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Incremental Upgrade

A

AmberClad

Diamond Member
Here's what I'm looking at:
- ASUS P5B-VM Micro ATX
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz
- Possibly new RAM? Edit: Maybe this set?: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

And here's what that will be replacing:
Intel 945G Micro ATX
Pentium 4 630

Other components (possibly needing to be changed???):
Zalman CNPS7000B-CU + LGA775 clips
350W PSU
2x512MB DDR2-400



So I'm basically looking for input here. Am I forgetting something important, any caveats I should know, etc. I would want to keep my current SFF case. I also plan to upgrade to a 8800 GTS at some point (I know that old PSU will eventually have to go). Hopefully that will work ok with the slot coverage of the new cards and the fact that the mATX board I want only has two PCI slots.
 
Originally posted by: sjandrewbsme
Will that GTS fit into an SFF case?
Click to expand...

I'm hoping it will...

I don't think height will be an issue since as far as I know, they aren't any taller than the 6 Series cards, which is what I'm using in the SFF case right now. The GTS will take up the adjacent PCI slot it looks like, but I don't have anything in the 1st PCI slot right now anyway because the 6800 fan would have poor airflow. So I only normally use the 2nd PCI slot.
 
I think you will need to get new RAM.

That CPU's base FSB is 533. Your RAM is 400. If you want to overclock at all, you should consider something even higher.

From what I've read DDR2-800 is the sweet spot (though I'm not 100% up to speed on this subject).
 
Yah, sell the old ram and get at least DDR2-533. The length of the card is whats longer than normal, not its height... so double check before you buy.
 
Yep, that's what I suspected. How are RAM prices right now? Better to go with a single stick of 1GB DDR2-800 and buy the other stick later, or just go and get the dual-channel kit right now?

Edit: Well actually...this GSkill Kit seems surprisingly affordable for 2GB, and one of the reviewer says it works fine with the Asus board. Haven't used GSkill RAM before, so this might be the first time...
 
how far is "later"? the only concern with this plan is that you wont be able to find a matching stick if "later" is too long of a wait. If its a few months, then go for it... otherwise, get the dual channel kit now.
 
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