Self Build

[Buzz word]

Hi Guys,
I havent been in this part of pistonheads yet, but everyone seeme to have good advice everywhere else so i thought i would ask some questions here.
My home pc is about 5 years old and is starting to develop some faults. Rather than replacing parts one by one and getting a similar system i have decided to replace alot of the internals at one go and hopefully take a step up the ladder.

The main thing i am not sure about is the processor i have two in mind:
Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2GHz Socket 775 800FSB 2MB
Intel Celeron D 352 3.2GHz Socket 775 512Kb

The celeron is cheaper but a mate says they have a poor reputation. im not sure if it would be worth going for the Duo based on that. if you read the Blurb the Duo sounds more like the thing im looking for ie. multitask user. but im not sure if the ghz should be the be and end all? the celeron seems to run faster and costs alot less.

the rest of the stuff im looking at is:
Asustek S775 Intel 975X ATX Audio Lan pw5DH deuluxe
Crucial CT2KIT12864AA667 2x1GB PC2-5300 NonECC CL5
Sapphire Technology Radeon X1650Pro 512MB DDR2 PCIE Dual DVI

it all seems to bolt together ok, looking at the specs but wouldnt mind an oppinion.

this would replace:
Radeon s9000 128mb AGP
Asus socket a motherboard. cant remember the chipset but it doesnt support the newer multiplier stuff
AMD athlon 2000+
unknown 512mb ddr ram

Cheers

[Gateway Networks]

the core 2 range are fantasticly quick. dont bother with the celeron. all software comming out today are just gonig to require more and more power as time goes on, the celeron will just be completely out of puff as soon as you fit it, never mind 12mths down the line.

if you can streach for a core 2 extreame, or a core 2 quad core, i'd definately go for it.

[ThePassenger]

Buzz word said:

Hi Guys,
I havent been in this part of pistonheads yet, but everyone seeme to have good advice everywhere else so i thought i would ask some questions here.

Ohh... fresh meat!

Buzz word said:

The celeron is cheaper but a mate says they have a poor reputation. im not sure if it would be worth going for the Duo based on that. if you read the Blurb the Duo sounds more like the thing im looking for ie. multitask user. but im not sure if the ghz should be the be and end all? the celeron seems to run faster and costs alot less.

You are looking at two different ends of the spectrum. "Core 2 Duo" is the current flagship product, comes in a multitude of flavours (speeds) and is dual core (hence Duo, Quad would be 4). Celeron, is Intels budget processor, it's a slower Front Side Bus, single core, and as you can see from those figures only has 512KB of cache compared to the C2D's 2MB.
Pure clock speed hasn't been an indicator of performance for quite a while. Even running on one core the C2D will out perform the Celeron quite probably by a hefty margin as well.

Buzz word said:

Sapphire Technology Radeon X1650Pro 512MB DDR2 PCIE Dual DVI

No! Trust me on this, get a Nvidia based card. It will cause less problems with its drivers, future upgrades will be easier and in general terms you'll get more performance in games out of it.

Buzz word said:

Radeon s9000 128mb AGP
Asus socket a motherboard. cant remember the chipset but it doesnt support the newer multiplier stuff
AMD athlon 2000+
unknown 512mb ddr ram

Slap Linux on it and use it as a file server

[Buzz word]

Cheers guys,
i had a look at the price of the extreme duo's their expensive! a little over what i wanted to spend.

cheers for the processor advice. In all honesty im shopping my numbers and price so the advice is appreciated. i went back to look at the duo blurb and am verging toward another contender
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Socket 775 2.13GHz
would that be an even better choice? it seems to be better than the E4400 option but if the difference is neglidgable i will save the money.

would:
MSI GeForce 7600GS 512MB DDR2 PCIE Dual DVI SLI Ready

be a better choice of card then? its nvidea based as recomended. i really want to stick with the dual dvi as i run twin screens and over 128mb are my mimimums.

[ThePassenger]

Buzz word said:

Cheers guys,
i had a look at the price of the extreme duo's their expensive! a little over what i wanted to spend.

For "Core 2 Duo Extreme" read "Intel Core 2 Duo Xeon" it's basically a high end server chip shoehorned in to the home market. Bloody good but as you say bloody pricey.

Buzz word said:

cheers for the processor advice. In all honesty im shopping my numbers and price so the advice is appreciated. i went back to look at the duo blurb and am verging toward another contender
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Socket 775 2.13GHz
would that be an even better choice? it seems to be better than the E4400 option but if the difference is negligible i will save the money.

:thumbsup: Yep, it'll have the standard 2MB cache and is a wee bit faster. If the price difference is negligible get the faster C2D.

Just so you know, my C2D laptop has the 2.0Ghz chip and absolutley thunders though most things

Buzz word said:

would:
MSI GeForce 7600GS 512MB DDR2 PCIE Dual DVI SLI Ready

be a better choice of card then? its nvidea based as recomended. i really want to stick with the dual dvi as i run twin screens and over 128mb are my mimimums.

Yeppers, much better. 7600GS is a rock solid chip, Nvidia's drivers are again rock solid... you're laughing with that one.