Budget upgrade

Dreadi

Dreadi

Dreadi

Soldato
Joined
16 Feb 2006
Posts
7,512
Hey there.
I'm thinking of upgrading my system but its been years since i have and my knowledge is old. Im currently running a 939 x2 and have been looking at the ocuk overclocked bundles for ease of use but am wondering, would I still be able to use my 500w modular enermax liberty psu with an upgrade? And, would i be better off buying different components as i'm sure there will be a bit of price bump of the bundles as they come pre configured etc and have no idea what the best hardware is these days...

What say ye' OcUK? Spec me a budget build!
 
need a price first.

do you need a monitor, keyboard, mouse, copy of windows7, speakers.

anything apart from the psu that can be reused? case? dvd drive?
 
I'll be reusing everything apart from motherboard, cpu and cooler and ram if i can. Power supply is as above and gpu is 8800gt.
price around £300 max as the ocuk bundle i was looking at comes in just below that.
 
I haven't really used my pc for a long time, the 8800 will be fine for any gaming i will do, bit of CSS maybe here and there but i've moved on to consoles for my gaming nowadays.
 
here you go then.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £111.61
(£94.99) £111.61
(£94.99)
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
(£74.03) £86.99
(£74.03)
Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMD4GX3M2A1600C9) £76.36
(£64.99) £76.36
(£64.99)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1156 / 1366) £18.99
(£16.16) £18.99
(£16.16)
Sub Total : £250.17
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £45.44
Total : £305.11

and your psu, as you thought, will still be good.
 
Dreadi said:
I know you may hate me asking this but any reason for amd over intel? I thought intel were still the number ones ?
Click to expand...

at that price range, AMD rules, Intel start to get good with budgets of £700 or more(for a complete base unit).

the 955 is a quad, the i3 530 is just a dual core with Hyperthreading
 
Last edited:
stulid - ok, cheers for that mate. It's given me something to look into now. How are they for overclocking ?

cat - really? mines a bad clocker though...I still have my 144 opteron around somewhere that was 3.1ghz + stable! :D
 
Dreadi said:
How are they for overclocking ?
Click to expand...

piece of p***!!!!!!!

the Black edition chips have an unlocked multiplier, so just enter the bios, and with every increase of this by +1, instant 200mhz gain.

its one reason the 955 is suggested over the 965 chip, to turn the 955 into a 965 just needs the multiplier increased by 1
 
OK, im just about to order this but before i do, one last question.

I have gone with the RAM spec'd above by stulid but on the today only deals theres a triple channel 6gb kit.
Now, i know this wont make a difference under a 32-bit OS but would it be worth the extra spending the extra £20ish to get the get the extra stick as can get a 64-bit os if i wanted to? It also states the ram has intel xmp yada yada but i'm assuming it would still work fine with amd architecture?

Currently my basket looks like this (I changed the heatsink for the coolermaster one as it has a 120mm fan and allows another to be fitted. For the extra £1 I feel it's the better option. Opinions?)


AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £117.49
(£99.99) £117.49
(£99.99)
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
(£74.03) £86.99
(£74.03)
Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMD4GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMD4GX3M2A1600C9) £81.99
(£69.78) £81.99
(£69.78)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1156/1366) Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1156/1366) £19.99
(£17.01) £19.99
(£17.01)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99
(£5.10) £5.99
(£5.10)
Sub Total : £265.91
Shipping cost based on delivery to Credit/debit card billing addres, GL15 5FB with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £46.53
Total : £312.44
 
Just seen it doesnt mention triple channel with the board anyways.

So just before I hit buy...:D
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £117.49
(£99.99) £117.49
(£99.99)
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
(£74.03) £86.99
(£74.03)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £76.36
(£64.99) £76.36
(£64.99)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1156/1366) Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1156/1366) £19.99
(£17.01) £19.99
(£17.01)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99
(£5.10) £5.99
(£5.10)
Sub Total : £261.12
Shipping cost based on delivery to Credit/debit card billing addres, GL15 5FB with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £45.70
Total : £306.82

And all is good?
 
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