Don't ask how, but Sunshine has agreed to let me uprade my computer. I've got a budget of about 1,000 bucks. Im holding off on a new LCD for now (gonna get one for Christmas).


Im calling this an "upgrade" but its more-or-less a new computer. Im only going to carry over my old Sound Card, Hard Drives, DVD burner and maybe my Case and Powersupply. Everything else will be new.


Here's what Im hopping to end up with.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Quad Pro ($290)
Motherboard: Asus P5N-E SLI Motherboard - NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ($140)
Ram: I have no idea, I need help here.
Video Card: GeForce 8800 GT 320Megs (Not Price yet, US prices are $250-$300)


So here's my questions.

1) What kind of Ram am I suppose to use? I assumed it was DDR2 with a 1033MHz fsb, but Im seeing that 800MHz DDR2 ram is more popular and cheaper. RAM is the only area that Im not up to par on knowlage.

2) Do I need a new Power Supply? I think I have a 400watt hooked up to work with my P4 2.4.


Anyway, yeah, Im still not 100% sure if I want to upgrade or not.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

4 240-pin DIMM sockets
Maximum of 8 GB of DDR2-533/667/800 SDRAM

This is the type i noticed noticed your motherboard accepts. Unless you want the extreme one which supports ddr2 400.

So if you are getting it. I'd suggest the fastest one it can accept. Which is Pc6400 ddr 2 800 mhz

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Job 10: 20
The mikey's have a plan. Djay isn't all powerful.

I havent built a computer since P4s were the norm. Back then (and before then too) the FSB (Front side Bus) of the MB, RAM and CPU had to match. If im not mistaken I was under the impression that the FSB on the Q6600 was 1033MHz and not 800MHz.


argh!

Thanks for the help though Mikey.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

for RAM get DDR3, it sexy. :D

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Remey: 75 lolTHF|COR|DNC

On this setup your best bet is 2x DDR2 800 (one on each bank for Dual Channel), EPP is disabled so if you get good ram, you're going to have to manually set the timings. If you want faster ram you could either OC it, or just buy the ddr2 rated 1066 (PC2 8500) and oc it to that speed on the MB, it wont stress your ram that way.

DDR3 will be a norm soon but only needed for high-end machines, you should be outdated no more then a year from now.

PCI-E on SLI is only 8x-8x you should find a better mainboard if you want to upgrade later.

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what you could do is wait til january to build it because the new Quad cores are coming out and you could get a 2.6ghz Yorkfield for 316$ USD. the yorkfield is the fastest cpu yet. but youd need a 1333fsb motherboard to support it.

also if you running a OS with 32bit rumor has it you cant have over 4gb of ram cause it cant make numbers that high.

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"all men die, and no brave man lets death frighten him from his desires"

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"all men die, and no brave man lets death frighten him from his desires"

That's no rumor! It's fact.

A 32 bit CPU uses 32 bits (hi) to refer to the location of each byte of memory. Which equates to 2^32 == 4,294,967,296 or 4.3G which means a memory address that's 32 bits long can only refer to 4,294,967,296 unique locations. There's more but I won't get into it unless someone points out the older servers and I doubt any of you care to read about shared memory..

Oh thats exactly the answers I was looking for. Thanks Kioto


Im not looking to Over Clock at all. Im actually pretty happy with my current setup (P4, ATI X850, 1.5g ram), IMO its only now starting to show its age and I probably wouldnt be upgrading now if I wasnt about to put myself into a bunch of debt over the next year (you guys will find out later why), so now is the only time Im going to have some extra cash.


Although Im not exactly set on MB. Is there a board you would recomend?

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

i'm guessing your pretend house is finally becoming a real house? make sure to get that pre-nup

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Marry me. Forget Milly, Im the one you really want anyway

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

Yup, thats part of it.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

i want to buy a house. now i'm jealous.. thanks a lot doosh

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for a yorkfield of 1333mhz i dont know what motherboard to recommend because rumor has it that yorkfield will be a 771 socket (server) instead of the normal 775 (desktop). server motherboards are abit different then desktop so until its all defined its hard to tell specifics

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"all men die, and no brave man lets death frighten him from his desires"

Matti i don't remember those numbers back in the days when i studied this stuff, granted it's been a while as far as i know here's how it goes:
2^32 = 4,294,967,296
4,294,967,296 / (1,024 x 1,024) = 4,096
4,096 megabytes being the max in 32bit (without 36bit PAE CPU extensions & AWE API which is a whole different ballgame) some hardware may lower that number and bring it down to 3.8GB's (video cards for example).

As far as 64Bit goes:
2^64 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,616
18,446,744,073,709,551,616 / (1,024 x 1,024) / 8 = 2 exabytes (kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta, exa)
Granted the user mode virtual address space in 64bit is a mere 8 terabytes, that will sure do.

@Yarr: $140 all u wanna spend?

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I think a post of mine has been deleted. lol

I wonder why.

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Remey: 75 lolTHF|COR|DNC

Remey and I lost speaking privileges lol

yah a few of mine got deleted too I think.. GAY

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Yea I've never been good at keeping spoilers to myself. lol

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Remey: 75 lolTHF|COR|DNC

Yeah, I didn't bother to convert to MB bleh. lol PAE extensions are hacks. Thanks, Intel. :P

Like i said, different ball game i probably look like the "cheater/hacker" around here anyways, since i usually come up with stuf like that.

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Nope. Id spend 250ish on a good MB. If the value is there, I'll pay whatever I need too.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

try posting on
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/for ... y.php?f=66

its not YTP, but they are the best when it comes to computers. they know more then i do and what to expect

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"all men die, and no brave man lets death frighten him from his desires"

Okay staying in the asus category (which i dislike but many will disagree with me), lot's of forums and reviews on newegg itself indicate up to 15ish % DOA on these boards but they seem very worth the buck if they work.
ASUS Striker Extreme LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ($300ish) 2nd or 3rd best from Asus
ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI (about $200-$220)
ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI (about $180-$200)

Out of the Asus category i would try the following:
EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ($250ish) has its if's and but's but stong board overall.
MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ($140ish) Ok board...

If you want a lower problematic board, come over and try Abit

Ninja-Edit: You'll deff. need a new PSU 600w minimun.

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