What sort of RAM for Core 2 Duo?
Community Forums/General Help/What sort of RAM for Core 2 Duo?
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| Hi there, so I'm thinking of upgrading my ageing P4 3200 (5 years old!) with a new Core 2 Duo and I'd be very grateful for some advice as follows: 1) I have an 5 year old ATX case with a P4 3200 and appropriate motherboard and a NEW 700W fancy PSU. Can I ditch my old board and CPU but keep my case, PSU, Drives etc? I just want to buy a new board, CPU, RAM and hope it'll fit in the case. I know I need a new PCI-E GPU too. 2) I was looking at 3x Core 2 Duo CPUs: E5200 (2.5GHz 800FSB), E7400 (2.8GHz 1066FSB), E8400 (3.0GHz, 1333FSB). The E5200 is cheap but I'd prefer the E8400 naturally. I've found some good value motherboards that support both (Asus and Gigabit), but I'm confused about the RAM. According to Wikipedia the E5200 needs DDR2-800, the E7400 needs DDR2 1066, and the E8400 needs DDR2 667. So the fastest CPU (3.0GHz) actually needs the slowest RAM!, it's nearly half as slow as the RAM for the 2.8GHz CPU. Will this make much difference? Should I get the 2.8GHz CPU and the faster RAM or go for the faster CPU and slower RAM? Any advice welcome. I'm not planning on DDR3 and a more expensive board btw, this is all on a budget. 3) GPU = Geforce. Needs to run CoD5: World at War at a decent clip. Any quick recommendations? I know I need GDDR3 and probably 512MB of it right? Can you recommend a quiet card? 4) How noisy are the default CPU coolers? I'd love a quiet CPU on a budget to go with my quiet PSU and hopefully quiet GPU. Later on I'll get quiet SATAs too... Thanks in advance to anyone who can help! :-) |
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| With RAM for the Core 2 Duos, it'll be DDR2 RAM and just get the correct speed for the CPU (eg E8400 would require RAM at 1333Mhz. With GPU, Ive just updated from a 8800GTS 512 to a Geforce 275GTX (along with everything else)... I would say anything above and including the 8800GT. I've got the Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler and its very quite/cool. The stock ones are okay though... |
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| According to Wikipedia the E5200 needs DDR2-800, the E7400 needs DDR2 1066, and the E8400 needs DDR2 667. So the fastest CPU (3.0GHz) actually needs the slowest RAM!, it's nearly half as slow as the RAM for the 2.8GHz CPU. Will this make much difference? Should I get the 2.8GHz CPU and the faster RAM or go for the faster CPU and slower RAM? The CPU is typically a bigger bottleneck than the memory, so I'd go for a faster CPU with slower RAM rather than the other way around. Also note that DDR2 is backwards compatible, so faster memory will still function (at a lower speed) in case you wish to use it for a future upgrade. 3) GPU = Geforce. Needs to run CoD5: World at War at a decent clip. Any quick recommendations? I know I need GDDR3 and probably 512MB of it right? Can you recommend a quiet card? No idea what's currently out there in Nvidia-land, but in addition to the GDDR3 you may also want to look for one with a 256-bit memory bus. Most of the 128-bit cards are noticable slower. when I last looked around the 9600GT's were still available in fanless models, I didnt' see any higher models without fan. (The fastest ATI's you can find without fan are the 4850 series) |
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| Thanks both of you. @TheRevills: There is no DDR2 at 1333MHz that I can find. That's why you have to have DDR2 667MHz which is half the speed I believe... Good GPU tips thx. I'm into NVidia as my ATI Control panel has screwed up and no amount of reinstalling seems to fix it. I'm fed up with ATI now for several other reasons. |
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| Been reading up, all I need for the E8400 is DDR 667MHz but if I get 800MHz then I can OC the CPU from 3 to 3.6GHz easily. Sounds cool! |
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| There is no DDR2 at 1333MHz that I can find. That's why you have to have DDR2 667MHz which is half the speed I believe... Sorry, yeah that how DDR2 works... its half the FSB. |
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| The E8400 is the only processor from your choices supporting Vanderpool (virtualisation). AFAIK this is needed to run the virtual XP machine (XPM) under Windows 7 Pro. So if you want to migrate and use this.. I'm going to update my GrxCard and decided to go for Nvidia Geforce 9600GT or 9800GT because they just use ~100W and my PS is only 400W but it should fit your needings too. Here is a nice benchmark chart (in german, sorry): http://www.pc-erfahrung.de/grafikkarte/vga-grafikrangliste.html 4) I have a E6750@2,66 Gz. I decided to test the boxed cooler and replace with a better (quiet) cooler if needed. Never had to do that. And I did not buy a "BeQuiet" powersupply to be disturbed by the CPU cooler. |
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| @Volker: thanks for the Windows 7 tip. I have a 9800GT at work and it seems to make Vista fast but I've not taxed it with any core games. Yeah I want a quiet home PC so the GPU maybe a major noise factor. |
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| One more thing. Just checking I can run a card that says it's DX10 on my DX9c XP machine OK right? |
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| Yup, you just won't be able to use the DX10 functionality since that's not compatible with anything below Vista. |
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| OK thx. That's fine. |
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