On the long upgrade trail from an old A7N8X/Athlon-XP3200/All-in-Wonder 8500 setup to the current age, I chose the ASRock 775-Dual-VSTA to support a slow legacy migration. It has worked well for that purpose, but is not the most reliable motherbaord around. I now have a nice setup using Dual WD740-ADFD Raptor drives (RAID 1), MAXTOR firewire external 250GB drive, ATI 1650PRO PCIe, TV Wonder 650 (PCI), E4300 (@267MHz FSB), dual IDE attached DVD drives, 500W modular ANTEC supply, and Lian-Li PC-60 case.
I am still running 1GB of legacy Crucial Ballistix DDR400 memory. Given that I am running XP MCE, the 1GB of memory is minimal. So once I decide to upgrade to 2GB, I am faced with finally breaking down and upgrading my last legacy to either DDR2 (or DDR3?) memory. However, once I DO that, I might as well get a "real" Core 2 motherboard as well. I have read many reviews of new P35 motherboards and plan to purchase one of these. Given that we are on the cusp of the DDR2 to DDR3 migration, and my applications are multi-media (TV/HDTV, video and audio editing) I am faced with trying to get answers to the following:
1. Should I go for cost-effective higher-end DDR2 (Crucial/OCZ/Corsair - up to 1066) or wait a while longer for DDR3? (2GB for now since I have no plans foVista in the near future)
2. Should I try to get a dual-purpose DDR2/DDR3 P35 mobo or a single purpose one?
3. I plan to run my 4300 at 333MHz (3.0GHz) once I get the new mobo. I will upgrade the cooler to a Thermalright 120 (tower). However eventually, I would want to uprgrade to a real 333MHz FSB Quad core once they are cheap enough.
I would like your recommendations regarding the ASUS P5K family. Which of the many models would you recommend? What difference does the Intel ICH9 vs. ICH9R make? Are the Deluxe WIFI-AP versions worth the premium given that I am not a gamer?
Thanks for your help.
Doug
I am still running 1GB of legacy Crucial Ballistix DDR400 memory. Given that I am running XP MCE, the 1GB of memory is minimal. So once I decide to upgrade to 2GB, I am faced with finally breaking down and upgrading my last legacy to either DDR2 (or DDR3?) memory. However, once I DO that, I might as well get a "real" Core 2 motherboard as well. I have read many reviews of new P35 motherboards and plan to purchase one of these. Given that we are on the cusp of the DDR2 to DDR3 migration, and my applications are multi-media (TV/HDTV, video and audio editing) I am faced with trying to get answers to the following:
1. Should I go for cost-effective higher-end DDR2 (Crucial/OCZ/Corsair - up to 1066) or wait a while longer for DDR3? (2GB for now since I have no plans foVista in the near future)
2. Should I try to get a dual-purpose DDR2/DDR3 P35 mobo or a single purpose one?
3. I plan to run my 4300 at 333MHz (3.0GHz) once I get the new mobo. I will upgrade the cooler to a Thermalright 120 (tower). However eventually, I would want to uprgrade to a real 333MHz FSB Quad core once they are cheap enough.
I would like your recommendations regarding the ASUS P5K family. Which of the many models would you recommend? What difference does the Intel ICH9 vs. ICH9R make? Are the Deluxe WIFI-AP versions worth the premium given that I am not a gamer?
Thanks for your help.
Doug