£300 Upgrade

just Scott

just Scott

just Scott

Soldato
Joined
15 Sep 2006
Posts
4,991
Location
Liverpool
Hey guys, I have £300 that I would like to spend on upgrades for my computer. I was just going to go with some new hard drives and just keep the rest.

Anyway, here's what I have a the min:

x2 3800+
ASUS A8N-E
1GB Corsair Value Select PC3200
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
1x 80GB Maxtor ATA
1x 80GB Maxtor SATA
Leadtek GeForce 6600TD

I've already established that I won't be needing a new GFX card as I don't play any games. But what else can I upgrade?

I don't want to go Conroe just yet. This computer will be fine until next year when I decide to do a bigger upgrade.

I'd like £300 to be the limit please.
 
What sort of programmes do you run? RAM may be a good idea as DDR1 is really going up in price and down in availability now so 2GB might be an idea.
 
Alexrose1uk said:
What sort of programmes do you run? RAM may be a good idea as DDR1 is really going up in price and down in availability now so 2GB might be an idea.
Click to expand...

I run Virtual Dub (I capture video a lot), Sony Vegas, Adobe After Effects, Photoshop CS2, Kaspersky (listed this because it can sometimes slow boot time down a lot), Windows Media Encoder, DivX/XviD.

I do a lot of video editing and video encoding. More RAM would be the best yeah, but then I'd have to reseat the Freezer 64 because it covers the DIMM slots. And it was very fiddly and hard to install first time around. If I did get more RAM, I'd need some new thermal paste also wouldn't I? To reseat the cooler.
 
Hahah, if you take care its not too bad. I had to seat a Freezer 64 Pro the other day myself. Its a bitch, but if you take the motherboard out and place it on a flat surface its not too bad, and considering your work load, that RAM would make the most difference, especially if you buy now for £150 before sticks start going for 100+ each :(

Demand - Supply = :eek: Prices

(just look at 8800GTX when it came out - £600 for one of the models!)
 
Alexrose1uk said:
Hahah, if you take care its not too bad. I had to seat a Freezer 64 Pro the other day myself. Its a bitch, but if you take the motherboard out and place it on a flat surface its not too bad, and considering your work load, that RAM would make the most difference, especially if you buy now for £150 before sticks start going for 100+ each :(

Demand - Supply = :eek: Prices

(just look at 8800GTX when it came out - £600 for one of the models!)
Click to expand...

I'll be buying this week. Probably tonight or tommorrow, so I doubt it will rise in price by then. And yeah, DDR1 prices seem a little high don't they. : /

And I hated installing the Freezer because if I tried to fit in, half of the thermal paste would come off the heatsink and the other half would be on the CPU. So it was quite a mess and took me like 5 attempts to get it on properly. :mad:
 
2gb of memory plus a new hdd would be my choice, then sell the 1gb and make some dosh back... ;)

Yeah the freezer can be a b**ch to install at times, but they're worth it... :D
 
t31os said:
2gb of memory plus a new hdd would be my choice, then sell the 1gb and make some dosh back... ;)

Yeah the freezer can be a b**ch to install at times, but they're worth it... :D
Click to expand...

Would the OCUK value 2GB kit give a noticable performance increase?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-006-OK

Or should I pay a bit more and get the GeIL or some of the expensive Corsair stuff?

Thanks.
 
Geil I'd say would be better as it has tighter timings than the OcUK Value, and thus with looser timings may well clock further if you decide to overclock, and if not will be a little nippier, as AMD64 likes low latency over high bandwidth. (The OcUK value is higher latency :( )
 
Alexrose1uk said:
Geil I'd say would be better as it has tighter timings than the OcUK Value, and thus with looser timings may well clock further if you decide to overclock, and if not will be a little nippier, as AMD64 likes low latency over high bandwidth. (The OcUK value is higher latency :( )
Click to expand...

Oh, by the way, I found the RAM I bought a while ago with this computer:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-042-CS

Would it be wroth getting two more sticks of this (it's the exact same module), so I'd be running 4x512MB = 2GB. Or would I be better off just selling these two 512MB sticks and getting a pair of 2x1GB sticks?

Only problem with this is I have no idea where I would sell the RAM. (I don't want to eBay them, lol)
 
2x1gb is better.

4x512mb should be fine, but just know some boards can be iffy with 4 sticks... though in theory there shouldnt be any problem.
 
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