Thinking about Gutting my computer...

Sir Berticus

Sir Berticus

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Apr 1, 2008
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My computer is pretty fast in comparison to the other four laying around my room. but my specs are a bit low.
i currently have a 2.2 duo core and 2gigs of ram, but when i'm doing my graphic work for school CS3 is killing me with all the export speeds and occasionally it crashes saying not enough memory (making me loose hours of work). so i've been thinking about replacing my motherboard, processor and ram. i have no idea what pin model processor i have currently so i think it would be best to just replace the motherboard with the new processor.
Is this a good idea?
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
Kingston 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR2 667
 
I would suggest going with ram that's at least 800 if not higher altogether. I don't have much experience with the processor or MoBo so I won't comment on them, but like I said, go with faster ram (DDR3 even--if in budget) for sure. And from what little I've heard, those new quads including the 6600 are doing pretty well.
 
Question: Are you adding 2 gigs ram to your current 2 gigs? Or are you buying 4 new gigs of ram and tossing the old ram? If you are adding more, make sure that the new and old ram are both 667mhz. If you are buying new ram, you might wanna spend a little more money and get the best ram you can put on that mobo, which is 1066mhz ram. I suggest picking up some of this ram

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220306

4 gigs of nice ram for about 100 bucks. Timings on it are good and it's probably going to be your best bet for that mobo.

As for the Q6600, wait until next month. The price is going to drop to about 160 bucks, from it's current 285ish. All of Intel's 65nm processors are going to experience a price drop, the Q6600 being the largest of drops. Also, pick up a decent after-market heatsink for overclocking. Make sure that the Q6600 is a g0 stepping version and not B3 stepping, as the g0 versions overclock much better.

reference: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2956463&CatId=2760

As I said before, if you want a Q6600, you might want to wait for the price to drop and save yourself about $100, unless you want it now. It is still a nice processor either way :P
 
You can get the quad relatively cheap. Check www.tigerdirect.com and they sometimes have sales on the barebone quads. I love mine and with that P35 board you should be able to overclock it quite nicely.
 
By CS3, I assume you mean Photoshop, etc... Be sure you have plenty of pagefile set, because PS won't work right without it. Some tweak guide might tell you that you can manage a 200mb swapfile, but that's just stupid...
 
i don't really use photoshop... i use illustrator cause i'm a graphic artist and not someone who retouches photos. the only time i use photoshop is then i resize images and then the files are only like 2mb max and i have no troubles, however my illustrator files are on average of upwards of 42mb each and i usually have 2 or 3 open at once >__<
 
And Thatguy, your links were awesome! i didn't even see that RAM when i was looking! I'm going to end up buying 2 sets of those next month! As for the processor on newegg it is $230, but if the price is going to go down significantly i'll have no trouble waiting a bit for it to drop.
 
[link=http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6833&Itemid=35]Intel to cut prices on April 20th.[/link]

Don't ask why they chose that date, but ummm...

Fudzilla.com said:
Two older models, the Q6700 with a 2.66GHz clock speed and 8MB cache and a 1066MHz FSB speed will drop from the current $527 to $268. The ultra popular 65nm Kentsfield Q6600 with its 2.4GHz clock and 8MB cache will drop from $250 to $227.
Click to expand...

The price isn't dropping that significantly, but it will drop $23. If you're willing to wait a few days for it, more power to you. If you're not an overclocker, though, I'd suggest the Q6700 (look at the price difference in a few days...).
 
Bert: I built the system in my sig for $1500, entirely off Newegg (that's including a monitor, speakers, I could've built just the box for about $1100-1200). So far it's ROCK solid and cool, and I also use it for 3D modeling in SolidWorks and 2D drafting in AutoCAD. I may add another 4GB RAM down the road just to max out the motherboard, but so far I haven't run low.
 
I'd just add be careful with tigerdirect.com... I've always had really bad experiences ordering from them. I really prefer newegg.. also there is a place called chiefvalue.com that I would also recommend.
 
I'll add my support to Newegg, they're fantastic to deal with.

As for one of your original points, about not knowing what pin set your processor is: if it's actually an Intel brand Core2 Duo (and not a P4 Hyper-thread) your socket would quite likely be 775.

Can you get us the model of your mobo? Maybe it won't be necessary to change that out, which would allow you some extra money to spend on a better video card.


I'd also like to add two things about the pagefile (from my experience)
Best allocation is 1.5x your physical RAM. Also, if you have a 2nd PHYSICAL hard drive, try moving the PF over to that instead of the drive your PC boots from. Not going to make VAST amounts of difference, but might just be enough to help out some in the meantime.
 
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