Opinions on rebuilding a PC now/soon?

[Wombat]

Hey all,
It looks like my motherboard is starting to die. The system itself is plenty fast for the things I do and games I play right now, so I had no plans on upgrading.

However, it seems like 939 boards are not cheap to replace these days (mine's going for more than I bought it originally), so I might as well consider an upgrade. But it seems that also means changing CPUs and RAM (I'll keep the PCI-E video card I have for now).

So, what would you pick? I've been using AMD for quite a long time, but it seems like the Core2Duos (like I have in my work laptop) are also good performers at a good price these days. Also, AMD seems to have the AM2 socket right now, but not keeping it much longer.


As an aside, I have an Audigy (original) sound card. My speaker setups are all stereo. Is there any reason to consider replacing it?

Thanks!

[Mehen]

Well its sort of a strange time, with 45nm Intel's on the horizon and Barcelona/Phenom about to come out. And we're in the middle of the transition between DDR2 and DDR3.

If you can last till xmas-ish it might be worth it.

Otherwise I'd say get a Q6600 and 2-4GB of DDR2, with either the P35 chipset or the new X38 (gigabyte boards are nice, great performance at a lower cost than my traditionally favorite ASUS).

[Helevitia]

The quad cores are cheap enough now. Get the Q6600 like Mehen said. $266! You can easily overclock it to 3.2GHz from 2.4GHz. Or, if you don't mind spending $550 for the Q6700(2.66GHz), G0 stepping, it can hit 4GHz on air! Personally, I wouldn't bother with any other heatsink than the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme. Combo that with an Scythe S-Flex 120mm "SFF21F" fan and it will be quiet/cool and highly overclockable.

The X38 boards are starting to show up on shelves but they are more expensive than the P35. If you aren't going to run Crossfire, just get the the P35 boards.

RAM is crazy right now as there are so many on the market at different speeds and price points, not to mention that DDR3 just came out.

[Fat Tone]

I second that. I'm running 3 Q6600 quad core systems now and they fly! 2GB DDR2 for XP, more for Vista if you can (if you really must take that path). DDR3 is >> more expensive than fast DDR2 with little/no perf. gains. It does use less power though. Fast 500GB HDDs are at a good price point now too.

I've always been an AMD man for home use until this time around.

[ZokesPro]

Yup, what Mehen said. DDR2 (at least 2Gb), q6600 and the X38 chipset seems damned fast, according to the latest benchmarks.

[Wombat]

Thanks for the input, all. I've been reading the X38 reviews, and it looks like it's only keeping up with the P35, and burning slightly more power to do it, too.

If I stick with P35, are there reasons to wait for different CPUs, or price breaks?

[Wombat]

Hmmm, Soundblaster X-Fi Xtremegamer edition for $51 shipped...

will have to sleep on that one.

[ZokesPro]

From what I remember, Intel's roadmap included the 45nm process, other than that there's AMD's phenom. But I doubt that there's anything really big on the horizon other than 8 cores.

[Wombat]

What do you think, folks? The reviews are out, and it seems like the X38 don't outclass the P35, but they cost a whole lot more. The support for smaller processes is nice, but that's a pretty expensive feature, since I could probably get a new board for less than that price difference.

[Helevitia]

I'd go P35 route. They also support 45nm processors and you can go DDR2 to really save money.

[Evildead666]

So Crossfire only option for Multi-GPU ?

It might not be on the cards now, but its an option, what with the fact that you can crossfire different levels of ati cards (3850+3870, at least).

Intel is the obvious route, and yes, the X38 is very good, but, its better to go a tried and trusted route. Get a cheap dual or quad core, and clock the balls off it
get a good cpu cooler, or go liquid.
The bigger the fans, the slower they turn, and the more the merrier.

I've just opened my Corsair 500 (standalone outside case Watercooling) and changed the main fan for a push-pull config, and got 10C in the bargain. Cleaning it may also have helped a few degrees...but.
4.92GHz stable with a Pentium D 3.4GHz is sweet

A core2 or quad at 3Ghz will blow me out of the water (pun intended) and you can do that now on low noise aircooling...with a big enough aircooler.
I cant do Core tech, I have i955x mobo....(should have bought a new mobo instead of the 945 cpu...ah well.)

[Mehen]

Crossfire 3870 w/ Q6600, 2-4GB DDR2-800-1066

[Wombat]

It's hard to find recent P35 reviews, but newegg has the ABIT IP35 Pro for $150 after rebate.

Also, it seems like Gigabyte has a couple of good boards out there right now. Thoughts?

I'm thinking of a Q6600 with it, and 2GB of some DDR2 (what's good these days? Ballistix?)

[Mehen]

Pretty much all the DDR2 brands are good. Corsair, OCZ, Kingston, Mushkin, etc etc. When was the last time you heard of someone buying bad ram?

Go with a Gigabyte board. Gigabyte and ASUS have got the most consistantly positive reviews in the last couple years, and Gigabyte is a bit cheaper.

[Evildead666]

I agree with the above.
i've used many mainboards over the years, and Asus and Gigabyte are very solid and stable.

I think nearly all the DDR2 produced now is of good quality, you can't really go wrong.
edit : I think the D9 Micron chips are the best, D9G ?