Comments on Budget Build

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rivacom

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
Messages
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I am currently upgrading my AMD system to a budget Intel build so far I have:

COOLER MASTER ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

ASUS P5B LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz LGA 775

I'll be using the harddrives, powersupply, dvd burner, and video card(7600GT, will upgrade to 8800 GT when money permits) from my current build. Anyone have any suggestions or money saving tips? total is about just under 300 after MIR.
 
I concur with gwarren007. The motherboard choice is not a good one since it's based on the old P965 chipset which limits your upgrade path and it doesn't even support your CPU. If you really want to save money, hold off on the case now and spend the rest on the actual guts of the PC. Also never factor in rebates as the final cost of your PC until the rebate is actually in your hands.

Some more questions for you:
- What is your exact budget? And does this include tax and shipping?
- What power supply do you have?
- What are the specs of your current AMD system?
- What makes you think that you need this upgrade?
- Will you be overclocking?
 
My current system is:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ stock at 2.0ghz.
Asus Socket 745 Motherboard(Can't recall model off hand)
XFX Nvidia Geforce 7600 GT
1 x 512MB Corsair DDR 400mhz
1 x 512MB Corsair XMS DDR 400mhz
1 x 1GB Corsair XMS DDR 400mhz
250GB Sata Western Digital Hard Drive.

Now I really don't have a budget, I'm trying to keep it as low as possible(under $300 would be ideal) but with the option to upgrade possibly the ram and cpu in the future), My current case is falling apart so I still need a case to put all this in. I was really pushing away the e4500 since it was only 2MB cache, I was reading how the extra two would really improve performance on some applications.
 
rivacom said:
I was really pushing away the e4500 since it was only 2MB cache, I was reading how the extra two would really improve performance on some applications.
Click to expand...

Do you use those applications? Its only about a 10% performance hit at most, btw. So, if you're on a budget, an E2160 or E4500 would be ideal, especially if you don't need VT.

Impact of cache size -- reviews:
Does cache size really boost performance? @ Tom's
Influence of L2 Cache Size on Conroe Processors Performance
2MB or 4MB Cache? @ Anandtech (kinda old)

Since you don't know the model of the motherboard, its hard to tell... is your 7600GT PCI-E or AGP?
 
Interesting reads, another article on toms hardware had a different view, but thats good to know that there isn't too much of a loss. Anyone have any other suggestions or does this seem reasonable?
 
What PSU do you have? Exact make and model please.

Also, if your case is falling apart, use duct tape to fix it. :)

If you're willing to OC, you can drop down to the E2160 and OC it to 3.2Ghz. Should be faster than a E6550 or E4500. Also, I recommend getting this 2GB set of RAM instead:
Super Talent T8UB2GC5 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $36

And definitely get the IP35-E. It's a good mobo.
 
Don't forget you'll need a new vidcard if your 7600GT is AGP (since most s754 boards were AGP still). I asked you about this in the earlier post, but got no response.
 
Video Card is PCI-E, and for the case, its a pain to have to pull the power button out with a screw driver when i turn it on. So a new case is preferred. Also I am being told get a 2GB stick and two 1GB sticks, which one should I got for?
 
rivacom said:
Video Card is PCI-E, and for the case, its a pain to have to pull the power button out with a screw driver when i turn it on. So a new case is preferred. Also I am being told get a 2GB stick and two 1GB sticks, which one should I got for?
Click to expand...

2x 1gb sticks..
 
What PSU do you have?

What case do you have right now? A new replacement switch is probably cheaper than a whole new case, lol.

Again, what PSU do you have?

For dual channel, you'll need two sticks of the same size. IIRC, you get about a 10% performance boost with dual channel vs single channel, with these newer systems.

Again, what PSU do you have?
 
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