Yet Another 'rate my rig upgrade' thread.

[Satyrist]

I am looking at making the leap to C2D sometime in the future, and I was looking for some feedback:

I am looking to push 3ghz on air, hopefully without a voltage increase. Some items will be kept from my current rig if they will be able to handle the upgrade. It'll be used for all sorts of functions, Photoshop and gaming being two of the main things.

Mobo: I wasn't sure what would do the job well, there are several choices it seems. The P5B series, Abit A9WD-Max, the Gigabyte DS3, or Intel BadAxe2 look like good choices. I'm completely a noob here as to what'll work for my goal here. SLI isn't something that I consider necessary (more work/money, for not necessarily that big a gain if I remember things right)

CPU: Intel E6600, or E4300...Is there a great deal of difference between the two as far as OC ability?

GPU: Currently, I'm using a HIS Radeon X1900XT card. It ought to do well with everything non-DX10 compliant.

HDD: Seagate 160gb, Seagate 320gb. These are both of the drives I'm also currently using, both SATA.

DVD: NEC 3540 series. Using this currently as well.

RAM: 2 GB. I have been looking at the Buffalo series of Firestix DDR2 800. Good? Or what else would work as well?

PSU: Enermax Liberty 500W. I'm guessing I may need an upgrade here, I've a couple of ideas here, be it a PCP&C model, or one of the newer Silverstone models.

Heatsink: Will likely be a Tuniq Tower series.

Case: Antec 900 ATX. I know of the wiring hassles, I'll put up with them.

Other things:

Santa Cruz PCI audio.
Intel 10/100/1000 PCI NIC.
20x4 Parallel VFD.

Knowing that PCI slots are at something of a premium on the newer C2D boards, (esp if going SLI, which I'm not deadset on) will I do just as well using the onboard NIC/Audio on most of the newer boards? I am rather loathe to put anything Creative in any of my builds, BTW.

Not exactly a set budget on this, I'm guessing that it'll take a minimum of $1K for the upgrade.

THX!

 

[engiNURD]

I'd go with the DS3 or P5B-E if you don't need a dual card chipset. SLI/Crossfire is only needed to push massive amounts of pixels (24" or larger screen; 22" for some picky people, hehe). The SLI/Crossfire boards are best paired with an E6600 due to their inability to reach high fsb speeds and the high multiplier of the E6600.

The E6600 has more headroom as far as overclockability. The E4300's are avg'ing 3Ghz, while the E6600's can reach 3.6Ghz with good cooling. The extra cache doesn't increase performance much. I'd go for the E6400 and OC it to at least 3.2Ghz. If you can afford the E6600, then go for it. Any of those chips should reach 3.0Ghz on air. The only one that could possibly have a hard time would be the E4300... but you'd have to be really unlucky to not be able to reach 3Ghz.

The Patriot eXtreme Performance LLK sticks are also good. Usually same price as the Firestix after rebate, but have better timing and also use micron chips.

I think your current PSU is fine. If you want more, look at the Corsair 620W. The onboard NIC is perfectly fine to use. The onboard audio is fine if you're not an audiophile. And if you are, I hope you have the speakers to go with a nice soundcard.

 

[Satyrist]

I'd go with the DS3 or P5B-E if you don't need a dual card chipset.

OK, Single PCI-E motherboard it is. Are there any particular advantages to one or the other so far as performance/reliability goes? I do know the DS3 had two versions/revisions before this one, and had some quirks to them as well.

The Patriot eXtreme Performance LLK sticks are also good. Usually same price as the Firestix after rebate, but have better timing and also use micron chips.

I was under the impression that the Firestix were micron as well, but maybe things have changed.

I think your current PSU is fine. If you want more, look at the Corsair 620W. The onboard NIC is perfectly fine to use. The onboard audio is fine if you're not an audiophile. And if you are, I hope you have the speakers to go with a nice soundcard.

Most of the time my speakers are headphones LOL

I may add my Intel NIC in any event, their drivers are a great deal nicer in my experience.

 

[engiNURD]

Right, thats why I said "also." Oh ok, but I said "but" before the "and," so my bad. Yes, they both use micron chips, but the Patriot LLKs have better timings.

Most of the issues with the DS3 have been worked out. I like mine, its rock solid. No cold boot issues, or any other issues for that matter. I built a system for a friend with the P5B-E... and it, too, is a solid board. Whichever one you choose, it'll be a good choice. If you need firewire, go for the P5B-E.

The drivers for both board's onboard NIC's are fine. I've had no issues with them in windows. Now, I havent tried any flavor of linux on either machine, so I wouldn't know about those drivers.

 

[Satyrist]

The P5B-E is not prime-time ready for Linux yet, evidently, mostly with regards to the onboard NIC, but possibly with some other features.

Not that it matters that much, XP Pro will be going on it...