viper1986

well here is my situation , last fall i bought a pentium d 3.2ghz and an associated motherboard, a 7600GT. 2 weeks ago i bought another 2 gigs of ram bringing my total two 3 gigs. I am now noticing how much of a mistake it was buying the Pentium d, and i know you all know why... its too damn hot and doesn't really act like a dual core.

I am now looking at doing a couple of things:

1. buying a 2.4 Core 2 duo 775 socket
2. buying a new mobo that is SLI ready
3. buying a second 7600 GT by XFX because i bought the first one by them and am very impressed.

now my problem is that i have been looking on tigerdirect for a new mobo and there are boards that meet my requirements in terms of what i have for memory (3 1 gig 553hz) and my hard drives. i have a 430 watt PS and being a power engineer i believe i am set. a buddy of mine is getting a 8800GTS and he will need a larger PS... not me haha.

so what i am asking is for input on a board that meets my requirements. i will not be getting vista and am not worried about DX10, that is further down the road. i am just looking at getting my core system to a point where i will be set in that field. I am willing to pay no more then 300 for a new MOBO, although i don't think i'll even reach that price from what i've seen. if anyone could help out, i would greatly appreciate it. thanks guys.

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|TG-Irr|Viper


Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others

Exploding_Silver

3. buying a second 7600 GT

two graphics cards eats more juice, will 430Watt do it? I dont know

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=Sarc=

Is that RAM DDR1 or DDR2? While you are trying to save money, a Core 2 Duo will benefit much more from DDR2.

I have similar doubts on a 430W PSU handling two 7600GT's. It'll be close to your PSU max and pulling it off will depend on the number of other components in your system.

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JO Guides & Tutorials
Team Element - It's who you game with.

viper1986

all my memory is ddr2. and the only components i will have are the video cards, and a wireless card, but i really don't need the wireless card, so its just the two video cards. yeah i wasn't sure about whether or not the PS was really going to cut it. do you think 500 watt will do the trick?

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|TG-Irr|Viper


Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others

=Sarc=

You could always try with the 430W you have now. It might just work but you'll have to watch closely to any weird things that might happen like random crashes. I don't think there will be any harmful physical effects to the hardware so might as well save the money for now.

The big hurdle might be the 430W trying to power however many harddrives you have at startup. Combined with the other components, turning on your computer will draw a lot of power.

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JO Guides & Tutorials
Team Element - It's who you game with.

viper1986

i only have one hard drive, and a dvd/cd rw besides whats on the board. i'll look into a large ps i think after the purchase, now sure.

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|TG-Irr|Viper


Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others

avenging llama

Just make sure that if you look at a new PSU you make sure the amperage on the 12 volt rail is sufficient. There are a lot of Hi Power, Low amperage PSU's out there that will not run much of anything.

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|TG-Irr|Avengingllama

Decrapitaition: The act of having ones head so far up their butt that the end result is the head snapping off and staying there.

msdz

IMO if you are going to get another power supply don't settle for 500W, go bigger for future upgrades, go at least 600W. 2.4 Core 2 Duo?? Get the 1.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo E4300, that thing will overclock past an E6700 with very, very little worries about overheating. Possibly the E4400 that is 2.0 Ghz? Anyway you would save so much money if you didn't mind overclocking and still have ridiculous speed. OR just wait till the price drop Intelis supposed to have in about another month(so they claim) and get the Core 2 Quad Q6600?? Supposed to be dropping to about $299 but am not sure about that.

As far as a MB... I would go with the Asus Striker Extreme if you are willing to pay about $300. Can't go wrong with any Asus board IMO.

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viper1986

i think im going to go with the board by XFX, i haven't gone wrong with them in terms of my video card. i am defiantly not going to pay 300 for the striker, don't care to spend that kind of money on a board. i was looking at getting the 2.13 core 2 duo, i figure that will be sufficient. i don't know anything about overclocking, so maybe i'll look into it.

__________________
|TG-Irr|Viper


Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others

msdz

The E4300 can easily hit 3.0Ghz and no worries about doing any damage to CPU. I have not read or seen much about the E4400 but since it has the 800Mhz FSB speed I would be sure it will OC easily as well. Can understand about not wanting to pay that amount of money. I would like to have that board, but most likely I myself would go with the Asus P5N32-E SLI board. Cost about $179.99 at newegg, sure it can be found cheaper if you just browse around.
Anyway, just some thoughts I was throwing your way to give you some ideas.

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