Major Upgrade?

[Shaundale]

Hi,
Wanting to increase performance of PC. Tried getting the best AGP card out there, X1950XTX 256Mb GDDR3. Found that it didn't want to play in my system and had a number of problems with it, so have sent back.

Now looking at the other option, the Core 2 Duo. Not having much money at present I have looked at doing:
E6600 - CPU
ASROCK 4CoreDual VSTA - Mobo
Then upgrade the RAM / Graphics Card / Mobo at a later date (Hence the 4Core Mobo).
My question though is, will I notice a lot more performance straight away, or do I need to wait till the Graphics card goes in? I like playing racing games and have a Athlon 64 3400 at the mo.

2. With regards to the RAM, the MOBO says it accepts 5300 BUT looking at some sticks they say 5300/5400 would this work? looking at getting either Corsair XMS2 with heat spread or the Kingston Value, I think the Corsair should be the one?

Thanks for your time,
Shaun.

[b1gapl]

What is your budget?

[baron5]

well i def. wouldnt get the asrock. i no sumone that has it and havent heard good things about it. also the pci-e is only 8x so ur better off waiting and doing a full upgrade.

[jonny_uk]

You say you havent got alot of money but you picked the E6600 which is far from the cheapest core 2 duo!? if you can afford it then get it, its a very good speedy processor and will handle any game on the market.

As above whats your budget(roughly)

[b1gapl]

If you don't have much money to work with, I would suggest getting the E6320. You will still see a huge difference between the E6320 and the 3400+, you have now.

[saltynay]

I think your forgetting about the K10's I think he should go with a cheap AM2 3800x2+ and then upgrade in 3 months to a k10 processor

[Nagasama]

i say x2 3600.
bear in mind if you change your socket from 939 to am2 you are going to have to go with ddr2 ram. i dont think c2d will work with ddr either (not POSITIVE, tho)...or maybe it does with that asrock mobo??

[Shaundale]

b1gapl,
Currently have £150 at shop which is what I'm using to get CPU. Then getting the 4core Duo as I need to put in DDR Ram & AGP with a Core 2 Duo! Hence 4 Core MOBO (baron5) as I'll only have £30-50 a month after this( have a little one and just lost a kidney so not working
BUT,
Once I've upgraded to the DDR2 Ram and then a PCI-E GCard X1950XTX (After a couple months and B'day)then I'll probbably get a Asus P5 board. This is all about getting what I can, when I can afford it. Really want to play GTR2 with high detail and be able to run night racing without the PC struggling to hit 20-30FPS.

Thanks for replies,
Shaun

[Shaundale]

Hi,
Well, I've now got:
Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA PT880
Crucial PC2-5300 2GB DDR2 667 RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz Sck 775 1066FSB
Sapphire 2600XT 256Mb GDDR4 PCI-E

And everythings Great EXCEPT, My cards running at PCI-e X4 NOT X16 as it says it should in the ASROCK Site.
"Expansion Slot(s) 1 processor - LGA775 Socket & 2 memory - DIMM 240-pin & 2 memory - DIMM 184-PIN & 1 PCI Express x16 & 1 AGP 8x ( 1.5 V ) & 4 PCI"

Another Q. I am trying to install the old system (Mobo/Gcard/RAM) onto sombody elses PC the only problem is that it's a DELL system and when i try booting it keeps hanging. I've tried another HDD and it's fine. BUT I cannot get Win XP to start up on the Dell System HDD. I would prefer NOT to format this drive and wondered if anybody had any idea's as to why this is happening? Have Dell got a protection on there HDD's? All I've done is swap the HDD from Dell Case into my old case and XP hangs just after Black XP screen with blue box running underneath. Put HDD back in Dell case and no problem. Put my old drive into Old case and XP starts no problem, I'm very confused about this!!

Thanks for your time,
Shaun.