£300-£500 Spec please :)

TreeUK

TreeUK

TreeUK

Associate
Joined
18 Apr 2006
Posts
125
Location
Hampshire
Hi all,

The fan on my ATI Radeon 9600 just stopped spinning and is determined to melt down so I guess it's time to upgrade.

My current spec is:
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe, AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2800+, 1 Gig Ram [half PC2100, half PC3200 icky...]. CoolerMaster 430W PSU.

I'm looking for mobo, processor, RAM and graphics card. Clearly asking the earth for the budget I'm on..

Ideally want to be able to run decent games well now but will buy a new graphics card when the whole directx 10 thing isn't so new so it doesn't have to be a 70 FPS behemoth.

If it were possible I'd be looking at the £300 but will stretch to £500 if it will future proof me somewhat.. (to the end of the year at least)

If anyone can recommend a replacement fan / cooler for the graphics card I'll try and reuse it if I can.
 
Last edited:
how about this:

Connect3D ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit

Intel Core 2 DUO E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

comes in at £489.87

or if you wanna save go for just 1 gb of ram below.... (saves £70)

GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit

do you need a hard drive? if so go for:

Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM which is £50:)

this will give you a fantastic system.
 
Or you could go for 2gb of OcUK branded ram, still pretty cool and giving you a good clock saving you enough for the new HD or PSU (which you'll probably need)
 
Apatche64 said:
for the £25 price difference i say go for the geil, but i wont be offended at all if you go for the cheaper stuff:)
Click to expand...

Sugar, hadn't realised it was only £25 differance. In that case I would go for the Geil.

But you seriously want to think about changing your power supply. You'll prolly need all sort of converters just to make the old one work. Even then it may die taking your new gear with it (and your garuntee)

Sorry buddy but you'll have to put £50 or so aside for a good qual 500w PSU. I always buy Enermax btw. Had a 480w one which I bought for my XP2600 (when they were brand new) and was perfectly able to power this rig. It cost nearly £100 but improved my overclock no end and lasted 3-4 years.

I know its way over budget but with the x1950pro it should be well future proofed.

btw, what size monitor do you have and what is its native resolution?
 
Great spec guys, I don't need a HD got 2 500gig satas.

Any chance you could refactor it with the
GeCube ATI Radeon X1950 Pro FZ SuperCooled TURBO SILENT TEC/Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI - £173.89 as a replacement?

Looks and sounds the shizzle I can write off the tax if you were including that in the calc. Also is the form factor different between my old mobo and the new one.. will I need a new case?
 
btw, you could also thing about the Asus P5N-E instead of the DS3.

I have the ds3 and consider it to be great but the Asus is based on a newer chipset. Food for thought?
 
I have a HYUNDAI N91W native resolution is 1440 x 1900.. or at least that's the max my card can have it.
 
Is your case ATX? then no, if its MATX then yes.

Sorry mate, its more expence. Hey why do those credit card companies keep offering you 6 months interest free credit?

So you can buy the machine you want now, pay it off in six month and then you have six months to save for your next upgrade.

You have to be strict with yourself mind you. Otherwise the banks start making money and we can't have that can we?
 
Thats a pretty high screen res. The X1950p will be fine for the mo. You might have to drop some detail in next gen games.

But if you need a gpu now and best bang for buc then x1950p it is.



You could always volt mod it :D
 
TreeUK said:
Great spec guys, I don't need a HD got 2 500gig satas.

Any chance you could refactor it with the
GeCube ATI Radeon X1950 Pro FZ SuperCooled TURBO SILENT TEC/Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI - £173.89 as a replacement?

Looks and sounds the shizzle I can write off the tax if you were including that in the calc. Also is the form factor different between my old mobo and the new one.. will I need a new case?
Click to expand...

do me a favour, tell me what case you have etc... i.e tell me all of your components from your old computer..

what size monitor is that? 24"?

if you were going for the x1950 above you might aswell go for the 7950's out ...

so vat isn't a factor then? right ... think you'll need a new case and psu by the looks of it ...

answer my questions and i'll sort you out the very best spec for price.
 
Last edited:
Apatche64 said:
do me a favour, tell me what case you have etc... i.e tell me all of your components from your old computer..

what size monitor is that? 24"?

if you were going for the x1950 above you might aswell go for the 7950's out ...

so vat isn't a factor then? right ... think you'll need a new case and psu by the looks of it ...

answer my questions and i'll sort you out the very best spec for price.
Click to expand...

The screen is "19.

I listed the majority but I've got an unbranded ATX case, Pioneer DVD drive - 106R, LG GSA-4082B DVD Rewriter. HD501LJ 500 Gig SATA and a 300 Gig Maxtor SATA drive. Only have onboard sound. Logitech MX1000 mouse, Saitek Eclipse keyboard... Not sure any of those add anything to your spec though?

Just realised, I'd need cooling for the processor, hadn't noticed that wasn't originally specced.
 
Last edited:
for a 19" screen your resolution is very high? have you made a typo? '1440 x 1900' did you mean 1440 x 900? if so that's much easier to spec for:)

the retail c2d processor comes with a hsf so no need for that:)

you might be ok with your power supply for now but any other upgrade would require an upgrade, maybe worth thinking about doing it now , to 500-600w...
 
TreeUK said:
Do you think you could respec it including the case and PSU?
Click to expand...

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) £124.99
(£146.86) £124.99
(£146.86)
HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ 3 TURBO SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (H195PRQT256DD-R) HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ 3 TURBO SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (H195PRQT256DD-R) £107.99
(£126.89) £107.99
(£126.89)
Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
Intel Core 2 DUO E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 DUO E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £95.99
(£112.79) £95.99
(£112.79)
Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Silver Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Silver £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
FSP Sparkle Blue Storm 2 500W ATX2.0 PSU FSP Sparkle Blue Storm 2 500W ATX2.0 PSU £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Sub Total : £496.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
Vat : £88.88
Total : £596.77

Just under £500 exc. VAT. You get a brilliant case/PSU combo. Decent RAM, agood overclocking motherboard and nice quiet, fast graphics.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom