£300 upgrade

Mack08

Mack08

Mack08

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Joined
16 Feb 2008
Posts
13
Its bonus time and I've ear marked myself £300 to upgrade my PC but I'm not sure which route to go down. Im tempted to just get a Nvidia 9600GT and a new LCD monitor ( still using a 17" CRT ) or do I spend on a new CPU, mobo, mem etc.. I use my pc for gaming and internet but I'm not expecting to play anything like crysis coz thats what my 360 is for, But I would like to play the below games with a bit more grunt. I'll be looking to order on monday.

Wings over israel
Lock on Gold
Armed Assualt
Falcon AF
IL2 1946
Silent hunter 4

here's my current rig

AMD 64 3700+ 2.6 GHz 333 MHz bus
Asrock dual sata 2 mobo AGP + PCI express
1024mb PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB CL2.5 6ns
Powercolour 6800GS 16 pipelines AGP
Western digital WD1200JB 120mb HD c/w 8mb cache IDE
Enermax EG651P-VE 550W ATX PSU
WinXP Home edition SP2
 
I think I would go for something along these lines, Should give you a very good speed boost.
2986_Untitled.jpg


or perhaps this
7885_Untitled.jpg
 
Last edited:
If your existing motherboard will support it :

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT 512MB GDDR4 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) £41.99
(£49.34) £41.99
(£49.34)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ Black Edition 2.60GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Belinea 1925S1W 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)
Sub Total : £281.96
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 : £50.91
Total : £341.82

The 5000BE will o/c to 3.2 fairly easily, which will be a huge boost.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Athlon64-X2-5000-Black-Edition,review-29679.html

You could ofcourse go for the 2x1Gb sticks which would save you £18
 
thanks for the reply, I really dont want an ATI card I've had nothing but bad luck with these in the past and I was looking dont the intel route as well to be honest
 
This is a bit over your budget but offers good performance and some overclockability. You might however need adapters for your PSU if it isn't ATX 2.0 compliant.

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99
(£28.19)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £36.99
(£43.46) £36.99
(£43.46)
OcUK GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £87.99
(£103.39) £87.99
(£103.39)
Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
OcUK Value Hanns-G HW191D 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)
Sub Total : £283.95
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £51.43
Total : £345.33
 
A bit overbudget, you could maybe get a lower spec gfx card, but you want it for gaming, yes?

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £109.99
(£129.24) £109.99
(£129.24)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail £45.99
(£54.04) £45.99
(£54.04)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99
(£28.19)
Belinea 1925S1W 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)
Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Sub Total : £314.95
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £56.86
Total : £381.76
 
thank guys, You've all given me plenty to think about. So you all think that I'd be wasting my time in just buying a 9600gt and a monitor and should go balls out for an upgrade?
 
I think you'd definitely notice the difference by going for the full upgrade and it isn't hugely more than you budgeted to begin with (I love how I can be so casual with 1/6 of the budget :o). If you did want to take it in stages you could always buy the 9600GT and the monitor then upgrade when you have more cash but I'd personally prefer to save up for an extra week or two and go for it all.
 
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