Originally posted by: smuni
Hi everyone! Amazing thread going on here. I do a lot of multi-tasking and gaming and I'm looking for some advice on upgrading mobo/cpu/ram...
I plan to buy the 4CoreDual mobo soon but have no experience with Intel processors. I am currently using an Athlon XP 2400+ 2GHz and I want to buy a CPU that will provide serious performance improvement but costs less than $80-100.
What kind of processor and what range of speeds should I be looking at?
What kind of RAM should I use to take advantage of the processor/mobo?
Are there processors that anyone would recommend in use with this specific mobo?
About C2D's... is the speed basically double the frequency. EX: E4300 1.8GHz -- is that effectively 3.6GHz?
I don't plan to do any overclocking but from what I've read Core2Duo's are great for that. Would this setup be a good place to learn? If so I'm willing to spend a little more than $100 and try to learn to OC. Maybe the E4300?
I greatly appreciate any responses and thank you for your time.
Well I can answer these questions for I was in your boat a few days ago, as this was also my first real Intel build, and I wanted something better then my AMD 4000+.
I read all I could on the intel E4300 chip, and overclocked it will smoke the baddest Intel chip out there they have at its stock settings in all areas, games, decoding, you name it, over clocked the E4300 turns into one bad mother....shut your mouth!
I bought this board in question due to the fact it was the cheapest at the time that newegg had for $38 as a open box unit, even though they sent me a new one It may not be the best overclocker, for there is not much to it, and will not max out the E4300, it is prolly by far the easiest to get you started into overclocking with not much there to mess up and kill your goods, and has a fail safe in place so that if you are to aggresive, will pull everything back, and still boot without you having to open your system up to clear cmos.
To OC the E4300 on this is just like the old Socket A 3200+ chips, you raise FSB till it wont go no more, then back it down a few and your done. Good if your new to overclocking, or not mad about it but want a decent gain over stock, and a fail safe knowing your not going to fry your new toys, this is the perfect board IMO. With other boards it starts to get more aggressive with more stuff to turn on and off, multiplier timing, the whole kit and kaboodle, which for a first timer can be very intimidating. I myself wasnt looking for all out, get this sucker to cook eggs on it and some toast, and I wanst looking to spend gobs of money either, so this was just the perfect choice for me to take the plunge finally into the Intel world without spending a lot of money if I didnt care too much for it, learn some of the Intel overclocking secrets as time goes on, and later move on to a different chip or board.
With that said, I couldnt not be happier with my results over stock with the E4300, nore with the overclocking I was able to do with the board showing me just what can be had now, and in the future if I wanted to proceed further.
In stock timing, the E4300 was on par with my A64 4000+, beating in by a slight few hundred point when testing it in 3dmark 2001, 2003, and 2005. In stock mode I got in 2001 a total of 24520 point, and the 4000+ got 23471. Not to bad considering that the 4000+ is clocked at 2.4ghz, and the E4300 is at 1.8.
But overclocked and it becomes a whole different animal in itself
At 310FSB it really took off and left my 4000+ eating crow, even overclocked my 4000+ couldnt ever meet that, and I dont think me spending another $115 on another AMD chip new or used would come close to that, my mouth dropped as it just kept going faster and faster, when my board, not the chip said no more. If I was able to bump up my stock volts slightly, or change my ram timing a bit I am sure it will hit 3.0 and then some. But for now, it is doing exactly what I hoped it would do and more.
You buying the same set up, the board, the chip, and a stick of Kingston DDR2 667 for $40 shipped all at newegg right now, and it will make your system look pathetic as it did mine, stock no less, and then overclocking it, wont even be a challenge. Best money I have spent in a long time. On upgrade from here I can see doing for a year or two would be a much better graphics card, or going crossfire, and a better board to squeeze out more from the cpu. After that, it will depend on what Intel has to offer in place of this, or if AMD has something out to meet and/or exceed this chip making me go back to AMD.
As you can tell I am happy i took the change, and looking forward to seeing what more it will do later on, right now though, I am still here with my mouth dropped in disbelief that less then $200 I spent gave me that much of a increase, I can max out all my game setting now, without worry of slowdown. Hope this helped you.
And as far as ram goes it takes both DDR 400 and DDR2 533/667. In order for me to get the clock results I did though I got the 667 ram and clocked it in bios as 533, for once it hit 250 fsb the ram could not take any more, dropping it down to 533 will allow me to take the fsb to 333 matching my rams internal speed, and then slightly past that to where it will oc and quit on me again. I would say if you want to overclock, you have got to have great DDR 400 ram, or buy the 1gig for 40 bucks, underclock it so you can overclock the cpu. $40 for 1gig of ram is nuts, I didnt pay that much for my one stick of DDR400