£200-£300 upgrade ideas?

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Guru

Guru

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8 Jun 2005
Posts
5,275
I've currently got:


MOBO: Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 1.80GHz (doesn't clock well but I don't know why)
RAM: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 DHX PC2-6400C4DHX TwinX (2x1GB) @ 4-4-4-12
PSU: 700w Fsp700-80gln Psu
GFX: PCI-E HD3850

So....what should I get?

I play COD4 mainly.

Cheers,

G
 
ocuk49.jpg


I don't know if you already had a CPU cooler, so I added the freezer 7 pro, which should get a decent overclock from the E7300. Since you've said your E2160 doesn't clock well, a new, faster CPU would be perfect. The new wolfdale's have proven to be excellent at overclocking.

Another 2gb of the ram you already have and a 4850 should see a pretty decent improvement.
 
For just COD 4 no need to upgrade the CPU. I would say go for a HD4870 or GTX 260 Maxcore and 4GB RAM and sell your old 2 GB.

For overclocking help post your settings in the Overclocking section and we can help :)
 
I am thinking I might spend the whole budget on gfx. what's the best bang for buck at under 300 quid?

considering the 260 ssc at the moment. but should I be thinking about anything else? buying tomorrow :)
 
This lot in my basket at the moment:

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound for CPU and Chipset Coolers - 3.5 gram

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Kentsfield Core, S775, 2.40 GHz 1066MHz 8MB Cache, 9x Multiplier, Retail

896MB EVGA GTX 260 SSC, PCI-E 2.0, 2304MHz GDDR3, GPU670MHz, 216 Cores, 2xDL DVI-I/ HDTV + Far Cry 2

Few seconds away from clicking buy unless there are any glaring incompatibilities? or other suggestions?
 
.....???

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail £129.99
(£149.49)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4830 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4830 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £94.99
(£109.24)

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £24.99
(£28.74)

Sub Total : £249.97
Shipping : £7.99
VAT : £37.50

Total : £287.47
 
in fact....

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail £129.99
(£149.49)

Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £106.99
(£123.04)

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £24.99
(£28.74)

Sub Total : £261.97

Total : £301.27
 
Too late :p I ordered hehe

Came in a bit over budget at: £360 but sod it :D

G

p.s. I don't see any point getting 4gb RAM as I am on XP (32bit)
 
I'm on XP aswell, but went for 4gb, I can only see 3.25gb, but sod it, for the price I couldn't say no :p I do eventually plan on changing to vista, so it's all good.

I'm sure you'll be happy with the gtx260, I'm looking at getting one, wanting a bit more fire power. I'm never happy, always wanting more ;) Post back with how you get on with the new upgrades.
 
Will do :)

Won't know for a week as I'm on holiday, but I'll post back when I've got it all up and running :)

Hoping I won't have to upgrade again for a LONG time now.

G
 
bah it all arrived today! a mate is holding on to it till I get back from my hols lol

Can't wait to test it out :) I'm already thinking about upgrading HDD's and RAM too lol reckon I could chuck another £100 at it as I just came into some money but not sure what to get lol

:D
 
lol true sorry, I do think I will go to Vista soon-ish though, would it be better to keep this ram and get 2 more sticks? or sell it and get 2x2gb?

or does it make no difference?
 
gone for this little lot in the end....

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Kentsfield Core, S775, 2.40 GHz 1066MHz 8MB Cache, 9x Multiplier, Retail

and

896MB EVGA GTX 260 SSC, PCI-E 2.0, 2304MHz GDDR3, GPU670MHz, 216 Cores, 2xDL DVI-I/ HDTV + Far Cry 2

and

1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ

and

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2 DHX @ 4-4-4-12

Will set the whole lot up over xmas :)

Right before all my old stuff hits the MM :p
 
Got the GFX card and CPU here now :)

I've just intalled farcry 2 and run a bench mark/slideshow (pre-upgrade) LOL

Here are the results on Ultra....

preupbenchns8.jpg


Here are the results on LOW....

preupbenchlowxt5.jpg


I also did 3Dmark 05... and got 8955 on 1680x1050 @ 6xAA

Now for some upgrading :D
 
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ok I'm still testing but I had to try COD4. It was constant 100fps so I upped the com_maxfps to 200 and it was hitting that occasionally to. Then I upped to 500 and got kicked lol. Off to run 3mark05 then install the CPU and run it all again lol.

Happy G :D

/edit 3dmark 05 got 10,385 this time.

/edit2 Installed CPU, at stock speed I now get 14,535
 
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ok this is a bit too good!! on some maps I'm getting 400+ fps in places. It's never dropping below 140-150 and everything is on full at 1680x1050 :D

Feels like a different game :D
 
Good call on the upgrade, save a little more and get 4gb and you've got a nice system there :)

I have that chip and motherboard and it does 3.2 ghz (400x8) at stock voltage.
 
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