Advice required

[Dave Gardner]

now, i need a bit of advice guys, i am currently running a crappy msi 7046 mobo with a 3.4ghz prescott processor, windows xp home ed with 4gb ddr ram,not ddr2

the first problem is the mobo ,its a total bottleneck and not overclockable at all,and there are no bios updates for it.

the second is the ram,xp 32bit will only recognise 2.7gb of it.

the third is the processor, high ghz but getting on now.

the advice i need:

what is the best mobo to get, price not really an issue.but must have a degree of being futureproof,hard i know but i want something that will last at least 12/18 months,not a few weeks lol

should i get xp 64bit or go with vista, and then go with 4gb+ ddr2 8500 ram,

should i leave the processor as is for now or go for new as well.if new what is best for gaming at present, the machine i'm on is only used for games so it doesn't have to multi task too much.

or should i say sod it and get a total new system, bypassing the need for me doing it myself, which i don't mind doing, as i learn something new every time i open the case.

any advice much appreciated.

[Ramon van Rijn]

Best performance for money at this moment:

Core2Duo E8500 (3.16Ghz) or Core2Quad Q9550 (2.83Ghz)
2x 2Gb Memory DDR3 1333Mhz (Corsair / OCZ)
Gigabyte mainboard Intel 45 chipset (make sure its ready for 1333 and/or 1600 mhz memory)
Graphics: Ati 4870 or NVidia 9800GTX+ (4870X2 / GTX260/280 is too expensive)

I was fully XP minded lately due to my bad findings for Vista (without SP1).
Tried it again and with Service Pack 1 there are no major problems anymore. Install/config is all good. Games are running same or even better then XP!

If you want to stick to XP -> 32bits (64bits is not fully supported for every device)
Vista -> 64 bits

[James Yates]

Ramon's build is good, but not really what i would choose - especially the DDR3 ram which is way more expensive than DDR2 and won't really make a difference.

Have a look at the attachment - that's what i would suggest along with Vista 64bit. If its a bit too expensive, drop down to a ATI 4850 instead

For CPU cooling, get this cooler, and make sure you get this backplate aswell.

[Monkmachine]

Originally Posted by James Yates

Ramon's build is good, but not really what i would choose - especially the DDR3 ram which is way more expensive than DDR2 and won't really make a difference.

Have a look at the attachment - that's what i would suggest along with Vista 64bit. If its a bit too expensive, drop down to a ATI 4850 instead

For CPU cooling, get this cooler, and make sure you get this backplate aswell.

Great build James, you could maybe get the Gigabyte P45 chipset board instead of the P35- Scan Computers UK: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R, iP45 Express, S775, PCI-E 2.0x16, DDR2 1066/1200/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX

As James said if you can't afford the 4870 get the 4850, they are both great cards. I personally would also go with the Q6600 over the E8500.

[Ramon van Rijn]

Originally Posted by James Yates

Ramon's build is good, but not really what i would choose - especially the DDR3 ram which is way more expensive than DDR2 and won't really make a difference.

Have a look at the attachment - that's what i would suggest along with Vista 64bit. If its a bit too expensive, drop down to a ATI 4850 instead

For CPU cooling, get this cooler, and make sure you get this backplate aswell.

Partly correct, but he clearly want to have his rig for at least 1-2 years. Then DDR2 is historic by then and the Q6600 is already too slow if you have any card faster then the 8800GTS.

Depends if he wants budget, best bang for bucks or topclass.

[Monkmachine]

Originally Posted by Ramon van Rijn

Partly correct, but he clearly want to have his rig for at least 1-2 years. Then DDR2 is historic by then and the Q6600 is already too slow if you have any card faster then the 8800GTS.

Depends if he wants budget, best bang for bucks or topclass.

The Q6600 and DDR2 will be fine for 1-2 years easily, if he gets DDR3 he will just be paying a massive premium to be on the very latest and new tech. The P45 board would give him the option to upgrade to DDR3 should he see fit in the future.

[Ramon van Rijn]

Originally Posted by Monkmachine

The Q6600 and DDR2 will be fine for 1-2 years easily, if he gets DDR3 he will just be paying a massive premium to be on the very latest and new tech. The P45 board would give him the option to upgrade to DDR3 should he see fit in the future.

- DDR2 vs DDR3 pricing is 30 vs 80 euro (2Gb).
- Q6600 will not get most out of videocards above 8800GTS

DDR2 is still good enough, don't go cheap on the Q6600.
That said, if you think about upgrading in the future to Core i7, DDR3 might be the right choice right now.

Whatever he choose; Q6600 or above is good enough for almost all current games.

[James Yates]

Originally Posted by Ramon van Rijn

- DDR2 vs DDR3 pricing is 30 vs 80 euro (2Gb).
- Q6600 will not get most out of videocards above 8800GTS

DDR2 is still good enough, don't go cheap on the Q6600.
That said, if you think about upgrading in the future to Core i7, DDR3 might be the right choice right now.

Whatever he choose; Q6600 or above is good enough for almost all current games.

The Q6600 is fine for ages - when overclocked it will beat pretty much any CPU that is out anyway.

Ram over here in the UK is weirdly priced with DDR2 being around £70 for 4GB and DDR3 being at least £140 for 4GB which is a stupid difference when all you will notice is a slight increase in the odd benchmark - or maybe 1-3FPS.

Agreed on the P45 chipset - but i wouldn't get a Gigabyte for 2 reasons. 1. The only Gigabyte mobo i had was crap and 2. It looks like 3 kids from lower school have coloured it in with a 64pack of crayons

This would be a great P45 board

[Oliver Amos]

Originally Posted by James Yates

The Q6600 is fine for ages - when overclocked it will beat pretty much any CPU that is out anyway.

Ram over here in the UK is weirdly priced with DDR2 being around £70 for 4GB and DDR3 being at least £140 for 4GB which is a stupid difference when all you will notice is a slight increase in the odd benchmark - or maybe 1-3FPS.

Agreed on the P45 chipset - but i wouldn't get a Gigabyte for 2 reasons. 1. The only Gigabyte mobo i had was crap and 2. It looks like 3 kids from lower school have coloured it in with a 64pack of crayons

This would be a great P45 board

Seconded. My Q6600 @ 3.5ghz is really not a bottleneck. Getting 3ghz out of a Q6600 is really easy and simple so spending extra on nothing is pointless.

Also DDR3 is not mainstream and you wont notice a difference tbh so just get DDR2 as its cheaper.

[Monkmachine]

Originally Posted by James Yates

The Q6600 is fine for ages - when overclocked it will beat pretty much any CPU that is out anyway.

Ram over here in the UK is weirdly priced with DDR2 being around £70 for 4GB and DDR3 being at least £140 for 4GB which is a stupid difference when all you will notice is a slight increase in the odd benchmark - or maybe 1-3FPS.

Agreed on the P45 chipset - but i wouldn't get a Gigabyte for 2 reasons. 1. The only Gigabyte mobo i had was crap and 2. It looks like 3 kids from lower school have coloured it in with a 64pack of crayons

This would be a great P45 board

Your paying quite a big premium for the DFI brand (85vs105)......I can't say I've really had any problems with my giga P35.

InsideHW - Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R

But I do agree with the colour scheme comment ;)

[Ricky Willox]

TBH I would not upgrade at the moment. I would wait for the new X58 chipset and nehalem chips if money aint a problem and you can put up with what you have just now.

[Oliver Amos]

Originally Posted by Monkmachine

Your paying quite a big premium for the DFI brand (85vs105)......I can't say I've really had any problems with my giga P35.

InsideHW - Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R

But I do agree with the colour scheme comment ;)

No, In my opinion you are paying for quality (coming from an owner of both). Debug 7-segment displays, cmos reloaded, easy cmos clear, better bios, x5 more bios options than a gigabyte. Just better quality overall in my opinion.

[Dave Gardner]

i'm not in a great rush to upgrade,as the pc i'm using is still giving me good fps in most games i run,but i really want to build/buy something that is going to be much easier to upgrade in 12/18 months than what i have now.

i'm looking to spend something in the region of £1000 on upgrades, but the OS is a big decision for me,

[James Yates]

At the moment you are probably best off sticking with what i posted earlier - but maybe with this motherboard instead - you can then upgrade to having 2 4870's in Crossfire if you ever need it. You can do the same with the P45 DFI but this has more space in between the slots which means better cooling. It is also a very good chipset and mobo for overclocking.

[Ricky Willox]

Originally Posted by DaveGardner

i'm not in a great rush to upgrade,as the pc i'm using is still giving me good fps in most games i run,but i really want to build/buy something that is going to be much easier to upgrade in 12/18 months than what i have now.

i'm looking to spend something in the region of £1000 on upgrades, but the OS is a big decision for me,

Then dont upgrade. Any socket 775 motherboard you buy now will tie you into the current crop of processors. And they will be pretty much obsolete by this time next year.

The new nehalem processors will use a different socket so you couldnt buy a mobo now and upgrade to one of them later.

For the geeks Inside Intel Nehalem Microarchitecture | Hardware Secrets explains the new chips in more details than i can understand