A few updates to the BBBB, one being the introduction of the ATI 4770, which I think complements the E5200 and P43 board nicely.

Ebuyer seems to be out of stock of the mobo and the GC.

For the GC I found it on overclocker: XFX ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card.

As for the Mobo the S3L is not to be found, but a DS3L can be found on Scan: Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L.

I reall have no idea if that can be a replacement for the BBBB though, as I have not researched the overclockability of this borad.

Regards,


Tam

Cheers Tam, I had noticed the lack of stock but haven’t had the time to update until now. What I've done is to replace the MB to the DS3L which is only another couple of quid and fundamentally the same board with added features. To keep the build stock from the same website I've changed the 4770 (all out of stock on ebuyer) to a 9800GT Eco which is still a strong card for the price.

I see Scan have the S3L version of the motherboard which looks a good buy and the E5200 is on its way out to be replaced with the E5300 - which should have a better multiplier.
Can anyone reccomend any budget PSUs to power this setup - I'm looking at buying from Scan but their selection leaves me baffled - I've been using an EZCool 550Watt to power my current rig with a 9600GT in it - can I get anyhting better on reasonable money?
Also has anyone tried overclocking the E5200 using the reference heatsink and fan supplied - I'm wondering if saving £14 on that and putting it towards a PSU would make sense?

Good to see the BBBB back!

The reference will be able to cool the chip at its reference speed, if you want to OC it, get what Geiseric recommended. As for the PSU? Do you need a new one? Is it unstable? But, if you feel the need to replace it, have a look at this. Replacing your PSU will NOT speed your computer up, OCing the CPU will

I think the reference HSF wll do a bit better than just the reference speed - they generally have a bit of headroom the question is how much? Would it be better to get the Freezer 7 now or try the reference setup and see how I get on?

As for the PSU that one looks good - on the other hand the setup Geiseric reccomends looks like it should do the trick - even though the PSU is only a 460Watt model it has 18amps on dual 12v rails and others seem to be running similar rigs on it. Maybe better to get this than a generic model if I decide not to spend £50 on the PSU.

Generic usually mean fail IMO. We had a bunch of computers at college, they ran at 2Ghz with the stock cooler on, it would have been quieter to listen to Concorde winding up. Go for the ACF7, it'll be lower temperatures anyway, so less noise. Remember that the PSU Geiseric said come's with the case, you may be able to buy it separately, I can't be bothered be bothered to go PSU hunting right now.

But definitely go for the Freezer 7.

Sorry guys I need to revamp the BBBB when I get back from Holiday (next week), Ebuyer are not selling either of the original two Gigabyte motherboards I’ve list.

As for the question on HSF's - with the cooler running Wolfdale core which the E5200 is then your'll be surprised what over-clocking can be able to achieve on the CPU supplied HSF.

The PSU in the Coolermaster is more than a match for the setup and is one of the reasons I included it in as case/psu combo.

Thansk for the reply - I'm torn between putting in 4GB of memory and buying the arctic cooling freezer 7. I'm getting windows 7 on pre-order and I currently have 4GB of ddr2 667 which made a noticeable difference in load times compared to 2 Gigs so 4gigs would be good. Maybe the freezer 7 will wait...

Has anyone seen the latest CPC - their budget machine is now on AMD using an MSI board.

It's also a lot more expensive, I still think the BBBB would kill it.

I'm currently thinking of getting these from Scan -

Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3, iP43 Express, S 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1200/1066/ 800/667, SATAII, ATX - £61.32
Intel Pentium Dual-Core, E5300, S775, Wolfdale, 2.6 GHz, 2MB Cache, 13x Core Ratio, 65W, Retail £49.44
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2, PC2-8500 (1066), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-6-6-18, EPP £34.49

Total around £150 (prices vary on Scan depending on what deals are on).

And possibly the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 (£15)

I haven't decided yet whether to reuse my old case and PSU or buy new - which would allow me to sell my old PC whole rather than as parts. If I buy new I' d probably be looking at the Coolermaster case and PSU Geisaric reccomends.

Coupled with my existing 9600GT, a 250GB SATA HDD, a 200GB IDE HDD and a Samsung IDE DVD Writer I think I should have a fairly bargainous blaster!
Any thoughts on the motherboard, processor and memory combination - are there better alternatives (preferably at Scan or Ebuyer?)

So my stuff all arrived safely and is now installed and working! I ended up reusing my old case and PSU as well as my 9600GT, X-fi soundcard and DVD Writer but I bought a 400GB Samsung HDD from Scan for £30 which seemed like a bargain.

So the new kit was
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3, iP43 Express, S 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1200/1066/ 800/667, SATAII, ATX - £55
Intel Pentium Dual-Core, E5300, S775, Wolfdale, 2.6 GHz, 2MB Cache, 13x Core Ratio, 65W, Retail £49.44
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2, PC2-8500 (1066), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-6-6-18, EPP £34.49
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 £15
400GB Samsung £30

So not bad for £185 and I've got it up to 3Ghz without any mucking around - once I've done some serious overclocking I'll post some benchmarks. I think the Freezer 7 might be overkill but it is satisfying to have a bespoke cooler in there and it's very quiet!

Well done sounds like a nice little upgrade, think you may have gone a bit OTT with the memory speed but it will save you buying any more if you change your cpu in the future to a 266 or 333 fsb CPU.

In my experience the 5300 should instantly go from 2.6GHz to 3.45 by simply raising the fsb from 200 to 266 keeping your SPD to 1:1 with no voltage increase. After that it will take a bit more of a controlled tweaking to keep any more speed stable.

Good luck.

Yeah - the memory was maybe a bit of overkill but pricewise it wasn't much different to anything slower. I'll see how I get on up to 266. Something I was considering was a graphics card upgrade from the 9600GT to a 250 but I'm not convinced it would be owrth it at this stage - maybe better to wait and see on that front.

The motherboard specified: MSI P45D3 Neo-F Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard (Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 1.5 Volt DDR3 800/1066/1333 SDRAM, 8GB Max)

appears to require DDR3 ram - is DDR2 compatible??

Thanks

Ross