Core Duo upgrade to old Athlon XP System - Advice Please

[indyjones]

Any body got any experiance of the ECS PN2-SLI2+ mainboard? this looks quite nice and is basically the same as the EVGA and BFG boards, good price though about the same as the asus board, and this one has all solid capacitors

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

I would not buy an ECS .......... ASUS is my choice

 

[Tuffgong4]

not big on ECS. Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and Biostar. If you are going the core 2 duo route, the Biostar Tforce 965 got some good reviews.

here is the link about the biostar http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTE3NSw2LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

 

[GEN3RIC]

I just purchased an ASUS Commando with the P965 chipset. It's a brilliantly laid out motherboard and it's had some seriously good reviews. It's a $200 motherboard, so its no 680 chipset motherboard (usually $300 - 400), but those things have a terribly negative review for some reason.

I too am going to E6600.. I want the 4MB of L2 cache and $300 is not bad at all for that CPU. Stock air overclocking to 3.2Ghz means for some serious performance!

For a GPU, if you want to play games like Oblivion, STALKER, Crysis, Bioshock, or wahtever.. at "high" settings. I suggest at the very minimum the 640mb version. It has enough VRAM frame buffer to allow for high resolution games to store those textures in memory without a jerky reload.

I am going from AMD 64 3000+ to this, so its going to be a jump. I dont' count my 2.0Ghz Core Duo as much, because it's my laptop. Granted, it runs Vista MUCH better than my desktop mainly because of the CPU and the 2GB of DDR667. With Vista on my laptop, I use about 58% or 1200mb of RAM on idle. WHY? Because it loads a LOT of programs into memory when the memory is available. My 1GB desktop has Vista x64 and only uses about 600-800mb at idle which is something like 85% usage. It is also dog**** slow when loading programs and games.. this is why I recommend 4GB to gamers on Vista. Vista will try to use it all if it's there! Provided you have a 64bit version, otherwise it can only allocate 3.5GB of total memory, this includes your VRAM..

You are definitely going to enjoy this!

 

[indyjones]

I just purchased an ASUS Commando with the P965 chipset. It's a brilliantly laid out motherboard and it's had some seriously good reviews. It's a $200 motherboard, so its no 680 chipset motherboard (usually $300 - 400), but those things have a terribly negative review for some reason.

I too am going to E6600.. I want the 4MB of L2 cache and $300 is not bad at all for that CPU. Stock air overclocking to 3.2Ghz means for some serious performance!

For a GPU, if you want to play games like Oblivion, STALKER, Crysis, Bioshock, or wahtever.. at "high" settings. I suggest at the very minimum the 640mb version. It has enough VRAM frame buffer to allow for high resolution games to store those textures in memory without a jerky reload.

I am going from AMD 64 3000+ to this, so its going to be a jump. I dont' count my 2.0Ghz Core Duo as much, because it's my laptop. Granted, it runs Vista MUCH better than my desktop mainly because of the CPU and the 2GB of DDR667. With Vista on my laptop, I use about 58% or 1200mb of RAM on idle. WHY? Because it loads a LOT of programs into memory when the memory is available. My 1GB desktop has Vista x64 and only uses about 600-800mb at idle which is something like 85% usage. It is also dog**** slow when loading programs and games.. this is why I recommend 4GB to gamers on Vista. Vista will try to use it all if it's there! Provided you have a 64bit version, otherwise it can only allocate 3.5GB of total memory, this includes your VRAM..

You are definitely going to enjoy this!

Thanks for the feedback

I have naturally read reviews of that board, its hard to miss when you look into intel boards
However I am keen to keep the SLi option open...... and the 680i has nice features suck as the sli memory etc.... still despite the 680i boards getting great reviews when you scratch the surface alto of these board seem to have issues........

Still regarding ram you recommend 4 gig ! that's a lot more than i was thinking of......

 

[David_L6]

First, if you possibly can - wait until next month to buy processor. Intel is supposed to have a price cut coming sometime in April.

I have two computers with Core 2 Duo processors:

XP Pro, Intel D975XBX2 (Bad Axe 2), BFG 7800GTX 256MB, 2 X 1GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 DDR2 1000MHz, Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz CPU @ 3.6 GHz, Zalman CNPS 9700 NT CPU cooler, 2 X 150GB Raptors in Raid 0 on the Intel Matrix controller - the board also has a Marvel controller (8 SATA ports), one Seagate 320 GB 7200.10 "Perpendicular recording technology" hard drive for back up and extra storage, LITE-ON 20X DVD, and Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card.

This is the computer I use for everything. I'm not much of a gamer - I have Combat Flight Simulator 2, Flight Simulator 2004, and Flight Simulator X - so I don't know for a fact that it will meet your needs for gaming, but I think it will. I built this computer back in November and it has been running 24/7 with the CPU overclocked to 3.6GHz since then (I run World Community Grid - http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ ). I am very happy with it.

The only problem I've had has been with FSX and that's the game, not the computer. I also tried FSX on a computer with a P4 670 oc'd to 4 GHz with a 7800 GTX video card and 2 GB RAM and that wasn't enough computer for FSX either. Either of those computers run CFS2 and FS9 just fine with all the setting cranked up and @ 1600 X 1200 (Dell 2001FP).

My other Core 2 Duo computer:

Vista Ultimate, Intel DG965WH, 2 X 1GB DDR2 667MHz, Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz CPU, Zalman CNPS 9500 AT CPU cooler, Seagate 320 GB 7200.10 "Perpendicular recording technology" hard drive, and LITE-ON 16X SATA DVD. I'm using the onboard video and sound for now. Not much to say about this computer........ I got it running at the end of January when Newegg started selling the OEM version of Vista Ultimate. The motherboard does not have any overclocking option in the BIOS so it's running at stock speed. About all I've done with it so far is play around with Vista a little (I'm not impressed with Vista) and run World Community Grid. Haven't had any trouble with the computer though..... (If I were building this computer again I'd buy another Bad Axe 2 instead on the 965 board so I could overclock.)

Neither of those boards are SLI compatible. The DG965WH has only one PCI Express slot. The Bad Axe 2 has two PCI Express slots and is CrossFire compatible. I've heard of people running SLI on the Bad Axe 2 with hacked drivers but I've never tried it. One video card is enough for my purposes.

 

[HR_Paperstacks]

First, if you possibly can - wait until next month to buy processor. Intel is supposed to have a price cut coming sometime in April.

Nice. . .just happens to be when my tax-return comes in.

I'm currently hating my 1-year old set up. I think I upgraded at the wrong time. Here are my current specs:

CPU: Athlon 64 3700+
Mobo: NF4 SLi (evga -- I don't remember the model name at the moment)
RAM: 2x512mb OCZ DDR 400
Video Card: Geforce 7800 GT (probably the only thing that's sticking around after this upgrade)
Monitor: Samsung 940BF (19-inch, 2ms grey to grey)
Sound Card: SB-Audigy 2
Mouse: Logitech MX510
Keyboard: Logitech G15
OS: XP Media Centre SP2
Case: Coolermaster Wavemaster Midtower
PSU: OCZ Powerstream 520 Watts.
HD1: 60 gig WD (IDE)
HD2: 200gig WD (SATA)
HD3: 250gig WD (SATA)

I am a student and really during the year I'm using this system for everything imaginable. Creation content, browsing, e-mail, video and of course gaming.

Here's what I am thinking of upgrading to:
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6400
RAM: 2gb of DDR2-800 or 667 (probably OCZ)
Mobo: ASUS P5N-E SLI Nforce 650I

And keeping everything else more or less the same aside from formatting and doing a dual boot config with XP and Vista. Any suggestions?

 

[David_L6]

Any suggestions?

My first suggestion is to buy an Intel D975XBX2 motherboard. I've never had a more stable and user friendly motherboard.

Second suggestion is to buy an E6600 or E6700 if at all possible to go with the Bad Axe 2 mobo.

 

[GEN3RIC]

4GB of RAM nearly is overkill - but I think if you can appreciate any one thing, it would undoubtedly be the overkill in RAM. SO many RAM related issues with Vista, gaming, entertainment apps..etc.. It turns into $400-500 for 4GB of good DDR2800, but I don't believe that it should be taken any lighter than a good GPU...

 

[indyjones]

4GB of RAM nearly is overkill - but I think if you can appreciate any one thing, it would undoubtedly be the overkill in RAM. SO many RAM related issues with Vista, gaming, entertainment apps..etc.. It turns into $400-500 for 4GB of good DDR2800, but I don't believe that it should be taken any lighter than a good GPU...

Thanks I will see what my options are, but i think the ram upgrade will be next...... hmmm maybe buy cheap ddr800 rather than the ddr1066 i was planing on for now, and in 6 months go to 4 gig?

something to think on.....

As for the infinite motherboard question..... I have been having crazy ideas regarding a ASUS striker........

 

[indyjones]

Oh I forgot to mention got my first new bit of kit the other day..... a Logitech G15 gaming keyboard

 

[mfarley]

I'm a fan of the 680i chipset, lots of functionality and control over chipset features if you plan on overclocking that duo. =)

 

[indyjones]

Cheers, I have heard good things about the Evga board that you have. Its ment to be a good board especially the latest hardware rev. That is the main contender to the ASUS P5N32-E SLI/ Striker Extreme

 

[mfarley]

I try my best to stay away from ASUS as I've had nightmare-esk interactions with their customer service. So, I obviously don't have any experience with the Striker Extreme board, but I can say I've been insanely pleased with this evga board and their customer service (sent me a new SLI bridge with little hassle).

ASUS is obviously a popular board, but the benefits in performance compare little in my opinion to the terrible customer service they provided me in the past.

If you're moving to a conroe chip, I recommend the evga 680i as it's a good board and utilizes my favorite chipset.

On a side note, If you plan to overclock the processor I'd go with the zalman cnps9500 versus the 9700 version as it's considerably more quiet and still a fantastic cooling option for around $50. Beware though, the thing is a monster--I ended up getting a full tower Gigabyte 3dAurora as my old custom case didn't have nearly enough room for the 9500.

Good Luck!

 

[GEN3RIC]

indyjones - i thinks its a great idea to go 2x1GB immediately, then allow yourself the extra 2 slots for a total of 4GB. You may not need it now - so you dont have to fork over an extra $200 utnil you really realize you need it.

The Striker boards look like they are having problems over on HardForums.com (thats all the further ive looked). I imagine its because of the NVIDIA 680 chipset... if you can afford the 680 chipset motherboards, and you can't put up with the many quirks it seems to be giving, Id say the benefits may outweigh the cons.

A question: what motherboard can even accept DDR2-1066 or 1333 RAM? I am not sure how that is possible.

 

[mfarley]

indyjones - i thinks its a great idea to go 2x1GB immediately, then allow yourself the extra 2 slots for a total of 4GB. You may not need it now - so you dont have to fork over an extra $200 utnil you really realize you need it.

The Striker boards look like they are having problems over on HardForums.com (thats all the further ive looked). I imagine its because of the NVIDIA 680 chipset... if you can afford the 680 chipset motherboards, and you can't put up with the many quirks it seems to be giving, Id say the benefits may outweigh the cons.

A question: what motherboard can even accept DDR2-1066 or 1333 RAM? I am not sure how that is possible.

What quirks have you seen pinned down to the chipset? I'm curious as I haven't encountered anything in my research.

Also...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188012 claims it supports a 1200mhz clock memory standard on the ram. I'm running 800 on my board, but it claims 8gb at 1200.

 

[GEN3RIC]

Admittedly, it's impossible to pin it to the chipset..but its nearly every 680 chipset motherboard that is having this plethora of quirks. I suppose maybe it could be a coincidence.. later revisions of the mobos will probably be fine.

 

[mfarley]

I was just wondering if you could post links to some of these problems so I can stay abrest. =)

 

[David_L6]

There are posts about bad 680i's on just about any message board that has anything to do with computers. Here are a couple of links.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=33941&highlight=680i

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=138435&highlight=680i

 

[David_L6]

On a side note, If you plan to overclock the processor I'd go with the zalman cnps9500 versus the 9700 version as it's considerably more quiet and still a fantastic cooling option for around $50. Beware though, the thing is a monster--I ended up getting a full tower Gigabyte 3dAurora as my old custom case didn't have nearly enough room for the 9500.

Good Luck!

I have both a 9500 and a 9700. Started off with the 9500 in the system that the 9700 is in now. Didn't notice any noise difference when I switched. Could be that my case (Cooler Master Stacker 810) has so many fans in it (2 front, 2 back, 1 top) that I just can't hear the difference.

The 9700 does cool better though. With the 9700 and C2D E6700 oc'd to 3.6GHz the temps are the same as they were with the 9500 and E6700 at 3.4GHz.