New Build

farna_boy

Hi all,

I am thinking of upgrading my CPU motherboard and RAM at the moment but I'm a little out of touch so I was hoping ye could give me some advice.

First off, I've managed to find a GA-EP35-DS3R for about €50 and it seems to be a good board especially for the price, but I am wondering would it be any good for overclocking?

Next the CPU. I've been looking around today and I've come up with the following choices:

E2xxx, the E5200, the E7200 or the E7300. I will be using the computer mainly for games but it doesn't have to give unreal performance, just as long as all current and future games will be playable, since my graphics card will probably restrict me anyway.
Aside from the cache differences is there any main advantage of paying an extra €30-€40 for the E7200/E7300 over the E5200?

Finally the RAM, again I'm not really up to date but I saw some Crucial DDR2 BallistiX TRACER PC6400 for €34 on komplett, which looks good, but would it support overclocking?

My overall budget is about €200, (this comes in at about €195 with the E7300) so if anyone has any alternative suggestions they would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: Just saw this RAM: OCZ DDR2 PC8500 2048MB KIT, Reaper HPC on Komplett for €30, would it be better than the RAM I have picked above? Thanks

ScumLord

Can't really give you to much advice but I have an E6600 cpu and it's able to handle just about anything (bar GTA iv) thrown at it. I get 60fps in Codwaw with a HD4850.

It looks like the core 2 duo might be on it's last legs if games like GTA are anything to go by. So the more core's you have the better.

daveharnett

farna_boy wrote: »

Aside from the cache differences is there any main advantage of paying an extra €30-€40 for the E7200/E7300 over the E5200?

Nothing major outside of benchmarks. I'd say go for the faster ram. This will allow you to increase the fsb quite a good bit. I'd say that cpu will go to 3ghz (or very close to it). Just watch the temperatures - the stock cpu heatsink/fan could very well be the limiting factor in overclocking.

What graphics card do you have?

farna_boy

I have a x1800xl AIW card which is probably going to be a bottleneck for games at the moment but until I raise some cash it will have to do. Saying that though, I am able to play most recent games on it with decent graphics, COD4 is set to high, but NFS Undercover is only at medium with a low fps. I'd say that could be more to do with my processor though (AMD 3200+ at stock speed).

TerrorFirmer

If you've got the money then the E7200 is a good bet because it's got a bigger l2 cache over the E5200, but the E5200 is also a good cpu on a budget, especially if you're trying to fit a good card into that budget. The ram is fine for overclocking and I've never seen a Gigabyte board that wasn't a good overclocker, I've owned several from low end matx to high end and all were excellent overclockers - well, maybe not for extreme overclocking, but for normal overclocks of 1ghz or so - no problems..

X1800XL is pretty weak by todays standards - any new game will suffer equally because of that and cpu really but at least it is definitely enough to get by for awhile on a new build.

Sqaull20

Any dual core over 2.50ghz is fine for games bar one or two.

E5200 €80

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=376380

HD4830 €110

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=388742

OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 PC6400 4096MB €43

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=333974

Bit over budget, but you can get at least €30 for your x1800 on adverts.

farna_boy

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Any dual core over 2.50ghz is fine for games bar one or two.

E5200 €80

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=376380

HD4830 €110

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=388742

OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 PC6400 4096MB €43

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=333974

Bit over budget, but you can get at least €30 for your x1800 on adverts.

That looks like a nice build alright but I also need a motherboard, so the graphics card will have to wait I'm afraid.

Solitaire

That motherboard is a nice deal at €50.

I'd recommend the E5200 over the E7200, especially if money's an issue. There's a lot of give and take between the two - the E7200 has 50% more cache and uses a higher binned die, which translates to a very slight edge with lower voltage requirement and heat generation over the E5200. On the other hand the E5200 is cheaper and has a more favourable OC profile - 12.5x multiplier on a lower FSB800 means you don't have to push the mobo as hard or throw as much power or cooling at it to achieve the same OC on the CPU as with the x9.5 FSB1066 E7200. So you really get very little for the extra money unless you're either an extreme overclocker or don't want to OC at all.

daveharnett wrote:

I'd say that cpu will go to 3ghz (or very close to it). Just watch the temperatures - the stock cpu heatsink/fan could very well be the limiting factor in overclocking.

I know for a fact that the E5200 can hit ~3.8GHz without too much effort or too exotic a cooler (maybe not the stock HSF either!), so long as you up the voltage. Safety spec (as with most 45nm parts) is 1.3625v max. The biggest problem is that the E5200 starts life with an absurdly low default of 1.125v to limit overclocking. On a very, VERY cheap mATX mobo perhaps this could limit the OC to 2.9-3.2GHz, but that Gigabyte will happily give the E5200 the voltage it needs, so long as your PSU is up to scratch. You might not be able to get the E5200 up to 4.2GHz within safety specs unlees you are very lucky but if you are unlucky you might not be able to get a E7200 up to even 3.9GHz at that point either; these 45nm parts are great for OCing but it can be a bit of a lottery regarding maximum achievable speeds on them!