Upgrading - A few questions

[Raz1r]

Here's what I'm looking at:

Intel Pentium E2180 2.0GHz
GIGABYTE GA-G31M-S2L
Patriot Viper 4GB DDR2 800
Rosewill RP500-2 ATX12V v2.01 500W PSU

And eventually
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3

So do I have to overclock the FSB on my Pentium from 800 to 1066 for it to work at all with that motherboard?

Also, what is the best place to buy cable sleeving so I can get better airflow in my small case?

[Drum Thumper]

First off, do yourself a favor and get a beefier PSU--Rosewill makes great fans and that's about it.

As for overclocking, I'll let others answer that.

And for cable sleeving...look to the right of the screen. See the Xoxide ad? Click it.

[Spawn-Inc]

yes i second loosing the psu. get this, much better.

CORSAIR 450VX 450W Power Supply

as for the motherboard these ones are wicked. it's a bit more but its worth it IMO.
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L

i've put the above two in the last to rigs i built for friends and there working great, they don't oc so i can't give you any results for that but they run great.

So do I have to overclock the FSB on my Pentium from 800 to 1066 for it to work at all with that motherboard?

no, 1066 is what the max, stock, fsb it can handle. but you can overclock and get it going faster than that (if the cpu/ram can do it)

[Drum Thumper]

Cosair makes top notch gear. I've had good luck with Coolermaster too. My only complaint is that I didn't get a modular.

[Raz1r]

Just wondering if you guys read any of the reviews on the PSU. I only found a review from JonnyGuru, and the Newegg reviews aren't too bad either.

I know when you hear Rosewill you cringe, but this one seems like a good one. I'm trying to keep it around $60.

[doug91]

pretty nice upgrade specs there..
however that processor just bugs me.. I don't know what your previous processor was, but the pentium isn't much of an upgrade. Unless your budget is just airtight, I would go for a Conroe CPU. Something with 2mb cache and 1066FSB.

You motherboard runs at 1066/133mhz. So if you stick with your processor, it will just lower its FSB to 800mhz to be compatible. I also, agree with the other posts. The PSU is perhaps the most important component. Rosewill... not so much

[Raz1r]

I have a single-core Celeron D @ 2.8ghz, Socket 478.

533mhz
256kb L2 cache
28kb L1 cache

Definitely not good for gaming. What sucks worse is that I'm trying to do this on a budget. So the e2180 it will be. I plan on upgrading it later to a quad once they come down a bit. Can't wait till Summer, I'm gonna work my ass off to get enough money for some top stuff.

As for the PSU, now that I look at it,the Corsair looks really good. I didn't realize that it is basically a rebranded Seasonic. I'm just hoping it will last a long time.

Anybody have any suggestions for a HDD? I was looking at this one


Oh, I forgot to tell you guys the Motherboard I'm getting has to be Micro-ATX.

[Spawn-Inc]

i prefer seagate over western, but that's a preference thing i think for most people. so thats a good hdd

and the gigabyte board i posted b4 is micro atx

[Raz1r]

I'm just wondering, how much does the cache matter? I don't plan on going any lower than 16mb, but will there be a huge performance increase in a 32mb version @ the same RPM?

[Spawn-Inc]

not sure myself. all the ones i have are 16, but that wasn't my deciding factor, well maybe a little. i wouldn't worry about it.