Recessionary PC upgrade

Mr Benevolent

Right, the IMF has told us to tighten our belts, so instead of my planned upgrade to an MSI 870A/Phenom II X555/4GB DDR3 I'm going to upgrade my current Socket 775 mobo. I've got an E6600 and 4GB DDR2 and I plan to keep those. My graphics card is a HD5770. Thing is, I want to overclock the E6600 as much as practical, so the best thing to do is upgrade the mobo as the current one is truly crap at OCing.

Any suggestions for a good OC 775 mobo below e50?

Solitaire

What model mobo do you have currently?

Plus, soon you will reach the day where you'll need a quad for good gaming in modern titles...

Mr Benevolent

Solitaire wrote: »

What model mobo do you have currently?

Plus, soon you will reach the day where you'll need a quad for good gaming in modern titles...

I have an ECS low spec board but it's limited to 4GB. The board can fit a quad core no problem and any board I get will be able to do the same. Besides, dual or quad core, I need good OC facilities. I don't don't have the money to change to a quadcore anyway.

B00MSTICK

Hi Confab,

I reckon you go with a Gigabyte or Asus board if you can, they're pretty strong when it comes to overclocking options. ECS are pretty much the bottom of the barrel alright so even an MSI/Abit etc. would be a vast improvement.
Be sure to do some research on them before taking the plunge obviously.

Adverts/ebay would be the best place to start looking.
You might get a few quid for the ECS board too hopefully.

Have you an aftermarket cooler?
With a bit of luck you'll get 3.4ghz out of the E6600.

Mr Benevolent

B00MSTICK wrote: »

You might get a few quid for the ECS board too hopefully.

Nah, the old board is being kept for an experimental oil cooled PC Good idea though.

Mr Benevolent

B00MSTICK wrote: »

You might get a few quid for the ECS board too hopefully.

Nah, the old board will be kept for an oil cooled PC experiment Good idea though. I don't have an aftermarket cooler but after looking around I suspect I'll need one.

B00MSTICK

Is that the mineral oil in the fish tank one?

Mr Benevolent

B00MSTICK wrote: »

Is that the mineral oil in the fish tank one?

Yep, without bothering about the kit. I'll just rip out the HD & DVD and toss the PC into a tank of mineral oil. Ok, there's a bit more to it then that, but I like the thought of dropping my shitty motherboard into a vat of horse laxative and making it run forever.

Solitaire

Confab wrote: »

I like the thought of dropping my shitty motherboard into a vat of horse laxative and making it run forever.

Dublin_Gunner

I reckon you're probably just going to waste money getting a new mobo just to OC the E6600 (especially if the budget is 50~).

IMO get a decent cooler, and see if that will help push it a bit further.

Otherwise you're best of just upgrading the lot.

If you do wish to try a mobo upgrade to OC, for the best value, check out adverts.ie - guaranteed to pick up a bargain on a s775 mobo

Mr Benevolent

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

I reckon you're probably just going to waste money getting a new mobo just to OC the E6600 (especially if the budget is 50~).

IMO get a decent cooler, and see if that will help push it a bit further.

Otherwise you're best of just upgrading the lot.

If you do wish to try a mobo upgrade to OC, for the best value, check out adverts.ie - guaranteed to pick up a bargain on a s775 mobo

OCing the E6600 on my current mobo just doesn't work - I'd be lucky to get 5% OC, max. Besides, it only supports 4GB RAM anyway, so a mobo upgrade will do more than just extend the processor life. I'll have a look at the S775, thanks.

noodletop

there is a striker extreme mo/bo on adverts at the moment

http://www.adverts.ie/337188/desktops/asus-striker-extreme-intel-duo-2-6850-2x3ghz-4gb-corsair-800mhz-cooler/

he had an offer on the ram so you might get lucky with the board and should do everything you want too without breaking the kids piggy bank open

B00MSTICK

I won't be taking the RAM because its 4x1GB and I need 2x2GB unfortunately...

Chances are he won't sell the mobo for anywhere near 50 though

Mr Benevolent

There seems to be some good stuff on Adverts, but it's surprisingly close to the cost of brand new parts on Ebay

TonyM.

Hi,
I have a mainboard left over from my last upgrade, Asus maximus extreme (no sound card ) board only.

you can have it in return for a donation to the "SANTA STRIKE FORCE"

Mr Benevolent

TonyM. wrote: »

Hi,
I have a mainboard left over from my last upgrade, Asus maximus extreme (no sound card ) board only.

you can have it in return for a donation to the "SANTA STRIKE FORCE"

That's a very generous offer and I'd willingly donate, but that motherboard uses DDR3 and I've got DDR2 RAM, so that's out. Thanks anyway.

Mr Benevolent

Well, it took a while to get a good bargain, but I've just ordered an Asus P5Q Pro. Couldn't find a cheap Pro Turbo but overall it's a good board with plenty of upgradability. I also had a sudden hankering for an SSD drive, so I bought myself a OCZ Vertex 2 120GB. I suspect it'll make a major difference, and it was only a couple of quid extra for another 30GB. Money well spent Oh, and a Win 7 x64 install will complement the whole upgrade as well as allowing the PC to use the whole 4GB RAM instead of a measley 2.5GB.

Overall that's e700 spent in the last 3 months, including 4GB RAM, a Radeon HD5770, new PSU, X52 Pro joystick/throttle, SSD drive and mobo... sweet jebus.