Replacing P920D System with ... ?

[onebelo]

Had this system for awhile and its been running fine all this time. Had it OC to 4ghz but drop it down to 3.5ghz cuz my room was hot in the summer plus florida weather.

A few days ago though, I got a "Machine_Check_Exception" Stop error. Thought nothing of it at the time and rebooted and it was fine until like 2 days later, it came up again. And afterwards, my computer would stutter at times when moving the mouse. Sometimes it would be normal and then it would get really slow. And eventually it would freeze completely after an hour or more. I am back at stock speeds. According to that error, its a hardware related issue.

I did memtest on it and after 2 hours, the computer locked up despite passing all the test. I tested the memory in another system and it ran fine. I tried a different power supply and video card as well and i was still getting the lockup/STOP error. So my only guess would be either the motherboard or cpu that is going bad...

So I was thinking, if either the mobo or cpu would need to replace, id minus well upgrade to core 2 duo setup. Which brings more questions lol

I was thinking of the Gigabyte DS3 motherboard, but processor .. I"m not sure yet. Id like the E6600 but @ $316 ... is a lttle expensive compared to the performace for the price I can get from either E4300/6300/6400. I plan to OC but not go too crazy with it. Hopefull hitting 3ghz if possible. Which would be my best choice in best performance for the price? Also, to cut down cost im hoping that I will still be able to OC okay with the current memory I have (PQI 2x1gb ddr667). I"m sure it'll limit me on how high I'll be able to OC but will it be decent enough to get me close to 3ghz?

Sorry for long post but thanks in advance

 

[BillParrish]

assuming a FSB of 333 to keep your memory in spec to hit 3GHz with a C2D you would need a cpu multipler of nine which means the 6600 as you already figured out.

If you are limited in budget the absolute best bang for the buck will be the newly released E4300 with 9x mulit, when the "new toy" price wears off in about 6 weeks.

If you did not want to invest in aftermarket heatsink and fan then maybe a 6400 as it probally would work pretty good at 8 x 333 2.6GHz on the stock heatsink.

Of course you probally can do a bit better as the memory most likely has a little headroom in it, or you can loosen the timings a bit. But just dont forget the cost of a decent heatsink if you wanna go over 2.8 with the "lesser" C2D's. Heck the more expensive ones probally need one too, I just have no experience with them on stock coolers.


More to the point, yes the 667 memory is going to kill you unless you go with a higher mulitplier. Nothing worse than knowing the cpu has more but your memory just cant cut it.

 

[onebelo]

I do have the SI-120 HSF, which cooled the pent D 920 nicely. I was in the high 40s for the most part and low 50s with in high usage.

With the 920D, i was able to get the memory to run @ 750-ish with 4-4-4-12 timings. I would love to get the 6600 but I cant believe the prices on those hasn't gone down at all. It was $316 like 6months ago and its still $316 now =O

Most of what I do is photo editing/photoshop stuff. Editing large RAW files. And of course alot of multitasking and windows open. I also play games once in awhile like CS. If i get the E4300 and OC it, will it run faster and perform better than a 920D that I had OC'd @ 3.5? How much of a diff will 2mb/4mb cache be with what I use the computer for?

Thanks for the reply.