Worth upgrading mobos??

[FastRedPonyCar]

Ok here's the scenario. My dad has tasked me with building him a new computer. No real budget but under a thousand dollars. Lots of options and I'll come out WAY under a grand. I'm estimating around $600~$700 with what he's asking for out of the system.

Anyways, given the hotness of the new E8400's, I've made up my mind that I'll be ordering an E8400 for ME and putting my 6600 into his machine.

The big question now is whether or not it's really worth it, whether or not I'll see real tangible differences in gaming and computing if I switch motherboards as well.

I have a lot of other stuff I need to spend money on so pocketing as much $$ of the budget as I can is ideal but at the same time, I know my 650i board is probably considered on the verge of extinction by enthusiasts standards. For what my dad does though, it's still more than he needs.

So I'm toying with the idea of swapping my cpu/mobo and ram to his computer and getting the 8400, 4 gigs of probably the crucial ballistix 1066 ram and the asus P5K-E motherboard.

My dillema is whether or not (given that I don't switch the ram) if I had the 2 systems side by side, will the Asus motherboard alone make much of a difference?

In other words, If I were to swap just the E8400, leave the patriot ram I've got now in there and run benchmarks then switch out the MSI board for the Asus board, put the 8400 and patriot ram back in and re-run the same benchmarks, will there be much improvement?

Because if not, I can get a sub $100 mobo for his machine and me walk away from that scenario with an extra $50.

What do you guys think? The MSI board has been no slouch in overclocking, has been rock solid stable in all the tests, gaming, etc and has all the features I need. If I'm only going to see 1 or 2 FPS more in games and minimal performance gains in basic computing, it's not worth it to me. but if the 650i will hinder my overclocking (which I know is the most certain way to have a faster overall system than what I've got) then it will be worth it. The only thing about the 650i that's ever chapped me is the fact that despite the bios updates, it still refuses to allow the fsb to go over 800mhz when it's supposed to be rated up to 1066 (hence me buying the 6600 and 1066 ram.. I wanted an easy 1:1 ratio happening).

[stncttr908]

So basically you're going to cheat your dad is what you're saying. :o

Anyway, since that's really not my business, I don't think a new motherboard will make a tangible difference unless your 650i sucks at overclocking. Obviously it does not based on your siggy. I prefer Intel chipsets over NVIDIA right now but that has a lot to do with RAID support and the like. Having said that, I'd stick with what you've got and give your dad some new parts. At most I'd give him your RAM and snag a 4GB kit.

[FastRedPonyCar]

no he knows. I always profit from his builds (usually very little). He'll get a blazing fast machine and I'll get paid. He knows it's either me or get screwed by a local mom and pop store or screwed from a proprietary company.

anyways, just getting the ram was also on my list of things I'll definately be doing.. especially considering the low price of 4 gigs of 1066 these days.

[SeriTonin]

no he knows. I always profit from his builds (usually very little). He'll get a blazing fast machine and I'll get paid. He knows it's either me or get screwed by a local mom and pop store or screwed from a proprietary company.

anyways, just getting the ram was also on my list of things I'll definately be doing.. especially considering the low price of 4 gigs of 1066 these days.

God forbid you just do it for free, him being your dad and all. :(

[FastRedPonyCar]

It's for his business. It gets factored into their business budget. I've built half a dozen for him already.

Besides, he's the one living in a $600,000+ house driving the 08 E550 Benz. I'm in the old $5000 volvo. :afro2:

doing stuff like this for him is a way he can legitimately help me out financially. It's either that or ask him for money which I've got a job to pay my bills so isn't necessary. This work I do for him is for my "fun money" so I can use it for car maintenence or other stuff that isn't considered a necessity.

[mullet]

I hope your dad gets the MSI 8800 Ultra OC @ 685 core with that. :)

[FastRedPonyCar]

I hope your dad gets the MSI 8800 Ultra OC @ 685 core with that. :)

haha yeah I'm sure he has plenty of uses for that!

Besides his $600 24" samsung :o

[DRen72]

God forbid you just do it for free, him being your dad and all. :(I've never charged my folks for PC upgrades or new builds regardless. :o

[FastRedPonyCar]

Well I do. It's for his business and is treated by both me and him as such. I didn't charge anything when he comissioned me to build 2 computers for my brothers but he gave me money anyways for the time I spent doing that rather than stuff I could have been doing for myself. It's understood that I make money when I perform work on his office computers either from servicing or building. What I make building/servicing his office stuff is chump change compared to what the local mom and pop stores charge for the same thing. They make 75% or more profit on every custom computer they build.

Anyways, I've decided it's probably not worth the trouble to swap the mobo for the minimal performance difference between the two. I'm just going to swap the cpu and ram and call it a day.

[Libertysyclone]

First off I love my P5K it is much more stable at OC'ing the CPU. I came from a 680i.

Second, I think everyone should lay off the ethics on this one. If everyone is informed than all is well I think.

I usually build a family member a new machine once a year and do a similar process. They buy my current PC parts minus the video card and it pays for 80% of my new CPU/Mobo/Ram. I dont make any money off them, but its much easier for both of us.

Think about the average user having an OC'd Q6600 on a p35 with 4gb of RAM in 7-8 months. Its going to be MORE than enough computer and it will last them the next 2 years before they buy another from me.