Upgrading, Need advice on Memory & Video Card

[JimCo]

I'm finally going to do something about my AMD 1.8 and that is give it along with the MSI Combo board to my son to play with. I don't game, I just process. And I don't have much of a budget so I am trying to upgrade modestly, yet effectively. Here is what I've chosen and why:

Asus P5N-E: This board readily available, is modestly priced at $145us, and will allow me to keep (for now) my EIDE Seagates, 7200 RPM 80gb and 250gb yet will allow for upgrading to SATA w/RAID. I can potentially go through another future upgrade when/if QuadCore becomes affordable. Apparently it has no-brainer and stable capability of auto overclocking to 7%-11% (I'm old and don't want ot learn this stuff so I would need the auto settings).

Core Duo 2 E6300: Modestly priced at $215 yet is supposed to be quite a performer. It should kick my old AMD's ash.

Enermax 430w power supply @ $49 as my 350w probably won't cut it anymore.

I'd like to know what you guys think of this. It's been a long time since I've been in this game and am not sure if I'm doing this right. Remember, I'm on a budgetr and that is around $600, give or take a $100.

My biggest question is about memory. I don't understand memory speed versus performance as it relates to quantity versus speed. I would love to get the OCZ DDR2 800's but can only afford up to 2 gig. Would I be better off with 3-4 gig of Buffalo chips at 533mhz. What is the trade off here and am I better off with more or speed?

And the video card; I have to give up my great performing AGP NVidia w/256 RAM for something in PCIe. I'm running for now, my 20" NEC Multisync, which serves me pretty well calibrated with the Huey, and an old 17" something only used for toolbars in PS. Can I get by with a GeForce 7300 w/ 128 RAM or do I need more?

I'll be sticking with XP-Pro for now and it will all go into my giant Antec tower that has served me well with a couple of different boards for the past 7 years now.

I'm probably going to purchase locally at the PCClub.com brick and mortar for easy returns and knowledgeable sales persons (truly). PCClub will probably cost a 5% to 10% premium but worth it to me. Fry's is 40 miles up the freeway and they're stupid and internet based retailers are too difficult and costly for returns.

Anyway I go with this, I think it will be a tremendous performance gain and will knock the socks off my old AMD based system (1.8mhz w/ 1 & 1 /2 gig DDR).

What do you think? And please don't laugh at my antiquation and wanting to do this modestly (for now) as I have a wife and kids (one at home) and an expensive camera habit. Sometimes I try to drink to forget

 

[Lowolf]

I would go for at least a 400 watt power supply to 450 watt
as far as memory goes what does your Mob support ?

 

[JimCo]

I would go for at least a 400 watt power supply to 450 watt
as far as memory goes what does your Mob support ?

Thanks, so the 430w should do it.

According to Asus, the P5N-E SLI supports "dual channel memory architecture 4 x 240-pin DIMM sockets support up to 8GB DDR2 800/667/533 non-ECC/ Unbuffered memory".

I can only afford $300 worth of 1 gig sticks. So is more or faster the better?

 

[JimCo]

Does anyone have an opinion on this memeory thing. I'm thinking that more gigs is better than speed here as far as 2D graphics manipulation is concerning.

I need to make a decision right now and your helpful input is needed and appreciated.

Thanks

 

[JimCo]

Oh my, I said I wasn't going to go to Fry's but I just called them and they have on sale right now 2 gigs of Adata 800mhz (1 gig sticks x 2) for $119. I must try these out. Hope they're not a mistake, at least not past the 15 day return policy.

 

[TimK]

Adata DDR2 800 is OK. You need DDR2 800 for Core2. You can probably save a bit here because even if you overclock you can use asyn mode, meaning the CPU and RAMs can run at different FSB.

Intel has another price cut n April. If youwait for a couple of months, for around $300 you can get a Q6600 (quad core, 2.4G) or a 6850 (dual core, 3G) The 6750 (Dual, 2.66G) will be under $200. The new duals run at 1333 mhz FSB, but you should be able to use the cheaper DDR2 800, running at Asyn mode.

 

[davidzvi]

Here is what I have, just built it in September of last year:

Intel BOXDQ965GFEKR LGA 775 Intel Q965 Express Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

Memory:
CORSAIR XMS2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

LIAN LI PC-6070Bplus II Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

THERMALTAKE TR2 500W Power Supply ATX12V V2.0
5 hard drives (1x80 and 4x320 raid 10)