Upgrading C2D System

[Biscuit]

A mate of mine wants to upgrade his system so he can tinker with overclocking a little bit but hes a student so is quite strapped and wants to do it on a small budget.

His specs are as follows:

CPU: Intel E7200
Mobo: Asus P5KPL-VM
Ram: 2GB (2 x 1) Geil Value Ram (PC6400)
GPU: Gigabyte HD4850
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 430w

We are not talking about mega crazy top end overclocking just pushing the CPU up to maybe 3-3.2GHz.

I figure he wants a new cooler:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176411

A new motherboard:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152225 - i seem to recall this motherboard being a bit of an odd ball and having loads of features you wouldnt expect from something so cheap

and some new ram... but im struggling to find a decent deal on a 2 x 2GB set (the above motherboard has only 2 slots)

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

With current cost of DDR2 I would look at a better motherboard and re-use the existing RAM. AFAIK,the G31 and G41 motherboards work better with two DIMMs only and hence I would look at a G43 or P43 motherboard.

This motherboard looks decent:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161010

Here is a review of the motherboard:

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2008/asrock/P43DE/g1.htm

I would get some of this RAM:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129954

This should give you 4GB in total.

I would look at this cooler too:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176157

It has got decent reviews:

http://hi-techreviews.com/index.php/...er-7-pro-rev-2

http://www.testseek.com/labs/reviews...cooler/?p=2694

[scaryjim]

He probably won't *need* new ram - just drop the RAM multitpler to the lowest available value so it's not going hold back a CPU overclock, then once he finds his best stable overclock he can look at tweaking the RAM multiplier and CPU overclock to get his RAM as near as possible to stock speeds while maintaining a good CPU overclock.

A quick google suggests you're right about the motherboard.

As to coolers, I used to overclock my Athlon XP by > 10% on a cheapish coolermaster HSF, so it might be worth experimenting with the stock cooler to start with. Certainly until he gets into tweaking core voltages the stock cooler should do the trick - clock speed has a much lesser effect on CPU temp than voltage! But if he decides he wants to push it beyond what he can manage on stock volts then a new cooler is probably a good idea - there were a couple of threads started in the last week or so about aftermarket cooler for 775...

[Domestic_Ginger]

HDT-1283 is about £20 on scan. I think bang per buck can't really be beaten.

[Biscuit]

Well i wasnt expecting a recomendation for asrock but the review seems to suggest its pretty decent. Have you had any experience with it yourself?

As for the cooler, i have had 3 AC7s which have performed rather poorly and it has kind of put me off them personally. In comparison i have used the akasas in a number of systems and they have all worked flawlessly with good results, i guess its a personal preference thing but i think they are worth the extra £2-3.

As for getting the cooler later, he wants to get everything for the system in one rather than ordering in bits, il have a chat with him see what he thinks but i reckon it might be wise to just get the cooler from the get go and avoid 2 x delivery charges. I Cant seem to spot the thread about coolers you mentioned though, any chance of a link?

I asked him for a more specific budget target and he said 'i dunno' '£100?' so i think thats the goal to keep close too which cat seems to have done.

Cheers so far

edit:

HDT-1283 is about £20 on scan. I think bang per buck can't really be beaten.

Wierdly i didnt even look on scan o_O not like me its usually the first place i go. Thanks though i think i will take a peek.

[Pob255]

Check his case size, a 92mm fan based tower cooler like the ACf7p or AK-968 will fit in just about any case.
If the case is under about 190mm wide then it's unlikely a 120mm fan based tower cooler will fit.
(you'll need 160mm clearence between the surface of the cpu and the side panel)

You can over clock on the stock cooler, it just gets noisey, however I would replace it as they are bad for building up a mat of dust&fluf ontop of the heatsink which massively reduces there effectiveness.
Caused by wide fins + V shape branching design + rough cut top.
Even if you don't have much effect of temps a tower cooler will bring down noise and don't clog up with dust as badly.

P43 over G31 as the G31 had very limited overclocking.

[Biscuit]

Check his case size, a 92mm fan based tower cooler like the ACf7p or AK-968 will fit in just about any case.
If the case is under about 190mm wide then it's unlikely a 120mm fan based tower cooler will fit.
(you'll need 160mm clearence between the surface of the cpu and the side panel)

You can over clock on the stock cooler, it just gets noisey, however I would replace it as they are bad for building up a mat of dust&fluf ontop of the heatsink which massively reduces there effectiveness.
Caused by wide fins + V shape branching design + rough cut top.
Even if you don't have much effect of temps a tower cooler will bring down noise and don't clog up with dust as badly.

P43 over G31 as the G31 had very limited overclocking.

In general the P31 was bad... but that motherboard is a bit different check it out

He has a pretty big antec case, 4480 i think so heatsink size isnt a major issue but its only a 7200 so i dont see it getting hot enough to require anything more than the AC7/Akasa 968 anyway.

I think Cat is probably right in speding a bit more on a mobo and getting cheap 2 x 1GB PC6400 but im not locked down to getting everything from ebuyer so if anyone knows anywhere which will have a particualy good deal for this kindof stuff let me know.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ebuyer tends to be quite cheap for motherboards although I would check Ebay for RAM as you can sometimes get new sticks cheaper than in many shops.

[Pob255]

antec NSK-4480 = 200mm wide, plenty of space
I would look for a cheap 120mm fan based tower cooler simply because it'll be quiter.
The Xigmatec S1283 would be ideal at only £20
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Xigma...uad-Core-Ready

If you want a cheap 92mm fan based cooler go for the Xigmatec S963 at only £14
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Xigma...Fan-CPU-cooler

And of course if you don't mind fleabay check there for cheap coolers.