I'm a bit confused, because I thought that the Core 2 processors were 64-bit too. Intel says that they support EM64T...isn't that the same as the Athlon 64, except for the naming?

Thanks for this. This suggests I may be going overboard with a E6400. I will toy around with their Intel system idea and see what I can do. Their power supply is pretty hefty but if it's what's needed for overclocking, maybe it's worth it.

At [H], they emphasize stability. PS is a key component of that, as well as MoBo and memory. It looks like they are recommending the Gigabyte DS3 board too.

Good luck figuring out what you should buy :D!

Well I took their advice on the motherboard and also went with E6300. If it overclocks to ~3.0 with the stock fan as I read it does, I'm sold, I guess. I still would like ATAx2 on the board but I actually had trouble finding motherboards that had it, even expensive motherboards only had ATAx1; I guess it's a dying technology that is only needed for optical drives these days. (I've been wondering; how come I don't see any SATA optical drives?)

I also did pick the suggested power supply :( Another hundred bucks.

I got my 2GB of RAM here. I don't know why gaming system RAM would have cost me $300 in the same respect if the specs are the same. Can anyone explain that?

Almost went and got an expensive ass video card. But I still think a good video card costs the average joe too much money.

What's really holding me back right now is a monitor. I want widescreen, but 19in widescreen is short, vertically. 20(.1)in widescreen is almost as tall as 19in standard, but 20in is expensive. Plus I'm having a hell of a time finding a decent monitor with height adjustment - I always find that the relationship between my body height, the comfortable height of my chair, and the height of my desk always provides a challenge. Me being tall, my chair is adjusted high and likewise it must be for me to comfortably reach the keyboard. But then my head is nowhere near level with the monitor. Frustrating. And putting it on top of phone books is just tacky. Now that I think about it, maybe there are some generic stands upon which to place a monitor...

Without a monitor, I'm at $881 (including shipping [some items shipping costs are needlessly high]), I'm trying to stay under $1200, so what do I do?


I've updated my wishlist. Feel free to tell me what you think at this point.

My comments for what they are worth :)

The PSupply upgrade is a good idea, especially if you were planning on using the one with the case. This should be a good PSU that you can use a looooong time.

The RAM is ok. I'm not an OCer, as I've stated, but I do know that reliable RAM is very important to being able to overclock the FSB. As the FSB is increased, then the RAM needs to be have a wide tolerance for speeds. Does that mean the GSkill ram will work for you? I have no idea. But generally speaking, expensive RAM by good companies (Corsair,OCZ) gives more peace of mind/capability. See if there are reports of good OCing with GSkill and hope for the best.

Expensive ass video card? The HISX1600XT? LOL, I wouldn't recommend going any lower.

As to the monitor, though you lose height, you often gain 1.) Width and 2.) resolution (which will give more "space"). Something wrong with this Samsung? or this Sceptre? Both have tilt, 20", great resolution, good specs, and meet-the-budget prices. Height-adjustment=expensive. Does your current CRT have that? I wouldnt expect quite THAT much from a budget LCD either ;). I've been looking at LCD's a long time, and Sceptre is a reputable LCD maker. "Off" brand yes, but they've been making sweet 30"+ panel HDTV's with good prices for a good while. I wouldn't be worried too much about name brand LCD's. I bought a Westinghoust LCDHDTV 32", and everyone is jealous even though it ain't a Sharp. Brands with LCDs is not THAT big of a deal... (Besides, all large LCD screens come from about 3 fabrication plants anyway)

I said I almost got an expensive video card and decided against it.

I don't know how I missed those two monitors :(

LOL. My error. FLAGRANT error.

Your error. Not so flagrant though :D.

As far as memory, here's the question.

Given a limit of ~$200, is it smarter to:
1. Get two 1GB sticks of cheap DDR2 800 RAM
2. Get one 1GB stick of not-cheap DDR2 800 RAM like Corsair and maybe even throw in a 512MB just because I can
3. Get two 1GB sticks of DDR2 675 RAM made by Corsair or somesuch

I don't think you'll see the difference in latency between your #1 and #2 choices so I would go for the cheaper one. Which is still pretty good for the price.

Unless you overclock, its good to keep your ram "matched" with the rest of the system's FSB. You can run slower ram like a DDR2 675 but the mismatch in clock speeds will actually degrade performance.

So many variables :confused:

Is this even the same computer I started off with? lol :(

Double Post:
Actually I just did research and they are 64bit. I didn't even know. I usually just associate Intel with 32bitness.