Time for a new Processor and Motherboard

Well it seems that my older P4 2.5ghz processor is out of date. I recently got back into PC games and it seems like the new games just slow my computer down to a crawl. I am thinking a new processor and Motherboard might be in order but it has been a few years since I even did any research on new parts. If I wanted to stick with the Pentium line of processors what do you think would be the best bang for my buck. Also I want to make sure my older hard drives will be able to connect to the new motherboard. I don't use a Sata cable to connect my hard drives, they use the standard flat cables. Also my video card is AGP and I see they went to PCI express instead now. I guess I will have to buy a new video card and memory with the new motherboard?

Thanks in advance.

You will need a new motherboard, power supply, RAM, and graphics card at a minimum. Virtually all motherboards only have one IDE channel these days, so if you wish to keep your existing hard drives and opttical drives then you will also need an IDE controller card.

Forget Pentium, the Core2Duo is the best bang for the buck at the moment. What sort of budget did you have in mind?

Well when I bought this 2.4ghz Processor the 3.0ghz processor just came out so this one was about $100 less. I considered that a deal so I bought it. I guess my biggest problem right now is I want to be able to use as much of my older system as possible. I def Need to keep my old hard drives (that aren't even that old) at the bare minumum. I don't want to get the newest most expensive processor but I also don't want to buy a processor that is outdated.

The first thing we need is a budget.

You're gonna be looking at a Core 2 Duo processor, a new motherboard, some DDR2 RAM, a PCI-E Graphics Card, and a new PSU, possibly a new case, and we'll also need to know what you use the system for?


Liam

What is the middle of the road or maybe a little bit better than middle of the road Dual 2 Core processor? Also what board would you suggest. I really don't have a budget, I guess I am just going to find all the items that are a little better than average and then make my decision. I have been using Asus motherboards for the last 5 or 6 years but if there is a better board for a good price I wouldn't mind switching. I am going to be using XP pro for the operating system.

An E6300 with a Gigabyte DS3R would be a good start, as the board is affordable and gives you excellent future proofing as it supports all current Intel processors, and supports upcoming processors due in january, it also has DDR2 support and DDR3 (4 DDR2 slots and 2 DDR3 slots) as well as PCI-E support. You can pick up some RAM at ridiculously cheap prices at the minute, 2gb of OCZ DDR2 costs be £40, so translate that into $ and you're golden. If you're not a gamer then an Nvidia 8500GT would be a nice middle-of-the-road card, or even an 84.xx for a few dollars less.


Liam

Ok thanks for the info, I will look into that board and processor. What power supply would you say I should go with? I think the one I have now is 400 watts.

Ok this is probably going to be a dumb question but the P4 processor that I have now is a 2.4ghz. The E6300 is only a 1.86ghz processor so is that a step backwards? I also see that for $20 more I can buy the E6750 processor which is a 2.66ghz processor...is that a deal for $20?

It all depends on age and brand, they usually only last a few years if it has been in use for a while then you may want to upgrade it, and go with all new components, a 400-500W should be fine and stick with brands such as Thermaltake/Tagan/Hiper/Akasa/Corsair/OCZ/Enermax/PC P&C/Coolermaster/Zalman.


Liam

Clock speed isn't important these days, the E6300 may have a lower clock speed, but it has an extra core, it also runs on a faster FSB to support faster RAM, and 2mb cache per core.

If you did go with an E6750, as it in part of the Intel refresh, it supports DDR3 at stock speeds so it adds to the motherboard future-proofing, it would be worth the extra $20 IMO, but i wouldn't call it just above average, if you do not plan to OC then i'd say it is a workhorse, if you do OC it then i'd say it was a stable full. :D


Liam

Ok so it sounds like the E6750 is the way for me to go. Now what do I do about my two IDE hardrives and two IDE DVD writers??

You can pick up an IDE controller card that can be installed in a PCI slot and plug the drives into this. Most board have at least 1 IDE port left, so you can run a couple of drives from this, and the others from a PCI card.


Liam

Link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816102007

Great guys thanks for the help. Looks like I am all set now.

Well I thought I was all set. I have the Processor on order but I am rethinking the motherboard now. I would like to get a board with built in Firewire like the one I have now so I can DL video from my video camera. I guess I could just buy a separate PCI board but with all these boards I am afraid I will run out of slots for a better sound card.

How about this one? It';s a very nice board indeed, with onboard Firewire:

http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Mo...ame=GA-P35-DQ6

Excellent board ^^^

For a little bit of a saving and the same chipset with 2 x Firewire ports, the Rev 2.0 of the DS4 is also excellent, the differences being that is doesn't have a Quad BIOS, and more USB ports on the backplate:

http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Mo...ame=GA-P35-DS4


Liam

Ok thanks for the links, I will look into those for sure.

If I buy this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115029 does it come with a fan? I am used to the Retail Intel processors coming with a fan.

Yep it comes with the stock intel cooler as it is a Retail box. Any OEM processors will not include a cooler.


Liam

My experience of the stock Core2Duo cooler is that it isn't particularly good. I got a big drop in CPU temp by changing it for a better one.

What did you go for Nick?

In my experience it isn't too bad if you use some better TIM. (AS5/Ceramique) ...Although you can't beat a huge chunk of copper with a 120mm fan attached to it. :)


Liam

I went for the Scythe Samurai, as I particularly wanted one that uses the standard C2D mounting pins (there is a big plate on the back of my mobo). I had used AS5 on the stock cooler, but my temps weren't very good at all. When I took the stock one off to fit the Samurai, the paste was nicely spread, so it definitely wasn't that I'd fitted it badly in the first place.

SuperSparks I see that you own both the Core 2 Duo and the Athlon X2, which do you like better? I never owned a AMD processor yet but I have heard they are better for gaming.

They are both fine processors, but of my pair the C2D is by far the better performer. I don't do any gaming though, so I can't really comment on that.

Were I to build another rig today, I would still go for the Core 2. When the Barcelona-core AMD becomes readily available for a reasonable price, I might well go for that though, as it is a true quad-core, rather than Intel's idea of 2 dual-cores glued together.

Well I'm really not a huge gamer but I do play a couple online. I mostly do video editing so I will stick with the Core 2 Duo.

Quote:

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When the Barcelona-core AMD becomes readily available for a reasonable price, I might well go for that though, as it is a true quad-core, rather than Intel's idea of 2 dual-cores glued together.

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Let's hope there are some apps with multicore support by then, they are just getting around to dual support and quad wades in, and with Skulltrail around the corner software is gonna be flailing.

Personally i don't see any advantage to native quads over Kentsfield/Penryn/Nahelam quads, on paper the only thing they have that the core 2's dropped is HT (3.0Ghz apparently) and on paper a FX stock at 3.2 with 2mb L2 cache and 1mb L3, vs a QX9770 stock at 3.2 with 12mb L2 cache (6mb shared between each core pair) and already seeing overclocks approaching 6Ghz, i'm firmly in the Intel camp for the coming years....i just hope the price of DDR3 drops quickly. :D


Liam