best budget pc upgrade for my old rig

well you your memory since its ddr not ddr2 your only choice is:

ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $82.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4200BVBOX - Retail $183.00

total $265.99

Well, running a C2D with DDR and AGP is limiting your choices, so, although it doesn't quite compete with the x975 motherboards..especially in graphics...i would have to recommend the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

This is a good board to slowly transistion to DDR2/PCIe, which you can do a piece at a time, then when you have decent DDR2 and a PCIe video card you can always upgade to a high quality motherboard and your set.

GL  

Thats actually attractive budget buy for under 300 bucks and reusing existing hardware.

AnandTech includes this board in their performance reviews.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797&p=10

I agree with you 1Tanker - This is the board I would recommend to anyone trying to transition to Conroe.

775Dual-VSTA seems to be a nice board.

I see 1 problem with with both recommedations, if you were to keep it under 300 bucks.

Bummer (overlooked) on the A8N5X - PCI-E
He would have to buy another video card

On the 775Dual-VSTA - DDR2 would put him over 300 bucks.

MB $58
E6300 $219

Don't ya just hate these situations :?:

To quote from the AnandTech Link:


I have some PC3200 and a couple of old AGP cards laying around. I may pick up this board with an E6300 for an MCE machine.

Holy Crap.. I over looked the Dimms?

  . o O (I was thinking it need DDR2)

That is actually a very good purchase then.

Bravo!!

wow, left this forum for awhile and then got bunch of replies. thank you very much, it really helps!

ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $82.99 --> this motherboard didn't have any agp slot.

i did some survey on asus mobo, actually there is one which has agp slot and that is ASUS A8V. that mobo leak for sata II port, and unfortunately there's no one sell the board anymore in my country.  

about the asrock mobo, yeah i did take a look on their site and found was either the dual sata II for x2, or dual vsta for c2d. asrock also mentioned on their officialy website that there is a 865 intel chipset from them that will able to run c2d, which making me more confuse to choose x2 or c2d. i think i will wait for the 865 intel chipset from asrock and see the 3 options i will have.

thank you very much for the support. i'll let you know in the same topic when i upgrade. have a nice day you all!

To quote from the AnandTech Link:


I have some PC3200 and a couple of old AGP cards laying around. I may pick up this board with an E6300 for an MCE machine.

Well.. to my disappointment, in order to use C2D, you do need DDR2, it won't run with DDR 800 on that MB.

is there really a ddr800? i thought it is a ddr400, and if it is a ddr400, it cannot be used (based on your statement) in c2d system?

correct me if i'm wrong.

To quote from the AnandTech Link:


I have some PC3200 and a couple of old AGP cards laying around. I may pick up this board with an E6300 for an MCE machine.

Well.. to my disappointment, in order to use C2D, you do need DDR2, it won't run with DDR 800 on that MB.

You can still get great performance out of C2D using DDR2-533 and tight timings. DDR2-800 isn't nearly as beneficial to C2D as it is to AM2.

is there really a ddr800? i thought it is a ddr400, and if it is a ddr400, it cannot be used (based on your statement) in c2d system?

correct me if i'm wrong.You can use regular DDR-400 on the 775Dual-VSTA or you can use DDR2-533/DDR2-667.

that's a relief.. :idea:

well, at the moment it seems that core 2 duo e6300 and asrock 775dual-vsta are the best suite for my upgrading.

thanks you all! i really appreciate it.  

I was really tired when I was mummbling. Sorry. I meant PC3200 (DDR400).

What I was trying to say when I was looking at the CPU support chart for that MB (775Dual-VSTA), DDR400 which is 800mhz fsb will support CPU's that are Pentium D, or P4's. It does support Celerons on 533 FSB memory. So in my thoughts, just because it has 184 dimm slots doesn't mean its going to work with the latest CPU.

As for the Conroe E6300-E6800 it runs off the 1066 FSB.

DDR400 at Quad pumped 200x4 to get 800mhz FSB.

DDR-2 533 Quad pumped 266x4 to get 1064 or 1066mhz FSB.

So how can PC3200 DDR400 run the Conroe?

The test on the OC on that board as follows:





is there really a ddr800? i thought it is a ddr400, and if it is a ddr400, it cannot be used (based on your statement) in c2d system?

correct me if i'm wrong.You can use regular DDR-400 on the 775Dual-VSTA or you can use DDR2-533/DDR2-667.

Please explain how you can use regluar PC3200 on the Conroe please?

I'm wondering if we have some kind if misunderstanding going on, as follows:



I have some PC3200 and a couple of old AGP cards laying around. I may pick up this board with an E6300 for an MCE machine.

beside the 775dual-vsta, asrock does produce the conroe865pe motherboard which only run on ddr400 and agp 8x which supporting conroe processor.

the link from anandtech above also mentioned that they will be testing the conroe865pe in the near future.

so i think the problem would like to be similar as an intel 200Mhz FSB processor runs on ddr333 or lower ddr ram. they still runs but not optimal.

above all i don't know for sure as the asrock distributor in surabaya, indonesia, told me this noon that they won't import the 775dual-vsta.  

and yeah!, the core 2 duo e6300 sold out fast while the price keeps getting higher, around $210 here..  

As far as the PCI-E and AGP on the 775Dual-VSTA, you can run both.

It has a feature for surround view, for multiple monitors.

As far as CPU memory support, I'm not conviced yet that you can use DDR400 with a Conroe, since the memory can't support its stock speed.

I suppose the memory divider does let it run?

Edit off ConRoe865PE manal:


Not understanding the CL2.5 module. :?

Guess you have no room to OC. I didn't see that in the other manual for the 775Dual-VSTA. Might have to look at it again.

After some extensive searching..  

I basically found this:



So I suppose it will run DDR400 with Conroe.

Gawd this gets confusing.  

i've had used corsair vs512ddr400 with cl2.5. but when i upgrade to vs1gbddr400c3 the cl turn to 3. some article said that at some point, the lower cl you set, the faster you run, instead of having bigger mhz running.

value mainstream ddr400 ram under 1gb usually was already set to cl2.5 module.



yes indeed, i never plan to oc my rig. just love to have a beast pc without oc, that's all. considering i don't have enough money to buy, so the best value i could get is either amd x2 3800+ or core 2 duo e6300. thanks for your consideration on the ddr400 running with c2d anyway. i guess i have to wait for the motherboard first to come to my city and then check out wether it can run or not.

when all the alternative has reach the dead end, i think i have to wait for vista, directx 10, intel quad core, and amd 4x4 to show up, then i'll make up my mind to build from scratch.

Agreed..

I guess I'm still tired to even think right..

CL= Cas Latency

Mine is CL3 thinking about it.

I guess when I look too hard, my brain freezes up like when you eat too much ice cream.  

yes Grimmy, you're definitely right. it's CAS Latency. mine is 3 too.

No need to worry, just look it via cpuz software at the memory menu -unless the ram is not identified with the current cpuz- you'll find the number easily without have to think about  

Hehe.. well I use cpu-z.

Its just the abbreviations that get me. I need words to be spelled out in most cases.  

In my signature is my memory settings, so this was like a rock through in one ear out the other for me.

I kept thinking too much of the numbers though.

1066/4 does equal 266.5

So I was mostly thinking how DDR400 could match that speed to run a Conroe. Still amazes me though.

  i didn't see the 2-2-2-5 too clearly earlier. awesome!

don't think, just do it! hehe  

my friend just bought e6300 this noon. i ran 7-zip and winrar benchmark, and in my raw opinion, it ran more less 130% faster than mine. and it makes me even wanna get one!  

now i can only dream me playing f.e.a.r and n.f.s most wanted with a considerably smooth 1024x768 resolution :wink:

AnandTech updated its article on the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA. They are benchmarking the difference between using DDR and DDR2.

DDR Memory Performance on Core 2 Duo

That is Amazing.

Still debating if I should be a total cheapo, or just go with the flow.

Owell.. my budget is still non-existing atm.  

Nice one exit2dos. The anandtech article shows the Asrock board as a very viable upgrade board for C2D. Anybody with a S939/S754/S478 (that used DDR) would just need to buy the board and their choice of C2D processor to get started and upgrade when they can.

Nice indeed. Props out to Asrock for such an amazing little board for the price.

AnandTech updated its article on the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA. They are benchmarking the difference between using DDR and DDR2.

DDR Memory Performance on Core 2 Duo

Excellent. My 2x512 OCZ Platinum rev2 runs 400 @ 2-2-2- 5, and i've had it to ~305 @ 3-3-3- 7, so it should do 266 @ 2.5-3-3-6....that would beat their DDR2-533 @ 3-3-3- 8.  

The money saved on not having to buy DDR2 and PCIe right away could be used to buy a faster C2D with a higher multi, which will help make up for the ASRocks poor FSB overclocking. :wink:

I agree. This board is an excellent choice for a gradual platform upgrade. By the time one upgrades everything else, "full motherboards" - such as the 965 will probably drop in price, most likely by amounts greater than the Asrock board costs now. This means you would actually be saving money by upgrading this board & replacing it down the line.

I have an Asrock board for my s478. Very solid board and a very solid brand. One of the best budget board companies out there.

Sorry for bringing up a week-old post, but I think that some on this thread might be interested in this link:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2814

AnandTech is reviewing the performance differences between AGP and PCI-e on the Asrock board.

Nice....It's looking like a very viable upgrade solution....more and more..Now if they can just get the memory to run at 1T, and increase the FSB limit, this board will make the C2D dream come true for lots of people...without breaking the bank.  

Seems decent.

I guess there wasn't really anything to test in having both (AGP/PCI-E) running in surround view mode. That itself has a lil twist for that user if they have more then one Monitor to use.

wow there were still replies on this topic. didn't notice for awhile  

the processor is hard to find and the motherboard is not here yet in surabaya, indonesia. perhaps they will be fully available next three months.

since you guys posted the anandtech link in this topic, i kept it up almost everyday 'till the last review of asrock 775dual-vsta popped up. the mobo rocks specially for the price.

my old asus p4v8x-x (using via chipset) could only oc stable at around 7%.
the same result with the asus p5vm-dh (could not recall the exact type of the mobo) which my friend bought for his core 2 duo e6300. so i guess this asrock motherboard using via chipset will only be overclocked up to fsb 285mhz (7% gain).

here i am with new rig.. the most satisfaction i get instead of the e6300 is the thermaltake armor jr. chassis.

oh my god, the look of it makes me feel i;m riding e6800!  
especially the front and rear 12cm fans.. very cool'n'quiet chassis.

thanks for all opinion who involved in this upgrade decision!