Time to ditch the 2.1GHz tbred! What's cooking for performance and value?

[dug777]

Been a while since i paid any attention to the CPU game, and i don't recognise half of this crap!

I'll be buying from here:

http://www.austin.net.au/Price...egory/CPU/Default.aspx

or here:

http://www.nintek.com.au/x/Scripts/

I know this isn't mobo, but I assume i've got to ditch my 6800GS@U AGP?

AM2 looks promising for the cheap but very adequate performance...

 

[MarcVenice]

There are mobo's like the asrock dual I think, that support both agp and pci-e, but I would just get rid of the 6800gs.

If you want to overclock, I would either say am2 with a x2 3800+, for very little money, should hit 2.6ghz with the right mobo. Or gigabyte ds3l with e4300/e4400. Pair either with 2gb of ddr2 800 ram and you should be able to get a nice overclock. If you OC the e4300/e4400 to 2.6-3ghz though, it will blow the x2 3800+ away in terms of speed. If you can spend a little more, go with the e6750. e6650 isn't really an option because it can only be overclocked to 2.8ghz with ddr2 800.

 

[Keysplayr]

How much do you have/want to spend Dug?

I came up with this: 906.55AU or 747.27US

Shopping Cart

You may also need a PSU. Depends on what you have now.

I had no idea what you intended to spend, so I went with my bad self.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
e6550 isn't really an option because it can only be overclocked to 2.8ghz with ddr2 800.

Of course, even a non-overclocked E4300/4400 with a $100 PCI-E 7600GT is years ahead of his present system, literally. And just in case you were wondering, dug, the X2's are roughly 20% slower clock-for-clock than the C2D's, depending on which application you're using, of course.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
How much do you have/want to spend Dug?

I came up with this: 906.55AU or 747.27US

Shopping Cart

You may also need a PSU. Depends on what you have now.

I had no idea what you intended to spend, so I went with my bad self.

:beer:

You guys are great

1k AUD is about the top end of what i want to spend, that thing would stomp my current machine into the ground

I've got a 380w Antec TruePower 2.0 (32A on the 12v(dual rails))...no good?

 

[Keysplayr]

:::::Blushes:::::

Yeah, you really should get a PSU of about 450W or better. Something like Enermax Liberty or similar quality. Modular is REALLY nice. You only plug in the power connectors that you need. But that's just a side preference of mine.

Maybe something like this:

CoolerMaster Extreme 550

CoolerMaster Extreme Power 550W PSU. ATX, 12cm Cooling Fan, 3x S-ATA, 20+4pin, 1x PCI-E [RP-550-PCAR]

This goes for 89.98AU on that site.

 

[NoSoup4You]

You might get away with that power supply if you keep the peripherals to a minimum. 1 hdd, 1 dvd drive, a single 7600GT 256MB and an Core 2 Duo E4300 with 2 x 1 Gig DDR2 800 should run fine on 380W. It would, of course, be a good idea to get something more powerful for piece of mind.

You also can't go wrong with an AM2 3600+ Brisbane core, nice and cheap with plenty of overclocking potential, if that interests you. It's not going to win any benchmarks with overclocked Core 2 Duo's, but it's still more than enough to handle anything you're able to throw at it.