Abit KN9/Athlon 64X2 or Asus P5NSLI/Core 2 Duo: P5N-E SLI

CallMeJoe · Post by **CallMeJoe** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:06 am

I'm considering an upgrade to my NF7-S/Mobile 2400+ system, and am looking at 2 Mobo/CPU options:

Abit KN9 with Athlon 64X2 4200+ (65W Windsor)
or
Asus P5NSLI with E6300 Core 2 Duo

Since this will entail new memory and GPU interfaces, I would also add:

Gigabyte GV-NX73T256P-RH (silent pipe 7300GT)
GeiL GX21GB6400DCK 2x512MB PC6400
Scythe Mine CPU cooler

This will be installed in my first generation Antec Sonata case with Enermax Noisetaker 485 PSU, Evercool 120 mm exhaust fan, Seagate HDDs and Samsung DVD-RW. The Mobo selection is mainly because I don't want to have to replace my IDE optical and HDDs, and these appear to be the best available with two IDE ports. We now come to my questions:

How big a performance difference would I see between the Core 2 Duo and the Athlon 64X2?

How big a heat problem is the passively cooled Asus Nvidia 570 SLI northbridge?

Are there any miscellaneous comments on this system build?

cAPSLOCK · Post by **cAPSLOCK** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:55 am

I think that an E6300 is roughly equivalent to a X2 4600+ performance wise, and that's coming from a bit of an amd fanboy.

So two paths:

-get the X2 but get a mobo with integrated gfx, runs cooler than any fancy nForce chipset + discrete gfx
-get the E6300, but get a better graphics card and 2G of ram (or 1G now and another in a couple of months) and overclock it

It all depends what you want in life...

CallMeJoe · Post by **CallMeJoe** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 8:20 pm

I waited long enough for the P5N-E SLI to come out, so I'm giving that a try, with the C2D E6300, Asus 7300GT, and Buffalo DDR2-6400 RAM. Also trying a Sunbeam Silent Whisper 775 (found it cheap at Newegg - if it's no good, I'll upgrade).