help with new build, P5Q/E7500?

[zCypher]

Hello,

So what I'm thinking of for the new build is:

P5Q
E7500
4GB DDR2
WD 1TB
MSI GTX275

The advice I'm looking for is, what would the ideal mobo/ram/cpu combo be? How important is it to match the FSB with the RAM speed?

I'm leaning against spending more for I7, DDR3 etc because just the above specs I'm looking at would already blow away what I have, I'm sure I'd be happy with it for a long time.

Just looking to get the most for the least... I'm hoping to spend no more than $200 for the case/PS, no more than $300 for mobo and cpu, ram and HD are fairly cheap and the graphics I will probably spend around $200.

Any advice regarding the combination of mobo/cpu/ram that might help me decide would be highly appreciated!

 

[zCypher]

ASRock for $90 - http://www.agileelectronics.ca...ails.asp?prod_id=P45TS
or Asus for $112 - http://www.infonec.com/site/ma...odule=detail&id=443673

? I'm having a hell of a time choosing the mobo!

 

[Gillbot]

I'd pass on the Asrock myself, but if you like Asus go for it. I'm a fan of MSI and they've done very well for me but many here seem to hate them.

Gigabyte makes some solid 775 motherboards also so don't rule them out.

 

[zCypher]

I've never had problems with Asus, although I only have good experience with MSI also. I don't have any Gigabyte experience though.

I'm at a loss as to how to choose a board. What should the deciding factor be? Is there a big difference in performance between a G41 and P43/P45 chipset?

I really don't want to end up with a mediocre mobo though. I had an ECS once which WORKED but it was SO much slower than my MSI (with same hardware plugged into it).

 

[Gillbot]

The deciding factor should be your budget and options that you want, with a manufacturer YOU trust. I've been burned in the past by taking advice from forums and buying a board recommended that I personally wouldn't buy. It ended up being a disaster so now I buy the board I want that has the features I need and that fits my budget.

 

[SunnyD]

Look for the features in the board that you want that's at the right price for you, then look at the manufacturer and see if it makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. Anything above and beyond is icing on the cake.

 

[zCypher]

Thanks for the input. That makes good sense, I appreciate the advice. Do you know if ASrock is the same thing as Asus or is there a difference?

From what I understand so far, I'm not so sure that I7/ddr3 is worth the extra cost. I'm not sure, either, if I would stoop as low as $60 motherboards and an E5300 - although even an E5300 would blow away my XP2600.

I don't want to cheap out on the motherboard but don't want to spend too much either, leaving myself some head way at least. I've had my eye set on the P5Q for a while, there are several variants... but I find myself having a real hard time picking between the various chipsets and models -> how can you tell what really makes a difference?

 

[zCypher]

Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L for $54.99
hmmm or the
MSI G31M3-L for $49

Asus EN8400GS 512M for $29.99

 

[zCypher]

Ok, is this half decent?

$240 shipped for:
MSI G31M3-L
Intel E5200
Asus 8400GS 512M
4GB g.skill

Didn't order it yet, still doing more searching.

grr... $194 on ebay basically the same thing i put together but with 2g, except it comes with case/psu

still, i think i am best off carefully picking my case/psu and having the joy of putting it all together

 

[Gillbot]

i'm not an ebay fan, but the rest looks ok. it really depends on how long you plan on keeping the system, what your budget is and what your goals are.

 

[zCypher]

Well nevermind the eBay one, it is $40 shipping and I prefer to pick out my own case and power supply.

The system I have now I kept for a good 5 years, so I plan to keep this one around the same time. I'm really liking some of those small cases I've been seeing, so this motherboard being a microATX is a plus if I end up with one of those.

I'm going to order the motherboard, CPU and RAM. It's $6.99 shipping. NCIX and Canadacomputers both have much cheaper shipping rates than most other places I've seen. So far it has worked out the cheapest to get it all from NCIX. I have checked the parts on other sites and with shopbot.ca and haven't been able to find cheaper than this anywhere...

Anyone see anything wrong with this before I go through with it?

-E5200
-MSI G31M3-L V2
-Corsair 2GB PC2-6400 CL5
For $169.95 shipped

 

[Gillbot]

the E5200 is a decent processor and will suit you fine assuming you don't plan to overtax it.

 

[zCypher]

I sent in my order. Thanks for all the help, much appreciated. I definitely won't be overclocking. The last time I did that I had a 486-66MHz and I overclocked it to 83MHz, I was amazed to see a performance difference I screwed up a few things doing that

I will post an update once it's all set up. It's been so long since I've played with computers... Almost forgot how much fun it is

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: zCypher
I sent in my order. Thanks for all the help, much appreciated. I definitely won't be overclocking. The last time I did that I had a 486-66MHz and I overclocked it to 83MHz, I was amazed to see a performance difference I screwed up a few things doing that

I will post an update once it's all set up. It's been so long since I've played with computers... Almost forgot how much fun it is

Just a footnote -- I think everyone else missed answering one of your questions.

If you go with a processor that has an 800mhz FSB, it will be harder to get a 1:1 CPU-to-RAM ratio that takes advantage of the memory's stock spec, unless you get (old, slow) DDR2 RAM like DDR2-533 or DDR2-667. Generally, just about anything you can get now in DDR2 is [DDR]=800Mhz or higher. [There's a good set of G.SKILL modules I picked up two months ago that are DDR2-800 / 2x2GB=4GB, and cheaper than KOOL cigarettes.]

But since you're not going to over-clock, it won't matter. The motherboard will default the RAM speed to 800 Mhz, and auto-set the ratio to whatever is required to work with the processor.

 

[zCypher]

Thanks for all the input, advice and help everyone. I'm definitely not going to overclock. I'll be adding another 2GB soon. Thanks Bonzai for clearing that up, makes good sense.

Although I will soon be ordering an HX520, this hardware I'm getting is pretty basic, it should work just fine on a plain old power supply that's been running my current system? I'm not even sure what the wattage is, I'll have to check that but it's never given me any problems.