About to Upgrade: Core 2 Duo or 64x2?

[cocksy_boy]

Hey all,

Right, I've just killed my current system (I think I have broken the motherboard whilst transporting it, not too sure!), but I have decided its about time to upgrade. My current system is as my sig .

I basically have always liked and used AMDs as they are good value and great to overclock, but the Core2Duos seem to be very good and although slightly more expensive than the AMD64x2, seem to perform a lot better. I would also like to save as many components from my currnet rig, unless they will massively reduce the performance of the new one, in which case I'll compromise a bit more! Unfortunately I've lost touch with the newer technologies, speeds, and decent components, as I'm in the Navy and have been working very hard away from home for a while !

I'm looking to spend about £400 (I'll keep the HDD, Case, Monitors, Drives, etc) and it will be used for gaming, editing photos, watching films, web browsing, music, tv, and maybe a bit of video editing! My first 2 basic setup ideas are as follows:

1) Athlon 64x2 4600+ (or 4400+... which is better-overclocked or not!)
AsRock 939 Dual SATA 2

2) Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 or E6600
AsRock 775 Dual VSTA

The remaining money I will either spend on newer faster memory for the rig, or if my current Geil memory isn't going to be the bottleneck, then a newer faster graphics card. Or possibly put in a dedicated sound card if the onboard one is slowing the system down.

So, what do you think? Will these motherboards & setups be any good for gaming, performance & overclocking and how will they perform if and when I have the money to upgrade all the rest of the parts in the future?

Or would I be better off starting with off with a completely different motherboard, cpu, memory, and graphics, and cutting my losses with my old components - I could use it as a second 'backup' rig (assuming I replace the mobo if that was the problem), or something like that- I'm unlikely to get a lot of money for it, if I try to sell it!

Any and all help and comments appreciated! Thanks in advance

Cocksy

[chuckskull]

For £400, I'd for a for a 939, 4200+, Asrock mobo and pick up the X1900XT overclockers are doing for £199. Should come to about £400. Presuming you resuse the GEIL RAM.

You wont get, a conroe, motherboard, RAM (cant re-use the geil, as conroe is DDR2), and a half decent graphics card for £400.

Bang/Framerates for buck the athlon is the way in this case.

[cocksy_boy]

Is the 4200+ better than the 4400+ & 4600+ then? Any ideas how that mobo will overclock with the AMDs, and will the Geil be much of a bottleneck for the system or not? Cheers!

[chuckskull]

Is the 4200+ better than the 4400+ & 4600+ then? Any ideas how that mobo will overclock with the AMDs? Cheers!

It's cheaper, which allows you a more powerful graphics card and the 4200 will clock to 2.6ghz easily. If you break up and sell your old PC. You can afford a faster X2 and another gig of RAM. the extra gig being the better choice IMO or maybe a better clocking crossfire ready motherboard. I'm just working on best framerates for the cash.

If you can find another £300ish core 2 duo becomes viable.

[cocksy_boy]

As you mentioned crossfire - which is better, SLI or crossfire (I realise its not quite that easy, but what are the general feelings?!). And, would I be better to go for a single more expensive, faster gfx card, or 2 cheaper ones in sli/crossfire? Thanks!

[chuckskull]

As you mentioned crossfire - which is better, SLI or crossfire (I realise its not quite that easy, but what are the general feelings?!). And, would I be better to go for a single more expensive, faster gfx card, or 2 cheaper ones in sli/crossfire? Thanks!

Personallyi'd go for a single expensive card now and have cross as a cheap upgrade option in the future. The X1900XT for £200 is probably the fastest you can get for that money.

[kalniel]

Agreed - if you're tight enough on money to be considering budget boards then SLI/Crossfire aren't an option - the motherboards are a lot more expensive for starters!

[sawyen]

yeap, sometimes its best to not think about SLI or Crossfire at all..

Considering most ppl wont ever use them given the speed new cards are being introduced..

4200+, ULi budget board and an X1900XT is the best way forward if you're in the £400 mark..

Conroe chips + *getting cheaper but still cost an arm* motherboards + *can be cheap as chips.. or can end up requiring you to sell ur daughters* DDR2 will give us just enough for a low-mid range, possibly entry level card... which is bollocks IMHO..

[harry1]

lol its called search you know how many conroe vs amd threads there have been lol

[kalniel]

Well true.. but every person's circumstances are different - I've not seen one asking about the asrock VSTA board before

[FirePhoenixCtk]

on your budget the skt939 would be best imo, if you change to the core2duo itl probably go ovber your budget. At least with 939 you get to keep your ram.

[DanceswithUnix]

Hang on guys, cocksy_boy has asked about the Asrock VSTA board which has 2 *DDR* memory slots as well as a pair of DDR2 slots. He *can* have a Core 2 chip and re-use his RAM (and video card too).

The downside of that board is that the PCIe graphics is only a x4 slot. If you put in a top of the range graphics card then you won't quite get the best from it as you lose about 5% compared to AGP.

Anandtech also have a review showing that (once again) DDR2 makes no real difference to performance on Core2.

[harry1]

asrock rule, next thing you will be telling me is they have made a 754 adapter which turns it into conros with ddr2 , they are great for these cheap paths

[Smokey21]

For 400, id go AMD X2, and get this X1900XT for 188 http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/106190

[cocksy_boy]

Thanks for all your inputs people! Bascially, if you scrimp on either cpu or gfx then they are always going to be the bottleneck, but to get a decent gaming system, the gfx is probably slightly more important (as it does the most work!).

So the way I'm thinking to go is this:
a C2D E6300 (which can be overclocked well) £100
a decent motherboard (like the DS3) £120
2GB PC6400 (which can cope with the overclocked C2D) £130
a decent gfx (maybe this X1900XT) £165

Total: £515 +VAT.

Hmm, slightly more than I had originally wanted and doesn't use any of my original components, but I can always cut back on the gfx or mobo slightly - maybe even reduce to just 1 gig ram - any thoughts? Cheers!

[chuckskull]

The RAM is the easiest to upgrade later, if you need to knock £60 off the price.