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Thread: AM2 4600 or Conroe___DECISION TIME!!

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    Senior Member wannabgeek's Avatar
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    AM2 4600 or Conroe___DECISION TIME!!

    Right i am going to Build my 1st PC a few months ago i purchased a new hiper 550 PSU and a Asrock Dual (AGP/Pci-E) Mobo, so i could save some cash by using my old 6800 graphics card and was waiting for the AMD price to drop before i purchased the AM2 4600 & some new RAM! But all this talk of how good the conroe is has made me think i am doing the right thing! The PC will be mainly used for Photo editing & Video Editing (photoshop), and sometimes for playing games (HL2/CS2 etc)! So my problem is do i just go ahead and get the 4600 or shall i buy the new E6600 which of course means another Mobo and Graphics card and more Ram! ...Oh and ive also lost £60 on the Asrock that i purchased! Any clues what i should do i have a MAX BUDGET of £500

    Ps i am not that clued up on OC

    Appreciate your kind advice
    Windows 7 64 Ultimate
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  2. #2
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    AMD all the way. Either of those CPU's will rip through your work at such a lick you'll die of suprise

    I'd even go so far as to say, get the cheapest AMD cpu you can (that you're bragging rights can handle ) and get lots of ram, as Photochopping loves ram

    What hard drive will you be buying? A good fast HDD makes for a nicer system too, with boot times, load times etc.

    Tell you what....list the entire potential rig and we'll have a look

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
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    Senior Member kasavien's Avatar
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    You could keep the asrock motherboard and get the following components -

    AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600 + Socket 939, ManchesterCore, 2x 2.4GHz, 1MBCache, Retail £164.37 link
    256Mb Gigabyte 7900GT, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1400 MHz, GPU 500 MHz, 24 Pipes, D-Sub/DVI-I/HDTV £190.34 link
    2GB (2X1GB) Corsair Value Select, DDR PC3200 (400), 184 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 3 £134.33 link

    Total = £489.04

    That will give you more bang for buck simply because if you went for conroe a large chunk of your budget would be taken by the motherboard restricting your choice of ram graphics card and processor. The above components should fly for what you want to do and its under your max budget

    If you could stretch a little, personally i would got for the 1900XT, i only put the 7900GT because it is within budget for you.

    Hope this helps

    Andy

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    • vaio's system
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    AMD. lotsa ram and a raid array
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    For the budget you have the AMD would be the better solution no chance you can afford Conroe and ram unless you downgrade the graphics card

    But if you are willing to overclock (very easy to learn) I would suggest looking at a 3800+ as this will give your budget some more room

    Edit: Just noticed you have a Dell 2005FPW at a mininum you need a 16 pipe graphics card (6800GT/X800XL/X800XT/X800GTO2) or a (very) fast 12 pipe card (X850 Pro/X800GTO) but I would get something of a substantial boost over a 6800 LE like the 7800/7900 or a X1800/1900
    Last edited by Mr Pants; 01-08-2006 at 11:48 PM.

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    Theoretical Element Spud1's Avatar
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    If you had the funds - and/or didn't already have the mobo+AGP graphics cards I would say the conroe all the way...BUT

    Since you already have a mobo/gfx/ram and you don't have a huge budget, go for the AMD. I would also advise against getting the top end one unless you plan to upgrade your motherboard in the future, as that mobo only has a ULi M1695 chipset..no point in mixing a top end cpu with a low end chipset =)

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    • Hidden Hippo's system
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    Agreed. For you I think I'll go against my normal advice and say stick to AMD. Everybody says that core 2 duos absolutely destroy X2s, but what many people fail to realise (myself included for some time) is that the X2 processors are still very good indeed. If you already have the mobo, RAM and graphics card, don't spend any more on things like that and just get the processor. A 3800+ as you were thinking or perhaps even a 4200+ as the difference is only £30 thanks to the recent price cuts.

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    Senior Member kasavien's Avatar
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    thinking about it i would probably get the 4200+ and if this allows get the 1900XT. Are you upgrading the RAM as well or just the CPU and graphics card?

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    Wait for the Conroe to drop in price. In the meantime, get a cheap system.

  10. #10
    Senior Member wannabgeek's Avatar
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    Wow thanks Guys! I was expecting you all to say Conroe! So good news i will stay with my 1st choice dual AMD!
    Re Ram yes i am upgrading the Ram as i only have 1 GB of Budget Ram which i will keep in this PC as a 2nd backup.
    Re the HD i was ju st going to keep my D max Maxtor 200GB (non sata) does it really matter?
    Re Graphics card: I was also going to keep my old 6800le as i am not a big gamer but mr pants said something about my Dell 2005 fpw and getting at least a 12 or 16 pipe card,but will i only see the benefits if i play games?
    Kas you listed a nice setup and if i was to downgrade to the 4200+ which shall i get?

    I also will need some cooling for the cpu etc any ideas? PS my new case is a Tsumnami 'Thermaltake'
    Windows 7 64 Ultimate
    AMD x6 1055T Phenom @3.3ghz
    Asus M4A89GTD-Pro-USB3
    HD 6850 1GB GDDR5
    4GB Corsair XMS3 (2x2GB)
    Tx 650w Corsair PSU
    250GB Samsung Spinpoint Sata HD
    200GB Maxtor Dmax10 IDE
    LG Sata2 DVD/RW
    Lancool K62 Case

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    Senior Member kasavien's Avatar
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    So long as you get a retail CPU, the stock cooler is more than adequate, this is what mine has and it never goes above around 35 degrees. If gaming is not your top priority then i still suggest what i posted above, i.e. 4600+, 2Gb ram and 7900GT, the 4600+ will be better for photo and video editing. Your hard drive looks ok, but i'm not up on hard drives, maybe someone else would be able to give a better response.

    Was just thinking if your current graphics card runs your monitor ok for what you want now, then you probably wouldn't need to upgrade the graphics card, the most important thing is the CPU and ram, for what you need.

    Hope this helps

    Andy

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    Theoretical Element Spud1's Avatar
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    Sorry to keep banging on about this - but seriously theres no point in getting a 7900GT and a 4600+ with that motherboard.

    The motherboard is the guts of your PC, its what everything plugs in to. I'm willing to accept that ASROCK boards can be perfectly OK - but that chipset just won't perform as well as a decent VIA/Nforce solution (ie a well known, well tested chipset with decent support and regular updates).

    The motherboard and PSU are the two most often forgotten things in an upgrade - and both can have a huge impact on system stability and (in some cases) performance.

  13. #13
    Senior Member kasavien's Avatar
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    The board was tested with a 4800+ here on tomshardware here ->

    http://tomshardware.co.uk/2005/09/16...ual/index.html

    Although it performs slower than the Abit fatal1ty board, i wouldn't say the performance difference is large enough to say that the 4600+ would be wasted on the asrock board.

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    Senior Member wannabgeek's Avatar
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    Sorry for late reply again very busy!
    Thanks again Guys! So Minds made up now i will go for the 4600! I suppose if the board really was an issue i suppose i could sell it but that would mean a new Graphics card and from what ive heared these Mobos are very user freindly for the 1st time builder! Anyway when i do buy another Graphics card wouldnt i be able to put the 4600 on the new Mobo or is that a problem? So Guys now ive deided wheres the best place/price i can get the4600 and what Ram would you all suggest? Big thanks
    Windows 7 64 Ultimate
    AMD x6 1055T Phenom @3.3ghz
    Asus M4A89GTD-Pro-USB3
    HD 6850 1GB GDDR5
    4GB Corsair XMS3 (2x2GB)
    Tx 650w Corsair PSU
    250GB Samsung Spinpoint Sata HD
    200GB Maxtor Dmax10 IDE
    LG Sata2 DVD/RW
    Lancool K62 Case

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    I'd highly recommend the Conroe option, my E6300 clocks easily to 3ghz and whoops an FX62 easily.

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    Senior Member kasavien's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by trojan698
    I'd highly recommend the Conroe option, my E6300 clocks easily to 3ghz and whoops an FX62 easily.
    Um read the thread

    Anyway, i would suggest scan for the processor and ram ( get 2Gb corsair calue select 400mhz), you should qualify for the free postage and packing, but read the terms and conditions first before you apply for it. See here for info -> http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=72583

    Hope this helps

    Andy

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