I want to do a big makeover for my PC...what should I go with?

NukaCola

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Jul 20, 2005
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My PC's been showing signs of age...It's really the CPU, RAM, and mobo that need changing (My GeForce 7800GT I can replace later on..)

What I'm looking for most in an upgrade is "lastingness." When I got my mobo 939-pin was already being phased out by AM2 I believe. My mobo also uses 184-pin for RAM..and now I believe 240-pin is the way to go. These are my ideas for the upgrade:

mobo - evga brand perhaps? (check my sig for my current specs). $100-200 price range.
RAM - 240-pin, 2GB, some kind of OCZ RAM (I know little about what a good clock speed is so help me out). $70-90 range.
CPU - I was thinking of a socket LGA775 intel Core 2 Duo. Something in the $200-300 price range..

Thanks in advance. Are LGA775 socket mobos being phased out? Is DDR3 going to dominate DDR2 any time soon? Let me know.
 

Doclife

Senior member
Oct 7, 2007
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My 939 mobo died 5 months ago and I was somewhat in the same situation as you are now. Anyway, I went with the following components (see my signature) and very happy with it.


MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R Rev. 2.0 LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard $123

http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4830711


Stable as a rock, highly overclockable, superb on-board sound, 8 USB ports.


CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 M0 Stepping Conroe 2.2GHz 2MB L2 LGA 775 Processor $125

http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1938256


With x11 multiplier, the E4500 will not put much stress on the motherboard/memory when overclocking.


MEMORY: HP - Memory - 1 GB - DIMM 240-pin - DDR II - 667 MHz $7.26 (after $20 rebate for each stick, up to 5 sticks)

http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/HP/PX976AT/L49299

Memory from a reputable company, works very well with the Gigabyte motherboard and the price is ridiculously low. I was able to overclock the memory from 667MHz to 720MHz at stock voltage. I haven't try to overclock it higher since my system is plenty fast as it. I bought 4 sticks (4GB) and got the rebate check from HP within 4 weeks.

CPU COOLER: None. The stock cooler is more than adequate and very quiet under load too.

SOUND CARD: None. On-board sound is superb.


Grand Total with 4GB memory: $278


DDR2 will be around for a while. But with the DDR2 memory price as cheap as they are now, stock them up and you can skip the DDR3 altogether.
 

MegaVovaN

Diamond Member
May 20, 2005
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You really should read similar threads and form a list of parts that we can critique.

I'll just quote my post from other thread:

CPU: e6750 OR Q6600 OR one of the new 45nm chips coming out in USA Jan 20th (E8xxx series I think)
RAM: 4 gb of any DDR2. If budget is tight, go for 2 gb. Preferably 2 sticks of 2gb each, not 4x 1gb sticks.
MoBo: something with Intel's P35 chipset in ~$90-$130 range (US Prices). For example:
--Abit IP35-E
--MSI P35 Neo2-FR
--GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
--GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R
--ASUS P5K-E
 

jhu

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
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add a racing stripe and a "powered by honda" and a "vtec" sticker. also, add a new muffler.
 

NukaCola

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Jul 20, 2005
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Are there any $200-range intel Core 2 Duo's with 3.0 ghz or more? Also is cheap RAM necessarily good quality RAM?

I was looking at this OCZ memory:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820227252

Also, does that gigabyte motherboard support SLI?

This is the mobo I was looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188015

Finally this CPU caught my eye:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115028

Also, my current PSU is 520W. Can that handle all of this plus let's say a 8800GT?

 

Doclife

Senior member
Oct 7, 2007
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Originally posted by: NukaCola
Are there any $200-range intel Core 2 Duo's with 3.0 ghz or more? Also is cheap RAM necessarily good quality RAM?

I was looking at this OCZ memory:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820227252

Also, does that gigabyte motherboard support SLI?

This is the mobo I was looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188015

Finally this CPU caught my eye:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115028

Also, my current PSU is 520W. Can that handle all of this plus let's say a 8800GT?


Cheap RAM does not mean that it does not have any quality. The RAM that I recommended in the previous post (HP) is made by HP, the world's largest PC manufacturer; thus, I would not consider them as a no name brand. Big companies sometimes sell stuffs at cost or loss so that they can write off the inventory. In other words, it is more expensive for them to stock items in the warehouse. The HP memory is manufactured per JEDEC standard, meaning that it must meet certain minimum requirements and must be compatible with other JEDEC devices. Thus, compatibility should not be an issue.

If you are willing to spend $90 on that OCZ memory, I suggest you buy 2 x 2GB stick instead of 4 x 1GB stick. Less number of sticks means less power required, less heat, more reliable. The 1GB HP memory I recommended is an exception just because of the extreme low price and proven in my system.

The Gigabyte mobo GA-P35-DS3R does not support SLI.
The mobo that you're looking at utilizes the chipset designed/manufactured by Nvidia. I don't know enough about that chipset to make a comment. However, I do know that the P35 chipset which is designed/manufactured by Intel has been proven worldwide by million of users and all have good things to say about it.

The CPU that you are looking at is the E6850. That's the only CPU that run at 3GHz stock speed currently.

520W PSU is more than enough to handle your proposed system, assuming that the current ratings on the 12V lines are sufficient.
 

MegaVovaN

Diamond Member
May 20, 2005
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buy e6750, bump FSB to 400 and WOO you got 3.2 ghz.

very popular and effortless overclock that works on stock cooling and cheap ram
 

NukaCola

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Jul 20, 2005
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Very interesting. I've never OC'ed anything before, even though I bet I could with ease. I guess it's because I've never put time into learning how. But heck, if I can do it with the e6750 then I'll do it. Just let me know how :p

I like the look of these OCZ RAM sticks: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16820227248

Are there any intel motherboards that do SLI? I can't find any on newegg.com :/
 

Doclife

Senior member
Oct 7, 2007
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Originally posted by: NukaCola
Very interesting. I've never OC'ed anything before, even though I bet I could with ease. I guess it's because I've never put time into learning how. But heck, if I can do it with the e6750 then I'll do it. Just let me know how :p

I like the look of these OCZ RAM sticks: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16820227248

Are there any intel motherboards that do SLI? I can't find any on newegg.com :/


That memory is not manufactured per JEDEC standard;thus, compatibility may be an issue. If you use this memory, you will need to set the voltage to 2.1V in your motherboard BIOS instead of the default 1.8V (JEDEC standard).

I never did consider SLI in my build and did not spend more time to research more than what I already know. So I cannot give you a recommendation there. SLI only makes sense if you implement it NOW. That is, buy 2 video cards now and enjoy it. If you buy 1 video card now and think that you'll SLI them later then by that time, a single next generation card is probably already out and will outperform whatever SLI card that you plan to do in the first place. For example a single 8800GT 512MB today would outperform the SLI of the 7800GT card that you have now. Another thing to consider: you can't even buy another 7800GT today to SLI if you want to; unless you're willing to buy from Ebay.
 

Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
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Originally posted by: Doclife
That memory is not manufactured per JEDEC standard;thus, compatibility may be an issue.

That's very important to point out because some boards will not POST with RAM like this.
 

NukaCola

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Jul 20, 2005
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Forgive me, but what does posting mean?

So compatibility might be an issue..hmmm. Then I may as well go with that HP memory. I dunno, it's just that when I think "HP" I don't think "good memory makers." I usually look more to manufacturers like Corsair, OCZ, and Kingston for memory. Does HP memory have "heat spreaders" or anything like that? How do games such as The Witcher or Crysis handle on it? Also, I use 32-bit Windows XP. Will it recognize 4GB RAM? Also, since the OCZ memory runs in 2.1V doesn't that mean it's more "high-power" than the JEDEC standard, therefore, better?

I'll go look at the other forum boards for OCing that e6750.

I'm still incredibly undecided on a motherboard. The Gigabyte P35 isn't very appealing to me, and the intel-made boards are a little meh..

 

MegaVovaN

Diamond Member
May 20, 2005
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POST is basically booting up. When you turn on the computer you see text running on screen (or a motherboard logo) - this is system checking itself before booting Windows. With 2.1V RAM you might not be able to turn the computer on!

I use this ram with my e6750:
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=T8UB2GC5

Cheap, fast, and has heat spreaders :) Buy 2 of these for 4gb of goodness.

As for how to o/c to 3.2 ghz, go to BIOS and set FSB to 400 (it is 333 by default). Reboot and WOOT - 3.2 ghz! All on stock cooling.

Max o/c that was achieved with e6750 is 3.8 ghz, but that was with AWESOME cooling+expensive motherboard+lucky chip = $$$$$$$$$$


edit: HP ram will work just as well as other RAM on stock speeds and moderate O/C.

32bit win xp will "see" ~3.2 gb of RAM. You can Install a 120 day trial of winxp64 to use all 4 gb ram, or maybe buy Vista64 through your college for cheap.
 

NukaCola

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Jul 20, 2005
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Wowie, that Super Talent RAM looks excellent. Never even heard of that manufacturer before. There's no catches/dangers to the OCing of that CPU, right?

Looking at that Gigabyte mobo more makes me think it's not so bad after all.
 

MegaVovaN

Diamond Member
May 20, 2005
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Originally posted by: NukaCola
There's no catches/dangers to the OCing of that CPU, right?


I'm not sure I understand your question. There is always a danger of overheating and breaking your chip...if you break it while O/Cing, warranty is void since newegg won't give out free CPUs for n00bs to burn.
 

MegaVovaN

Diamond Member
May 20, 2005
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If you do a mild o/c and have good case cooling, I wouldn't worry much. You aren't even touching voltage, just FSB to get to 3.2 ghz.
If FSB is too high then mobo won't boot and you will have to short 2 pins on mobo to reset everything to default in BIOS.

Since you won't be touching voltage, only thing that may break the CPU is heat from higher FSB. Just do a mild O/C, don't go for extremes like 3.4 and 3.5 ghz.
Keep an eye on temps with CoreTemp and you should be OK. I read somewhere that max safe temp for C2D is 72 degrees C. Mine stays around 35 idle and up to 62 load.

edit: SUpertalent is 1 stick thats 2 gb.

So 2 sticks will make 4 gb.
 

MegaVovaN

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May 20, 2005
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Supertalent is 1 stick that's 2 gb.

So 2 sticks will make 4 gb.

probably 8 chips of 128mb each on each side of the module, so
8*128 (side A) + 8*128 (side B) = 1024+1024 = 2048 = 2gb
 

NukaCola

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Jul 20, 2005
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Okay thanks. It's just the wording of it on that site that confused me, lol. Hmm I'm going to think this over. I go back to college in exactly one week, it'd be nice to do this upgrade this week (my friend's dad a few houses away can easily replace my mobo and everything with my new stuff).
 

NukaCola

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Jul 20, 2005
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Another area of concern: my college dorm has no room temp regulation. I recall getting artifacts on my screen once cause my GPU ran a little too hot due to me keeping my PC on standby overnight. If I OC my CPU, it'll run a little hotter, and if I can't dictate the temperature of my room...Also, I have one SATA drive and one IDE drive. One review on New Egg for the Gigabyte mobo states that: "The computer runs incredibly slow when I installed an IDE hard drive as a second hard drive. I have a SATA II Maxtor 320GB as my main boot HDD, and experience no slowness without the IDE hard drive (Western Digital 80GB). This may not be a motherboard issue, but just to let you know what I've experienced."

Is this just a problem on his end? I wouldn't want my IDE 160gb to slow me down.
 

MegaVovaN

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May 20, 2005
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Problem with his IDE hard drive is he probably connected his DVD drive and IDE HDD on same cable.
IDE drive runs at ATA 33 speeds where as IDE HDD runs at ATA 100 speeds. So, by placing DVD and HD on same cable he limited speed of both devices to DVD drive's speed.

If he connects one or two HDD on IDE it would be no problem.
 

NukaCola

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Jul 20, 2005
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ah, damn, that's nto good for me then, since both my DVD Drive & one of my HDD's are IDE..and there's only one IDE port on my mobo..so I guess I need to replace my DVD Burner with a SATA one...

So Mega, can you tell me, step by step, how you managed to find a sweet spot with your OC'ing of the E6750? You just changed the FSB, no voltage changes? Also, I'll be getting the 4GB of RAM so what does that mean for my CPU?

Another thing, room temperature is a big issue and like I said, I dunno if OC'ing in a warm place like my dorm is a good idea..would a cooling fan be in order there? I know you say stock cooling is just fine but, is it fine in a small one-room dorm?
 

MegaVovaN

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May 20, 2005
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I don't know about your dorm room problem...actually e6750 is damn fast on stock too.
You can probably get one of IDE-to-SATA adapters for DVD drive. Should be cheaper than a new SATA drive.

I didn't look for sweet spot - I just read that people easily reached 3.2 ghz simply by changing FSB in BIOS from 333 to 400.

So I went to BIOS, found FSB, changed it to 400, and DONE! Didn't bother changing anything else since because computer is very fast as is. I did not change votage, only FSB which I set to 400.

edit: IDE to SATA adapters

As I understand it works like this:

FSB * multiplier = ghz

e6750's multiplier is 8

so stock speed is
333 fsb * 8 multiplier = 2664 mhz = 2.66ghz

I overclocked like this:

400 fsb * 8 multiplier = 3200 mhz = 3.2 ghz
 

NukaCola

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Jul 20, 2005
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Alright, so I have everything I need to get saved to a wishlist, but I need to ask one final thing..how long will this last me? I'm not asking anybody to predict the future here, but is there a new motherboard announced by intel that intends to replace the LGA775 socket sometime soon? Are 240-pin RAM slots for mobos still going strong? I know 4GB of RAM should secure for a long, long time, I'm just uncertain about the longevity of my motherboard. I take it that any successor/revision to the e6750 would be priced much, much more anyway, but this CPU seems like it'll last me a long while. Thanks again.