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How much to upgrade? Advice please.

P

plastisol

n00b
Joined
May 13, 2011
Messages
8
Hello

I have a 2 year old or so machine that I built originally with audio work in mind that has ended up being mostly used for Photoshop/Illustrator work (cs5) and I am having issues running out of memory. Also, I have always had an issue with core 0 of my quad core running 10c or so hotter than the others despite resitting the fan a couple of times and replacing the stock one with an (admittedly probably not much better) Akasa one I ran out and grabbed from the local PC shop, I don't know whether this is a sensor issue or if something is actually not right.

I need to decided whether i should:

Upgrade DDR2 from 2 to 4 gigs, which kind of seems like bad value for money although overall the cheapest thing to do.

or

buy another lowish end suitable motherboard and use DDR3 and possibly get 8 gigs

or, do something else more drastic, eg change my CPU as well and upgrade motherboard. I'd rather not do this really.

And whatever I do I would like to change my cooler for something better that will still fit in my micro ATX case.

thank you.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing?
Photoshop/Illustrator, Web.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Whatever is reasonable for what I need, no more than £200, hopefully less
3) Where do you live?
UK, I will be using ebuyer and/or scan I would imagine.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
RAM, relevant CPU cooler, possibly MB, possibly CPU
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

MB: Gigabyte GA-EG43M-S2H iG43
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149238
RAM: Kingston 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ecc CL5 Unbuffered 1.8V - I would swap this out for 2 x 2GB sticks I imagine.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129954
PSU: Antec EarthWatts 500W 80%+ Efficiency PSU - 80mm Fan 4x SATA 2x PCI-E
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/120377
Case: Antec Mini P180 Case
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140996
SSD: OCZ Vertex2 60gb

HDD: 2 2x 1TB Western Digitals

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148933
GPU: 4670 512mb

6) Will you be overclocking?
no
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
1920x1080
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
need parts now
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
nothing specific if I do upgrade the motherboard, the original one was choesn for having a TI firewire chipset to play nice with a soundcard, this isn't overly important now.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bi
yes, Win7 64
 
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If you're running out of memory, then you need more memory. However, the price of DDR2 RAM is now more than the costs of DDR3 RAM -- and you'd probably need 8GB of RAM to be on the safe side.

If you can buy 8GB of RAM (ideally, two 4GB sticks, though four 2GB sticks are more widely available) used, then I would recommend going that route.
 
Thanks for the reply.

That's kind of what I was getting at, DDR2 just doesn't seem worth it given it's price and the face I could only use 4gb max with my motherboard.

What would be a good motherboard upgrade for my Q8200?
 
The problem is that if you're looking for a motherboard upgrade, then you're better off working from a new socket/chipset platform. Unless you buy an Intel P35 or P45 board used, it's not worth buying an end-of-life Socket 775 board at this time.

For £200, you could go with AMD, but it's at best a parallel adjustment. And there is no guarantee that what you buy now will be compatible with the upcoming Bulldozer processors and motherboards. (Bulldozer is expected to arrive some time this year.)

£75.00 - AMD Phenom II X4 840
£49.55 - MSI 880GM-E41
£64.36 - Kingston HyperX 2x4GB DDR3 1333 kit
=====
£188.91 - Subtotal (including VAT, not including shipping or other charges)
 
So to clarify, is there no such thing as a motherboard that supports my CPU that takes DDR3?

Sorry for my ignorance.
 
AVA Direct, a U.S.-based site, has a list of Socket 775 boards that support DDR3 RAM. However, I don't know what eBuyer or ScanUK has available.

That said, please keep in mind that Socket 775 has been dead for years. You may not be able to find any of these boards new. And I personally don't believe that they're a good long-term solution to your problem.
 
If that's the only thing you can do for now, it's the only thing you can do for now.

I don't have any better suggestions for you.
 
The barebones unit (IMO) isn't a good buy. The processor would perform worse than your Q8200 and the motherboard is essentially a question mark. I don't know which manufacturer makes the motherboard or any of the board's specifications. Truthfully, if you're going to buy new parts, grab the AMD setup in my earlier post; that board can accept the Phenom II X6 six-core processors and supports up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM.

The Zalman CNPS7500-CU is no longer one of the best CPU coolers available today, so avoid it if you can. It's a decent cooler, but the performance (IMO) doesn't justify its cost versus the stock HSF.
 
Thanks for your help. If I went for that AMD solution is there a cooler you'd suggest or should I just stick with the stock one?
 
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