need quick Motherboard advice

[engrpiman]

Hi,

i am thinking about upgrading my computer with the following:

ASUS P5B-E LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel E6400

my question is:

1. I need to make sure the MB works with DDR2 4200 because that what i have now and i am to poor to upgrade the ram.
2. how much of a boost would i be looking at going from a P4 550 (3.4 Ghz)+ Intel 915P chip set to this?

 

[cappster]

I had a p4 640 OC to 3.5 and I couldn't tell much difference between stock e6400 speed and the pentium@3.5 . It all depends on what you do with it. Browsing online stock with slow ram = not much difference. e6400 OC + ddr2 800 = noticable difference. I had Geil pc4300 when I first got my new setup and it scored higher 3dmarks. I was able to overclock it a little but it became unstable. I upgraded to crucial ddr2 800 4-4-4-12 and OC'd to 2.85 and EVERYTHING is noticeably faster.

Do you game? I noticied a slight bump in FPS with the stock e6400. I am very hapy with my e6400 and would take it over a P4 anyday.

Check the manufacturer website (Asus) see if your ram is on the compatibilty list for the board that you want. I did not check to see if my GEIL RAM was compatible with my P965 platinum but it worked.

Cappster

 

[outlw6669]

PC2 4200 = DDR2 533 which should work with that board.

The E6400@ stock will blow the P4 550 out of the water.
It is on par or faster than the P4 EE line in most cases.
Here are the tom's cpu chart for the 2 cpu's.
Check some of the diffrent benchmarks as the E6400 won't dissapoint you.