Is it worth it to buy a new motherboard?

Currently, I have a older motherboard that accepts only the 65 nm cpu, which I was going to buy the e2200 for 60 bucks. However, I notice that the newer and faster cpu (e5200) for the same price. A good budget board is I was looking at was the ga-g31m-es2l, but it costs about 50 bucks.

My question is, is the 50 bucks for a newer motherboard worth it for me to get the e5200 over e2200?

i have this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131085

How is the overclock ability that asus p5qpl-vm? Does it have a fsb:ram ratio of 1:1 because I know the g31m-es2l only have 2.66 ratio.

Get the Gigabyte with the e5200. When you get done oc'ing the e5200, you'll find it hard not to laugh. That Gigabyte motherboard is an exception and overclocks very well.

Also, given you are buying a recent e5200 with the new stepping, 4.0 ghz shouldn't be that hard to reach easily with a voltage somewhere just under 1.4v.

As far as the comparison between the e2200 and the e5200, the e5200 is going to run circles around it all day and everyday and in everyway. LOL!

Is it going to be worth it? Very much. It actually doesn't get all that much better then the e5200 offering, even if the e8600 offers 4.5+ ghz. That's just when you feel that you have enough money to spend and you want to have a bit more fun with oc'ing. Stay away from quads if your an enthusiast. It seems as though it only leads to disapointment overall. Professional app users excluded of course.

The higher e5xx models is just an excuse to make another cpu by Intel. But hey, they did a good job on the e5200. I think this was a good decision to release the higher models even if they top out at about the same ghz overall.

Edit: When you really want to push the e5200 past 4 ghz and 1.4v I noticed that it gets ridiculously responsive. Yeah, I admit, I really was laughing. This is with an older stepping model just for reference.

Also, get a good hsf for your cpu when doing this, the stock hsf is not going to work at all for this. Get decent ventilation also just so the motherboard doesn't overheat. Almost any case with a properly placed input and output fan should do just fine.

I couldn't help it. 4.3 ghz with nearly instant boot up was just comical with a sub $130 cpu/mobo combo.

Probably going to sell my old cpu to get a new stepping model.

Well, I had the Gigabyte model ga-g31m-s2 which is just a previous model with less features if I am not mistaken. The one you suggested is fine and then some.

I had bought a decent $10 hsf with a 3 pin at the time which was enough to get the cooling done just barely enough since my case didn't have any input or output fans at the time. My small form factor case only supports on outake fan which is enough, but I didn't get around to getting one because of the modification I did later on (see below). Although that is not available anymore for that price, I would suggest just getting almost anything other then the stock hsf, just don't skimp out too much is all. And stay away from bad review hsf's.

Link to that hsf: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835150083

Be warned, it's a great hsf and gets the job done well due to the size and the air that it pushes, but it doesn't have rpm control since it's a 3 pin and it's not all that quiet although I was trying to build a silent computer at the time. It got so annoying I ripped it off and taped a 80mm fan on it, which works but doesn't work as well cause it doesn't push as much air, but it works somewhat so not really complaining.

Here is a link of a cooler I personally want to get for a small form factor case and low profile hsf when I have the time and money to pay for the item itself and the stupid shipping of course. Heh. This hsf is very hard to beat in terms of getting the job done for $13.99.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233022

For a little bit more in price but very worth it in terms of noise level and performance, this is the ideal hsf.

http://www.frostytech.com/articlev [...] cleID=2247

http://www.xpcgear.com/scythe-shur [...] ooler.html

Almost everything else is basically overpriced or not good enough IMO.

Hmm, well the regular s2 model doesn't have a locked ratio:ram divider. It does go accordingly to the divider I think but it isn't locked, although I am not sure if it has changed for the newer model. Check reviews before you get it.

As for the memory choice, for this motherboard, I don't think you'll have trouble with compatibility problems.

Here is a suggestion though. This series of RAM is known to oc very well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231172

Yes, but if your able to reach that fsb which is possible with the new e5200 stepping that's way higher then the e6300 can overclock at those fsb speeds. Is that a joke? Yeah... beyond 4.1 ghz is pretty much a struggle for the e5200 I agree, what's your point? And this is using a sub $50 mobo as well. You can't beat this combo overall, there's no way, I've researched a lot before deciding to get this setup.

It's not a better value at all... I've had an e5200 at 4.3 ghz with the old stepping at boot. Not stable, but it made me laugh how responsive the system was.

The e5200 doesn't have a 12.5 multiplier for no reason...

I realize there is a new stepping for the e6300 which runs at about 2.8 ghz at stock, but the e5200 has a new stepping that can overclock to 4.0 ghz easily with a mild voltage change. It's really a toss up I guess, but I'd go with the more reliable proven e5200.

Read the reviews, the e5200 is proven to get a higher and more reliable overclock then the e6300.

A very good score but the new RO stepping on the e5200 does 4 ghz almost on stock voltage now. The older stepping, I'd have to say that the e6300 probably is a lot better.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/show [...] 83&page=22

4 ghz @ 1.288v. That's really impressive and pretty much e8600 capabilities.

After seeing that I'm probably going to sell my old e5200 MO model to get one of these. They saying the MO is like a dude compared to the RO. Although the tighter timings and limited overclocking intially leads to a more responsive cpu overall but at these voltages and speeds I don't think that's really going to make a lot of difference.

I really hate how they don't want to show voltages in that review you linked to also...