Upgrading to Core 2 Duo/ Motherboard/RAM question

[ticars]

I need to setup a second computer for work that will be used to run
Vista, so instead of buying all new parts I was going to essentially
upgrade my existing machine to the Core 2 Duo E6600 for Vista and then
using the parts from my existing machine (Athlon X2 3800) and a few
other left over parts from an older machine to build a machine that can
run XP.

Originally, I though all I was really going to need to buy is a new
motherboard, cpu, and power supply which would have been perfect.
Until I realized there my be a problem with the RAM. Nearly all the
motherboards I've seen on Newegg that support the Duo only have DDR2
listed, and unfortunately my existing machine as DDR (2 x 1-GB-DDR400
if it matters). So I guess my questions are:

1. Do motherboards that support DDR2 also support DDR?
2. If not all of them, do any motherboards support a Core 2 Duo and
DDR?
3. And obviously this would depend on what I'm doing (mostly
programming work), but how great of a performance difference would
there be between using DDR compared to DDR2 (if it's even possible).

I can swing the new motherboard, cpu and psu; but adding another $250
or so for memory would be a little painful.

 

[DaveW]

1. No, they are incompatible.
2.No.
3. Not possible.

 

[ticars]

1. No, they are incompatible.
2.No.
3. Not possible.

Damn, that's what I was afraid of. Thanks!

 

[Paul]

Damn, that's what I was afraid of. Thanks!

This motherboard has room for two sticks of DDR memory,
or you can use two sticks of DDR2 memory. But both kinds
of memory, cannot be present in the motherboard at the
same time. It has a x4 PCI Express slot (so a graphics card
would do 3D about 20-25% slower). It has a standard AGP
slot. If you are using an existing AGP card, that should be
fine.

http://www.asrock.com/product/775Dual-VSTA.htm

Read the reviews here first. Remember that a lot of these
odd-ball motherboards, use overclocked chipsets and the like.
You cannot expect to overclock a motherboard like that,
above the stock speed. But VIA chipsets, are one way to
do an incremental upgrade. (The Intel upgrade strategy, is
to upgrade everything.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?item=N82E16813157092

Paul

 

[Rod Speed]

1. No, they are incompatible.
2.No.

Wrong, at least one does.
http://www.asus.com.au/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=242&model=814&modelmenu=2

3. Not possible.

Wrong again.

 

[Blazing Bolt]

On 13 Dec 2006 15:02:56 -0800, (e-mail address removed) wrote:
SEE links below

I need to setup a second computer for work that will be used to run
Vista, so instead of buying all new parts I was going to essentially
upgrade my existing machine to the Core 2 Duo E6600 for Vista and then
using the parts from my existing machine (Athlon X2 3800) and a few
other left over parts from an older machine to build a machine that can
run XP.

Originally, I though all I was really going to need to buy is a new
motherboard, cpu, and power supply which would have been perfect.
Until I realized there my be a problem with the RAM. Nearly all the
motherboards I've seen on Newegg that support the Duo only have DDR2
listed, and unfortunately my existing machine as DDR (2 x 1-GB-DDR400
if it matters). So I guess my questions are:

1. Do motherboards that support DDR2 also support DDR?
NO

2. If not all of them, do any motherboards support a Core 2 Duo and
DDR?

YES YES YES YES YES
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813185086
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135027
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135023
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131029

3. And obviously this would depend on what I'm doing (mostly
programming work), but how great of a performance difference would
there be between using DDR compared to DDR2 (if it's even possible).

Probly woulnt notice much diffrence...

I can swing the new motherboard, cpu and psu; but adding another $250
or so for memory would be a little painful.

Not everone who replies knows what they are talking about....

 

[Dave]

I need to setup a second computer for work that will be used to run
Vista, so instead of buying all new parts I was going to essentially
upgrade my existing machine to the Core 2 Duo E6600 for Vista and then
using the parts from my existing machine (Athlon X2 3800) and a few
other left over parts from an older machine to build a machine that can
run XP.

If you've got a X2 3800 with 2GB of RAM, what is stopping that from running
Vista? Only component that MIGHT need to be upgraded would be the graphics
card. Think Geforce 6200 or later with 256MB of RAM or more.

Originally, I though all I was really going to need to buy is a new
motherboard, cpu, and power supply which would have been perfect.

If you are building for Vista, the graphics card and RAM are all that
matters (if your CPU isn't too old, but an X2 3800 is fairly recent!). It
sounds like you've got RAM covered, but there is NO NEED to replace your
motherboard or CPU, and probably no need to replace your power supply. You
didn't mention your graphics card, which is the most important component in
a Vista machine. Vista is like running a computer game constantly, and
that's just the OS. It needs lots of graphics horsepower. Just for the OS.

DDR2 mainboard won't take DDR ram, but again, you don't need a new
mainboard. If you need two machines, you could clone your current one.
-Dave

 

[ticars]

If you've got a X2 3800 with 2GB of RAM, what is stopping that from running
Vista? Only component that MIGHT need to be upgraded would be the graphics
card. Think Geforce 6200 or later with 256MB of RAM or more.

I should have been more clear. I want to run XP and Vista on seperate
machines. My machine runs Vista fine; I have setup in dual boot as I
need to run both. It's just too painful having to reboot whenever I
need to run the other OS (which always seems to be right before I need
to leave for work).

Looks like I do have options, so thanks to everyone who replied.