Upgrade advice

[Doug]

Hey guys,

It's been over a year or so since I've cracked a computer case. A lot has
changed, BUT I would rank my knowledge as average, and I have built quite a
few in the past.

Anyway, I got a buddy that plays a few games, not to intensive, surfs a lot,
and basically is an average @ home user. He wants to upgrade his current P4
S478 to a newer PC, S775. This is what I've found, but am unsure as to the
compatibility... Will this gear work together and is it a pretty good
choice? He does have a budget of around $400 US and I will be using a lot
of his old gear.
https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...?WishListNumber=6572972&WishListTitle=Steve's

Were trying to get the most "Bang for the buck". OR does anyone have any
other suggestions?

TIA guys,

Doug

 

[FeMaster]

Hey guys,

It's been over a year or so since I've cracked a computer case. A lot has
changed, BUT I would rank my knowledge as average, and I have built quite
a few in the past.

Anyway, I got a buddy that plays a few games, not to intensive, surfs a
lot, and basically is an average @ home user. He wants to upgrade his
current P4 S478 to a newer PC, S775. This is what I've found, but am
unsure as to the compatibility... Will this gear work together and is it a
pretty good choice? He does have a budget of around $400 US and I will be
using a lot of his old gear.
https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...?WishListNumber=6572972&WishListTitle=Steve's

Were trying to get the most "Bang for the buck". OR does anyone have any
other suggestions?

TIA guys,

Looks pretty decent. If he can squeak a little more cash, he may want to go
with a little more memory. On a side note, unless his current system
already has a PCI-E (PCI-Express) video card, he will need to buy a video
card as well. Since he has a P4, I'm going to bet it has an AGP card in.
The listed MOBO doesn't have on-board video, so it definitely needs a
card...

 

[Doug]

Looks pretty decent. If he can squeak a little more cash, he may want to

go with a little more memory. On a side note, unless his current system
already has a PCI-E (PCI-Express) video card, he will need to buy a video
card as well. Since he has a P4, I'm going to bet it has an AGP card in.
The listed MOBO doesn't have on-board video, so it definitely needs a
card...

Good call on the PCI-E. It crossed my mind at one point, then it was
gone... lol Anyway, yeah, I figured that would be okay, but wasn't sure
since the MB supports Hyper Threading and the processor says it does not.
As I was looking on NewEgg, I noticed none of the Duo's, Extremes, or quads
say they support Hyper-Threading... Is that normal now? I was buying
matched RAM so as to run Dual Channel, but do I really need that if it
doesn't support Hyper-Threading?

TIA again,

Doug

 

[Bob Knowlden]

There is no fundamental connection that I know of between dual channel
memory and hyperthreading.

The duos and quads are multiple processor packages; no hyperthreading
support means one thread per physical CPU. The duo supports 2 threads, and
the quad, 4.

I wonder whether the E6600 is the best low-cost choice for a CPU. The
Allendale (E4xxx) CPUs are cheaper, although they have an 800 MHz (4X200)
FSB, rather than the 1066 (4X266) of the E6600. (I bet that you could
overclock the snot out of an Allendale, although I haven't done it.) The
board is also supposed to support the newer 1333MHz (4X333) CPUs, which are
actually cheaper than the 1066MHz ones. (That requires overclocking the 965
chipset, although Asus officially supports it. The trick is getting a P5B
with the 1604 BIOS already installed.)

Just to complicate matters, have a look at:

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MVGSBG/article.php/3697556

This is for a complete PC that cost $1000 (including a monitor) at the end
of August. The recommended mainboard uses a P35 chipset, which is a lot
newer than the old 965 one. The main drawback to the mainboard is that it
has a single IDE connector, supporting a maximum of 2 devices. You'd want a
more expensive board with the ICH9R controller (rather than the ICH9) if you
needed onboard RAID, but that's irrelevant for a $400 package.

Have fun.

Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

(snip)

 

[Ray Parrish]

Here's an alternative idea, surf on over to Price Watch and look at the
prices of computers. For $400 you can get a complete system running at 3.0
gigaherz. Have a look here: http://www.pricewatch.com/computers/

Later, Ray Parrish

 

[Doug]

Alright, hey, thanks guys! I did little more research, and tweaked the
setup a little bit. He wont' budge off that $400 dollar mark. Thanks for
all the suggestions and comments, it DID help!! Sorry for taking so long to
reply too.

Doug