£200 upgrade system for Wife

Starkiller

Starkiller

Starkiller

Associate
Joined
6 Jul 2004
Posts
157
Location
Staffs UK
Hi again

Its been a while since ive upgraded a PC, so I was wondering if someone could help me select a package for a Xmas present[yes she does want this :D ]

her old pc AMD1800/233 Gigabyte
I will keep the case and drives etc to keep costs down
It has a sound card which I can reuse or onboard is ok too

looking for New Mainboard - Processer - Memory - graphics

budget is £200 maybe i bit more if needed

shes mostly likes MSN games, but likes UT2004 now and again, so a decent G.C would be great
reliablity is most important

I will be getting this kit from OC-UK BTW

many thanks
 
Don t no if u won t an intel or amd system so here is both.

AMD system:
Abit KN9 Ultra nForce 570 Ultra
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-096-AB
£70.49 inc VAT

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.80GHz
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-162-AM
£52.86 inc VAT

Leadtek GeForce 6200 Turbo Cache 256MB
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-060-LT
£28.19 inc VAT

Crucial 512MB (2x256MB) DDR2 PC2-4200C4 Dual Channel Kit
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-080-CR
£44.64 inc VAT

Total £196.18

==========================================================

Intel system:

Gigabyte GA_945PL_S3
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-064-GI
£62.26 inc VAT

Intel Pentium 4 524 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.06GHz
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-134-IN
£52.86 inc VAT

Crucial 512MB (2x256MB) DDR2 PC2-4200C4 Dual Channel Kit
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-080-CR
£44.64 inc VAT

BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7300 LE Turbo Cache 256MB DDR
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-028-BG
£37.59 inc VAT

Total £197.35
 
thanks for the advise

I normally go AMD, because of cost
But I am happy to go either way

I think the Intel route is preferable with the Gigabyte MB [i had a few problems with abit boards 3years ago]

its interesting you select GeForce cards [ my last card was ATI, but had GF3 before that] are these better than current ATi in this price band or is it just preferance

Would it be worth adding £50 to the budget to upgrade the video card??
 
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ATI has nothing worth buying at the moment in the budget range although the 6200 and 7300le are not exactly great anyway and the "turbocache uses your system memory. If you could find a little extra then maybe a 7600GS http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-026-BG would be better.

You might want to shop around a bit though. I would go AMD over a Prescott due to the heat issues of the latter. I only last week purchased an A64 3200+ 2ghz retail boxed for £32.95. In fact i just built a whole rig for someone including Case/psu, Hdd , DVD/RW, 1GB pc3200, Cpu, Motherboard, Fdd and even an OEM version of XP for only £315 with all parts being brand new from online retailers. That included delivery charges too.

There is nothing wrong with Abit boards these days. I am currently running a top end 939 motherboard, the AN8-32X Sli and it is a cracking board. I have also built a couple of other rigs based around Abit motherboards and have always found them to be fast and stable.
 
Abit KN9 Ultra nForce 570 is not in stock ATM,

is it worth waiting or is the 550 version ok?

also the AMD chip is out too. so i might have to spend an extra £12 which is no big problem
 
Just had a look at the 550 and it looks ok to me. I take it you are looking at the 3500+ now. You still might want to shop around a bit though. Have you decided what to do about the graphics card yet?
 
Well you could always think about:

Intel Pentium 4 805 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.66GHz (533FSB) - Retail
£68.14

Asrock ConroeXFire-eSATA2 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£58.74

BFG GeForce 7300 GT OC 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
55.21

Crucial 512MB (2x256MB) DDR2 PC2-4200C4 Dual Channel Kit (CT2KIT3264AA53E)
£44.64


Works out at £226.73 including VAT plus you get dual core as well, also the 7300GT is somewhat better than the 7300LE, all depends on what resolution you plays games at etc.

Also gives you the option of slotting in a better PCIe or processor at a later date.
 
pastymuncher said:
Just had a look at the 550 and it looks ok to me. I take it you are looking at the 3500+ now. You still might want to shop around a bit though. Have you decided what to do about the graphics card yet?
Click to expand...


I think its worth going for the better graphics card[7600GS], as this area has always shown the best results[in terms of upgrades] How does this card rate next to My old x800PE[softmoded]?

I guess im looking at £250ish now, but thats OK she's worth it.

Hi Skilty thanks for your input
What is the benerfit of Pentium 4 805 Dual Core over the AMD3500+ ?

she probably wont run too high a res as her monitor is only 17"crt
 
Your X800XTPE is actually around 25-45% better depending on the game. To get comparitive performance you would be looking at something like a 7600GT and even then your XTPE will still beat it in some games. You are also looking at just over £110 for the cheapest one on here and for someone that only occassionally plays games is not a good investment in my opinion.

The dual core 805 will make things quicker if you are doing two things at the same time such as a virus scan and gaming or in multithreaded apps such as image editing, video encoding etc. One core will do one task and the second core will do the other, or if the app is multithreaded they sort of split the workload between themselves. Games are a different story. There are still not that many games that use dual core cpu's to their full extent and you may even find some games actually running a lot slower. The 805, while a bargain dual core cpu, is really not very good for games and is quite slow unless overclocked to a large degree. If you were talking C2D (Allendale, Conroe) it would be a different thing altogether as they are just about the best cpu's available at the moment.
 
I bought in the end

AMD3500+
Abit KN9 Ultra nForce 570 Ultra
Crucial 512MB (2x256MB) DDR2 PC2-4200C4 Dual Channel Kit
BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600GS OC
and a 160GB Sata Samsung(cuz there was only 1 ide port)

Unfortunatly I found i needed a new ATX 2.2 PSU
and Then I got her a silver thermaltake case and silver DVD as well(birthday present)

so the final bill was near £450 :eek:

But im having a problem after installing XP then nforce software then reboot

it now cant find a boot disk and is stuck in a loop
wont boot to XP disk either

the disks are all present in the bios

any ideas??? please
 
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When you installed the Nvidia chipset drivers did you install the Nvidia IDE drivers? When you get to the right stage in the install process, you get a box comes up and you have to check/uncheck the ones you want/don't want. If i remember rightly it's the top one. You don't need it and it causes problems. Thats why it asks if you are sure you want to install it.

None of this is any use though if you can't get it to boot. It will not boot from the XP disk if it's in the dvd/cd drive even if you select the optical drive as the first boot device in the bios? If you can get it to boot from the XP disk, a reformat/reinstall might be a good idea, followed by the motherboard drivers (latest ones if possible) and then the graphics drivers (also latest ones). If that works then it may be a good idea to check for bios updates. That's assuming you can get it to boot.

You have probably done it, but check the cables are in place securely, just in case. I suppose you can't even get into safe mode either? Have you set the hdd to be the primary boot device in the bios?
 
thanks for reply Pasty

I installed all the drivers from the MB CD[including the ide], in order without rebooting then the Graphic drivers from CD again then rebooted

Ive managed to get it to boot to CD by doing as you said disabling all but the CD-rom...... Strange but it works and im very greatfull

im now reformated & reinstalling XP

Ill grab the latest drivers from Nvida's site, leaving the IDE ones, Ill let you know how i get on

Thanks again
 
250px-Dyson.cleaner.dc07.arp.jpg
:D
 
LoadsaMoney said:
250px-Dyson.cleaner.dc07.arp.jpg
:D
Click to expand...
Im sure that would have been a much better idea

but back to the problem
reinstalled xp & flashed to ver17 bios

Its still got a no boot disk problem

If I set the Bios to CD only & put in the XP disk it boots ok, anything else and it wont.

due to only having 1 IDE and short IDE lead ive had to set the

DVD-rom to master
20GB backup HD to slave[C in windows, trying to change this but cant]

SATA 160 is set to master 5[D in windows]

im thinking of trying disconnecting the 20gb & setting the dvd to slave & full reinstall

what do you think??
 
I think he means driver cleaner. Try disconnecting the 20gb hdd, especially as it's defaulted to the C drive. XP installs by default to the C drive and if it's set to slave then that could possibly confuse it. Also go into the bios and in the hdd boot priority manually select the sata drive as the boot drive Setting the dvd to master should'nt be a problem as it's on a different controller. I have 2 ide dvd drives, one set to master, the other to slave, as well as 2 sata2 hdd's and have no problems. In the bios, under the on-chip sata controller does it have an Enhanced mode? If it does try setting it to that. The sata channels are enabled in the bios i take it?

If that fails go into safe mode and XP's add/remove programs. Uninstall all nvidia drivers. Use driver cleaner (although it appears you have to pay for it now) and remove all traces of Nvidia. Reboot (if possible) and cancel XP's found new hardware wizard. Use the latest drivers (Nvidia's website is down at the moment) and reinstall them leaving out the Nvidia SW ide driver and the Nvidia audio drivers. You don't need the audio drivers as you have realtek onboard sound which has it's own drivers.

Let us know what happens.
 
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Ok, im sorted now disconnecting the 20gb & reinstall did it

now on C and reboots ok every time as it should

I use the cd drivers less the ide ones and the latest geforce for the graphics

just getting xp updates before trying the 20gb again
if it still doesnt like it ill get a USB ext HD case

many thanks
 
CHUDS said:
would you ever go for second hand stuff?
Click to expand...

I really depends on what it was and cost/new

some thing just arnt worth the risk, unless it comes from a known source ie a friend, but most of my friends have my cast offs.

as for the wife system its bought and built now

but theres always a next upgrade......
 
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