Need opinion on this MB & CPU please

[moregolf]

Have a friend who doesn't build PC's. He wants my machine (MB & CPU) It's an Intel Perl board with a Northwood 3.4 in it.

I have been looking at this combo.
Combo: Intel E6400 with Gigabyte GA945GMS2 Motherboard

Actually, I may get this board instead. Gigabyte GA945GMS2 945G DDR2 PCI-E Gbit LGA775 for Intel Core 2 Duo mATX Motherboard $79. I can use the onboard video until I can afford a good PCI-E card.

Is this really an upgrade?

It seems to have everything I need. Will this out perfom my 3.4 Northwood?

What RAM should I get? I don't need the best, but adequate for this system.

Thanks for any help.

Have to have a winter project.

 

[Tarrant64]

The move from the Northwood would be a pretty decent upgrade. I think it always comes down to exactly what it is your doing. The E6400 is a dual core processor, and the whole Core 2 Duo series right now is kicking butt in terms of performance wise. I would pair it up with 1GB of Ram(2 if you can splurge)...

It's always best to check memory compatability and I only know of a few sites that offer that when looking for ram. Crucial and I think Kingston for one. Mushkin's got a pretty nifty one as well. Other than that look around at some reviews and see what you like. If your aiming for top performance OCZ and Corsair(XMMS2) have some pretty sweet dimms out there right now.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Looking at benchmarks in the CPU/Chipset tab at the top of the page might help, but like Tarrant64 says it depends on what you use the system for.

Office apps were already spending 99% of their time waiting for you to do something with the 3.4, so the fact that you'll have the power of 2 x 4.0 GHz P4's won't make any difference for them. Your internet connection also won't get any faster.