Building Intel Desktop

J

jslick

New Member
I am (re)building an older Intel computer. I will be using (K)ubuntu Linux for the most part, but will also have Win XP installed. I am quite a multi-tasker and I do some light gaming. I want my computer to be as fast as possible within my budget.

My older computer (I think) has a broken CPU, so I'm replacing the motherboard, CPU, and RAM. The computer is a 2003 Gateway - practically state-of-the-art for it's time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming the other components will work with my new components: NVidia graphics card - don't know model, 128mb; create soundblaster audio card; etc.

I currently looking at the Intel DP45SG motherboard. As far as I understand, RAID striping should work out-of-the-box (should I eventually choose to use it). I plan on investing on a motherboard that I can upgrade in the future; I want to build-as-I-go. For example, I want to eventually put a TV-tuner in it. What boards are best for upgradability? The Intel website doesn't seem to have any motherboards with triple-channel memory capability in my budget.

I am currently torn between the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad. I have done some research. It seems Quad is better for multi-tasking, while Duo has significantly higher frequencies, which boosts tasks that aren't optimized. I primarily use Linux, and I'm not sure how well Linux apps handle multi-core optimization. I am currently considering E8400 (3GHz), E8500 (3.16GHz), Q9300 (2.5GHz), Q9400 (2.66GHz), Q9450 (2.66GHz, 12MB cache). The problem I find is that quad core processors with higher frequencies are significantly more expensive than their duo versions. Which one should I go with? I plan on eventually over-clocking; is their an advantage of one processor over the other?
If I go with the quad, do I need to upgrade my existing cooling system? Could my current cooling system have caused my CPU to die? Should I replace my cooling system?
My broken CPU is a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 that had Hyper-threading technology - from the system monitors, I can see a big difference between processors with and w/o HTT. It seems none of the core 2 duo or quad processors have HTT; is this true? If so, that is very disappointing.

Will my current power supply work for my rebuilt computer? (Sorry, I don't have enough time to look up the specs right now.)

Is there anything else important I should know about building my own computer? Keep in mind, I pretty much know the basics - I've done quite a bit of research.

Thanks:)
 
Power supply- No, it will not work as gateway and whatnot always use cheap chinabrand power supplies that are rubbage.

If you are even thinking of a quad core, AMD phenom II is where it is at right now, as socket 775 that the intels are on is being phased out, and will see no new processor releases. Kinda like upgrading an AGP video card, gives an upgrade for now, but in the future you cant upgrade it any farther.
 
bomberboysk said:
Power supply- No, it will not work as gateway and whatnot always use cheap chinabrand power supplies that are rubbage.
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Why do you say it will not work? Will it not be enough power or will it have the wrong connectors? It was working before my CPU died.

bomberboysk said:
If you are even thinking of a quad core, AMD phenom II is where it is at right now
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Well, for this computer I'm going to stick with Intel. I've already done a lot of research on Intel products and the it is an Intel computer to begin with - I'd like to be consistent with this already built machine. I have never had an AMD machine in my household.

bomberboys said:
as socket 775 that the intels are on is being phased out, and will see no new processor releases. Kinda like upgrading an AGP video card, gives an upgrade for now, but in the future you cant upgrade it any farther.
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Phased out? On the Intel website, the only new processors with something other than 775 are i7 processors (that I'm aware of). I'm not looking for a thousand-dollar processor. Is Intel done making socket 775 processors?
 
Yes they are done with 775. They moved to i7 and soon i5 ( or w/e the name the choose is gonna be ) is coming out too. Also i7 920 costs 280 bucks at newegg or if you have microcenter nearby u can pick it up for 230

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727

If you dont want to invest in i7 just wait for i5's, they are gonna be more affordable. But you could also give amd a chance. Their new phenoms II are very good and not too pricey.
 
jslick said:
Why do you say it will not work? Will it not be enough power or will it have the wrong connectors? It was working before my CPU died.

Well, for this computer I'm going to stick with Intel. I've already done a lot of research on Intel products and the it is an Intel computer to begin with - I'd like to be consistent with this already built machine. I have never had an AMD machine in my household.


Phased out? On the Intel website, the only new processors with something other than 775 are i7 processors (that I'm aware of). I'm not looking for a thousand-dollar processor. Is Intel done making socket 775 processors?
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First- Its a cheap crappy china brand power supply if it is what came with a prebuilt machine, they use the worse power supplies they can find that barely power the meachine itself.

Second- That does not matter one bit, your gonna need to reinstall the operating system anyhow, your getting a new motherboard+cpu, the hard drive, cd drives, case, etc are all universal for both intel and amd machines. And the phenom II's are faster overall compared to a core 2 quad, as they overclock like a beast.

Third- Yes, socket 775 cpu's are done with, what you see is what you get, if you bough a q9400, your only upgrade option would be the same cpu pretty much, such as a qx9770, which is essentially the same cpu as a q9x50 but an unlocked multi for overclocking. AM3 is the best as far as upgradeability goes, or i7, going socket 775 at this point in time is like investing in dead technology... Right now, with intel your options are a $260 i7 cpu, or socket 775 though. In the next few months or so, 775 will be phased out and replaced by core i3/core i5.


Also...depending on how old your soundcard is, if its an audigy or audigy 2, the integrated HD audio on new motherboards is actually superior(onboard these days is getting good), if its an Audigy 4 though, its superior to the onboard HD audio on most current motherboards.
 
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susik89 said:
If you dont want to invest in i7 just wait for i5's, they are gonna be more affordable.
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i7s are a little too expensive right now. I'm not waiting for i5s unless they come out in the next month or so.

But, as long as I don't have to replace my CPU before I get a new computer, then getting a 775 CPU won't matter, right?
What I meant by "upgradeability" is that it has plenty of PCI slots and such.

My old CPU is Pentium 4 3.2GHz, which I would imagine would need decent cooling. What processors listed in this thread would I need to upgrade my cooling?

Even Intel's D975XBX2 motherboard is also one of the reliable motherboard available.
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I can't find that on the Intel website, Newegg, or pricewatch. what socket is it? What makes it better than DP45SG?
 
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If I were to go with LGA1366 socket, what motherboards are recommended?

If I were to go with AMD, what motherboards should I be looking at?

Keep in mind, I'm in somewhat of a tight budget.

bomberboysk said:
they overclock like a beast.
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Is that just the multiplier or FSB too? Multiplier doesn't matter as much as FSB speed. I would imagine FSB overclocking would be about the same as Intel. But, I admit I don't know that much about overclocking.
 
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jslick said:
If I were to go with LGA1366 socket, what motherboards are recommended?

If I were to go with AMD, what motherboards should I be looking at?

Keep in mind, I'm in somewhat of a tight budget.


Is that just the multiplier or FSB too? Multiplier doesn't matter as much as FSB speed. I would imagine FSB overclocking would be about the same as Intel. But, I admit I don't know that much about overclocking.
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First- What kinda budget overall?

Second- Both, multiplier matters just as much as fsb speed, it can allow you to overclock further than the base clock will alone. Overclocking is raising the base clock/qpi/fsb or multiplier above stock to run the cpu at a higher frequency.
 
bomberboysk said:
First- What kinda budget overall?
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roughly $450. Willing to go over, but I'm expecting other costs: apparently PSU, tax, maybe shipping, other unexpected stuff.

bomberboysk said:
Second- Both, multiplier matters just as much as fsb speed, it can allow you to overclock further than the base clock will alone. Overclocking is raising the base clock/qpi/fsb or multiplier above stock to run the cpu at a higher frequency.
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Raising the multiplier only changes the frequency of the cpu, not the entire system. You can raise the frequency of the cpu all you want, but if the memory speed remains the same, it will bottleneck the speed. Matching the FSB speeds between cpu and memory widens the bottleneck - so I see this as more important than the multiplier. However, I'm certainly not an expert on over-clocking, and I've never over-clocked before. This is just from my researching.
 
bomberboysk said:
Third- Yes, socket 775 cpu's are done with,
Right now, with intel your options are a $260 i7 cpu, or socket 775 though. In the next few months or so, 775 will be phased out and replaced by core i3/core i5.
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Looks like the 775 Core 2's will turn into i3's.
So, maybe the 775 is not so soon to disappear after all?
47a.jpg


http://www.computerforum.com/154042-intels-core-brand-product-placement.html
 
jslick said:
Raising the multiplier only changes the frequency of the cpu, not the entire system. You can raise the frequency of the cpu all you want, but if the memory speed remains the same, it will bottleneck the speed. Matching the FSB speeds between cpu and memory widens the bottleneck - so I see this as more important than the multiplier. However, I'm certainly not an expert on over-clocking, and I've never over-clocked before. This is just from my researching.
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Take it from someone who knows enough about overclocking, raising your fsb (actually the phenom II doesnt use fsb, amd uses hypertransport/base clock) doesnt increase memory speed, as you use dividers to drop the memory speed so its not running too fast. Higher clocks are better than a smaller overclock, unless your running a 1:1 sync memory(which for some of the better clocks on a phenom 2 would be 1866 or 2000mhz ddr3).

$450 includes what exactly, psu, mobo, cpu, heatsink, gpu? Going to use current hard drive, optical drive, etc? Are you going to need a case?
 
bomberboysk said:
$450 includes what exactly, psu, mobo, cpu, heatsink, gpu? Going to use current hard drive, optical drive, etc? Are you going to need a case?
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PSU (unless I find out that my current one will actually work), motherboard, CPU, RAM.

Re-using heatsink (if possible, that is what I'm trying to ask), hard drives, disc drives (1 DVD RW, 1 CDRW), floppy drive (yeah, that's right), GPU (an old but good nVidia card), case, media card bay.
Will this work?

Also, I have a firewire port that I don't use, but I would like to keep that live. And, I may eventually enable RAID 0 striping; but probably not initially (yeah I know, I'll have to re-install my OSes).
 
jslick said:
PSU (unless I find out that my current one will actually work), motherboard, CPU, RAM.

Re-using heatsink (if possible, that is what I'm trying to ask), hard drives, disc drives (1 DVD RW, 1 CDRW), floppy drive (yeah, that's right), GPU (an old but good nVidia card), case, media card bay.
Will this work?

Also, I have a firewire port that I don't use, but I would like to keep that live. And, I may eventually enable RAID 0 striping; but probably not initially (yeah I know, I'll have to re-install my OSes).
Click to expand...

Can I get both an Intel AND AMD solution for this for roughly $450?
 
jslick said:
PSU (unless I find out that my current one will actually work), motherboard, CPU, RAM.

Re-using heatsink (if possible, that is what I'm trying to ask), hard drives, disc drives (1 DVD RW, 1 CDRW), floppy drive (yeah, that's right), GPU (an old but good nVidia card), case, media card bay.
Will this work?

Also, I have a firewire port that I don't use, but I would like to keep that live. And, I may eventually enable RAID 0 striping; but probably not initially (yeah I know, I'll have to re-install my OSes).
Click to expand...

jslick said:
Can I get both an Intel AND AMD solution for this for roughly $450?
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Might wanna learn to use the edit post button:P But ill get you a list for amd and a list for intel. Your current heatsink wont work, if you can fit it into budget an anftermarket heatsink would allow you to overclock more, but if not the cpu's themselves have a heatsink that comes with them(albeit not the greatest). What do you plan on using the computer for? Your better off with a newer graphics card, even if its just a mid range card like a 4650 or 4830.
 
bomberboysk said:
Might wanna learn to use the edit post button:P
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I do; I just didn't that time.

bomberboysk said:
Your current heatsink wont work, if you can fit it into budget an anftermarket heatsink would allow you to overclock more
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I will be upgrading as I go; I just want the minimum parts to get the computer working for now. Then, when I get more money I'll start upgrading other stuff.

bomberboysk said:
What do you plan on using the computer for?
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School, programming (I use NetBeans, a heavy IDE), light gaming, everyday uses, etc. I usually have several programs running at once. With my linux desktops, I use my multiple desktops (where you can switch between multiple desktops that have different windows showing, familiar with that?) pretty heavily.

bomberboysk said:
Your better off with a newer graphics card, even if its just a mid range card like a 4650 or 4830.
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I plan on eventually getting a new graphics card; but for now I just want to get the computer running without running out of money.

Also, in the future, I plan on installing a TV tuner.
 
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Thanks for the list.

Some of those are pretty expensive. I'm never going to go with crossfire or sli with this particular computer. Can I scrap that capability for cheaper boards?
 
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