new upgrade

[Bubbls]

sup guys

im pretty new to this whole thing but my new upgrade needs some suggestions or changing any comments welcome

ok its a problem choosing between AMD or Intel

this is my prefered upgrade but may be changed within my price range
8800 GTS 320MB
gigabyte - ga-m57sli-s4 mother board
DDR2 - 512 MB - 800Mhz X2
AMD 3800+ AM2 dual core X2

let me know if its good or not or if anything would make it better thanks

bubbls

[J1nX]

Intel FTW

[[N]Haja]

Heya,

Ok, few things :

1. Do you want / need SLI? Personally, it is overrated, and not worth the extra. 90% of pp who buy SLI mobo's never use it for that, as it does not double your performance,, maybe 40$ increase at most.
2. What is your price bracket?

Suggestion I would make.
1. GO for the new Core 2 Duo. The E6300will out perform the 3.8 AMD any day, and with a tiny OC, it wil punish it severly.
2. Get 2 gig's of ram. If you cannot afford, get a 1 gig stick, so you can upgrade to 2 gig's at a later date
3.8800 GTS is a very good buy, as long as you do not go over 1600x1400 res. Otherwise, it is an almost identical card to its big brother (640mb) up to those res's.
3. If you go intel, the Gigabyte DS3 mobo is a very good buy. I would be sceptical buying the S3, rather pay the extra R200 and get the DS3. It is a nicer mobo, and I know a few ppl that have had ram incompatibility probs with the S3.
4. Prophecy sells the Team Elite ram at a very good price, and having had some, can attest to it being good ram. Its about R850 inc for a 1 gig stick, and you can set nice clock speeds if that is your thing.

But to your initial question, and at the moment, go for Intel. Check out www.anandtech.com for some review on the intel, compared to the AMD.

cheers :)

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

No questions, no contest; GO INTEL!

Like Haj said, the Core 2 6300 will PUNISH the AMD 3800+ hands down, and if you got a wee bit extra cash or if you willing to buy second hand, the Core 2 6400 will outperform even the AMD 4800+

Haja, you da man. :)

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

Oh... and welcome to UZA :)

[Syzygy78]

For around the same price as the E6300, you can get the AMD 5600+ :p

[[N]Haja]

thanks Jaymac. I do not pretend to know alot, but I have been researching like mad for the last 4 months before I did my upgrade, so am pretty ofey with hardware atm :)

Get the E6300 and a nice cooler (if you do not want to improt, go for the zlaman 9500 or the 9700, with a slightly bigger fan). You can then OC you cpu to great speeds, far exceeding the E6400 :) Plus, if you are going to do any sort of OC on the core 2 duo, you will need a nice cpu cooler, as the stock one is only good for stock speeds, or very slight OC's.

And do not be afraid of OC'ing, it is simple, and safe, proviiong you have good cooling (running my E6600 at 3.6 Ghz, thats a 50% OC :))

[Syzygy78]

what gfx card do you have Haja... if you have Oblivion installed, what sort of frame rate do you get?

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

I gotta agree there Haj, OC'ing the Core 2 is simple, and it works! I'm still running a P4 but I built my little bro a Core 2 machine with a Zalman 9500, and that thing overclocks easy peasy!

Hey.... where is this bubbls guy gone now.

[Bubbls]

thanks guys if you wanna help somemore you can just add me on msn HackerBubbls@hotmail.com

[[N]Haja]

@syz. I do not have oblivion unfortunately.

The games I have been playing recently are TDU and Flatout2. I pump the res to 1680x1050 *native for my 22" widescreen* and the AA and AF to full (normally 8 and 4) and have no, none, nada jerking, just sa-mooth performance.

Std, my rig does 8.5k in 3dmark06, with a nice OC I get over 10500. Thats on a 320mb 8800 :)

But I will try and organise oblivion actually, been wanting to play it, and report back!

bubbls, any other advice needed? What you end up going for?

[Spitfire]

goddamn!!:eek: i need an income!! or donations.....:o :rolleyes:

[iRaven]

nice tips there haja, thanks.
Where did you buy your hardware?
I am thinking of buying a new rig....

[[N]Haja]

I bought my gpu and ram from Prophecy shop (got the Team Elite DDR2 800 stuff, very nice, and you can OC it nicely too) and my 8800 320mb vanilla (Asus).

My cpu, mobo, case and what not I got from rectron.

I bought my WC 2nd hand from some1 in jhb, and got the new swiftech cpu block and some nice fans (250mm side fan) from Performance PC's in America.

But you can get mostly everything online from a few shops, for a tad more than dealer prices nowdays.

A few good links :

http://www.prophecy.co.za/
http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/index.php
http://www.digitalplanet.co.za/shop/levels.asp?Page=3&pagesize=20&intStockLevelID=118

http://www.pcint.co.za/ - One of the cheapest

[opi@te]

ASUS P5N-E SLI

E6400/E6600

2GB TEAM XTREEM DDR2 800 Dark

320gb SATA2 HDD

320MB 8800GTS

All The sweetspots in the market ATM in my opinion.

[[N]Haja]

yup, nice stuff you got there indeed Opiate. I would say the E6420 is better though, having the 4mb cache, and OC's well enough to take it to E6600 speeds and over E6700 speeds.

The dark is good ram also, I think anything from Team Xtreen is pretty decent.

I prefer non-sli boards myself, as i would say 80% of ppl that buy SLI do not go SLI and therefore waste money. But the Asus mobo's are very nice, altohugh I know ppl that have had issues with them.

[opi@te]

Yeah kinda fell out off the loop after I bought my E6600 so cant comment on the E6420.
TEAM XTREEM is awesome value. Id rather save a bit more and buy a 2gb kit straight away (as apposed to buying 1 stick and then another).

I heard that the P5N SLI is just as good as any 680i mobo if you WANT to go SLI.
What mobo can you recommend that is very easy to overclock my E6600?
I'm still on AGP 6800GT with my TEAM KIT and E6600 so I need to buy a mobo when I buy a pciX GFX card...

[[N]Haja]

i BOUGHT THE ds3 MOBO. iTS THE 965 CHIP, BUT THE DIFFERENCE (REAL WORLD) BETWEEN THE 680I AND THE 965 IS A FEW % AT BEST.

i LOVE THE GIGABYTE, AS IT oc'S EASILY, BUT DOES HAVE LIMITS.

erk, caps, sorry

ye, the DFI Dark actually tops the reviews on OC'ing. They are relatively cheap too (under R1500) and really OC well (500 FSb). Check on pcformat or systemshock. Syndicate sells them (do a search for DFI Dark).

[Gozzy]

I dunno if I should upgrade or not, seeing as I dont really do gaming ATM so my current pc is fine for Windows and Winamp and the occasional internet browsing :P

[[N]Haja]

if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The longer one can put off an upgrade, the better. Technology is improving so quickly nowdays, that the longer you wait, the cheaper and better your hardware you will be able to buy :)

[iRaven]

how big must your PSU be for all this?

[[N]Haja]

we;; .I would look at nothing under 650w IMHO. 700W and up would be the safest for someone with a few hdd's, cd roms, lights and what not.

The ATI gpu i think is more power hungry than the Nvidia too.