upgrading to intel

shrapnel222

hi guys,

i've been thinking of upgrading for a while and after some advice from fellow boardsies, this is what i'm probably going to get (any suggestions, amendments welcome)

motherboard: GIGABYTE EP35-DS3 - Intel P35 + ICH9
processor:INTEL ® Core™2 Quad Q6600
RAM: OCZ Technology Reaper HPC Edition 4Go ( 2*2Go ) PC6400 800MHz Cas 4-4-4-15 dual channel Heatpipe heatspreader OCZ2RPR800C44GK

i was going to keep my GPU for the minute, the X1950PRO, as it's still pretty new- good, bad or really bad idea?

also with regards to my Harddrive, i suppose changing from AMD to an intel chipset means i would have to reformat it? As i don't have the OS disks, as i'd just bought the HDD preloaded, is there any way i can get around losing all info on it, or maybe backing up the OS and HDD onto an external Harddrive, then reloading it? basically haven't got a clue as to what is needed when changing chipsets but not harddrives.

any help appreciated.

thanks

Spear

shrapnel222 wrote: »

hi guys,

i've been thinking of upgrading for a while and after some advice from fellow boardsies, this is what i'm probably going to get (any suggestions, amendments welcome)

motherboard: GIGABYTE EP35-DS3 - Intel P35 + ICH9
processor:INTEL ® Core™2 Quad Q6600
RAM: OCZ Technology Reaper HPC Edition 4Go ( 2*2Go ) PC6400 800MHz Cas 4-4-4-15 dual channel Heatpipe heatspreader OCZ2RPR800C44GK

i was going to keep my GPU for the minute, the X1950PRO, as it's still pretty new- good, bad or really bad idea?

also with regards to my Harddrive, i suppose changing from AMD to an intel chipset means i would have to reformat it? As i don't have the OS disks, as i'd just bought the HDD preloaded, is there any way i can get around losing all info on it, or maybe backing up the OS and HDD onto an external Harddrive, then reloading it? basically haven't got a clue as to what is needed when changing chipsets but not harddrives.

any help appreciated.

thanks

Why the slow RAM? A Q6600 supports a 1066MHz bus.

That video card is some three generations out of date now.

And you'll need a fresh install of Windows for that.

TerrorFirmer

I wouldn't call 800mhz ram slow by any means - I still use 533mhz from time to time and there's no noticable difference really, except when it comes to overclocking.

The X1950Pro is quite old but still good for most games at decent settings....Crysis isn't going to blow you away but Call of Duty 4, Company of Heroes, Bioshock will all chug along happily at high settings at 1280x1024 resolution or middling at 1440x900

If you have a 20"+ monitor though, time to get a new card as well most likely, especially when you're dropping that much cash on a new upgrade. If it's a tight budget, a cheaper dual core, 2gb of ram and a better video card for the same price will easily cripple a Q6600/4Gb/X1950Pro combo in games.

Spear

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I wouldn't call 800mhz ram slow by any means - I still use 533mhz from time to time and there's no noticable difference really, except when it comes to overclocking.

Intel chips do still lack for memory bandwidth, and it's only a few euro more for the extra 266MHz worth.

shrapnel222

Spear wrote: »

Why the slow RAM? A Q6600 supports a 1066MHz bus.

That video card is some three generations out of date now.

And you'll need a fresh install of Windows for that.

what would you suggest?

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I wouldn't call 800mhz ram slow by any means - I still use 533mhz from time to time and there's no noticable difference really, except when it comes to overclocking.

The X1950Pro is quite old but still good for most games at decent settings....Crysis isn't going to blow you away but Call of Duty 4, Company of Heroes, Bioshock will all chug along happily at high settings at 1280x1024 resolution or middling at 1440x900

If you have a 20"+ monitor though, time to get a new card as well most likely, especially when you're dropping that much cash on a new upgrade. If it's a tight budget, a cheaper dual core, 2gb of ram and a better video card for the same price will easily cripple a Q6600/4Gb/X1950Pro combo in games.

no new monitor, still got my trusty iyyama 17". i want the setup to be a bit future proof and i can always upgrade the GPU in a year or so, that's why i chose the quad core

Spear

shrapnel222 wrote: »

what would you suggest?

OCZ have the same RAM in 1066MHz.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-088-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=817&name=OCZ%202GB%20(2x1GB)%20PC2-8500C5%201066MHz%20Reaper%20HPC%20Edition%20Dual%20Channel%20DDR2%20(OCZ2RPR10662GK)

shrapnel222

should i also in that case be looking at getting vista 64 bit? could i run 4 gigs of ram off XP?

Spear

shrapnel222 wrote: »

should i also in that case be looking at getting vista 64 bit? could i run 4 gigs of ram off XP?

You can run 4 gigs with XP, but you won't get to use all of it. You'll be limited to 3.25gig and possibly less.

yoyo

Spear wrote: »

You can run 4 gigs with XP, but you won't get to use all of it. You'll be limited to 3.25gig and possibly less.

XP 64Bit will be able to utilise all 4gig of RAM, but if you want to really go 64Bit Vistas the way to go...

Nick

shrapnel222

thanks guys,

finally went with this motherboard: Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

only got 2 gigs of RAM, (the ones that spear recommended)

and the intel Q6600

sunny2004

Spear wrote: »

You can run 4 gigs with XP, but you won't get to use all of it. You'll be limited to 3.25gig and possibly less.

+1...

Tails142

Well wear anyway.

I would've gone dual core and got more more ram personally. I think you would get better performance from it in the short to medium term; and I'm not sure if I'm totally right in saying this but a lower GHZ quad core wont run non-multithreaded applications (older games) as fast as a higher GHZ (cheaper) dual core. Its probably a moot point though as a processor wont really be the bottleneck in your system while you have that GFX card. Nice equipment anyway I got the same RAM as you.

shrapnel222

Tails142 wrote: »

Well wear anyway.

I would've gone dual core and got more more ram personally. I think you would get better performance from it in the short to medium term; and I'm not sure if I'm totally right in saying this but a lower GHZ quad core wont run non-multithreaded applications (older games) as fast as a higher GHZ (cheaper) dual core. Its probably a moot point though as a processor wont really be the bottleneck in your system while you have that GFX card. Nice equipment anyway I got the same RAM as you.

more ram would've meant upgrading to vista 64bit, and i'd rather look at the long term with the quad core. next step will be a GFx probably in a year or so, and i'll probably look at overclocking the quadcore to 3.2 GHz straight off. But you're right, the older games would run better with the E8400.

shrapnel222

shrapnel222 wrote: »

thanks guys,

finally went with this motherboard: Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

only got 2 gigs of RAM, (the ones that spear recommended)

and the intel Q6600

i received this the other day, and it's now overclocked and stable at 3.3 GHz