to expand...

Link me up, that's first time I heard that claim.

I'm sure others will chime in and give their personal experiences, but for me I can only say personally, that I oc'ed my Q9550 (45nm) on my MSI board to 3.7GHz.
 
Spikesoldier said:
Link me up, that's first time I heard that claim.
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D'oh!

I just realized, I totally goofed. I was looking at this from a Google search:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/How-to-Overclock-a-Socket-775-Pentium-4/198

and I missed the "4" at the end of "Pentium 4."

Ooops. 😳

Well, that makes this comment make a lot more sense, eh?

Spikesoldier said:
IMO grab a 45nm pentium dual core with 2MB L2 and 800FSB and OC that thing balls to the wall. you can probably approach 4.0 on the right chip.

with a successful OC, that should present you with the best bang for the buck on that used mainboard you bought.

this is the exact reason why intel killed OCing on non K or extreme chips.
Click to expand...


So Pentium Dual-Cores oc? Sweet.
 
janas19 said:
Thanks dbcooper, that really helps. I have a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L.

The factory specs of some of the Wolfdale Pentiums are the same as some Conroe Core 2s. The only difference is the Pentium core multipliers are locked. So, I'm wondering if the extra time and money spent would make a difference if we are talking strictly 3.0Ghz 2MB L2 1066fsb VS. 3.5Ghz 2MB L2 1066fsb (I'm not comparing the Wolfdale C2Ds, obviously much better but still fetch a fine price).
Click to expand...

That's one of the better boards for overclocking, even the quads. I still build 775 systems from trade ins/upgrades. You should be able to find something out there- just keep looking. Make sure you have the BIOS required for the Wolfdale if you go that way and if you get 800 RAM, should should be able to run it 1:1 with the 400 FSB. If you do decide you need to communicate with the world, just pick up a PCI network card for next to nothing.
 
Is there a recommended RAM frequency for these older DDR2s? Like, a sweet spot between performance and value? I don't need to pay like $40 extra for a %5 difference, but I'd be interested to hear what you like in your builds.
 
5300 or 667 is probably the sweet spot; 800 (400 FSB and transfers data twice each cycle- thus DDR2) is very common and just simplifies set up since you can set the bus up to 400 and not worry about the RAM. Anything faster than this is typically just factory overclocked and frequently requires higher voltage to do so, produces more heat, and costs more. I've also had more problems with anything over 800 over time.
 
janas19 said:
Is there a recommended RAM frequency for these older DDR2s? Like, a sweet spot between performance and value? I don't need to pay like $40 extra for a &#37;5 difference, but I'd be interested to hear what you like in your builds.
Click to expand...

DDR2 800 is extremely common and about the best thing for overclocking (1:1 FSB: DRAM as dbcooper1 said).

Still doesn't change the fact that you're throwing good money after bad. Let that $20 go man. 😀
 
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mfenn said:
Let that $20 go man. 😀
Click to expand...

LOL 😛 I'm gonna play the devil on the other shoulder mfenn.

janas19 said:
So this next part is going to be completely irrational, but dammit, I'm fixated on 775 now and I just want to see how far this $100 can take me! Lol... I'm a guy who loves going to yard sales and finding old stuff that no one wants and getting it for next to nothing! Lol... ....
Click to expand...

and

janas19 said:
I'd still love to fiddle with a junker 775 😀
Click to expand...

C'mon janas I feel ya. There is a great sense of accomplishment in taking something many "enthusiasts" would throw out or sell on the cheap and making it rock n roll in BF3 or Skyrim!

It's like picking up a ratty fox body mustang, stuffing a junkyard windsor under the hood, bolt on a set of slicks and head for the drag strip to embarrass machines costing 10x as much. 😎
 
Thanks for the input on both sides, I'm getting great info all around from you fellas.

Right now I'm watching eBay and FS forums like a hawk, just waiting to see what will come along.

I feel ya Monkey! It's like finding an old GTO sitting unused in someone's yard. (Sorry if that's a bad example but I'm an import guy myself 🙂 )
 
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