I am going to build a computer, I am confused about what cpu I should buy to allow my ddr2 ram to run at speed

Question

I was reading reviews for AMD Athlon X2 processors on newegg & i kept coming across reviews that said you need to overclock the 6000 & 5200 X2's in order to run ddr2 800 ram at full speed because they have an unever multiplier. well i really dont want to overclock anything but I was thinking about getting Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor 2.8GHz (model: ADA5600CZBOX) because It has just the opposite of the other cpu's.

My system specs:
mobo - GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4
ram - Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800,
video - MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC GeForce 8600GTS

don't really want to oc anything, nothing against it its just not for me. I really would rather use a 65w processor so if you think something might be better for me to use I guess i could slightly oc. I just dont want to use a cpu that wont allow my ram to run at its speeds. Also i have never used sata before & i plan on getting a small 80 gig for running my OS then a 250 or two for storage how do i set up?

Answer 1

SATA is easier than IDE to set up, you should just be able to plug them in! If you wouldn't mind swapping out mobo, I would recommend going with the newer intel chips. They might meet your power requirement since they use the 65nm process where the AMD chips still use 90nm? Even the lower-end core 2s work great (i use a e4400 and love it) but the e6600 is phenominal and the quads are dropping in price right now. The quads can even run on the same boards as the dual cores. Give them a look.

Answer 2

If no over clocking is what you want(over heating) ,then stick with what you've choosen and you won't ever worry about it or get a much better cooling system for your cpu than what it comes with. With a smaller ide drive as master(only an operating system) PRIMARY IDE and the larger drive as slave(your games and applications )SECONDARY IDE is when a smaller drive as master is definately advantagous. This is not true when in sata. Keeping all disks the same size, mfgr, rpm, buffer size, ns seek time and ata is ALL important. Examples = if you set up in mirror mode it will only set to the smallest sized drive( an 80+250 would end up being only 160gig not 330 gig !) With stripping on the other hand you have several advantages for a gamer. 1) the drives do not copy back and forth as your using the computer(thats mirroring) so your access speed is not cut in half. 2) By installing 4 drives of small to mediocre size ( 30 to 120 gig ; all being the same size gig) @ 7200 rpm or 10,000 rpm and serial ata 300) each will give a burst of 80mg each ( 80 mg is a mechanical limitation which no hdd mfgr has surpassed )which will give you the 300 ata ; other wise it can't happen. If you ever decide to change to mirroring you won't loose drive space and there wont be seek time conflicts (in ns or buffer size )or bottle necks in any mode. That is also true with stripping

Answer 3

If you don't want to overclock then the 5600+ is great for $140.



But if you plan on gaming, ditch the 5600+ for a $70 4000+, overclock it and buy an 8800gts 320mb. The 8600gts is weak, don't plan on playing the upcoming games at high settings (and what's the point then?).



Overclocking is not that hard. I was scared myself when I bought my Opteron 165 a few years ago. But reading a few guides and simply changing a few values in the BIOS took my CPU from 1.8ghz to 2.7ghz (which was amazing back then as my Opteron costed $320, and now it performed like a $550 model).



Seriously think about going for the 8800gts, as it's a huge performance increase over the 8600gts. Here is a chart:

(blue lines)

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=854&model2=778&chart=277

The difference is smooth gameplay and stuttery gameplay, and that's an older game. Call of Duty 4, Crysis, Alan Wake, Unreal engine 3 based games are even more graphics card hungry.

Answer 4

development a comp is straightforward, MSY technologies is a super place in australia to get low priced high quality aspects, cpu skill grant RAM video card mom board case HDD DVDchronic case followers there the main significant issues i outfitted my very own and overclocked it, fee me a pair of million.2k yet its 2500k well worth on the save

Answer 5

Just select the processor which runs fsb at 800 MHZ & motherboard for it. U can go for sata, but its expensive. U can go for sata or pata(parallel ide) for ur hdd. If u want all sata then look for motherboard to have required connectors. or u can go for 80 gb sata & 250 as pata. u still need pata to connect dvd writer.