P4 prescott or Pentium D

[talisman]

hi there,

firs post

building a new pc for someone. (well he is giving me 300 quid to do so )

first question which is best of the 2 below (assume both with 2 gig ram dual channel). Not a gaming machine.

1. P4 prescott 3.0gig 800FSB
asus P4C-800E Dlx mobo
agp nvidia gfx card (basic 256meg)

2. INTEL PentiumD 945 3.4GHz LGA775 FSB800 ( http://bluirkar.notlong.com - short url) - £120)
asus P5P800-VM (£40)
same gfx card as 1 above (i know this mobo has O/B gfx but i'd use the card anyway)

reason for the mobo in no.2 is i have 2 gig DDR PC3200 ram which i want to re-use, it has agp slot and max ram is 4 gig and not 2 gig like a lot of the other low end ones).

Will scsi drives and sata drives be ok with that mobo ?


Ram is bloody expensive now so i'm also thinking (sacrilage) kingston ram for him which is 30 quid cheaper than crucial and has a lifetime guarrantee).

On top of that i need to get him a basic gfx card, a case and a psu.

so £120
+ £40
+ £70 (ram)
+ £25 case
+ £40 gfx
+ a psu

and i'll give him an 80 gig hd of mine as the one he has is a 60 gig 5400rpm. (shite)

he has a liteon dvd-rw to reuse and if he wants i'll get a dvd rom drive as well for a couple of quid.

bingo 1 new pc for him. Whichever it may be.

SO whatdya think. or

a. for the price of the mobo and processor (c. £160 quid) can i get better.
b. just build him a celly D machine (2.8 gig or something) for a lot less and save him some dosh.

(bearing in mind he has a celly 1.8 with 512 ram at the moment - and its an emachines)

cheers,

[Nitestick]

no contest. the Pentium D is not only clocked higher.....but it has two processor cores at that higher clock. the Pentium D would definitely be my choice. honestly though you should look at the Core 2 Duo range

[talisman]

thanks

pent D is £120 core 2 is getting much more expensive unfortunately + i'd need DDR2 which is another 200 quid for 2 gig .

[Nitestick]

an e6300 on the first UK site i googled including your VAT taxes is 120 pounds. the e6300 (not 100% sure) should beat the Pentium D 945 soundly and has the extra perks of much lower power consumption and heat output. there are motherboards available supporting both DDR and DDR2 as well as Core 2. if you find one then you can get a Core 2 processor and stick with the DDR memory for the time being and later get DDR2 memory if you see fit.

note: the DDR memory and DDR2 memory can not be used at the same time on any of these motherboards

[talisman]

thanks i'll go have a closer look..

what equivalent standard pentium or pentium d cpu speed would the 1.86 core 2 duo be closest to.

[Nitestick]

well by guesstimate AT LEAST a Pentium D at 3.5ghz. i haven't really looked into the e6300 so that is more an educated guess.

[Conroe]

Originally posted by talisman
thanks i'll go have a closer look..

what equivalent standard pentium or pentium d cpu speed would the 1.86 core 2 duo be closest to.

on sysmark the e6300 beat all the pentium Ds perfornce wise including the D960 3.6...the only one that rivaled it was the extreme edition which had an overall score of 256 versus 255 for the baby conroe....keep in mind the conroes can be over clocked like mad as well. In summary..no contest.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2795&p=8

[talisman]

thanks.. that'd be ideal except i have 2 gig (4x512) DDR PC3200 ram which i need to reuse in this build as i don't have another £200+ to buy new DDR2 ram.

So it looks like i'll need to go with the pent D

[lhuser]

Well, if you look for a Core 2 Duo, I would consider changing the mobo and graphics card. The board you showed us is way too old...maybe even for the Pentium D. For a Core 2 Duo E6300-6800, the best shot would be a decent board supporting it and a PCI-E graphics card.

[talisman]

this is all very good information and is helping me a lot..

thank you