looking at upgrading my tower and thought about getting the bits and having a go at building it myself, question is is there a guide for dummies i can follow?? also can some1 tell me what the difference is between dual core and core 2 duo?

TIA

Cant tell you what the core 2 duo is but the dual core is supposed to be able to stream the data through two channels instead of one so increased data flow. Builing a pc is dead easy done loads myself.
I would suggest that you look at what applications you want to run or games, look around at motherboards reviews and get one WITHOUT intergrated video, sound is okay unless you want top notch like creative labs.
Get the next to fastest processor you can afford. It only fits one way, don`t force it. Leaps forward are still quick and the best/newest will soon be overtaken. Get a cooler rated for higher processsor so cooling should be good even with dust build up. Use thermal paste on cpu before putting the cooler on.
Get a decent graphics card if your gaming, look to see what the game requires. Make sure its compatible with the board, express pci or AGP.
Get 1gb of ram thats compatible, probably ddr2 more than thats usually not used. If its one stick then you should have a slot for more if its needed.
Case should be nice with good rating for power supply 450w is probably enough maybe 500w. Good luck.

Originally Posted by seanicca

also can some1 tell me what the difference is between dual core and core 2 duo?

Hi,

The dual-core usually refers to AMD cpu's, the core 2/core 2 duo refers to cpu's made by Intel.

Although saying this dual core or twin core are now becoming general terms.

The dual or twin core chip is exactly what it sounds like, twin core - 2 x cpu's on 1 die, the 2/3/4/586 series of chips had 1 x core within the cpu, the dual/twin cores have 2 and are, effectively, 2 processors on 1 chip.

I agree with chrisyorks13 that computers are easy to build, it's what you do when you push the button for the first time and nowt happens thats hard.

If you are going for a dual core machine, the only boards available new now are DDR2 boards but memory prices are right down, I would suggest a minimum of 2gig but if you are running XP 32 bit, no more than 3gig.

Hope this helps

Muskrat

Originally Posted by seanicca

looking at upgrading my tower and thought about getting the bits and having a go at building it myself, question is is there a guide for dummies i can follow?? also can some1 tell me what the difference is between dual core and core 2 duo?

TIA

There are loads of guides available about what you need and screwing the stuff together. Just check google.

Dual core refers to any chip were there are two processing (core) units on one physical chip. Both Intel and AMD make dual core processors and quad core processors.

Core2 refers to the family of processors released by Intel about 2 years ago. Basically top dog in terms of processing power. They are available in 2 core (Core2 Duo) and 4 core (Core2 Quad) per chip.

Building a computer now is easier than it has ever been due to SATA. No more messing about with slave and master drives, just plug and play is what it's all about.

So you want a socket 775 motherboard if your getting a core 2 (Intel) processor, or an AM2 motherboard if your wanting an X2 (AMD) processor.

To be honest I would go for Intel, but both are very good.

Here is a quick example of both options at the lower (cheaper) end of the scale:

Intel:
Core 2 Duo e2140 processor
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127249
Foxconn 775 motherboard with onboard graphics and 7.1 sound
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126739...specifications
These two are compatible and will cost less than £75 delivered.

AMD:
AMD X2 3600+ (add your own fan for about £6 or so).
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136311
Gigabyte AM2 motherboard with geforce 6100 graphics and onboard sound
This setup will cost you less than £70 delivered.

The above is just a guide to show you that Intel need matching socket 775 processors and baords and AMD need matching AM2 processors and boards. You would obviously choose the power of the processor and the type of board to suit your needs.

You would then need DDRII ram to go in those boards. The best at the moment has to be the OCZ Platinum XTC series, cheap as chips and awesome stuff:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118306
Less than £34 for 2gb, make sure you get 800mhz ram and not 667mhz.

Also what components would you be porting over from your old system?

If they are ide devices you would probably need a PCI-IDE controller card as boards now only come with one IDE slot. If you have SATA drives then you are laughing, it is just basically plug and play.

And in the future if you want the PC for gaming then you would need a good PCI-express card.

Originally Posted by digicol

Building a computer now is easier than it has ever been due to SATA. No more messing about with slave and master drives, just plug and play is what it's all about.

So you want a socket 775 motherboard if your getting a core 2 (Intel) processor, or an AM2 motherboard if your wanting an X2 (AMD) processor.

To be honest I would go for Intel, but both are very good.

Here is a quick example of both options at the lower (cheaper) end of the scale:

Intel:
Core 2 Duo e2140 processor
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127249
Foxconn 775 motherboard with onboard graphics and 7.1 sound
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126739...specifications
These two are compatible and will cost less than £75 delivered.


You would then need DDRII ram to go in those boards. The best at the moment has to be the OCZ Platinum XTC series, cheap as chips and awesome stuff:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118306
Less than £34 for 2gb, make sure you get 800mhz ram and not 667mhz.

Also what components would you be porting over from your old system?

If they are ide devices you would probably need a PCI-IDE controller card as boards now only come with one IDE slot. If you have SATA drives then you are laughing, it is just basically plug and play.

And in the future if you want the PC for gaming then you would need a good PCI-express card.

basically i would be using it for surfing,downloading,converting & burning dvd's & games, so would the above intel cpu, mobo and memory be ok adding to this these

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135713...case
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128708...hard drive
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139553...Gfx card, this being not that important just thought it might come in handy

the only thing i'm taking out of old pc is the dvd, which is ide

Yes mate, that would be fine.

You could go with the better CPU, the e2180 which runs ar 2ghz and is just £10 more. Also easier to overclock if you wish, it uses a higher multiplier so for low end motherboards they are better for overclocking as low end boards seem to fail at higher FSB speeds.

Having a higher multiplier in your processor means you do not need to ramp the FSB on the board so high.