Rip out my guts and replace them with a younger, faster model

[StixxUK]

Well, my PC's if you want to be pedantic.

It's time for a boost. My PC is now 3 years old and it just doesn't cut it any more. Current spec below:

AMD 64 3700+ (stock cooling)
Asus A8N-E
2GB of some blue RAM (GeiL I think)
X800 GTO2 (modded to XTPE with arctic cooler)
200GB Seagate Barracuda (on its way out)
320GB Seagate Barracuda (quite possibly also on its way out - hard drives do not seem to love me)
Seasonic 430W PSU
Antec Sonata 2 case
Some DVD-RW, doesn't really matter...
Creative Audigy 4

Bet some of those components bring back fond memories (who didn't love the GTO2 eh?).

THE PLAN: £400 budget, could flex a little, obviously cheaper is better, but if the sweet spot of priceerformance is a little over, I'm sure I could push the bank account a little. Needs to run games, nicely.

Currently in the firing line is the standard Mobo/CPU/RAM/Graphics combo, though I think I might have to get a new PSU as well.

I'm currently thinking:
Dual-Core Intel processor
Asus mobo as they've never let me down so far
4GB of some RAM or other (running XP - do I need to upgrade to 64-bit to use this? Would probably go Vista as well)
Graphics - no idea, I'm all ears on this one.

If I do need a new OS and PSU, I'd be prepared to spend more. I'm also toying with the idea of a fast HDD like a Raptor to replace the dying 200gb Barracuda.

As always, help is appreciated and rewarded by the warm glow of knowing you've done a good deed. And we all love speccing systems anyway

 

[Strife212]

Just a quick observation, the Raptor takes up way too much of a £400 budget to be possible.

 

[jak731]

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £30.99
(£36.41) £30.99
(£36.41)
Abit IP43 Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Platinum Series DDR2 (OCZ2P10664GK) £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
Sub Total : £300.95
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £54.23
Total : £364.13

possible improvements

4850 ->4870 depending on the res you want to game at
3rd party cpu cooler if you want to OC or dont like too much noise

what are your rails like on your PSU and does it have at least 1 6pin pcie connector?

if not http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp... 4-Pin Power Adaptor for PCI-E Graphics Cards may be needed

you will need a 64bit OS if you want to see all your RAM

 

[StixxUK]

Thanks guys

Raptor is out for now then, that's a possible future upgrade - any comment on how much difference one of these makes in general?

Is it worth going to 4GB then? TBH I don't do much photo or video work, just mucking around, general multimedia, web and games. That said, I am planning to upgrade to Vista in the not-too-distant future anyway, so may as well go 64.

Monitor is a 19" (another future upgrade) so I'm limited to 1280x1024

Don't think I do have a 6-pin connector; I seem to remember going through something like this last time, though I can't remember if it was my own PC or one I built for someone else. What's a good way to check the rails? Will the Hardware Monitor in BIOS be good enough or do I need to take readings over a reasonable period of time?

This could get more expensive rather quickly knowing my habits

 

[badbob]

If you're not gaming a 2GB/ £50 GPU will be fine, just a normal family PC.

 

[pingwing]

Man i loved my gto2 back in the day (till i could afford a 7800gt as the thing overheated like mad with a stock cooler on...).

Anyways, i have a velociraptor and it is pretty amazing (windows always seems slow on other pcs now) but yeah wait till you budgets bigger to get one....

I thoughly recomened 4gig if you can push the extra £20 or so (or just fancy overclocking pc6400 versions instead of going for higher rated stuff) and same goes for a 64bit os (unless you love games from pre 2003 on a far too powerful gfx card)

I would look at a new psu in general (just to be on the safeside really) something like an enermax, seasonic or corsair psu (atx2.3) seem to be doing well....

Finally at that resolution a 4850 would be almost too good (but its cheap and will take a much bigger monitor if you upgrade... )

 

[StixxUK]

Here we go:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Abit IP43 Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Abit IP43 Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail HIS ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £63.99
(£75.19) £63.99
(£75.19)
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Platinum Series DDR2 (OCZ2P10664GK) OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Platinum Series DDR2 (OCZ2P10664GK) £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
Sub Total : £333.95
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £60.01
Total : £402.91

Hopping up to include Vista, taken out the new HDD though for now. Is there much point in hopping up the CPU - I'm not up to speed with the latest but that seems quite cheap compared to the graphics. Bearing in mind that I'm not planning on OCing...

 

[manic111]

Here ya go!

 

[StixxUK]

Here ya go!

Is there any way I can get one of those and keep within my Budget?

If not, the CPU, Graphics, mobo and ram may have to wait.