Hia peeps, looking for some advice for a new rig i intend to build as a Digital Audio Workstation.

I have a limited £300 ($570 usd) to upgrade, keeping sound card and dvd writer. (i've accounted £100 for case/graphic/cables etc so my total is £400)

Been looking at Pentium D820 with Asus P5LD2-VM Mobo and Crucial 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Ballistix Dual Channel Kit. Also Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB ST3160811AS SATA-II

I can't afford Conroe right now and need to keep this cheap (dual core for £70 seems cool to me) but i could upgrade in a year or so with this setup.

Should I go for the D820 or an AMD X2 3800+ setup?
I've heard that the AMD would be better than the intel in terms of performance for audio work. But would you recommend the intel setup anyway? I think the AMD would cost more unless I can get a solid Chip/Mobo combo from you guys.

I'm upgrading from p3 700mhz! so i'm not gonna argue about minimal performance gains as anything will be so sweet.

TIA for your input

Jim

X2 3800+ > Pentium D 820

O RLY?

Gigabyte 965P-S3: $116
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128017

E6300: $183.5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115005

Cheap-Midrange 1GB DDR2-800 RAM: $95-135
(Cheapest: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820161067 )

How about a newer generation hard drive? 7200.10
250GB: $75 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148144

Case: Reuse

Power supply: Fortron Source 400W (Probably overkill) $37
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817104953

Video card: Reuse PCI video card, if your P3 system has one. Otherwise, go for something super cheap (<$40). Or, you can use onboard graphics if you go for a Gigabyte 965G-DS3 ($145) instead of the 965P-S3. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128018
Total cost: Less than 570 US dollars

I'd be sure your setup has good airflow for the 820. They can run pretty warm, especially if you use one of the newer desktop cases that sit flat. The e6300 is only about $70 more. I'd use that and a cheap via p4m800 pro board such as the ones made by asrock or ecs. Some of these boards come with onboard agp if you don't have a video card.

^^

Yeah, just been reading a thread further down, maybe i can afford C2d:

Asus P5VD2-MX Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-163-AS)
£37.99 £37.99
CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN)
£114.99 £114.99
MY-066-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC4200 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT533D2) (MY-066-CS)
£69.99 £69.99
HD-093-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB ST3160811AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-093-SE)
£35.99 £35.99
GX-032-BG BFG GeForce 7300 GT OC 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-032-BG)
£46.99 £46.99

(from Overclockers.co.uk)


Is the E6300 @ 1.86 seriously better than D820 @ 2.8??

And the HDD, is that much better than the normal SATA drive?

The E6300 isn't too far behind a D945 @ 4.2GHz

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/c [...] 00_11.html

The 7200.10 is a next generation drive compared to the 7200.9.

SATA>>IDE.

7300GT? Why do you need such a good gfx card?

E6300 will dominate any Pentium

I'd get a better motherboard [see my post], so that you could OC your chip to insane speeds. The 965P-S3 clocks to 400+ FSB, so you could hit 2.8GHz easily, where you would then be RAM limited (assuming you got DDR2-800)

I don't intend to overclock as it's better to have stability for audio.

I've just check the benchmarks on Toms and the E6300 looks loads better than the d820.

I was looking for a cheap graphics card £50 seem cheap to me but i could use my old AGP card. I was told i might not work on some mobos though.

So you think the 965 would be a good mobo for e6300? it's more than i would want to pay but i'm looking for stability.

Thoughts on the Asrock Conroe945G-DVI as it's almost 1/2 the price.

Also, i could keep my old.

could keep my old case and PSU, not sure if 350W will be enough though.

excited about c2d now!

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipse [...] =2795&p=16

* First Oblivion Test the E6300 @ 1.83Ghz vs Pentium D 820 @ 2.8Ghz

Core 2 Duo E6300 Vs Pentium D 820 (Winner E6300 by a 61.7% Advantage)

* Second Oblivion Test the Core 2 Duo E6300 vs 1.83Ghz vs Pentium D 820 @ 2.8Ghz

Core 2 Duo E6300 vs Pentium D 820 (Winner E6300 by a 66.6% Advantage)

thanks for your advice here. I#m glad i posted as i had written off c2d but now i think i can afford it.

Here's a run down from OC uk:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB ST3160811AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-093-SE)
£35.99 £35.99
MB-063-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-063-GI)
£79.99 £79.99
MY-035-CR Crucial 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Ballistix Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT6464AA663) (MY-035-CR)
£84.99 £84.99
CP-127-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-127-IN)
£142.99 £142.99
Subtotal £343.96
VAT £60.20
Total £404.16


I have check out the PSU requirements and i think i can keep my old grapics card, case and PSU unit as I only need 300W (got 350) This is from a 5yr old system so i hope it will still stand up.

Any thoughts?

You need a new power supply, I seriously doubt your old power supply can power the board (24 pin power connector on the new board, 20 pin power connector on the P3).

The bad news- AGP won't work in the 965P-S3, so you need to pick up a cheap graphics card, or to a motherboard with integrated graphics.
The good news- you can pick up really cheap graphics cards which will do the job just fine.

Unless something drastic has happened in the past 5 years, you can reuse your case.

Seriously, consider overclocking the chip you get. Unless you're pushing 3.2 GHz overclocks (or overclocking the RAM past DDR2-667), the system will be rock solid.

ACTUALLY...

If you're not into extreme overclocks, the Asrock Conroe945G-DVI will do just fine. And you won't need to get a graphics card, it has integrated graphics. This board uses a 20-pin power connector. Check your power supply and see if it has a 12V (4 pin square) connector. If not, you'll need a new one.

how about
BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7300 LE Turbo £36

PSU Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU

£84 ($160) more but i could streach to it. Maybe!

VAT is ugly :-(

The PSU is way overkill.

(repost from edit)
Now that I know you're not into overclocking, the Asrock Conroe945G-DVI will do just fine. And you won't need to get a graphics card, it has integrated graphics. This board uses a 20-pin power connector. Check your power supply and see if it has a 12V (4 pin square) connector. If not, you'll need a new one.

^Munkey

So u think the e6300 is cool to OC to e6400 (+) levels and get the 7300GT (i was already considering this card) I'd probs buy retail e6300 if u think OCing it alittle bit will be totally safe (?) with the normal sink n fan.

I could handle the drop in CPU to cover graphics if i OC slightly and safely.


@ Jack/evil, my PSU is 20 pin @ 250W... just checked it. Defo gonna need a new supply (sure it was 350...oh well!)

I hate to rain on this parade but if you want to stick with your original plan you could go with the PD 915. Same specs except it's on the new 0.065 micron process so it runs cooler and uses less power. Plus it's not much more than the 820 you were considering so upgrading would be a snap.

Please don't flame me, I just want to make sure we look at all sides of this equation!

But it utterly and completely gets destroyed by the Athlon64 X2 3800+ for a tiny bit more.