Some questions about i3/5

[bustaplz]

I've been considering upgrading my mother's computer. I just bought her two 22" Samsung LCDs(1680x1050.)

As of right now her computer is:

Intel E2200
Intel DG33TL
4GB G.Skill DDR2-800
500GB Spinpoint
Viewsonic 19" 1440x900 LCD
Vista HP x86

Along with the new monitors I ordered a low-profile ATI 4650 because I've noticed that doing things like playing HD youtube videos seems to strain the onboard video quite a bit.

I'm not well educated on the i3 and i5 series CPUs, but run a i7-930 in my own rig and LOVE it. I am even less educated on the integrated graphics available with these CPUs. Can they handle two monitors for everything but 3D gaming? What kind of monitor connections usually come on the boards for these chips?

One of the reasons for wanting to upgrade her is to move her to Windows 7 x64, and if possible get her running on a quad core. I threw together a Newegg cart late last night and it came out to around $700 with a 60GB SSD(just thought if I were going to upgrade her I might as well throw in the SSD. I also looked at maybe just picking up an older Core 2 Quad and it looks as if the board will support them, possibly needing a BIOS flash. Would I need to purchase faster memory to go this route?

Any input is greatly appreciated!!!

 

[E4g1e]

I've been considering upgrading my mother's computer. I just bought her two 22" Samsung LCDs(1680x1050.)

As of right now her computer is:

Intel E2200
Intel DG33TL
4GB G.Skill DDR2-800
500GB Spinpoint
Viewsonic 19" 1440x900 LCD
Vista HP x86

Along with the new monitors I ordered a low-profile ATI 4650 because I've noticed that doing things like playing HD youtube videos seems to strain the onboard video quite a bit.

I'm not well educated on the i3 and i5 series CPUs, but run a i7-930 in my own rig and LOVE it. I am even less educated on the integrated graphics available with these CPUs. Can they handle two monitors for everything but 3D gaming? What kind of monitor connections usually come on the boards for these chips?

One of the reasons for wanting to upgrade her is to move her to Windows 7 x64, and if possible get her running on a quad core. I threw together a Newegg cart late last night and it came out to around $700 with a 60GB SSD(just thought if I were going to upgrade her I might as well throw in the SSD. I also looked at maybe just picking up an older Core 2 Quad and it looks as if the board will support them, possibly needing a BIOS flash. Would I need to purchase faster memory to go this route?

Any input is greatly appreciated!!!

I have not had any on-hand experience with the LGA1156 platform or with multiple-monitor setups as of now (in fact, all of the systems I have ever worked with have been single-monitor setups). But I have had experience with an Intel motherboard that's very similar (support- and BIOS-wise) to the DG33BU. Yes, the DG33BU can support the currently available Core 2 Duos and Core 2 Quads with the later BIOS versions (0484 or later). Unfortunately, the DG33BU does not support DDR2 memory speeds faster than DDR2-800 - and has no manual memory speed settings whatsoever beyond 800 (in fact, there are only two discrete memory speed settings on the DG33BU - 667 or 800). Plus, the DG33BU has no overclocking or voltage tweaking capability at all whatsoever. The manual memory tweaks on that motherboard are also incomplete: Only the four basic latency timing numbers (Tcl, Trcd, Trp and Tras) are tweakable - and nothing else.

 

[bustaplz]

For this machine I'm not too interested in overclocking. The board has been very stable for about a year. It's also in a slim case so cooling is not very good. If I do end up trying out a Core i3/i5 rig I would probably OC a quad core a bit just because it's easy and maybe consider OCing a dual core to a reasonable point. I'm interested to know how the integrated graphics would handle dual displays, but, it's a lot of money to try something and my mom not like it.