New 6400 Core 2 Duo system - advice please.

[Jizumonkey]

Pasted below is the system I plan to build myself, or at least the system I think would be good. I'm not new to this but have paid little attention to the new processors war and what not for about a year so am simply a little out of touch!!

The system is an upgrade from my current P4 3GHz, 2GB (4x512) PC4000 Kingmax in dual channel, Leadtek 6800GT and 350W true power supply on a basic ASRock P4V88+.

I know that in most cases the Core 2 Duo beats the Athlons hand down (not bad for me, always been a Pentium man anyway) so my questions are as follows:

* Can anyone better the system listed, or offer good improvement...and by improvements i dont only want to hear about spending more money!! If there is something someone can suggest that would reduce the cost that's great.
* Also, whats this about using certain speeds of memory (DDR2) with certain CPU's?
* Hows the chipset on that mobo?
* Finally, would you actually upgrade now from my system above or wait...and wait for what? I am only bothered about gaming performance...imo application performance is irrelevant nowadays.

Lots of questions i know but i appreciate any help in clarifying. Thanks.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 RET 2x 2.13 2Mb 1066 MHz LGA775 BX805576400 £132.99 £132.99

Asus P5LD2/C i945P Socket 775 PCI-E / Gb LAN / DUAL CH DDR2 / SATA(II) RAID / CONROE, CORE 2 DUO READY / ATX MOTHERBOARD £61.65 £61.65

OCZ 2GB kit EL DDR2 PC2-6400 / 800 Gold Gamer eXtreme / XTC Edition / Life time warranty OCZ2G8002GK 2x1GB £172.95 £172.95

Hiper 530W TRUE POWER PSU ATX 2.2 Silent 120mm Fan SATA, APFC, SILENT 16db £40.00 £40.00

Gainward BLISS 7950GT 512MB PCI-E DDR3 Dual DVI SLI HDR Mfr# 471846200-8101 £183.98 £183.98

Total : £695.10 inc VAT

 

[Guest]

1. Good time to upgrade, might still sale, or give system to someone, a 3years old system is much slower than today stuff.

2.
This system is somewhat un-balanced, super expensive memory on a rather old/sucky chipset!

Cpu, good buy!

Motherboard, P5B a much better choice!
Memory is probably Overkill, If you dont OC, you are fine with DDR2-533 AKA PC -4200, anything over is for Ocing, getting more bandwith.

Dont know the PSU, some1 else can comment!

 

[dasickninja]

The PSU looks good to me. But you might just want to go up to 600W just for round numbers and just incase. Any other questions?

 

[Jizumonkey]

Thanks, the advice on the mobo becomes clear now i look at it which is why i asked about the chipset. Unfortunately the P5B is out of stock, how about the ABit AB9 Pro on the 965 chipset?

My final question would then have to be since i'm spending £30 more on that mobo, which memory? I have read many people quote bus speeds being suited to certain processors but cant claim to know about that.

 

[dasickninja]

I'd recommend DDR 800. It has the best ratio for the best performance.
As for the ABit AB9 Pro, I'm not famliar with the board. The best place I could direct you is the Abit section of the motherboards Forumz. You can find it here.
Ask again if you need anymore help.

 

[Flopmouth_Fish]

Change the video card to the 256MB (or 512MB, if it's not too pricey) X1900XT. If you could post a link to the site where you plan to order, we could check if there's anything better available for the money.

@Ninja: Your blog's looking nice. Keep up the good work.

 

[Jizumonkey]

I'm back guys, and this time with a re-think...

If I spend a bit of cash now, imo it's money well spent. I dont think the Core2Duo's are going to come THAT much down in price, if I get a 965 chipset it sounds like I am buying future upgrade potential and if i buy decent memory now it will serve for some time!

So, my revised new pc list:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 RET 2x 2.40 4Mb 1066 MHz LGA775 BX805576600 £179.95 £179.95

Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Socket 775 CORE 2 DUO READY! / PCI-E / VISTA READY / DDR2 / SATA RAID / ATX MOTHERBOARD £83.50 £83.50

OCZ 2GB kit EL DDR2 PC2-6400 / 800 Gold Gamer eXtreme / XTC Edition / Life time warranty OCZ2G8002GK 2x1GB £172.95 £172.95

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO Skt 775 / Up to Pentium4 4.4Ghz £12.95 £12.95

TAGAN 530w TG530-U15 Power Supply Silent Modular PSU EasyCon £55.80 £55.80

POV Nvidia 7900GS-256Mb PCI-E £129.95 £129.95

Subtotal :£635.10
VAT : £111.15
Total : £746.25 inc VAT


Points of note - crap graphics card but better than my 6800GT AGP, allowing me to upgrade this first thing when DX10 cards come out mainstream. Everything else is solid as will easily survive two plus years into the future when only considering gaming...yes?

I think everyone will say the CPU is good, many have the mobo according to this http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1075792 and it seems well. The memory is fast and the PSU is easily enough when considered sensibly, i say that as many are overkill on PSU's. So, the weaklink is the Graphics card and well, if i sell it for £100 in 6 months time then so be it.