A computer spec switcharoo.

[KodiaX987]

Current setup:

GFX: Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB PCI-Express
CPU: AMD Athlon 3200 "Winchester"
Mobo: ASUS A8V-E Deluxe
RAM: 2 GB DDR (4x 512MB sticks)



Planned upgrade:

GFX: Same
CPU: Intel Core 2 x (Undecided as to Duo, Extreme or Quad. Suggestions welcome.)
Mobo: ASUS Commando (Undecided. So many boards I haven't finished comparing them all...)
RAM: 2 GB DDR2 Dual-channel (2x 1GB sticks)

Good idea or fail idea?

[Blitzkommando]

I'm not sure if you knew, but there's a massive price-drop this month for all Intel processors. The Q6600 is dropping to US$266 per 1000 which probably means sub-US$280 (for the online retailers). I just last month went from an X2 4400+ to an E6600 and, depending on the application, sometimes more than a 100% improvement in performance. (As a note I was able to hit 3GHz at stock [1.29] voltage.) So, I'd suggest to wait for the 22nd and the price drops (and release of the 1333FSB chips) but I'd definitely suggest the upgrade, especially if you do any sort of audio/video encoding as that's where the C2D's and C2Q's really shine.

As for the motherboard it depends on what all you want to do with it. From what I understand at the various tech forums I go to the majority of Conroe chips are hitting 3GHz at stock voltage. If overclocking like that is something you'd want to be able to do either immediately, or in the future, I'd suggest either a Intel P965, Intel P35, or nvidia 650i/680i chipset based board. Really though, most boards on those chipsets are excellent boards for stability, features, and obviously overclocking capability. (Just for reference I'm running the EVGA 680i SLI. Also, if you get a reference-based board like the EVGA, BFG, or the like make sure you get the A1 revision as the first boards had corruption issues with SATA drives and didn't like playing with quad-cores at all.)

And memory. Well, in some respects I'd say just pick up a 4GB kit of 2x2GB sticks. I say this because of two reasons: First, a cheap (but good) 4GB kit is not too terribly more expensive than a good 2GB kit. And secondly memory prices are expected to rise up towards the end of the year. Even if you aren't using a 64-bit operating system, you should still see around 3GB of the memory. I'm currently running 4GB myself in Vista-64 and game quite reqularly on it and thus far the only games that won't run are Sim City 2000 (has a 16-bit installer but works perfectly in Vista-32 on my old P4 machine) and the other is Civilization II which installs, and starts the menus but crashes upon loading the map. Also, if you go with 4GB, with some boards you'll need to enable Memory Remapping to get the board to read all the memory.

It's definitely not a bad idea at all, especially if you do lots of processor-intensive applications or games and you'll notice a marked improvement in performance.

One final thing though, most of the new s775 boards only have one IDE channel as you've probably noticed. Most of the 650i SLI boards have two IDE channels, as do a couple of the workstation ASUS boards based on the P965 chipset. Myself, I used it as an excuse to drop two smaller capacity drives for another large capacity SATA drive and leave the old IDE drives in the old machine.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Norvekh on 2007-06-30 22:07 ]</font>

[VioletSkye]

Summed up well. Definitely wait for the price drop. Also the X38 chipset has some nice features over the P35 and is set to release soon hopefully (I've read Q3.) It will feature (finally) two full speed PCI Express x16 slots (full SLI) as well as support for PCI Express 2.0. Overclock protection should also be removed opening up for more tweaking. At the moment I wouldn't worry too much about DDR3 support because it won't really shine until the 1600MHz and higher sticks start to show up and price-wise DDR2 should offer more bang for the buck.





<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: VioletSkye on 2007-07-01 19:23 ]</font>

[KodiaX987]

After a few conversations with three people, three new suggestions showed up:

A) Get a Crossfire-capable board so that when the GFX card stops supplying to the demand, you buy another one of the same model (for a much lower price by then), slap it on the extra slot, and connect the whole thing together for a quick boost of performance.

B) Wait 'till Christmas. By that time, Core 2 Quad prices will have dropped like rocks and become a very apetizing offer.

C) To that end, the ASUS P5B Deluxe (http://ca.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=307&l4=0&model=1295&modelmenu=1) is the best thing for the job at the moment. The choice of mobo is subject to change over time of course, but supposing I go to the store right this instant, that's the recommendation.

[KodiaX987]

Yet even more updates! http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

First, ASUS has way too many God damn boards, and not a single one happens to be full-equipped. I've been scratching the surface for an ideal but what I get in one doesn't come on the other and vice versa.

Also, I keep coming across boards with two PCI-E slots, except the second slot is on x4 lanes rather than x16 lanes. Should I worry?

[VioletSkye]

what are the features you are wanting?

[KodiaX987]

I need:

A) Quad-core CPU support - which is on almost all high end mobos now, as I intend to get a Q6600 after pricedrop. I also want to the support to be straight from out-of-the-box - as some mobos need a BIOS update before they can support quad-core and a friend of mine had to buy an extra CPU for the sole purpose of updating the BIOS to support his quad-core!
B) Twin PCI-E slots. When the video card ceases to supply to the demand, slap on another one and crossfire it for a quick boost.
C) Integrated Ethernet - almost all mobos have these now, but just for the sake of completeness...
D) At least two PCI slots. One is used by my PVR card, and the other by a sound card. I am not sure if I will want to use the mobo's integrated audio, as the AC97 on mine gave me some issues.
E) SATA capability. The more plugs, the better. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif
F) Two IDE channels - as I've been told some mobos now come only with one, go figure.
G) PS/2 keyboard jack. I will never let go my of "legendary keyboard". Ever.


Mobos I've looked at so far (all of the ASUS):
-Commando (http://ca.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=117&l3=0&l4=0&model=1480&modelmenu=1): Good all-rounder, has most of what I'm looking for, maybe even too much. I'm not too interested in the bundled game and sound card. Says it's quad core ready but doesn't explicitly state compatibility with it for some reason(!) Has twin PCI-E in x16-x4 lanes but doesn't mention Crossfire/SLI capabilities at all.
-P5B Premium Vista Edition (http://ca.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=307&l4=0&model=1558&modelmenu=1): Has some Vista features, which is kinda nice since I want to try Vista on a partition and see how it goes - perhaps even use it as my regular OS is the CD works and the installation works. Has explicit CrossFire support but the twin PCI-E slots are once again in x16-x4. The Core 2 Quad compatibility here is explicitly stated, instead of just "Quad core ready". It looks pretty great, but I fear I might be buying too many gizmos on that one.
-P5B Deluxe (http://ca.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=307&l4=0&model=1295&modelmenu=1): Similar to the Vista Edition, except this one doesn't explicitly state Core 2 Quad compatibility and lacks the Vista features. Yet again, explicit CrossFire compatible in x16-x4 mode.

I also happen to have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Audio (which is just a rebranded Audigy, in practice) which I got solely because of compatibility issues between AC97 Realtek Audio and some games. Dunno if the new mobos are gonna be better with sound...



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: KodiaX987 on 2007-07-04 15:18 ]</font>