£400 Budget - Worth Upgrading

delta99

delta99

delta99

Associate
Joined
3 Feb 2010
Posts
21
Hi there, looking to upgrade from:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
K9N Diamond
Kingston 1GB
Nvidia 7900GS

It's not a great PC I know :p but I play games fine on it... Although sometimes it does get slow.

I just thought I'd the upgrade the CPU, Mobo, Memory, Vidcard & PSU.
(Well all I'm salvaging is the CASE+HDDS)

In your honest opinion what would I get for £400? Would I be better off waiting till next year and spend double on something worth getting?

And in the meantime overclock this machine ?
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
HIS ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
(£127.65) £149.99
(£127.65)
Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
(£68.08) £79.99
(£68.08)
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 630 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £70.49
(£59.99) £70.49
(£59.99)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £65.99
(£56.16) £65.99
(£56.16)
Corsair CX 430W ATX Power Supply £37.98
(£32.32) £37.98
(£32.32)
Sub Total : £344.20
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £61.99
Total : £416.19
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus GeForce GTX 460 1024MB DirectCU GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with HAWX2 PC-Game £149.99
(£127.65) £149.99
(£127.65)
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 630 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £70.49
(£59.99) £70.49
(£59.99)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £65.99
(£56.16) £65.99
(£56.16)
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £58.74
(£49.99) £58.74
(£49.99)
Corsair CX 500W ATX Power Supply £49.98
(£42.54) £49.98
(£42.54)
Sub Total : £336.33
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £60.61
Total : £406.94


no point overclocking your existing pc, it really is just too old and long in the tooth to make any difference.
 
Wow, that was fast!!! Thanks Stulid

Looks quite a good system for the price.
Compared to my current system what sort of performance difference can I expect?
 
delta99 said:
Compared to my current system what sort of performance difference can I expect?
Click to expand...

a BIG difference, its probably measured in X's faster rather than percentages.

The CPU difference will be silly, will look something like this comparison - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/116?vs=105

and your 7900 gpu will get squashed by either the 6850 or the GTX460 in each spec.

either spec will allow you to not really worry about new game releases and thinking to yourself "is my pc good enough"
 
Last edited:
So would recommend:
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 630 2.80GHz

over

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3)

I'm thinking the budget could be stretched to a further £50?

Thanks for the help
 
delta99 said:
So would recommend:
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 630 2.80GHz

over

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3)

I'm thinking the budget could be stretched to a further £50?

Thanks for the help
Click to expand...

then thats a good cpu upgrade too, just use the benckmark i linked above and pick a 955be vs 630 comparision
 
another,

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus GeForce GTX 460 1024MB DirectCU GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with HAWX2 PC-Game £149.99
(£127.65) £149.99
(£127.65)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £117.49
(£99.99) £117.49
(£99.99)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £65.99
(£56.16) £65.99
(£56.16)
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £58.74
(£49.99) £58.74
(£49.99)
*** PROMO *** OCZ StealthXStream 2 500W Power Supply £30.98
(£26.37) £30.98
(£26.37)
Sub Total : £360.16
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £64.78
Total : £434.94
 
Thanks, well it came off much better comparison

Just saw this in the Phenom 955BE review...

"Reviewed by: j2o (fife)

why pay £30 more for the same thing as the 555be = B55 ,for a setting in the bios dont think so lol"

he/she right or talking crap? :-D Thanks, looks like I'll be ordering then!!!
 
delta99 said:
Thanks, well it came off much better comparison

Just saw this in the Phenom 955BE review...

"Reviewed by: j2o (fife)

why pay £30 more for the same thing as the 555be = B55 ,for a setting in the bios dont think so lol"

he/she right or talking crap? :-D Thanks, looks like I'll be ordering then!!!
Click to expand...

it is possible to unlock a 555be dual core into a quad core, as they are just failed quad core dies with the extra cores disabled.

this "unlocking" isn't guaranteed, you may be able to unlock both extra cores or just one.
 
I'd recommend a Pentium G6950 coupled with a Gigabyte GA-H55M-UDH2 and the Corsair XMS3 that Stulid lists.

Overclock the cpu to around 4Ghz (can go to 4.64GHz easy on that board) and it will kill both the Athlon II X4 and be a strong rival for the Phenom II X4.

All for a total of around £200.

Add the GTX460 and the StealthXStream 2 500W and the total is just under your budget!
 
delta99 said:
Thanks, well it came off much better comparison

Just saw this in the Phenom 955BE review...

"Reviewed by: j2o (fife)

why pay £30 more for the same thing as the 555be = B55 ,for a setting in the bios dont think so lol"

he/she right or talking crap? :-D Thanks, looks like I'll be ordering then!!!
Click to expand...

He's talking out of his anus.
Hes basically telling everyone to get a X2 555BE on the basis it MIGHT unlock and be stable as either a X3 or an X4
 
Nice one! Thanks guys for clearing that up!

So its intel vs AMD ?

Definitely sold on the Asus GeForce GTX 460 and its got to be the Corsair XMS3.

Not sure which CPU/Mobo now lol

Will overclocking it to 4ghz eventually weaken it though? I expect this system to run for at least 2-3 years... Will the AMD (no oc) be a better option in the long run?

Cheers guys
 
delta99 said:
Nice one! Thanks guys for clearing that up!

So its intel vs AMD ?

Definitely sold on the Asus GeForce GTX 460 and its got to be the Corsair XMS3.

Not sure which CPU/Mobo now lol

Will overclocking it to 4ghz eventually weaken it though? I expect this system to run for at least 2-3 years... Will the AMD (no oc) be a better option in the long run?

Cheers guys
Click to expand...


AMD not overclocked will be decimated by the Pentium :p However, as games develop they may start to need three or four cores to perform decently. In which case the Phenom II would be a better bet.

Tbh, Ive never really heard of an overclock reducing life (especially if cooled decently), and 4GHz is nowhere near the upper boundary of the speed a G6950 can reach - so again, doubt it :p
 
cases are such a personal thing, but there is also these two,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-068-SV&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1092

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-214-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=29

and now here are the stock speed comaprisions of AMD 630 vs Pentium G6950 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/123?vs=105

and AMD 955be vs Pentium G6950 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/123?vs=88

The Black edition AMD cpu's have one huge overclocking advantage other all the others, an unlocked multiplier making it really easy to just crank the speed up.
 
Last edited:
Nice cases too stulid, similar price, silverstone one is nice, I do like the antec one though :D

Right, I'll to think about which CPU to go for, I'm definitely getting one or the other, I've had 3 amds in my life and 1 intel, so part of me wants to try an intel for a change.

But I do like that multiplier option... I'd only use full throttle in gaming and for work/browsing just a low level clock speed, so that option does sound good, plus my pc is on 24/7 so I think maybe amd be might be best

Thanks again guys, will let you know what I've decided, cheers!!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom