processor & Motherboard

globalds

The sons had his monitor upgrade ...Thanks to TechTerry for the help .
Now the daughter is complaining about not being able to play games .So it's upgrade time .
I'm thinking something like this
Intel - Core 2 Duo E6600 Socket Lga775 Processor.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-E6600-Core2-Duo-2-4GHz/dp/B000GGQCIM/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1209221781&sr=1-6
This is a tad expensive ...Around the £100 mark would be better.
I would like to be able to over clock it a bit .
I would like the 64 bit processing if it is possible and not madly expensive comparatively.
I will stick to DDR2 ram
So anyone with any suggestions / experience of a good combination of Mobo and processor ,That will be as cheap as possible for not too much loss of performance .
Any help much appreciated
GlobalDS

magyar

I'm going from Custom PC's recommendation, which is

Intel E2160 processor
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=600158

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L motherboard
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=661326

The pair come to under £100, and they claim it can be overclocked to 3GHz.

digimortal_2

i wouldnt overclock your CPU, all your doing really is shortening the life of it.. and if its a game pc your after, then i would put most of the budget into the graphics card... its all down to your budget really..

checkout http://www.overclockers.co.uk/syscon_class.php?catid=1055 see what mobo/cpu combo they have for example.. or contact a supplier direct and see what bundles they offer cheap or even discount with the two items together... www.scan.co.uk are quite good..

DatabaseError

i have overclocked every processor i've had since a DX2 66 a long, long time ago (i would have o/cd before, but i'd never heard of it). The only processor i've ever had problems with was a cyrix(?) which i briefly ran without any cooling, that one died (quickly and violently) none of the others have, nor have the video cards or RAM, though i accept there is some risk involved

globalds

As far as the over clocking is concerned I was under the impression it is mainly the heat that does the damage .keep it cool and the lifetime of the component should not be affected ..
A partial solution to this is the case I have,this one . .http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-065-AN&tool=3
I got it for £31.00 so pretty happy with the budget so far .
I was hoping for a 64 bit processor as DDR2 ram is so cheap now I was going to stick 8 gig in .
This may mean I need a more expensive mobo .
Graphics card will probably be 8800(GTX if possible) I don't plan on using 2 cards ...But I'm pretty easily talked round if the best deal is 2 cards .
Magyar Have you got a link to the recomendation from CustomPC,Time for me to do a bit of reading up .
Budget is a bit flexible at the moment ..I don't want to inhibit anyone ...But I have to be realistic ...but once I know what I want ..I'm happy to search for hours for the best price ..
Thanks to all the comments so far .

weegie.geek

Overclocking is almost always fine if you use suitable cooling. The E2160s run pretty cool anyway, and you can just up the FSB without touching the voltage.

Overclocking may well shorten the lifespan, but I've been overclocking since the first MMX pentiums were introduced and I've never used a CPU long enough to experience failure of any sort. Processors last a long time.

I've got a 500Mhz pentium 3 that still works fine, but it was replaced years ago. It's 5+ cpu upgrades ago.

PROLIANT

A technical fact for "tweakers", if you over clock your CPU, you are going to damage it...fact, if you increase the frequency of the CPU time base from 2GHZ to 3GHZ you are pushing your processor to work 50% harder than it actually should, in the good old days when the likes of AMD and older Pentium class CPU's ran at low speed's of say 500-800MHz, it was ok to push them a little harder because they were not as delicate as the newer 45nM core technology, they could dissipate heat better, in this day and age of modern Pentium Class multi-core processors running at typical speeds of 2Ghz, why would you want to over-clock the processor? If you don’t change your motherboard to one that has a faster front-side bus speed (that's the bit that carries the data around your computer and allows peripheral devices like sound, disk, video to communicate with the processor for all you non-techi people out there) then you will see very little performance gain, just for the record I work as an IT Support Engineer and I am also a qualified Electronics Technician, this isn't magazine speak, trust me it is factual information. Happy tweaking!

DatabaseError

why would you want to over-clock the processor?

I play games, if i can gain 10-20% performance hike for NO Money then i'm going to take it every time, though balancing every change to get the best stable performance can be a chore, i also have to work to tight (spouse dictated) budgets, i'd like the fastest/best, but have to have the cheapest tweakable as a compromise, 3-5fps can be the difference between smooth gameplay and jerky

epz_2

PROLIANT obviously doesnt really understand speed binning or fact voltage has a lot more affect on a cpu than frequency(though you may need to up it to get the other).

the only thing that can damage a cpu is heat (and a hammer obviously), it doesnt matter the die process, the oc or the rest, if you oc a processor but ensure it is well cooled then it doesnt matter. hell a top of the line cpu is basicly worthless after 2 years anyway.


its a bit accademic these days as everything is horribly gpu bound anyway.

CloudRuler

1. The websites you're looking at aren't the best. If you're intending to build your own PC you should be looking at sites like dabs and microdirect. You should also check out local computer markets, £70 for a case is stupid pricing.
2. I wouldn't pay that for the dual core when the Q6600 is around the same price.
3. A 512mb 8800 GTS card is more than sufficient, there is no point wasting money on an 8800 GTX.
4. Buying 8gb of ram is just throwing money down the toilet unless someone in the house is going to use the computer for rendering videos etc. For gaming it certainly is not necessary, 4gb is easily more than adequate.
5.Check out anandtech, post the rough build on there and you'll get advice from a substantial number of people used to building their own computers.

PROLIANT

epz wrote: »

PROLIANT obviously doesnt really understand speed binning or fact voltage has a lot more affect on a cpu than frequency(though you may need to up it to get the other).

the only thing that can damage a cpu is heat (and a hammer obviously), it doesnt matter the die process, the oc or the rest, if you oc a processor but ensure it is well cooled then it doesnt matter. hell a top of the line cpu is basicly worthless after 2 years anyway.


its a bit accademic these days as everything is horribly gpu bound anyway.

By increasing the speed of a processor you are making it work harder thus generating more heat, I take it you are fully versed in micro electronics and the fundamentals of computer systems, if so please explain to me in technical notation how you came up with your findings.