I took into consideration what everyone said and decided I'd upgrade my PC a fair bit. These are the parts I've chosen: Sapphire Technology Radeon X1600 --- 256MB DDR2 TVO PCIE £56.18 Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Socket 775 2.13GHz £146.81 Samsung 80GB S300 7200RPM 8MB £29.31 DabsValue 650W PSU Blue LED 12cm £38.73 Intel 965GZ Socket 775 uBTX Audio Video DDR2 £66.56 Corsair Memory 2x512MB 240pin DIMM non-ECC unbuffered CL5 667MHz £72.83 Total: £417.42 according to dabs basket. Includes delivery. I was wondering if these parts are ok. Yeah, I skimped on the PSU but it should do fine as it won't be a very power-consuming PC and the reviews seem good. Is there anything that needs changing? Also, do IDE hard drives use a standard molex connector? Will my motherboard support 2xIDE hard drives? Will my PSU support a SATA-II hard drive?
I'd get somebetter videocard and an other motherboard. Intel 965G means intergrated videocard. If you have one Ide port on your motherboard, yes, you can have 2 IDE drives. Yes it uses the standard molex connector.
What's wrong with the motherboard? And I'm not going to be doing hardcore gaming on this machine, so the x1600 will be fine.
essentially the board is low end. no ICing on it if you want to get the most out of the chip, you'de get higher performance dropping to a 6300 and going FSB+33 for 2.1GHz than from running a 6400stock and it would be around the same price. go FSB+ 100 and you're around e6700 performance levels also why are you so loyal to that site? Check around a bit, a lot of people get stuff from overclockers.co.uk. If dabs has the cheaper price on an item by all means go with thewm but don't limit yourself. also, 945, 965, 945, n5XX, x600XX, and RD600 boards don't support eIDE so it's usually doen with an addon chip meaning only one eIDE port. One port=2 devices tops. Most people stick the CD/DVD drive on one connector since SATA optical drives cost big $$$ so yoiu're left with one slot. If possible only buy SATA drives. as for GFX card, check these options x800GTO, GeForce 7600GS, GeForce 7600GT all should eb aroudn the same price. x800GTO>x1600 ---, as is 7600GS and the 7600GT is a fair bit above the 7600GS
Unfortunately my budget isn't huge (only around £420-£450). And yes, the prices are cheaper on dabs by around a tenner. The selection of boards supporting SATA-II and C2D on the dabs site are very limited. What kind of board should I look for? And I probably don't plan on OCing, the cooling on my case isn't the greatest. If I did OC, the e6300 fsb+100 would get e6700 performance levels? Or the e6400 fsb+100 would get e6700 levels?
an e6300 running at FSB 266 woudl get e6700 performance. an e6400 would get a little over x6800 also SATA drives dont' really cost any mroe and the last time you needed a harddrive fr soemthing it was liek 20<s>L</s> cheeper on overclockers.co.uk if i'm nto mistaken...
Was no cheaper on overclockers than on dabs. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=MB-072-MS I've picked this motherboard. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=MY-083-CS This memory. This processor. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=CA-006-SK This PSU. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=GX-117-SP And this graphics card. All looking OK? Total is £464 but with better stuff.
Overclockers isn't usually the cheapest, but it does have a very wide range of stock and most component manufacturers list it as a trusted seller of their products.
Thanks for the help anyone. I've also added on the Scythe Mine cooler, and some Arctic Silver 5. Planning on OCing this one pretty darn high.
scythe mine is good. A+ cooler at a very reasonable price. regret not getting one myself. coulda saved some cash for board try DFI infinity 975X/G I hear it OCs ebtter than the MSI board. stock volts mine hits 383FSB very solid using the latest official BIOS. I beleive the enw beta BIOS is good for 400+ but i dont' have time to try it out. at 400FSb the e6300 will run at 2.8GHz and will yieled performance somewhere ebtween an e6700 and an x6800. don't go too crazy though. My advice is don't overvolt if you can't afford to buy it again. Frequency increases don't matter THAT much in terms of heat output. voltage increases thermal output exponentially and can cause electromigration. c2d is probably safe at 1.5V mid term(3 years) but I personally will never let myself go past 1.4V EVER. Currently running at 1.25V(undervolted) very happily. for the record, I am an undervolting freak... I will never run a part too far out of spec of what the manufacturer says it can run at voltage wise unless i plan to trash it for some reason...
Yeah, changed to the DFI. I'll probably need help with overclocking so I don't bust my C2D, any IM I can contact you on? Appreciate the help.
