Advice needed

Hi guys, in the next few weeks im gonna b building a new system ive already decided on the board im gettin which is the asus m2n32-sli dlx and im in two minds over which cpu to get...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.6GHz Socket AM2 2MB, BOXED w/fan
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=325294

or

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ 2.8GHz Socket AM2 1MB, BOXED w/fan
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=331438

I cant afford to strecth to the 5600+ so its out of those two n im not that clued up on CPU's but the 2nd has a faster bus speed but less chache so which would give better performance?!?

Cheers for all ya help

Oh yea n the RAM im 99% sure im gonna go for is...

Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2, 2048MB CL5 Kit w/two matched CM2X1024A-6400 Dimm's
https://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=312054&s=sc

You guys may wonna ave a look at that site when buying components its the cheapest ive found around n been searchin a while

Cheers again

I've not heard of any major problems w/the M2N.

If those chips are similar to the 939 Opterons the 5200 should have about the same top end as the 5400 so I'd go for the larger cache of the 5200 ...

I agree, go with the 5200. Even if it only clocked to 2.8 it would still be faster than the 5400 with extra cache. I'm sure it'll clock to around 3.0G though.

I would go with the 4000+ Brisbane chip. It would probably top out around the same speed when overclocked and costs half as much. Otherwise go with the 5200+ for the cache.

If you were going to spend $300 on a chip, I would certainly get a C2D instead.

if you want to change your motherboard, go for a DFI LAnparty UT Ulta-D which is SLI supported which is $130. I got mine for $102. m processor is an opteron 144 which is a $77 prossessor. If you plan to buy this mobo, get Corsair RAM which has better performance. When i get at least another 512 stick of RAM, im gonna over clock my Processor to 2.9GHZ. It depends how much are you willing to spend?

WeezleXX89 said:

if you want to change your motherboard, go for a DFI LAnparty UT Ulta-D which is SLI supported which is $130. I got mine for $102. m processor is an opteron 144 which is a $77 prossessor. If you plan to buy this mobo, get Corsair RAM which has better performance. When i get at least another 512 stick of RAM, im gonna over clock my Processor to 2.9GHZ. It depends how much are you willing to spend?

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He is looking at getting a Socket AM2 board and a dual core processor. I don't see how looking at a Socket 939 board and a single core CPU would help him out here.

Go for more cache and less speed and OC the CPU a little.

funnyperson1 said:

He is looking at getting a Socket AM2 board and a dual core processor. I don't see how looking at a Socket 939 board and a single core CPU would help him out here.

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oh crap i didnt see that. sorry about that.

funnyperson1 said:

I would go with the 4000+ Brisbane chip. It would probably top out around the same speed when overclocked and costs half as much. Otherwise go with the 5200+ for the cache.

If you were going to spend $300 on a chip, I would certainly get a C2D instead.

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Do C2Ds work much better coz for the money i got ive got no chance of gettin anywhere near the speeds that i could get for the money with amd?

Cheers for all the help not all that sure when it comes to CPU's n i doubt ill need to OC even if i go for the 5200 (which seems likely) coz theres not gonna be much out that can strain a 2x2.6ghz. Ive read a few reviews on the RAM n the mobo and they seem reasonable enough so i think now its just a case of orderin it, providin no1 else has got anymore advise?

Well heres the problem, currently the best overclocking AMD chips will hit like 3.2Ghz at a maximum (though there are a few people who have hit 3.4-3.5 with the 6000+). When clocked at the same speed, the Core 2 Duos are 10-20% faster than Athlon 64 X2s. Not only that, even the worst clocking Core 2 Duos seem to be hitting 3Ghz (including the $160 E4300) at which point they are already faster than even the best overclock you could get with any current AMD chip. On average though, even the cheap C2Ds like the 4300 and 6300 seem to be hitting 3.2-3.6 ghz on average, and at those speeds they are much faster than anything you can get with AMD.

Here is my thought, if you want a cheap, mid-range system, AMD is great. You can get an X2 3600+ and a TForce550 motherboard right now for $160, and hit 2.8-3.1ghz with it. Or you can get an X2 3800+ and a decent motherboard for like $180 and lower and again get around like 2.8ghz out of it. These systems will be significantly slower than an E4300/E6300 system, but they will also be significantly cheaper and imho offer great bang for buck.

However, if you are looking to spend like $170 or more on an AMD chip, it makes little sense to me, because the performance is just so much better with Intel right now.

Ok cheers, so wot would u recomend ive got roughly £400 ($800) n now defo in two minds as to whether to go AMD or Intel now n with that money i need a CPU, RAM and a board. Ive seen a chip that im considerin:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 4MB, BOXED w/fan
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=322633

but that takes a big chunk out of my money and with some good RAM costin roughly £140 ($270) that doesnt leave me a great deal for a board roughly bout £60-80 ($115-155) im not up-to-date on intel boards but can u get a descent board for that price?

Cheers for ya help

There are a couple decent boards in that range, namely the Biostar TForce965T, and the Gigabyte DS3. I don't know where to find the Biostar board in the UK though since that komplett site doesn't have it, nor does overclockers.co.uk.

Now the DS3 is 82 quid at komplett (and out of stock), but it is in stock and 70 quid at overclockers.co.uk.

I also think you can save a bunch on ram. For example for 100 quid, here is some pretty good ram:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL

Yea that RAM seems quite good wiv vat still gonna be £120 but well worth considering but ive just seen this on another post:

http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/news.php?tid=735045&starttime=0&endtime=0

Intell r droppin prices in April so im now in 2 minds as to wait for that...my god this seems like hard work!! lol Goin by the table on that site ill b able to get the E6700 for the same price i can currently get the E6600 so now im well confused on wot to do?!

Well if you have a decent system now and could wait, I would still get the E6600, but you could save $100 or so over what you are paying now because after overclocking the 6600/6700 will be the same speed. Now thats if you can wait two months, thats certainly a long time to be craving a system .

I think this thread needs moved to the Intel board... this fanboi is soooo tired of reading about Conhoes on the AMD board. I get enough of that in the Folding forum.

No offense at all Reedo... I know you're just lookin' fur some help and fp1 is just being honest with ya.

funnyperson1 said:

Well if you have a decent system now and could wait, I would still get the E6600, but you could save $100 or so over what you are paying now because after overclocking the 6600/6700 will be the same speed. Now thats if you can wait two months, thats certainly a long time to be craving a system .

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Its not great but i gotta look at the bigger picture n im a student at uni so once i upgrade this im not gonna be able to upgrade again for a couple of yrs. Think im just gonna wait till then (which conveniently is when my student loan comes thru ) that way i may have a bit more money by then and get more for me money.

Cheers for all ya help all the same

harlam357 said:

I think this thread needs moved to the Intel board... this fanboi is soooo tired of reading about Conhoes on the AMD board. I get enough of that in the Folding forum.

No offense at all Reedo... I know you're just lookin' fur some help and fp1 is just being honest with ya.

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yea but i thought thats all most ppl came on here for either give or recieve advise n if u look at the top of the thread it did start as me askin which AMD chip was better, granted we've side tracked a bit still been discussin which would be best n concluded that its the C2D.