Now I see what got me confused, I didn't realize there was a Conroe E6600 and a Wolfsdale E6600, *twaps Intel*.
OK So either new mobo that takes DDR2-667 and CPU.
or
Whatever CPU, Mobo and RAM can be had all 3 for $200 out the door max.
I think I'd wait till the budget was $300, it's just such better hardware with that jump, but I am still going to squeeze and see what's possible.
He's not planning an entirely new build and swapping over from Intel to AMD but looking for a partial upgrade on the present hardwares. I think this is where people are getting tripped up on here.
Unfortunately the best cpu upgrade isn't supported by the board while a less suited model may have to be selected just to perform the partial upgrade on the present board. You are in a kind of "catch 22" while attempting to spare the expense of a new build unfortunately.
I know that one here simply trying to replace a board with the exact same model but forced to look over others. You will likely find that with the fast pace of hardware turnovers you will end up heading in that direction anyways and may as well as simply plan out a new build to come while saving now for it.
Well if $200 is the max, here's where you can wind up, though $210 would be nice.
AMD because it's cheaper, once you can really upgrade, this thing is spare fodder.
$14 more gets you into the Athlon II X3 Rana 440, $8 over that to the 445.
Wow, that's cheap I must say, even with the included DDR3. I've tried the Athlon II X2 250 though and it's kind of weak in my opinion. I don't expect the best on a budget but even then, kind of weak. But getting DDR3 already in is not bad though.
I found this though, I think it's pretty decent. Motherboard is ASRock P43D3 with a Core 2 Duo E7500.
Motherboard: Newegg.com - ASRock P43DE LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor BX80571E7500
And yeah, I could stretch to $210.
I have a 250 and its fine, as long as you do any encoding or heavy image editing or gaming.
I'd try those other pieces with the X3 Rana 440/445 then.
BUT, that E7500 with that mobo is OK too! 8)
I only fear that 25% DOA rate of reviewers, though I bet 2/3 of those blew out the motherboard themselves with USER error.
Either way you'll be satisfied til next build.
That Foxconn mobo I picked has 0 1 eggs in 30 reviews, compare and contrast, and it's a $50 motherboard, shocking!
My original picks for my wife's PC, if I was going to just upgrade hers was $275, those 3 I think I originally posted, including the Rana X3-445, though $55 more gets the Phenom II X4 945 which has to be a huge leap for that $55, budget then is $330, but either way she'd be a winner for her needs.
RAM cost is just too high right now since if you up the speed the price difference is under $20?
AMD just came out with there new core Sixes , you could get one of thoseWhose looking for cheap, I am looking for balance, I spent hours looking at reviews and other sites reviews of hardware, that X3 445 is excellent for a typical user, not us 3d gaming addicted chuckleheads.
i7s supposedly are superior to the AMDs right now. i7s get rather confusing, 1156 i7s and 1366 i7s are not created equal, and how important is TDP to you, the techie babble never ends.
I am hoping to have my wife's PC survive long enough for the i7-950s to drop to $300ish range, where they aint atm, but that's just me. :)
I am totally biased toward which CPU is at the best price point when I am buying...
True. I've used ASRock before for customer builds as well as some PCs I've built for others and they've lasted for years with about the same failure rate in the reviews so it may indeed be user error or bad luck. I don't intend to overclock at all, maybe 5% at most so I'm not too worried.
In regard to going AMD or Intel, as tempting as a Quad-Core is, I would rather get a Core 2 Duo E7500. It seems that could really tide me over for a while or at least until my next upgrade, which would be a whole new machine.
It depends on what you want to settle for a board manufacturer as far as make as well as the chipset you would favor. For AMD model cpus anything from 3ghz upward is more of a performer in general. That applies to dual, tri cored models as well as quads.
I know that one well from previously moving up from a 2.2ghz model into the last 3.1ghz dual core and now a 3.4ghz quad. Yet 7 still ran very well lately when tossing a temp install of the 32bit on a 2.0ghz single core Socket A build with only 1gb of memory there plus an old, older 128mb GeForce FX5200 vid card for a laugh!
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