Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

[PlainBill]

I'm considering upgrading my wife's computer (Pentium 4 Socket 478 2.8 Ghz HT) and this combo from Fry's Electronics caught my eye. It's a Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500 for $99.99 after a $10 rebate. While the price looks good, it seems they may be closing out 'yesterday's new thing'.

Opinions, anyone.

Oh, this is for a little old schoolteacher who only uses it for entering grades in Gradebook, scanning Craigslist for bargains, and playing Luxor and F.E.A.R. 3.

(OK, I'm kidding about F.E.A.R.3).

PlainBill

[Wrog]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

That's a heck of a deal, considering the E7500 itself still goes for $100+ (sometimes I really wish we lived closer to a Fry's B&M!). The question I have is... will it be worth it? She will see some differences in faster web page loading, but would that justify the cost (plus time spent reformatting, moving files, etc.)? Maybe getting more RAM might help more than a new MB/CPU combo.

[PlainBill]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

That's a heck of a deal, considering the E7500 itself still goes for $100+ (sometimes I really wish we lived closer to a Fry's B&M!). The question I have is... will it be worth it? She will see some differences in faster web page loading, but would that justify the cost (plus time spent reformatting, moving files, etc.)? Maybe getting more RAM might help more than a new MB/CPU combo.

She already has 2 Gig of RAM in the system. Reformatting is not an issue; she will get a new install of Win7 and be responsible for moving data from the old drive to the new drive. It will make an excellent report for her to show her students - "How I Spent My Summer Vacation".

Or of course, I could upgrade MY system.

PlainBill

[toastygoodness]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

its always good, core2duo is always a good choice. its not like she's running simulations or anything.

[washu]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

I have almost the same board, the GA-EG41M-US2H in my HTPC. Had it about a year and it works great. Running a slightly OC'ed e5200 with no stability issues at all.

When you say your wife's current PC already has 2 GB of RAM, is it fast enough? All Intel x3x and x4x chipsets need at least 667 MHz DDR2 RAM. 533 and lower will not work.

[PlainBill]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

I have almost the same board, the GA-EG41M-US2H in my HTPC. Had it about a year and it works great. Running a slightly OC'ed e5200 with no stability issues at all.

When you say your wife's current PC already has 2 GB of RAM, is it fast enough? All Intel x3x and x4x chipsets need at least 667 MHz DDR2 RAM. 533 and lower will not work.

This would be a total rebuild (or nearly so). Her present computer has 2 Gig of DDR RAM, I'd probably be putting 4 Gig of DDR2 ram in the new motherboard. Her present drive is (I think) a 200 Gig PATA drive; virtually every week Frys has 500 Gig SATA drives for $45. She is currently running WinXP, but I have the 3 user upgrade version of Win7 ready to go onto the new drive. She has that on her system at work, so Win7 should not be an issue for her.

Frankly, her current system runs like a pig. She has at least three 'Weatherbug' programs running on it, a couple of IM type programs, and more games than you can shake a stick at. It takes close to 5 minutes to boot. Essentially starting over from scratch will be one way to purge the garbage.

PlainBill

[Scenic]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

I'd probably be putting 4 Gig of DDR2 ram in the new motherboard.

prices for DDR2 skyrocketed. those 4GB DDR2 will probably cost you the same (or more) than the board + cpu bundle :|
otherwise that's a damn good deal..

edit:
cap choice looks decent for a value-board
http://motherboards-reviews.com/imag..._G41M-ES2L.jpg

plus the G41 Chipset on that board is combined with the ICH7 southbridge.
means you get a native PATA/IDE port..

a little review of that board
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...herboard/862/1

[Wrog]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

Frankly, her current system runs like a pig. She has at least three 'Weatherbug' programs running on it, a couple of IM type programs, and more games than you can shake a stick at. It takes close to 5 minutes to boot. Essentially starting over from scratch will be one way to purge the garbage.

Yikes. I was going to suggest reformatting and starting over with the current hardware, but it sounds like you're both ready for an upgrade!

If you don't mind rebates, Newegg has an OCZ 4GB DDR2 set (lifetime warranty) for $78 FS.

[bgavin]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

I do a lot of Gigabyte boards, and am very satisfied with the stability.

Take a note: skip the Corsair memory... I've been down the road with Corsair and it is abysmal junk. This is such a shame, as it appears well made, etc.

The XMS and Dominator have 100% failure rates for me over 12 months of use. After they started failing (BSOD, etc) I throttled back the board to standard JDEC voltage (1.8v) and timings. No help. Corsair fails nearly 100% within 12 months on a variety of different boards and customers.

Yes, Corsair RMA's but this does nothing to keep a customer from being VERY unhappy with their 'lemon.'

I'm finding success in G.Skill DDR2-800, 1.8v and 4-4-4-12 timings. These are the stock specs for their memory. Ain't cheap at $114 for 2x2gb from the 'Egg.

[retiredcaps]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

Wow, 5 minutes to boot? With 2 GB of DRAM, I'm thinking it should boot quicker than that. A few weeks back, I helped a friend with his computer and I decided to scan it with malwarebytes and it found several viruses that AVG could not identify.

Just a suggestion. After you backup the data, try malwarebytes.org. It is free to download and run. I ran it at home on a couple of "clean" systems and was surprised it caught one trojan that AVG had completely missed.

Frankly, her current system runs like a pig. She has at least three 'Weatherbug' programs running on it, a couple of IM type programs, and more games than you can shake a stick at. It takes close to 5 minutes to boot. Essentially starting over from scratch will be one way to purge the garbage.

PlainBill

[kaniki]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

I think that happens with all antivirus's.. What i use is avast (free for home) and if you want a good program to help clean up the crap (virus leftovers, spyware, malware, etc.) try counterspy. It is free to try (unlimited use during trial period) but will warn you, it will slow your system down if left installed. I would run that, then if all is good, just uninstall it.

as for the price, sure sounds like a decent deal. It may be yesterdays stuff, but is till much newer then what you currently have and the way i look at it, todays stuff will be obsolete in or within a year anyways. as long as the system runs good, who cares if it is last years stuff. go for it if you have the money.

[Scenic]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

I do a lot of Gigabyte boards, and am very satisfied with the stability.

Take a note: skip the Corsair memory... I've been down the road with Corsair and it is abysmal junk. This is such a shame, as it appears well made, etc.

The XMS and Dominator have 100% failure rates for me over 12 months of use. After they started failing (BSOD, etc) I throttled back the board to standard JDEC voltage (1.8v) and timings. No help. Corsair fails nearly 100% within 12 months on a variety of different boards and customers.

Yes, Corsair RMA's but this does nothing to keep a customer from being VERY unhappy with their 'lemon.'

I'm finding success in G.Skill DDR2-800, 1.8v and 4-4-4-12 timings. These are the stock specs for their memory. Ain't cheap at $114 for 2x2gb from the 'Egg.

have to agree. bought a corsair XMS2 kit (2x 2GB DDR2-800), and it didnt work at all.
froze up in BIOS all the f*ckin time..
slower timings, higher voltage... nothing helped.
brought it back to the shop and the only other RAM they could replace it with was a G.Skill Trident 2x 2GB DDR2-1066 Kit. (F2-8500CL5-4GBTD)

worked fine out of the box. the only thing i had to do was set it from DDR2-800 to 1066 in the BIOS. nothing else

edit: that RAM runs at DDR2-1066 on just 1.80V .. awesome

[Colt45ws]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

Thats wierd. Ive had nothing but good luck with Corsair. I defected once and tried Crucial ballistix but had to RMA the shit 3 times. Now it sits on a shelf collecting dust. So I went back to Crucial.

[seanc]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

I've got an RMA on 6GB Corsair DDR3 - I need to stick it in an envelope and send it!

Re: Gigabyte boards, especially that particular model - go for it! I only build with Gigabyte (I flirted with ASUS and didn't like it).

I'm still using these boards in new systems, they're perfectly fine for office work and will last your wife for a while.

I've had very few failures of any LGA775 Gigabyte boards, if you do have a problem ship it to Gigabyte, they'll repair it and send it back to you.

[NxB]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

Now DDR2 is expensive, great. I went from DDR to DDR2 because the DDR prices were garbage. Fuck these memory makers.

[seanc]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

Aye, it's horrendous now.

Got to look out for deals here and there.

[washu]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

Yea, DDR2 has skyrocketed. I just paid $50 for a single 2 GB DDR2 DIMM, and that was on sale. I remember paying $40 for a 4 Gig kit not to long ago.

Problem is DDR3 hasn't dropped either. Sure it's not insane anymore, but it's still about the same as the expensive DDR2.

[PlainBill]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

I'm sure there are unwanted programs running, but the big problem is the 'wanted' stuff that has been loaded on it. Some of it is essential - MS Office, which is essential for her work, but also loads a bunch of junk.

Yes, we are both ready for an upgrade. I'm running a similar system (Gigabyte motherboard with Opteron processor), and I get irritated with the junk some of the websites load on you. One of my 'daily chores' is to visit Gocomics to see what Calvin, Cathy, Pluggers and Pibgorn are up to. Then some ad will slow Firefox to a crawl and I want to wrap my hands around somebody's throat.....

Anyway, thanks for the advice, and the links.

PlainBill

[seanc]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

Adblock can help, you can block selective sites, so you can leave badcaps unfiltered.

Also, try running Page Defrag on your system - installing and installing a boat load of software will fragment the registry and event logs - normal disk defrags will never be able to defrag them.

[retiredcaps]

Re: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L + Intel E7500

Just a FYI for comparison.

I recently bought a Pentium P4 1.8Ghz with 768MB DRAM, 40GB 4200RPM hard drive as an "upgrade" to a P3 system.

It takes 75 seconds to boot XP SP3 and it has 27 processes and uses 256MB after bootup.

My other system is a Celeron 2.53Ghz with 1GB DRAM, 40GB 4200RPM hard drive. It takes 85 seconds to boot and has 28 processes and uses 243MB after bootup.

Both systems load AVG 9 and very little else.

It takes close to 5 minutes to boot. PlainBill