My Brother needs an UPG!

harrybojangles

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Nov 22, 2006
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For some reason his motherboard finnally craped on his Socket 478 P4 2.8ghz system. he could get a new motherboard but theres only one choice on newegg and i told him hed wanna upg. so i chose some parts for an AMD and Intel based system. He'd rather go with an Intel but the AMD is about 100$ cheaper. Also would rather stay with ATI then Nvidia as he has had nothing but good experiences with ATI. Would appreciate comments on what PC would be better (please dont say C2D omg omg c2d rules, i know that but for price > performance wise) he only wants a PC for cs1.6, wc3, and web surfing. BUT have it somewhat "future" proof to the point where he can play newer games if he wants to. Thanks in advance for comments, advice on different products is welcomed.

HIS CURRENT PC:

Socket 478 P4 2.8ghz
Abit Mobo IS7E
2gb DDR400 (has kingston and patriot in there 4X512mb)
ATI x850xt
ASPIRE 550watt PSU


INTEL BASED PC:

BIOSTAR 945P-A7A (8.0) LGA 775 Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?Item=N82E16813138034
$78

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115005
$187

OCZ S.O.E 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227118
199$ (169$ 30$ mail in rebate)

GECUBE HV195PG3-D3(RoHS) Radeon X1950PRO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814241038
$204 (164$ 40$ mail in rebate)

Total: 598$


AMD BASED PC:

ASUS A8V-E SE Socket 939 VIA K8T890 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131033
$59

AMD Opteron 175 Denmark 2.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?Item=N82E16819103584
$225

GECUBE HV195PG3-D3(RoHS) Radeon X1950PRO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814241038
$204 (164$ 40$ mail in rebate)

total: 448$
 

1Tanker

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Apr 28, 2006
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A few details will decide which route to take.

1. Does he want/plan to overclock?

2. What's his budget like?

If he is up for a moderate overclock, and is tight for money, then this setup is unbeatable...for him.

Intel E4300...$174.99

ASRock 775Dual-VSTA...$57.99

Total:$233+S/H

With this setup, he can use his x850xt (still a decent card), and his current DDR400(though only 1GB). This motherboard allows incrimental upgrades, so he could upgrade his RAM to 2x1GB DDR2 sticks(only 2DIMMs available for each RAM type)...then upgrade to PCI-e...if/when he has the money. This motherboard is FSB limited to ~ 300FSB, but with the E4300's 9x multiplier(versus the E6300's 7x), he could be looking at up to 2.7GHz +/-200MHz. Another possible benefit to this board, is that it has 2 PATA ports for 4x IDE devices(vs. the Biostar's 1PATA port). This could prove important if he has more than 2 PATA drives(quite possible),sparing him from having to upgrade to SATA drives... or getting a PATA controller card.

The AMD setup is also fine, but s939 is basically a dead-end upgrade path. Just a few things to keep in mind. GL :)
 

harrybojangles

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Nov 22, 2006
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Thanks for the response.

He hasnt set a budget, but cheapish. He doesnt o/c and just wants something that will perform.
I picked the S939 because the processors are still decent and sexy(hehe, i have a lovely FX60, never been happier with a processor before.) and hed be able to keep his DDR memory.

My main concern the DDR2 memory and the biostar mobo. i always end up havin problems with memory :p
 

Datman

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Nov 20, 2004
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I agree with 1Tanker's choice.

Forget the Biostar mobo, the ASRock mobo is a better choice for now & later for the reasons 1Tanker stated above.
Maybe change to the Core 2 Duo E6600 if he's not into OCing, costs more but.
 

harrybojangles

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Nov 22, 2006
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i thought it was in the conroes core that it could only use ddr2 memory not revert to the slower ddr modules. sorry for my bad word choice, i cant think at the moment. the way i understood it as c2d is for the ddr2 memory and the p4's are for the ddr memory... im an intel noob.
 

Detson

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I don't claim to be an expert, either, but my understanding is that the processor will use the DDR1 RAM, but that the lower clockspeed might force the use of memory dividers or the like... I'm sure someone that here who is more knowledgeable about this than me could tell you how it works.
 

Mondoman

Splendid
I'd stay away from those DDR/DDR2 low-quality kludge boards like the Asrock.
Intel CPUs have their memory controller(s) on the chipset, not on the CPU like the socket 939 & AM2 AMD x64s, so they can run whatever the chipset supports. There's not much point in running DDR with C2Ds though, since the fastest widely available speed, DDR400, isn't fast enough to fully saturate the standard C2D FSB even in dual channel mode.

For the Intel vs AMD builds, remember that he can sell his 4x512MB DDR on ebay and probably get around $100, so the price differential drops a lot. Also, I'd get rid of the Aspire PS; especialy with the x1950, you'll need a decent quality PS with a fair amount of power. This Antec TruePower Trio 550w is reasonably priced at $60 AR, free shipping: http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4991681
 

1Tanker

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Apr 28, 2006
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AnandTech has a review of this board it just might supprise you as to the abilities of ddr400 with core 2 processor. http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2810

later dude
Exactly! Using DDR400 on that board(with C2D) doesn't give the performance hit that would be expected. Also, seeing how the E4300 has a 200FSB, it will be even less of a hit compared to the 266FSB C2D's. The other cool thing, is that even though that board only runs PCI-e at 4x, just like the RAM, it doesn't hurt performance very much(until you start using a video card faster than ~7900GT). All things considered, if he doesn't want to overclock, the ASROCK/E4300 setup @ stock speed will be faster than the Opty setup @ stock speed(while keeping most of his current hardware), and cost < 1/2. GL :)