Right here we go.

It’s upgrade time soon (as soon as funds become available)

I’m currently running a Athlon 64 3500 on an Asus AN8 deluxe

I need a new CPU, Mobo and memory

Do I go for the quad core Intel 6600 with G0 stepping Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache (2x4MB (4MB per core pair)) Retail Boxed Processor - Ebuyer Or a dual core 6600 Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz Socket 775 4MB Cache 1333MHz FSB Retail Boxed Processor - Ebuyer

Then the Mobo do I get the Intel chipset or the N force 680 version?

I have a NVIDIA 7950 GX2 Graphic’s card which is SLI but it runs in one PCI-E slot,

I believe the Intel chipset boards are crossfire ready but are they SLI compatible

This board looks tasty any thought’s Asus Commando P965 Motherboard - Cheap at Ebuyer!

As for the memory is was thinking Crucial Ballistix 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300 CL3 2.1 V unbuffered non-ECC - Ebuyer

Got everything else needed except the cash!!!!

Having the same CPU debate at the moment.

If you do mainly single threaded work and don't run lots of apps at the same time I'd say the Dual core CPU if you run lots of things at once the Quad. That is my current thinking anyway.

On the motherboard it runs an old (ICH8) southbridge, I'd try find one with ICH9 for some much nicer hotplug and power features

Thanks Cheeze

I've been doing alot of video encoding lately and a bit of gaming.

And i like to do thing's whilst encoding this is where i run into problems atm

so Quad could be the one for me.

I'll have another look at mobo's I think

Just found this ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus AiLifestyle nForce 680i SLI Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard - Ebuyer

Any better for me and my gfx card I wonder??

Specs seem good, but I have to say I'm not too hot on the Nvidia chipsets as I tend to do a lot of stuff with boards that use Intel chipsets.

I have both boards,but have to agree with Cheezemonkhai, the intel based chipsets seem a little more stable although not quite as fast(very little in it) and seem to run better out of the box with little tweaking involved.

SLI is great but the choice of games that really benefit is still relatively limited,and this is the reason i went back to a single card,oh and the space needed and the increase in noise!

Quad core:thumbup: but get a good heatsink and fan!

Tank:)

When I say SLI, It's one of these to be presice. Which will work in 1 pci-e slot

Just need to confirm that the intel chipsets support it as the nvidia do

Its in one PCI-e slot so itll be fine, its driver support that makes it work

you should keep an eye out on scan, another briskodian recently upgraded to a new pc... quad core 2.4 (it will do 3gig EASILY on stock cooler and voltage) 2gb corsair XMS PC6400, abit IP35-Pro and 500gb sata drive.. Scan did the lot for £400.. its rather brisk!

edit: from my experience id stay away from nvidia chipsets... poor driver support plauge it, especially on vista

edit: from my experience id stay away from nvidia chipsets... poor driver support plauge it, especially on vista

I'm having enough trouble with Vista atm so I will take that onboard

So what speed Ram do i go for to achieve monster clock speeds

A friend has those crucial ballistix (as above) not sure what speed but low latency. Whats better mem speed higher/ lower latency

Speed/latency question again depends what data access patterns you are using.

Lots of random fetches then the lower latency to get your data is better, moving large amounts of data around and the higher speed will outweigh the higher latency.

For a general purpose PC I would think most of the time the higher speed would be a bit better, but if you can afford high speed low latency RAM then bonus.

I knew the NV chipsets had major driver issues on linux, didn't realise this was still the case on windows too.

I'll be going for an intel one, however you might want to see if you can hold off for the intel chipset that should be appearing shortly. If i was hedging my bets I would guess just in time for Christmas.

It will be around xmas anyway by the time I get sorted and do this

So it looks like an Intel chipset then with the quad core

So just the memory now, I'm a little rusty on the bus speeds. What FSB speed is the Quad as it's 1066, how does that break down nowadays (if you get my drift).

It will be around xmas anyway by the time I get sorted and do this

So it looks like an Intel chipset then with the quad core

So just the memory now, I'm a little rusty on the bus speeds. What FSB speed is the Quad as it's 1066, how does that break down nowadays (if you get my drift).

the quad is 1066, the E6750 is 1333 - the new chipset and cores will be at 1600 and use DDR3 (which is still stupidly expensive) - if you get a good Quad cpu it will have no problems running at 1333.

check this article out for a general idea about memory at the moment

if your waiting until xmas it may be a case of hanging on a bit longer to see when intel bring out the new 45nm parts.. the current kentsfield quad core is pretty much 2 core2duos stuck together... so it gets effing hot when you start to stretch it a bit... it has a thermal output of 125w :eek: - there are previews of intels new CPUs on the net (try hexus.net) have a look and try to decide if its worth waiting.. you may decide to get a mid-range dual core and upgrade to a new quad core later!

I think this upgrade may be happening sooner than I thought ........

I was up till 2 am last night trying to get the fookin comp to boot !!

My Vista Install wouldn't boot, Giving me the old boot disk failure message. So I re-installed Xp on an old drive and that worked till I rebooted after running SP2 and now that giving me the same message.

It's mobo related, I reset the bios and it still won't boot from either drive, even if I select individual drives in the boot menu

Another thing I noticed was when XP was running the vista drive(320gb) was showing up as 120gb and xp claimed it needed formatting before allowing me in to look at it

I intend to have another bash this evening then It's upgrade time if that fails

Thanks for the help fella's I'm pretty much decided on the quad

the quad is 1066, the E6750 is 1333 - the new chipset and cores will be at 1600 and use DDR3 (which is still stupidly expensive) - if you get a good Quad cpu it will have no problems running at 1333.

check this article out for a general idea about memory at the moment

if your waiting until xmas it may be a case of hanging on a bit longer to see when intel bring out the new 45nm parts.. the current kentsfield quad core is pretty much 2 core2duos stuck together... so it gets effing hot when you start to stretch it a bit... it has a thermal output of 125w :eek: - there are previews of intels new CPUs on the net (try hexus.net) have a look and try to decide if its worth waiting.. you may decide to get a mid-range dual core and upgrade to a new quad core later!

The 45nm sample parts don't seem to run too hot, but the main reason for waiting is not for the new chip, but the newer chipset.

IIRC, the new chipset supports both DDR2 & DDR3 along with some extra PCIe lanes.

I think this upgrade may be happening sooner than I thought ........

I was up till 2 am last night trying to get the fookin comp to boot !!

My Vista Install wouldn't boot, Giving me the old boot disk failure message. So I re-installed Xp on an old drive and that worked till I rebooted after running SP2 and now that giving me the same message.

It's mobo related, I reset the bios and it still won't boot from either drive, even if I select individual drives in the boot menu

Another thing I noticed was when XP was running the vista drive(320gb) was showing up as 120gb and xp claimed it needed formatting before allowing me in to look at it

I intend to have another bash this evening then It's upgrade time if that fails

Thanks for the help fella's I'm pretty much decided on the quad

make sure you have the lastest bios for your mobo... ive heard of several vista-related issues that have been sorted with a bios update.

make sure you have the lastest bios for your mobo... ive heard of several vista-related issues that have been sorted with a bios update.

Further investigations are pointing toward the fact that I installed xp after Vista a screwed the bootloader, hence no booting of either drive.

Further investigations are pointing toward the fact that I installed xp after Vista a screwed the bootloader, hence no booting of either drive.

have you tried running the repair option from the vista DVD.. its actually quite good at fixing stuff like that

(or failing that if your feeling hardcore, install GRUB)

have you tried running the repair option from the vista DVD.. its actually quite good at fixing stuff like that

(or failing that if your feeling hardcore, install GRUB)

Tried the repair tool didn't work.

Just getting the important stuff off the Vista drive i.e family photos lol.

Then I'm gonna stick with XP for a while as Vista upset my games to much.

Whats grub all about then Col

Woo hoo

I pulled the Vista drive, got the data off. Had a fiddle with the vista repair tool which by then recognised the install??? Restarted and both OS's now working

Job's a good 'un

Thanks for the OT help

Just have to wait for xmas for the upgrade's:mad:

Just spotted this any thoughts YOYOtech

Just spotted this any thoughts YOYOtech

X35 is PCIe 2.0 and supports the newer CPU and FSB combinations.

If you can afford it that is the chipset I would be after.