£150 for an upgrade...what would you do?

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Caporegime
Joined
13 May 2003
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Warwickshire
Pls looks at my ancient system in sig. I have allocated £150 to upgrade my home office / entertainment system (occasional gaming too), and I would like to know what you would do with £150.

I have figured there are a few options:

- surround sound speaker set and sound card?
- skt 939 mobo and CPU (if significant gains are available for this kind of cash)?
- 1 Gb matched pair DDR RAM, SATA hard drive and controller card?
- 19" TFT? (currently have 15")

...and anything else you could think of. Would really appreciate your input - please list specific products as well as the option.

Thanks :)
 
The RAM seems the best option. Just 'cos you system is a bit old, no need to chuck it. You can probably raise the overclock too, just avoid TCCD in NF7's (Mine hates my TCCD-F). Best off with some BH/CH chips. 512MB is really a Minimum option these days, and more will improve your Gaming as well as things run a bit better in general (Not as much swapping to the HD when you launch an app)

If you want to replace your mobo n chip, the Asrock 939 DUAL SATA2 motherboard will let you use your existing GFX, but go to 939... it's cheap as well, OCUK now sell it, had to buy off a competitor when I got mine. Couple it woith a 3200, you could get a Sempron, but you would really have to clock it, and IIRC, you would lose out on the cache

Monitor is the next on the list when upgrade time is here again.
 
This could be suitable taking the lead from what InSanCen suggests, it is slightly over your budget but should offer some overclocking potential and you can recoup some of the cost by selling some of your old parts.

CP-117-AM AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3000BPBOX) (CP-117-AM)
£59.95 £59.95
MB-002-AK Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 (Socket 939 & Upgradable to AM2) AGP & PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-002-AK)
£36.95 £36.95
MY-037-CR Crucial 1GB DDR PC3200 CAS3.0 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (C2KIT6464Z40B) (MY-037-CR)
£49.95 £49.95
Subtotal £146.85
VAT £25.70
Total £172.55
 
Thanks very much guys. Some sound advice there.

@ InSanCen:

What does TCCD / BH / CH mean? Forgive my noobishness! Also - why is the Asrtock so cheap? Does it limit overclocking possibilities or anything else? Seems good for a 939 board with AGP + PCI-E. The other thing is, is buying DDR now a bit silly since all systems of the near future will use DDR2? Will the setup you have suggested support DDR2 so I could buy 1Gb of that instead of DDR?

@ Semi-pro - that looks like a fair setup and would certainly be a jump from my existing system. I suppose I could wait for all the Conroe people to upgrade and buy some cheap second hand bits off these guys?!

Thanks again guys
 
TCCD/BH & CH are the actual chips on the RAM sticks. my NF-7 and my TCCD sticks do not play nice together, but if you're going for the Asrock, it's not an Issue (Ran TCCD & currently running CH-5 in there)

The Asrock is a great board, I have my X2-4200 in one (typing this on that rig). It runs at 2.7Ghz. Unless you plan to OC in the upper Echelons, then grab one. You'll likely be limited to a 274HTT, but for most people that's not a realistic speed to hit. It's a stonking little board, and one of the best bargains I have ever had. Couple that with a decent Heatsink (Your Socket A will almost certainly not fit, and I'd reccomend either the Thermaltake Big Typhoon or the Sonic Tower, again, I have both, and they're top notch. The Sonic tower is the cheaper, so as not to blow your budget too much!)

Oh, and don't worry about the n0bisness, everyone starts somewhere!

The MM is a great place to get stuff. I got my second rig's mobo (MSI Neo2 Platinum) off there, as well as a few other bits. When conroe hits, you'll be seeing some bargains appear there. You'll need a lot more posts though, I think acces requires 250 posts... I reccomend the General Discussion thread for your Postwhoring needs!
 
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