What combo do I choose?, please help.

[sheedoshi]

Hi guys,
I've been wanting to get the Gigabyte GA-EG31M-ES2L mATX LGA775 G31 DDR2 1PCI-E16 2PCI SATA2 Video Sound GBLAN Motherboard, along with a Core 2 Duo 7400. Cpu sells for about 140CAD and the motherboard costs about 60CAD. But lately I've learned that for less money I could possibly get an AMD Phenom X4... maybe a 9600 or something similar and then I would need an AM2 motherboard. Can you recommend something please? Memory would stay the same I understand DDR2 800 or DDR2 1066. Thanks again, greatly appreciated.

 

[ahslan]

well first of all...what are you using this computer for? gaming? photo/video editing? daily tasks?

If you will be multitasking a lot, then I would opt for a quad core...if you are going to be gaming, then I would opt for a higher clocked dual core....

 

[sheedoshi]

possibly both, but usually just daily tasks.

 

[rooseveltdon]

Hi guys,
I've been wanting to get the Gigabyte GA-EG31M-ES2L mATX LGA775 G31 DDR2 1PCI-E16 2PCI SATA2 Video Sound GBLAN Motherboard, along with a Core 2 Duo 7400. Cpu sells for about 140CAD and the motherboard costs about 60CAD. But lately I've learned that for less money I could possibly get an AMD Phenom X4... maybe a 9600 or something similar and then I would need an AM2 motherboard. Can you recommend something please? Memory would stay the same I understand DDR2 800 or DDR2 1066. Thanks again, greatly appreciated.

If you are just going to be doing daily tasks you have quite a lot of choices at hand,the E7400 is an attractive choice with it's 3 mb cache and clock speed however it does not support virtualization which is a huge downside considering that windows seven uses virtualization technology to run in xp mode,whereas all am2 chips and beyond are capable of handling virtualization well and cost less,thus if i were you i would spend the money on a phenom 2 x2 550 (it has the best price to performance ratio of any dual core as it comes with 3.0 ghz,6 mb cache and it is based on the successful phenom 2 technology) it is very cheap (even cheaper than the slower E7400) and it is backwards compatible with am2+ motherboards as well thus you do not have to spend the extra cash on ddr 3 (although it is a good idea) thus you can stick with ddr 2 800 or 1066. Moreover i prefer the am2+ chipsets like the 780G or the 770 to the g31 (if you go intel you should stick with the p45 chipsets anyway) all in all you would get a great cpu that will be fast enough and have enough cache to handle all your everyday task but also give you a lot of overclocking options should u decide to dabble into overclocking in the future (it is a black edition so overclocking it is very easy)....oh and PLEASE stay away from the phenom 1 chips,they run hot,don't oveclock well and cost more than some better options out there...stick to either phenom 2 or the newer athlon chips......the intel build you have in mind isn't bad,but the amd build based on the phenom 2 x2 550 would outperform it and provide virtualization technology should you decide to upgrde to windows seven in october.

 

[sheedoshi]

Thank you so much. I definitelly want to go phenom 2 now.

 

[sheedoshi]

So this is the cpu. Is it really AM2+ compatible? Because I can't find any good AM3 motherboards.

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Dual Core Processor Socket AM3 3.1GHZ 7MB Cache 80W Retail Box

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10360BD5855&vpn=HDZ550WFGIBOX&manufacture=AMD

Greatly appreciated.

 

[rooseveltdon]

So this is the cpu. Is it really AM2+ compatible? Because I can't find any good AM3 motherboards.

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Dual Core Processor Socket AM3 3.1GHZ 7MB Cache 80W Retail Box

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10360BD5855&vpn=HDZ550WFGIBOX&manufacture=AMD

Greatly appreciated.

Yeah all phenom 2 chips are backward compatible with am2+ motherboards and if you check newegg or similar sites many sites will specify which motherboards are optimized for am3 chips (you can really use any am2+ and simply update the bios if you have to but most of the time they work right out of the box)...and try to use 1066 ddr 2 ram as the chip is capable of taking advantage of it as well. I can probably check my sources give you a short list of good am2+ mobos that are already optimized for am3 as well. good luck.

 

[ahslan]

well im not sure if ALL am3 chips work with ALL am2+ mobos...this is definitely something the OP should look into...but I'm pretty certain that any new mobo, specifically one with a SB7xx series southbridge, should work fine with an am3 chip...

The reason I say this is because when I was looking to upgrade my cpu to a Phenom II, I found out that my Biostar mobo doesnt support the new am3 processors...my mobo has the SB600 southbridge rather than the newer SB700s

 

[sheedoshi]

hi guy,
Thank You so much for your help.
Just wanted to ask, I have a case from a Pentium 3 generation. It's an ATX case, can I use it with this new computer? I'm just planning to get a new power suply. Is that gona be enough?

 

[ahslan]

if its an ATX case, then it should be compatible with any ATX mobo...just make sure that the case has space for appropriate cooling fans...

 

[sheedoshi]

I don't think it has any cooling fans or space for them for that matter.
Do I need them? I'm still in the pentium III era, a case then did not have any cooling fans.