5punk

I don't pay much attention to the mobos as both the AMD and Intel ones I see at the store are within the same price range, with a difference of only a few hundred pesos between brands.

One thing I have in mind is if I go intel, most of the boards are C2D ready so I can upgrade later if my sex loan goes through. I don't think I can go further with the AMD route.

ellachen wrote:I don't pay much attention to the mobos as both the AMD and Intel ones I see at the store are within the same price range, with a difference of only a few hundred pesos between brands.

One thing I have in mind is if I go intel, most of the boards are C2D ready so I can upgrade later if my sex loan goes through. I don't think I can go further with the AMD route.

Hmm, be careful, I don't think all 775 socket mobo's support core2duo's

I'll ask the salesdude if it supports it when I buy. My purchase order will have the phrase "C2D READY OR DEAD." written on it. In blood.

Okay, thanks for the info, guys.

I finally decided on a setup that will let me just use some leftover parts(hard disks and optical drives) from my old PC and still keep it as a backup/spare unit.

Here's the components I picked:

CPU: Intel E4300 (1.80Ghz) 2mb L2 800Fsb C2D - P8580
Motherboard: ECS 662/1066T-M2v1.0 Vpcie/S/L/ddr2 - P2500
RAM: 1GB generic PC667 ddr2 - P2810
CASING: A-shuffle black case with 500w PSU - 1560
Videocard Inno3d/Sparkle 7100GS 128DDR 64bit - 1920
Total - P17370

My budget is 17000 pesos only but maybe I can walk home and skip lunch for a few days to come up with the balance. With any luck, the prices won't change in a matter of days and I'll have a new pc by the 1st of May.

Hurrah! That machine has Berk approval.

not too shabby

I voted for throwing money at random strangers.

Hello, I'm a random stranger!

Ok. I guess I'd have to throw you 17 thousand pesos worth of coins inside a sack.

ellachen wrote:Ok. I guess I'd have to throw you 17 thousand pesos worth of coins inside a sack.

Ouch, that's gona leave a mark

I've heard rumours on the internets of big price drops for Core 2 Duo chips. No idea how long it normally takes for such things to make it across from the US to other parts of the world, but it might be worth checking out before buying.

Much longer than I can probably take. Just knowing that I'm about to upgrade totally ruined gaming for me. I could be playing any game that runs fine on my system and all I'm thinking is in 3 days, I'm going to be playing the same game but much smoother. Even when I'm doing a powerpoint presentation about the ASEAN, I'm thinking, "oh man, the frames per second on this animated bar graph is gonna be sweet on my new rig!"

ellachen wrote:Even when I'm doing a powerpoint presentation about the ASEAN, I'm thinking, "oh man, the frames per second on this animated bar graph is gonna be sweet on my new rig!"

Pfffft. Try looking at it and thinking "This is exactly what SupCom will look like on my new rig", then it'll be like you've got your upgrade already.

now I'm having a bit of a problem. Salesdude over the phone says "ECS 662/1066T-M2v1.0" is not Core 2 Duo compatible and the C2D boards he mentioned are WAY expensive(the cheapest is almost twice the price of the 662)...

but ECS's website says the board IS core 2 duo compatible. I'm having doubts as whether to buy it or wait for some more. If it turns out that it's not c2d-ready i can return it but I don't like the hassle and I hate dealing with salespeople.

...but the manufacturer's site says it's c2d-ready and the salesdude might be talking out of his ass or just wants to sell me something more expensive.

I'd go for it.

If the shop is local, go in and look at the box, sounds like he's bullshitting.

oh yah. When I buy I'm going to let them assemble it for me anyway. I'll just horse him to install the cpu and test. I'm just afraid of the slim chance that I'm wrong and I'll look like a total monkey.

DAMN, I GOT A NEW PUTER!

MEssed up with my finances so I had to skimp on the ram, opting for 512, and the videocard. I'm using an old FX 5500. But I figured it's much easier to upgrade those two components than the processor itself.

I noticed an overall improvement in response time. My sound no longer stutters when I'm accessing the DVD drive and now I even have DVD Santa running in the background, converting an entire movie to Xvid.