Finally gonna upgrade

[xylomn]

Well after having my Skt 754 3400+ Newcastle for quite some time and I think its finally time to upgrade it.

Gonna be swapping out my old mobo, cpu, and ram and sticking in the following...

Core 2 Duo E6600 Here
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Here
GEIL 2GB 800MHz DDR2 @4-4-4-12 Here

Was very surprised to find MicroDirect to be the cheapest option (that I could find)... hopefully the special offers will still be there when i come to order.

I'm interested to see how much of a boost in performance I'll get lol. Haven't owned an intel cpu sinse my very first PC with a pentium mmx @200MHz lol.

Gonna order the lot just under £550 on 25th of this month.... it has nothing to do with the fact my student loan comes in on that day

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Oh...you will get a pretty big boost in performance.

 

[KennyT772]

well not a huge boost but a boost indeed. should be about a 1500point increase in 3dmark05.

 

[stealthfighter]

Yeah looks like a beast

 

[D_o_S]

Are you sure you want the ASUS mobo? The new ABIT looks quite promising...

 

[bruins004]

Just out of curiousity how long have you had the AMD for? Also what are your intentions on using the computer for? Dont get me wrong it will be a nice upgrade. I just dont see a reason for it since your current setup can pretty much run anything

 

[magibeg]

Oh he has a x1900xt with it. I would bet he would see a damn nice boost. And from what i've been hearing about the e6600, you should be able to *feel* a difference which is important because it goes beyond benchmarking.

 

[xylomn]

Also what are your intentions on using the computer for? Dont get me wrong it will be a nice upgrade. I just dont see a reason for it since your current setup can pretty much run anything

I mainly use my computer for gaming, video production, and my uni work.

Probibly the main reasons I'm doing this upgrade is to move to DDR2 and to dual core.

Plus I need to replace my memory and my mobo anyway as they are both on their last legs, so I may as well upgrade the cpu as well. Plus I want any new purchases I make now to last as long as possible as I don't know when I'll next be able to upgrade so moving to conroe seems logical.

Are you sure you want the ASUS mobo? The new ABIT looks quite promising...

I've owned quite a few asus boards in the past (along with gigabyte, asrock, and msi) and i've had the least problems with asus boards.

I'm not sure which ABIT board you're referring to if its the AW9D-MAX the reason I'm not sure about it is the single PCI slot. I'm thinking about going crossfire in the new year and with that board it would mean I wouldn't have a slot for my X-FI.
You may have a point though, going crossfire might not be in my best intentions especially with dx10 cards on the horizon maybe I should just keep running with my 1900xt for as long as it physically can last then jump up to a dx10 card rather than being stuck with 2 dx9 cards.

 

[xylomn]

Ok I've been looking at overclockers and here is a list of boards I am considering.

Since I won the E6300 in the raffle I want a board that will really be able to overclock the chip and unlock its power (must hit 400FSB min)

Abit AW9D-MAX - not sure about the 1 PCI slot but I've read it overclocks well

Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi - Not sure about its overclocking potential but I've had good experience in the past with asus boards

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 - I know this will overclock.....

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 and Gigabyte GA_965P_DQ6 - How much different are these from the DS3, do they perform any better


Price is absolutely no problem here, I don't mind paying more to get that little bit extra.

Like I said it want to get the 6300 to 2.8GHz min so the board must be able to reach a min of 400fsb.

I don't know too much about intel mobos so your opinions would be greatly appreciated...

If theres a board thats really good that I haven't listed please mention it.

 

[ktr]

none of the 965 chipset will do crossfire (execpt that new msi board). the gigabyte quad (dq6) board is the best board that i have personally experienced and its has higher ocing ability over the lower end model.


dq6:

# FSB Settings: 100MHz to 600MHz
# PCIe Settings: 90MHz to 150MHz
# FSB/RAM Multiplier: Auto, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 2.66, 3.33, 4.0+
# CPU Voltage Settings: 1.0250V to 1.6000V (in 0.00625V steps), 1.600V to 2.375V (in 0.025V steps)
# Memory Voltage Settings: +0.025V to +0.775V (in 0.025V steps)
# PCIe Voltage Settings: +0.05V to +0.35V (in 0.05V steps)
# MCH Voltage Settings: +0.05V to +0.75V (in 0.05V steps)
# FSB Voltage Settings: +0.05V to +0.35V (in 0.05V steps)
# Multiplier Selection: Yes (unlocked CPUs only)

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

I've heard that 975X overclocks better than most P965 boards, but mainly because P965 is new, and might change in the future. If you don't really care about sound too much, I think the Abit AW9D Max will do you well, and they're "AudioMax" isn't bad either.

 

[ktr]

not alot of 975 with core2duo support...but getting there.

the 975 was a chipset intially for the p4EE's.

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Yeah, but the ones that do support Core 2 Duo are great at overclocking.

 

[b1lk1]

The 975 boards are better for E6600/E6700/X6800 and the 965 boards are better for E6300/E6400. Overclocking on ANY Core2Duo board is hit or miss and choose your parts carefully and wisely. Be extra careful on ram and make double triple sure it is compatible with the mainboard you want.

 

[Ketxxx]

deffinately the asus board, stay away from the abit like it carries a flesh eating disease.