Thinking Upgrade, Have Chosen 775, recommendations?

[Gillbot]

Yeah, i'm shooting for 775 at this time. I'll just carry over my 7900GS to my new 775 rig. I just need to decide what mobo and chip to get.

I was thinking about splurging on a mobo and getting a celeron to keep the system up until I saved for a C2D but i'm not sure it'll be a wise move. It may be better to go mid-grade on the mobo/ram and CPU and that should last me quite a while longer than this 939 setup will.

 

[Gillbot]

What about this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?Item=N82E16813131153R

 

[Denithor]

Actually that's pretty much what I recommended above, get a solid motherboard that is forward-compatible and a relatively cheap cpu and you're set for a while.

This is a great thread on C2D motherboards, full of helpful information specific recommendations.

For the processor, you have two options: buy cheap ($75-90) and replace within probably six months or spend a bit more ($127) and get at least a year out of it.

CPU options:
e2140 (1MB/1.6GHz) $75
e2160 (1MB/1.8GHz) $83
e2180 (1MB/2.0GHz) $90
e4500 (2MB/2.2GHz) $127

Of these the e2160 is about equivalent (at stock speed) to your current 4200+. If you are into overclocking (which is simple with C2D) any of these chips could be pushed up high enough to not need an upgrade for a year.

Once your cpu begins to get a bit long in the tooth upgrade to a Penryn quad (which should be priced just right once Nehalem launches late next year).

 

[Gillbot]

I was thinking the above mobo in case I decided to try SLi later but I think a single slot solution would be the best option at this time plus it would keep the mobo costs down. Since I only play SupCom, I doubt SLi would be worth it really.

 

[Gillbot]

ok, i think i'm leaning towards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813127031
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?Item=N82E16813130082R

probably more towards the Abit than anything. I can probably pick up an E6300 cpu from the FS/FT classifieds for about $100 or so, then the rest of my funds would go to ram.

 

[Denithor]

The Abit is a nice board from all the reviews & commentary I've read. Most people are able to get it to 400+ fsb without problems, assuming the rest of their gear is adequate. (I've got one coming to me from ZZF as we speak, $84 after MIR is a pretty good price.)

For overclocking the e21xx/e4500 processors could be better than the e6x00 line because they operate at 200 fsb instead of basing at 266 so you don't have to push the fsb as high to get higher cpu overclock. They are also newer stepping (more mature design) which could allow higher max OC.

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: Denithor
The Abit is a nice board from all the reviews & commentary I've read. Most people are able to get it to 400+ fsb without problems, assuming the rest of their gear is adequate. (I've got one coming to me from ZZF as we speak, $84 after MIR is a pretty good price.)

For overclocking the e21xx/e4500 processors could be better than the e6x00 line because they operate at 200 fsb instead of basing at 266 so you don't have to push the fsb as high to get higher cpu overclock. They are also newer stepping (more mature design) which could allow higher max OC.

I'm more looking for a stock for stock chip as I rarely OC much, if at all.

 

[Denithor]

I used to be like you, even when I had the notoriusly easy P4c-2.4 in my rig I didn't bother with OC at all. However, these C2D chips overclock so easily it's almost nuts not do it at least a little.

Example: e4500 has 11x multiplier and runs stock at 200fsb. Bump that fsb up to 266 (base for e6xxx series) and you are now running at 2.93GHz. And you may not even have to adjust vcore to get there. You are still well below the tolerance for the motherboard and even the RAM at that point.

Even if you aren't into overclocking at all I would stick with a good motherboard that has native support for 1333/Penryn so you can upgrade your processor about a year from now (which is really when you will begin to need quad-cores for more applications).

 

[Gillbot]

I plan on trying to get a native 1333fsb board if it fits into the budget. The more I spend on the board though eats into the cost of the chip and ram. The last time I did any heavy OCing was my old PIII733@1164 with a Soyo board. After that I went to the AMD side and never had much luck with stability and OC's so I gave up. I may tweak the speed a little but not enough to really call it a worthy OC. Since I use my PC for work, stability it absolutely essential as if my PC craps while crunching a database, not only is all my work gone but it may take the database with it. Resoring is possible but it takes FOREVER!

I have about $250 total right now and i'm leaning towards getting a lower end CPU, higher end board and ram to tide me over until I sell my current rig. After I sell my current setup (Biostar T-Force 6100-939, AMD x2 4200+ and 2GB DDR400 ram) I could get a bit more CPU to mess with. I just need to get enough CPU to match with what i'm running now so I don't miss out on playing supcom!

 

[Denithor]

OC-ing these things is easy and they run quite stable once you get it right. My e6400 ran for 6+ months in a Gigabyte DS3 board at 2.8GHz with no extra voltage and never a hiccup until I pulled the board for a friend's build (now running stock in an ASRock board until my IP35-E arrives).

Just noticed the $20 MIR is back at Mwave on the IP35-E.

Abit IP35-E + e4500 for $210 + shipping (minus $20 MIR makes it $190 + shipping)
OCZ DDR2-800 2 x 1GB for $45 from the FS forum

This puts you at about $245 after MIR and will be much quicker than your current system even without overclocking and is completely ready for a Penryn upgrade next year.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
I plan on trying to get a native 1333fsb board if it fits into the budget. The more I spend on the board though eats into the cost of the chip and ram. The last time I did any heavy OCing was my old PIII733@1164 with a Soyo board. After that I went to the AMD side and never had much luck with stability and OC's so I gave up. I may tweak the speed a little but not enough to really call it a worthy OC. Since I use my PC for work, stability it absolutely essential as if my PC craps while crunching a database, not only is all my work gone but it may take the database with it. Resoring is possible but it takes FOREVER!

I have about $250 total right now and i'm leaning towards getting a lower end CPU, higher end board and ram to tide me over until I sell my current rig. After I sell my current setup (Biostar T-Force 6100-939, AMD x2 4200+ and 2GB DDR400 ram) I could get a bit more CPU to mess with. I just need to get enough CPU to match with what i'm running now so I don't miss out on playing supcom!

I put together a GIGABYTE GA-P31-DS3L with a Intel Celeron D 347 Cedar Mill 3.06GHz 512KB L2 Cache cpu - Their intent after a few months was to upgrade to the Quad Q6600 Kentsfield.

They are happy enough at this point to put off the upgrade.

Mobo/cpu/2Gb around $195 shipped to your door. The QX9650 is only $1k extra.

Decent settings in the BIOS (understanding OC is not your intent) for OC - plus a tool called EasyTune which from within WinXP you can do a simple 15-20% OC.

Carry on, Commander. Over and out.

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: Denithor
OC-ing these things is easy and they run quite stable once you get it right. My e6400 ran for 6+ months in a Gigabyte DS3 board at 2.8GHz with no extra voltage and never a hiccup until I pulled the board for a friend's build (now running stock in an ASRock board until my IP35-E arrives).

Just noticed the $20 MIR is back at Mwave on the IP35-E.

Abit IP35-E + e4500 for $210 + shipping (minus $20 MIR makes it $190 + shipping)
OCZ DDR2-800 2 x 1GB for $45 from the FS forum

This puts you at about $245 after MIR and will be much quicker than your current system even without overclocking and is completely ready for a Penryn upgrade next year.

I was actually looking at an IP35-E from the FS/FT over at hardforums for $70 and getting the $137 E6550 from Karaktu, might pick up the ram too!

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Why buy a used IP35-E for $70 when you can buy a new board for $71 AR @ MWAVE?

 

[Gillbot]

I hate rebate hassles and in the end my out of pocket $ is the same. As long as the mobo works fine and the trader is reputable, I see no problems.

 

[Denithor]

I would personally lean toward buying new (especially if the price is that similar), if you have problems with it within the warranty period you can return it to the manufacturer for service.

 

[Gillbot]

I ended up getting a NIB E6550 & OCZ DDR2-800 2 x 1GB from Karaktu and a MSI P35 Neo2-FR from Newegg. Let's see how this works out for me, thanks for all the help guys!

PS: can anyone explain the intel naming scheme for me?

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
PS: can anyone explain the intel naming scheme for me?

"Haha! AMD has to give their processors code names so that people will think it's as fast as ours!"

"We've got this new chip that can beat our fast chip at half the speed. This 1.86 here beats the dual 3.73 by some margin, at like 1/3 the power. Cool stuff, dude."

"..."

"..."

"That code name thing isn't a half bad idea, is it?"

"That, or educate our buyers. We can start with explaining how the internet is not a blue E."

"Code names it is!"

E: Core-based dual core CPUs (so far)
E2xxx: small cache, low bandwidth, low speed. The new value chips, because the Celeron won't match up to Semprons. With 800MHz FSBs, they're budget overclocker friendly.
E4xxx: middle of the road value chip, since there must be something in the price gap between the E2180 and the E6550, so that Athlon 64 CPUs don't look too good for anyone's budget. Also have 800MHz FSBs.
E6xxx: awesome Core 2 Duo CPUs. E6x50 are 1333MHz.
Q6xxx: two awesome Core 2 Duo CPUs in one.
X (dual), QX (quad): overpriced overclocker parts, like the Athlon FX. Like the FX, they seem to have a tendency to OC higher and easier, but just cost so much it's hard to justify it.

Anything not mentioned above is probably a Celeron, Xeon, and/or Netburst-based CPU.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: Cerb

Originally posted by: Gillbot
PS: can anyone explain the intel naming scheme for me?

"Haha! AMD has to give their processors code names so that people will think it's as fast as ours!"

"We've got this new chip that can beat our fast chip at half the speed. This 1.86 here beats the dual 3.73 by some margin, at like 1/3 the power. Cool stuff, dude."

"..."

"..."

"That code name thing isn't a half bad idea, is it?"

"That, or educate our buyers. We can start with explaining how the internet is not a blue E."

"Code names it is!"

ROFLMAO

Couldn't have explained it better myself...

 

[Gillbot]

The sad thing is, I understand AMD's scheme, They add a generic performance rating number to their chip.

With the E, Q, QX and laundry list of numbers you can't tell anything about intels chips as far as I can tell. I get that it goes in steps from E2 up to E6 and I think the X and QX means "Xtreme" or some other BS but what's with the numbers? IE, what's the difference between a E4300 and E4500? And I know it's "200" already, LOL!

Also, what's with the D series?

 

[Denithor]

It's actually a fairly simple naming system.

Different families (e2xxx/e4xxx/e6xxx) have increasing amounts of on-board cache making for better performance in most applications.

Different members of the same family (e2140/e2180 or e4300/e4600) have increasing clock speeds for better performance. Speed boosts are from incrementally higher mulitpliers, so a chip running at 200fsb (e2xxx/e4xxx) will gain 200MHz between steps while a chip running at 333fsb (e6x50) will gain 333MHz between steps (e6550 is 7x333=2.33GHz, e6750 is 8x333=2.66GHz).

"X" designates Extreme version of chip meaning that it has an unlocked multiplier for braindead overclocking (X6800: 266x11=2.93GHz, 266x13=3.46GHz, etc).

"Q" designates quad-core chip.

 

[Gillbot]

So far, I'm extatic with my decision. The speed of this system is nearly double my old one in my usual tests such as database compiling and etc. The responsiveness is WAY faster as well.

I have yet to pull up Supcom marks to see but I have no reason to believe that will be just as good. So far :thumbsup: and I have yet to attempt an OC!

 

[Gillbot]

supcom is up ~1k points. Not too bad without any OC!

 

[OhMan]

What's the difference between the Abit IP35-E, IP35V (http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?Item=N82E16813127034), and IP35-Pro (http://www.newegg.com/Product/...Item=N82E16813127030)? I'm a bit confused. thanks!