It has been more than four years since my last major hardware upgrade. The last piece I bought was my video card in March 2004, that was my Senior year in high school. Four years later, I have a degree in electrical engineering, and the promise of positive inflow of money. The time has finally come to say goodbye to my Barton.
I am planning on buying a new processor, motherboard, video card, and ram. I would really like to get a Core 2 Duo E8400 and a Geforce 9600, but I am uncertain regarding the selection of the motherboard and ram.
I'm a bit out of the loop these days, is it common practice to set your proc frequency at a different rate than your memory frequency? It would be great if I could buy some cheap PC2 6400 and a cheap mobo to last me a few years, but I don't want to gimp the processor.
So I want to ask the community for some advice:
1) Should I wait for a processor price drop? (is there a price drop coming)
2) Can I get away with using PC2 6400 and still max out the chip? 2Gb or 4Gb?
3) any specific motherboard suggestions would be great.
I would like to keep these upgrades below $600
I am planning on buying a new processor, motherboard, video card, and ram. I would really like to get a Core 2 Duo E8400 and a Geforce 9600, but I am uncertain regarding the selection of the motherboard and ram.
I'm a bit out of the loop these days, is it common practice to set your proc frequency at a different rate than your memory frequency? It would be great if I could buy some cheap PC2 6400 and a cheap mobo to last me a few years, but I don't want to gimp the processor.
So I want to ask the community for some advice:
1) Should I wait for a processor price drop? (is there a price drop coming)
2) Can I get away with using PC2 6400 and still max out the chip? 2Gb or 4Gb?
3) any specific motherboard suggestions would be great.
I would like to keep these upgrades below $600
