Penryn PC?

[alsheron]

First up: I apologise for adding to the multitudes of posts asking "should I buy this/that?" I personally enjoy reading them because of the knowledge opinions in them but this is another to add to the heap anyhow...

I've currently got a computer with an Athlon X2 4400+ with 3.somethingGB of DDR1 Ram, and about four hard drives floating around in there somewhere. It's an nForce4 board and is as old as a dinosaur.

Things have recently become a bit shaky and i'm getting random hangs/problems with both booting, accessing hard drives, vista/software anomalies (Vista 32bit Home Premium) etc. The usual system instability that goes with old hardware and rickety software.

So i'm looking to upgrade, and very soon... I've ruled out Nehalem based systems because it's just too far away... I can't wait till the end of this year to upgrade (I do a lot of web dev work on this frankenstein and want to move along before it croaks it's final POST)

So that leaves me with wanting a Penryn (Yorkfield - i think) based system to upgrade to. I'm looking to buy new:

Case (rubber dampened HDD bays preferably for quietness)

HDD - will run in RAID0 and (maintain scrupulous backups!)

Motherboard - Asus preferably

Graphics Card (no gaming but i may want to upgrade this in about 12 (exaggeration) years when graphics cards will be able to handle Crysis - so maybe that will affect motherboard choice - PCI-E2 or something?)

Soundcard - will steal from old machine

Power supply - nice quiet one

RAM - DDR2 4GB - I aint got the cash/inclination for DDR3 just yet!

So i'd appreciate some recommendations for sure, and I think whatever is recommended will be useful for everyone as long as it's well informed and researched or from experience....

But the real question is: Should I wait for Penryn? Is it already out in mainstream processors (i think the three zillion pound version is available) If it ISN'T out, then when is it set for mainstream release?????

Any advice/knowledge/info/suggestions very much appreciated and welcome.... :)

[Keito]

First of all, for full access to 4GB you'd be required to run a 64bit OS

I myself am going to build a Wolfdale-based PC as soon as it hits the markets, so I've been doing a bit of research;

Asus' motherboards should be ok as long as they have a P35 or X38 chipset. Note though that some P35 motherboards have a ICH9 southbridge, which doesn't allow you to run RAID0 on the onboard SATA - so you want to be looking for a P5K one with a ICH9R southbridge

If you're not to keep on your GPU performance, I'd probably look at the lower end 8x00 cards from nVidia, maybe even an ATi HD3850 if you want it to last a bit longer

I'm going to use an Antec P182 as case, imho it is THE case if you ask me.

Hope this helps, I'm not that much into hardware, but it's just what I found out over the last weeks

[alsheron]

First of all, for full access to 4GB you'd be required to run a 64bit OS

I myself am going to build a Wolfdale-based PC as soon as it hits the markets, so I've been doing a bit of research;

Asus' motherboards should be ok as long as they have a P35 or X38 chipset. Note though that some P35 motherboards have a ICH9 southbridge, which doesn't allow you to run RAID0 on the onboard SATA - so you want to be looking for a P5K one with a ICH9R southbridge

If you're not to keep on your GPU performance, I'd probably look at the lower end 8x00 cards from nVidia, maybe even an ATi HD3850 if you want it to last a bit longer

I'm going to use an Antec P182 as case, imho it is THE case if you ask me.

Hope this helps, I'm not that much into hardware, but it's just what I found out over the last weeks

Wolfdale is the Quad core Penryn chip right? The southbridge info is very interesting - thanks for that especially.

[HyBry]

You have left out one of the most important bits... How much you looking to spend??

And as for PSU Seasonic S12 goes highly recommended by few people around here...

Wolfdale is Dual I believe...

[Digitalx]

yorkfields quads, wolfdale is dual cores.

[alsheron]

You have left out one of the most important bits... How much you looking to spend??

And as for PSU Seasonic S12 goes highly recommended by few people around here...

Wolfdale is Dual I believe...

I'm looking to spend about ?600 MAX

Mobo - ~ ?70 - ?100

Memory ~ ?100

Case ~ ?50 - ?70??

Graphics Card ~ ?30/40

Processor ~ Now that's the question! - ?200?

Power supply ~ ?50

HDD - ~ to match one of my existing HDD's for RAID0 ?70

By the way - while I want all the nice features (up to date chipset, compatibility with Penryn processors etc) I will not be doing ANY overclocking at all. SO i'm hoping that there's a good mobo for me that might save a few $or?'s that doesn't cater for the overclocking crowd.

Thanks!

[HyBry]

If you are not overclocking that any mobo will pretty much do...

and for graphics your only choice is 7600 I think in that price range...

[+shift. MVC]

I would go 8600GTS or X1950PRO (if you don't mind DX9) if possible.

[alsheron]

Does anyone know WHEN mainstream Penryn processors are going to be released?

I'm thinking maybe buying a new comp this weekend but would hold off if mainstream Penryn is a month or so away..... ;)

[Keito]

Does anyone know WHEN mainstream Penryn processors are going to be released?

I'm thinking maybe buying a new comp this weekend but would hold off if mainstream Penryn is a month or so away..... ;)

I know three people that have actually recieved an E8500 this week, so I'd say the Wolfdale's aren't far away and might make their 20th January release date which is floating around the web... The Yorkfields are delayed as far as I know (I believed the Wolfdales are as well, but seeing that there's actually some people with this cpu already they might be available shortly)

I'd say it's going to be in stocks within a month

[IceBreakerG]

From what I've been reading, the Quad core chips have been delayed til sometime in February. So it could be 2 weeks from now, or 3 weeks or maybe 5 to 6 weeks from now. Which sucks, because I have a single core Athlon 64 3800+ with 2GB of memory. To give you an idea on how slow this thing is (I'm running Vista Ultimate 32-bit as well), I can't play Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 smoothly at 1280x960 on low to medium settings. Granted, i have roughly 1300 people in my sandbox park, but i'm only using around 20% of the space right now.

But yeah, wait a few weeks and you should hear something else on them. That is good info about the south bridge though. I didn't know that. I don't plan on doing a Raid 0, but I do plan on doing a Raid 5 with about 4x750GB drives (if i can afford them lol).

[gwai lo]

Intel hasn't released a street date for anything.

[alsheron]

Thanks for the heads up guys, exactly the info I needed. It's saved me LOADS of heartache as i'll now wait a week or two for the E8500 to become available to my local suppliers and upgrade from my AMD dinosaur.

I wish AMD were more competitive, but those guys are getting left in the DUST. I was AMD loyal till Core 2 Duo came out!

This upgrade will be like a big, thick slice of Juicy Lemon for chewing on! I won't leave the house for a good week!

Hot tip: Virtualise!

[alsheron]

UPDATE:

I just called a local retailer and they told me that as far as they know, the release date for Penryn processors is the 21st January (or thereabouts)!

I'm getting very excited! But have a few more questions for the more knowledgeable amongst us:

I'm looking to get the Asus P5K Premium Wifi motherboard (I definitely want an ASUS board), which is a P35 based board. Is it a good idea to get a P35 based board or are x38 or x48 based boards better/faster that would suit Penryn or should I even go for an Nforce based board. As far as I know, Intel based chipsets are best for Intel chips, but i'm not sure here..... Any advice??

I've seen some generic 1066MHZ ram here which is super cheap. It's ALMOST too cheap and want to know if it's risky buying "cheap" generic RAM in the sense of causing system instability etc. If it's just as reliable as more expensive "branded" RAM but not as overclockable then i'll get this stuff; i just need to know... :) By the way, will i need to do anything specific to run this ram at 1066MHZ other than just pop it in? Is 1066MHZ ram even much better than "standard" 800MHZ RAM? So many questions........ :blink:

I'll be picking up everything BUT the processor this weekend (TWO YEARS since i last upgraded!), so i'd really appreciate some info about the above.

Thanks! :D

[Keito]

I'm going for a P35 board for my new CPU (Wolfdale), because I'm on a budget and I don't think X38 boards have that much of a performance gain to justify dropping 60 euro's for it (rather spend it on faster RAM)

Afaik, as long as your mobo support 1066MHz RAM, all you need to do is pop it in - and I'd stay away from no-name RAM, I'd rather buy 800MHz high quality ram that 1066MHz generic :\

edit; I emailed my favorite webshop here in the Netherlands, those stated they will be shipping out those CPU's at the beginning of February

[alsheron]

UPDATE:

Well, i've gone ahead and bought an Asus P5K Premium / Wifi motherboard along with all the other "bits" that go with it.

I'll buy the CPU when it becomes available BUT look what I found here (scroll down the page)

TIP: As far as I can tell, the only difference between the E8400 and the E8500 is 0.16GHz saving over ?50 so if that's true, i'll be getting the E8400. Can anyone confirm that the speed is the only difference?

I won't be overclocking and don't really play games (yet) so the difference in speed for me will not even be noticed?

[gwai lo]

Yes just the multiplier difference, no you won't notice a difference.

..and Keito he doesn't need DDR2-1066 RAM, stock FSB is 333 MHz or DDR2-667.

[Keito]

..and Keito he doesn't need DDR2-1066 RAM, stock FSB is 333 MHz or DDR2-667.

I don't recall saying he needed DDR2 1066 RAM, I just said it's probably safer to go for branded RAM at a lower speed than some el-cheapo RAM

[gwai lo]

Nevermind, misread. :pinch:

alsheron you don't need DDR2-1066 RAM ;)

Okay, so there's two ways of looking at it. One, you're not going to reach those speeds anyway, there haven't been many reports of DDR2 just falling apart under normal and rated conditions, and there are a few companies that make RAM chips and PCBs so it's not completely generic and random. Then there's the old DDR way of looking at generic RAM, which is that generic RAM tends to corrupt/cause instability more often than we like.

Your call in the end, memtest them either way though.

Edited January 19, 2008 by gwai lo

[alsheron]

Nevermind, misread. :pinch:

alsheron you don't need DDR2-1066 RAM ;)

Okay, so there's two ways of looking at it. One, you're not going to reach those speeds anyway, there haven't been many reports of DDR2 just falling apart under normal and rated conditions, and there are a few companies that make RAM chips and PCBs so it's not completely generic and random. Then there's the old DDR way of looking at generic RAM, which is that generic RAM tends to corrupt/cause instability more often than we like.

Your call in the end, memtest them either way though.

Damn..... Did I make a mistake? I bought 4GB worth of this RAM because it's 1066, which is the same as the "native" speed of the mobo (Black Pearl - I LOVE that name!).

I'm well aware that I wont get the full 4gb in Vista 32bit (which is what i got too) but i need compatibility more than the extra half gb or so i'll lose.

SO now that i have this RAM, how can I get it to run at its rated speed? Will I need to enter the murky world of overclocking? Apparently the motherboard I got supports this speed natively, at least according to the ASUS website?

[rajputwarrior]

no you'll be fine, it's a good thing to get ram the same speed as the FSB of the cpu, but in real world it doesn't make a difference. Liek right now i am running 667 and it's still fast as hell, i will be getting 800 soon (2x2) to get four gigs. Honestly, i think you wasted your money getting that fast of ram. 800 or pc2-6400 would have been more then enough

[alsheron]

I done it I did!

Today I picked up my shiny new, precious Wolfdale 45nm Core 2 Duo E8400 (could have gone for the E8500, wanted to, but ?60 for the extra 0.16Ghz wasn't justified - incidentally, I've been reading that the E8500 is MORE STABLE and therefore MORE OVERCLOCKABLE than the E8400, another factor in the price difference? Hell, maybe I WILL overclock - never done it before though.... any advice/good guides?)

Voila:

And my shiny new mobo:

This is exciting! I've never built my own system from scratch before, although i've done PLENTY of tinkering/upgrading/repairing systems etc over the years.....

I'll probably build it on Thursday all being well (still waiting for the case and stuff to arrive)

By the way, if i want to set up a RAID 0, do the HDD's have to be EXACTLY the same? I ordered an identical HDD to one I already have and it arrived today but had a different model number on the physical drive but is the same capacity and model number on the plastic casing..... Very odd..... Don't know whether to try to get it RAID 0 with my existing drive or send it back??

[Keito]

Is that a Asus P5K Pro? If you build it, could you please report back in if it all works without updating the mobo's BIOS first, because I really want to know that...

Thanks

[alsheron]

Is that a Asus P5K Pro? If you build it, could you please report back in if it all works without updating the mobo's BIOS first, because I really want to know that...

Thanks

It's the Asus P5K Premium Black Pearl.... I'll post back when I build it with some info and pics.... :)

[+PeterUK MVC]

Is that a Asus P5K Pro? If you build it, could you please report back in if it all works without updating the mobo's BIOS first, because I really want to know that...

Thanks

Thats if the BIOS is an old one or not so could you also please tell us what BIOS version it has to see if it works without the latest BIOS....