# So I just bought a new PC

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-bought-a-new-pc/462440>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 7, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-bought-a-new-pc/462440 "2008-09-07T02:38:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-bought-a-new-pc/462440/21 "2008-09-11T02:01:27Z")

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> [@RyJae](#):
>
> I agree the motherboard is overkill but it is upgradable for the future so it doesn’t make a big difference. But the obvious disrespect you show for the highly rated e7200 series needs some smackdowns. 😛  
> [http://www.techspot.com/review/100-intel-core2-duo-e7200/page12.html](http://www.techspot.com/review/100-intel-core2-duo-e7200/page12.html)

Alright, alright, I didn’t mean any disrespect to the E7200. 😛 In fact, calling it a “Celeron” was an error on my part; I had been looking at some of the Celerons earlier and for some reason I mentally stuffed the E7200 in the same category. It’s certainly a very capable processor at a very attractive price, and the fact that I’m currently running an E8400 overclocked to 4.05GHz doesn’t bias me in any way against the plucky little E7200. No sir, not me. 😃

But as for the upgradability of the motherboard, I don’t think the one I suggested would be disappointing in that regard either. The main differences between the two seem to be that the expensive one uses the newer Intel X48 chipset and has two full 16x PCI-e lanes, instead of the more common 16x and 8x. They both support the Core 2 Quads and a 1600MHz QDR, and in fact the cheaper one supports more memory (16GB).

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**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-bought-a-new-pc/462440/22 "2008-09-11T02:33:39Z")

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> [@Stealth\_Potato](#):
>
> You mean 240-pin DDR2, surely? 184-pin modules are old-fashioned DDR.
> 
> And that motherboard seems rather expensive for your build, especially given your processor selection. Putting a $120 Celeron in a $230 motherboard is overkill. Something like [this Gigabyte motherboard](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128344) would probably be a better choice. There’s really not much reason to spend up in the $200-$300 range for a motherboard unless you intend to overclock.
> 
> You should be fine license-wise, as long as you don’t use it on the old machine as well. I believe it is a license to install and use the software on one machine at any given time.

Sorry, yes I meant 240 pin memory.  
The intention is to get the new comp going now with the E7200 and one Radeon 4870, then at some later point add a second 4870 and a better CPU. I would also like to start experimenting with overclocking a bit (only after I have some idea what I’m doing :eek:). So I was going for a bit of a higher end board with that in mind.

And yeah, as Ryjae said, the E7200 looks pretty impressive. Especially for the price ($110). I figured it would get me off to a good start.

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