MB and RAM help needed for E5200

Hi guys, i am on a very tight budget. I have spent most of the money on WC gear and case and PSU and GPU. all i have left is $160 to get a MB and RAM for this system that i am putting together.

This is the system spec at the moment.

E5200 CPU Lapped
Sapphire Toxic HD 4870 512MB GPU
Silverstone ST1000W PSU
500GB Barracuda 7200.10 HDD
modded Xaser VI case

WC gear:

HK 3.0 CU 775 w/ 775 backplate
XSPC RX360 radiator w/4-5 yate loon high speed fans
DDC3.2 w/ EK x-res 140
8 ft of 1/2" ID 3/4"OD Durelene tubing


now after buying all this parts, i am left with $160 on a new or used MB and RAM. My goal is to hit at 4.0GHz or higher with water cooling on the cpu. i have seen guys hit 3.8Ghz+ on air cooling so i was thinking this semi-high end WC should do the trick. I need help choosing a MB and RAM, i don't know if i should look for a MB that supports DDR3 or DDR2. this is because DDR2 is getting soooo expensive, a 4GB kit costs just as much as 4GB DDR3 now days. is DDR3 that much better than DDR2 in performance wise? with 12.5 multi on the E5200 all i need is 320fsb to hit 4.0Ghz. i might try and see if i can squeeze more mhz out with higher fsb but not sure if a cheap mb can handle it. what should i get. i am not a fan boy of any brand when it comes to MB and RAM, as long as it gets the job done and is fairly cheap, i'll take it.

Realize that the E5200 is a low FSB chip and a 320FSB is a 60% OC which would be amazing. My E5200's max FSB with a 12.5 multiplier is 305 and that's with any voltage; I'm not saying you can't reach 320FSB, just don't expect it.

As for mobo and RAM I would get a P45 and some DDR2-800, I'll get some links in a sec. What features do you need in a mobo (RAID, Xfire, SLI, etc.)? Do you want 4GB RAM?

$90 ($80 AMIR) - GA-EP45-UD3L (No onboard RAID or Xfire)
$93 ($83 AMIR) - 2x2GB OCZ Reaper DDR2-800 (4-4-4-15)
$83 ($73 AMIR) - 2x2GB OCZ DDR2-800 (5-4-4-15)
$50 - 2x1GB G.Skill DDR2-800 (4-4-4-12) (Maybe get another set later?)

Those are the cheapest, quality parts I could find at NewEgg, hope that helps. It would be so much easier if RAM hadn't DOUBLED in price...

i am definitely not going sli for sure. maybe in the future if the 4870 is not enough, i would like to add a second 4870. and once the E5200 is weak and the Q6600 or Q9xxx series come down in price, i would love to replace one of those for the E5200. thinking about skipping all this i5/i7. i do not bench, nore do i do any type of video editing or rendering or anything like that. this is just for mostly gaming on the weekends and doing school work on the weekdays. so that is why i decided to get a 4870 and not the 4890 or 5770 for gpu. i just don't do that much hardcore gaming. i'd rather spend my money on ssd then to upgrade to i5/i7

but anyways... i was looking at this GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P Rev 1.6 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358&Tpk=ep45-ud3p i was reading some reviews and it seems like this new Rev 1.6 is not as good as old Rev1.1. i can get this MB used for about $100 shipped, its almost new, comes with everything and only been used for 1 week. Is this a good choice?

on the ram part. i was looking at some FS sections and found this G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1100 for $85 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...194&cm_re=g.skill_1100-_-20-231-194-_-Product I am sure that this ram would be fine with this MB. as you say it is very unlickly that i will hit anything near 320fsb, is this ram overkill?

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P Rev 1.6 $100
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1100 $85

still the total is over $160 i just wished i could go back in time like 6-8 months back and buy 4GB DDR2 ram for like $45-$50 max.

is the $20 more for UD3P worth over UD3L for the extra features? those OCZ ram do look cool and are a bit cheaper, but how good is the G.Skill DDR2 1100 at $85 shipped? no rebated or nothing....

I am trying to figure out where you spent all this money on WC for a E5200, which in all likely hood MIGHT net you 200 MHz more than the standard 3.6 which is like a 60% OC. Even with Water and a very good Motherboard, I highly doubt you will hit 4.0 unless you bought it off someone who had a known "golden" processor.

You would have been better off spending the money you spent on the WC gear for a Q6600 and good Air HSF.

the reason i spent most of my money on WC was because i know that once i get tired of the E5200, i can reuse all of my gear on the newer cpu. if i get a Q9550 maybe 2 years down the road, i can use all of my WC gear except my tubing. that i would need to get fresh one. and by any chance i get lucky and some how end up with a i7 or i5 build, it is very easy to turn that HK block from 775 to 1366 or what ever. and on top of that, this should be fairly quiet once i get a cheap fan controller and put the fans on low rpm as the RX360 was designed for low rpm fans.

That mobo and RAM combo will make you very happy. The DDR2-1100 would be a much better option than DDR2-800 since you are planning on upgrading to a higher FSB chip in the future.

dang... now i have some one that will sell me a year old ASUS P5Q Deluxe w/ everything and 2x2gb set of OCZ ReaperX DDR2 1000 for $150 lol.... this is a hard decision isn't the UD3P the best clocking 775 MB? i was reading comparison on both of them and they both overclock almost the same. only difference is that when buying new P5Q was like $50+ more than UD3P and thats why most ppl chose UD3P for same features as the P5Q Deluxe but with lower price tag. But as used, both are $100. The price is the same witch makes it even harder for me to choose. now it all comes down to RAM.

I guess now it is between 2x2gb set of OCZ ReaperX DDR2 1000 or G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1100 set. witch ever is better, i'll stick to that combo. OCZ with P5Q Deluxe, or G.Skill With GA UD3P. i hate making decisions on things that are sooo close to each other. i'm sure both set of ram are good and perform the same. witch one to pick?

I'd go with the higher spec ram, anything more then 500fsb will start OCing the ddr2-1000 ram. Not that it's hard to OC ram, but the 1100 is good to 550 before it starts OCing.

Actually, what're the voltages on the ram? If one is 2.2v and the other is 1.8v i'd go for the lower voltage. I don't like high volts.

G.Skill newegg shows as Timing: 5-5-5-15 Voltage: 1.8V - 1.9V

OCZ Timing: 5-5-5-18 Voltage: 2.1V

basically the G.Skill shows higher stock clock with less voltage and a bit tighter timing. so its G.Skill that performs better on paper

I would go UD3P and G.SKill, they work great for me. I believe the UD3P is better for OCing quads than the P5Q (they're close), so the UD3P would be better for a future C2Q.

ya cool thanks. i guess i'll just find a way to come up with more money on the G.Skill and just get it over with. it seems better with less volts and faster stock speed so i guess it is worth it.