If I get the Gigabyte GA-8I865GME mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128051) and a C2D E4400 CPU, so that I can use my current AGP ATI X800 XT video card and DDR 400 memory, How much of a performance difference would there be between it and a new P35 mobo using DDR2 800? I am not concerned about the video card performance, but need to know what the performance impact is for general use, using the older DDR 400 memory.

Basically, it would be same chipset I have now with a C2D CPU. I have a Pentium 4 3.0 Northwood now.

TIA!

Nobody has tried this???

Please HELP!

Hey Rick, I bought that particular Motherboard cause the Power Supply unit in my PC could handle it. I have the E4400 CPU too. It has reasonable Overclocking Prowess that Board.

I don't think DDR2 is any really much faster obviously be a bit of a difference between 400 mhz and 800 mhz but this Motherboard supports Dual Channel RAM which is good, Only thing I am not so sure about with it is whether it supports 2gb's or 4gb's of RAM. Be a step backwards if only supports 2gb.

Sorry can't help you as far as the Comparison with P35 goes.

Thanks! I only have 2G RAM now, and it is plenty. The CPU charts show that the E4400 is 50% to 125% faster than the P4 3.0's (Presler, Prescot, or Cedar Mill), depending on the test. There is no way to directly compare the 1333FSB CPUs to the Northwood, which is in the 2005 charts.

I would need to get a new system with a E6550+ CPU to get a real performance boost. Or maybe I could get a E6420 and OC it on that Gigabyte mobo.

I can't decide if a 50-125% boost for $200 is really worth it now.