Intel P35 - Which one would you recommend?

[Rolly1988]

Hi there,

Im sure this has probably been posted before, so sorry if it has and is annoying.

My little brother is looking at doing a few upgrades shortly so i said i would help him. He wants a decent setup, however he isnt looking to spend too much. I recommended an intel p35 board. So i went looking for him and have noticed there is a huge choice and don't have enough knowledge on these to give the best advice.

He will be getting a core 2 duo to join this board but already have a good idea on that, probably the e6550 or the e6750. He has a geforce 6600gt gpu and 2gb ddr pc3200 ram (might look to upgrade that) to join that. I know its a bit old school but he doesn't want to spend too much and isn't a serious gamer.

I was bascially wondering which P35 mobo people would recommend. He won't be overclocking, will be playing a few games and using it as a media centre pc. Any opinions on anything else are welcome. In total he says about £200 for the mobo, cpu and possibly memory.

Thanks

 

[paq7512]

The P35-DS3L would be a great option.

 

[CNeufeld]

It's looking like the E8400 is going to be the same price as the E6750, so I'd look for one of those instead (based on a Canadian reseller).

Also, there's DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 memory. The 3200 name is available in both DDR and DDR2. If you've really got DDR-PC3200 memory, you won't be able to re-use it. On the plus side, memory is cheap now.

Clint

 

[zenmaster]

The DS3L is a great budget board.

I would definitely not get an E6550 or E6750.
The E8xxx series will be out in a week and be better in every way w/o costing more.

The E2xxx series is likely the best bang for your buck for those on a budget and will continue to be so for a while.

 

[nvalhalla]

the old RAM is no good. Ebay it and get 2GB of DDR2-800 for ~$40 at newegg. You should be able to sell the old RAM for more than that!

I also like the DS3L or MSI's Neo2-FR. Check newegg for price and availability.

 

[Shadow703793]

P35-DS3L. Its a great OCing board

 

[BUFF]

seeing as you are in the UK
Abit IP-35 £63 at SCAN on Ttoday Only http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/

If he doesn't need firewire & RAID then thge IP35-E is £58 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=605521.
personally for a fiver I would get the IP35 even if he thinks that he doesn't need RAID & firewire atm.

Is your brother's 6600GT AGP or PCI-E.
Oh & P35 needs at least DDR2 667 RAM so you need new RAM.

 

[lolitha]

These days GIGABYTE P35-DS3L is the sweetspot but there are alternative boards like

ASUS P5K
abit IP35-E
Intel DP35DPM (not if you are planning to overclock)

 

[Rolly1988]

Hi guys

Wow, lots of replies. Thanks for all you help.

Its funny i was going to tell him to get that Gigabyte one and ask u guys about but you had already reccommended it when i checked back. I thought that he would need to change his ram, i been trying to convince him to do it anyway but at least now he has to.

I am from the UK so sadly can't buy the components as cheaply as everyone the other side of the Atlantic. Anyway, for those of you from the UK i went to Dabs and got all the parts from there, free delivery at the weekend. Also took advantage of the no weight limit and bought the 17KG beast that is the Coolermaster Cosmos 1000 for myself, free delivery!!! Usually use Scan, but Dabs was cheaper this time.

In the end i told him to get the Gigabyte P35-DS3L Mobo, 2GB Corsair DDR2 Ram 667Mhz and Intel Core 2 Duo E6750. His 6600GT is PCI-E so no problems there. Parts have arrived and now just need to fit them.

Thanks for all your help