Bit scary, just got new SandyBridge

[Anteries]

Finally taken the plunge, went for a i5 2400, ASRock H67M-GE motherboard and Mishkin Silver light two times 2 GB 1600 1.5v

It came to about is £280, that is quite a scary amount as I am between jobs at the moment. The only reason I went for the ASRock H67M-GE is that it was the only one the combination of features I was after I wanted an old-style PCI slot plus a 16 times mini PCI and a d sub VGA output. and esata on rear port. no crossfire needed.

I have to say I'm having a few second thoughts now, when a Phenom2 555 would have done the job nicely. And saved me £70. Well I've done it now, it arrives Monday.

It will be replacing a single core Athlon 3200 +

[DR]

Why did you need a new PC? If you didn't then why did you spend money?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I assume the OP has got a decent PSU.

[Anteries]

Why did you need a new PC? If you didn't then why did you spend money?

What? you mean you need a reason to waste money on computer parts. And it was getting slightly embarrassing telling people I have an old Athlon.

[Queelis]

What? you mean you need a reason to waste money on computer parts. And it was getting slightly embarrassing telling people I have an old Athlon.

Most people wouldn't know what to do with that information

Congrats on the new shiny Sandy Bridge, though

[cigbunt]

depends what you use your pc for??

[Pob255]

My work pc is an old Athlon XP it struggles with 720p youtube videos even the standard 320 videos push the cpu load to around 80%

[Anteries]

Most people wouldn't know what to do with that information

Congrats on the new shiny Sandy Bridge, though

Thanks, if I really want to get blank looks I tell people about the great games I used to play on my Atari ST, Dungeon Master anyone ?

Theoretically the components I've chosen should be absolutely perfect for my needs. which voice recognition, encoding movies, and low power consumption. It might seem a bit strange but the specification I was really looking at was the L3 cache which is very important for the software I use. I definitely want integrated graphics, and since I planned to leave it on streaming radio and such like, the power consumption is a big factor, the motherboards got USB three and Sata 6.

As ever though, there is yet more shelling out of cash, I bought a new power supply, a new optical Drive, and I've just found out I've thrown away the Intel mounting brackets to my expensive CPU cooler, I find it easier if I go into some sort of trance and not think about all the cash and spending

[Pob255]

What cooler have you got? if it had old amd mounting brackets then it probably didn't have socket 1156 (same as 1155) mounting brackets anyway.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Did you get a decent PSU though??

Also,you should have kept the stock cooler TBH.

[Anteries]

Did you get a decent PSU though??

Also,you should have kept the stock cooler TBH.

I bought a seesonic 380 Watt that is 80% efficiency rated, though I expect that efficiency drops pretty steeply with low power draw. I am definitely sold on the idea of good quality power supplies.

In regards to my CPU cooler it is a cooler Master hyper, it just shows you should never ever de-clutter, that mounting bracket thrown away along with and two lovely computer cases .lol. Strangely enough the motherboard actually takes a 775 socket cooler.

[Anteries]

Been waiting on some extra parts, but that should be arriving tomorrow, realised I needed a new SATA optical Drive as the board has no IDE connector, and also splashed out on a third party cooler, I was getting very pennypinching at this stage, but using the standard cooler seemed like bit of an insult to my CPU even though I tested the fan and it was incredibly quiet on idle. I've heard you can max the turbo boost up to about 3.8 MHz across all cores. so it's probably a good idea maybe.

I've got a WiFi card coming as well. it's funny there's no way of knowing at this stage whether it will go together like a dream, will be a complete nightmare of strange intermittent faults.lol

[Anteries]

Hi all, just thought I would give an update put all the parts together today. Add it all basically seems to work good.

It was actually much more hard work than I expected taking out the innards of one computer and putting new stuff in.

The BIOS is absolutely amazing on the motherboard, I've only ever used the old-style BIOS. It's a real pleasure to use.

The only weird thing is that I can't get the CPU fan to step down its RPM. At the lowest fan setting it is running at about 1400 when it should be idling at about 800, all the other case fan headers work fine though, if anyone's got any idea why this is I would be interested to know. The CPU fan is four pin, and all the case fans are three pin.

One observation though, although it's quite snappy, in general usability there is virtually no major difference to my single core Athlon 64 4200. running Windows XP.

[jim]

And it was getting slightly embarrassing telling people I have an old Athlon.

I dread to think what sort of looks you're going to get when you start telling people you have a Sandy Bridge

[barker967]

What? you mean you need a reason to waste money on computer parts. And it was getting slightly embarrassing telling people I have an old Athlon.

Not embarrassing at all, less than a year ago I still had an Athlon 64 3700 socket 754 AGP set up! Was a revelation when the world of 4 cores came my way, that and Pci-e.

[Anteries]

I dread to think what sort of looks you're going to get when you start telling people you have a Sandy Bridge

Envy I hope lol. and also advice that I should have gone for the K version. I wont bs you, I am absolutely ecstatic about my new PC. I got lucky that there have been no major faults or hiccups I have discovered so far. I hate the name Sandybridge though, I'll have to bear that cross.

Also I'm pulling about 33watts from the wall at idel down from 65W from my 754 socket Athlon, which is kind of nice.