£350 to spend on upgrades

skippy2421

skippy2421

skippy2421

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Joined
23 Mar 2009
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Peterborough


I'm not buying this for another couple weeks when my exams are over as i'd never get any revision done with new toys. This however gives me time to decide on what to buy. So the question is should i change anything here? I have a budget of £350 to spend on parts so if you feel i might benefit from something else feel free to add it.

My spec is

Intel Q6600
4Gb of elpida DDR2 (800Mhz)
Antec Earthwatts 650W
Sapphire 4850 (512mb)
500Gb Seagate HDD
Cheap Dell mobo (hence the new one)
2x Dell 20" monitors
CM 690 Case

A few questions also:

If i was to ditch the new RAM would the elpida stuff still work in the new motherboard ive checked for compatability charts and stuff but they all seem to be rather unhelpful and state that other RAM might work.

I'm considering getting some new quieter fans to put in my case does anybody have any reccommendations? or should i go for a fan controller and dial the current ones down when i need it quieter?
 
Well i would either. Sell your 4850 and upgrade it & add a bigger hard drive or sell your cpu,mobo and memory and go to i7. :)
 
yes i will be overclocking, admittedly it will be my first time but everybody has got to start somewhere. thinking of taking the q6600 to 3.0/3.2 ghz and leaving it there as i dont use my computer for anything particularly strenuous other than a bit of gaming.

As for the i7 comments im not sure that's really in budget even if i do start selling things so im going to have to stick with what ive got i think.

Seems general consesnus is to get a better gpu, would it be worth crossfiring the 4850 as oppose to getting rid all together? just seems a waste thats all.
 
£350 is an awkward amount imo save your money and get a new machine for after summer when all the new 40/35nm chips have been released and DX11 cards are out aswell:D you system is fin tbh no bottle neck. a quick upgrade ne would be to get a better cpu cooler thermalright/noctua:D
 
hmmmm i've been thinking about them DX11 cards might do as you said siumatfung and leave the big upgrades till then and just pick up a new HDD to solve my storage issues. It's just i'd like to try overclocking and i can't with the awful dell mobo im using.
 
sell the Intel Q6600 for £100+
sell the ddr2

Captu2re.jpg

Should have around £450 + get corei7 cpu board and cheapest ddr3 kit which is about £475

otherwise sell the 4850 and get a gtx 260
 
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tbh jus save up about lets say 800ish for a new build you half way there:D but about overclocking do you really need it? does your pc ever stuggle for our day to day needs?
 
no my pc does not struggle so no i don't NEED to overclock however it would allow me something to play with once the exams are over lol. I think you have a point i don't really need to do anything just a case of the money burning a hole in my pocket it would seem.
 
:D sorry to sound like your dad but i just think with the prices some what inflated atm you might a great deal before uni starts again:D but if u want something to fath on which erm get a gf:Dhehe
 
haha you suggest a girlfriend to save me money??? i think you've got your logic wrong there somewhere lol. I've got one btw and its certainly not cheaper.
 
not to save money to faff:D in your own way but erm what mon are you using atm?

edit:just read your spec sorry for the ignorance but how about a week in lanzarote(however you spell it)
 
lol, well i'm using 2 dell e207wfp, see thing is i've looked to upgrade other parts of my system such as monitors and speakers and simply can't find anything worth upgrading too atm, a 24/26" monitor would be nice however would then require a GPU upgrade. Never mind i'll leave it for now then. Hopefully you're right and i'll get a good deal later.
 
you wouldnt need to upgrade any hard ware tbh if you upgraded your mons. anyways you just buy when you think the time is right eg. i bought my Q6600 GO retail for £117 im well chuffed and 8Gb of DDR2 1066mhz for 75£:D
 
that's a pretty good deal you got there, well i'll keep an eye on the "this week only" deals and go from there. Surely i'd need to upgrade my GPU if i got a 24" monitor as my current one would surely struggle gaming on there with only 512mb of RAM.
 
i duno theres a couple guys on this forum that say an o/c 4850 is great at resolutions of about 1080p:D but thats opinion based. im gaming at 2048x1152 with my 4890 o/c. cod4 get about 90fps, grid 100ish and will be trying other games:D
 
hmmmm just noticed you got an oc'd Q6600, how would you rate it? thing is i hear good reviews about these processors when overclocked and i feel i'm missing out. Now you're making me want a 4890, stop it! lol
 
kk i will be honest the difference for me when clocking mine from 2.4 to 3.0ghz was noticeable from 3.0 to 3.51 not much well cant tell anyways :D but yes i thought what the heck and splashed out on that 4890 and have my 9month old 8800GT lying around waiting for ny mate to build a new pc so i can recoup some cash hehe oops. but yes you must resist all temptation skippy and hold out for a monster rig:D
 
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