£450ish on upgrade

slippy · 2 Dec 2007 at 18:59

Hi folks,

I haven't upgraded since 2004, so I think that maybe it's about time..

I'm looking for mobo,ram,graphics and cpu for around 450 quid.

Not really up to date with what's good now, so maybe someone can steer me in the right direction.

Cheers.

fobose · 2 Dec 2007 at 19:07

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.66GHz (1333FSB) - Retail £101.99 (£119.84)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £29.99 (£35.24)
Asus P5KC Combo Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard £74.99 (£88.11)
BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £164.99 (£193.86)

Total : £447.57 inc p&p

Will_3rd · 2 Dec 2007 at 19:08

How about this, under budget too!

slippy · 3 Dec 2007 at 14:37

Hey, thanks for this. Looks like I'm going to have trouble finding a 8800gt this side of Christmas, though.

CrabbyCliff · 3 Dec 2007 at 14:41

nah you wont, every weekend there 10+ in on a couple of them. just keep looking at around 11ish everyday

CyZMyAssBaby · 3 Dec 2007 at 15:07

Will_3rd spec is an excellent spec.

may be worth considering the BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC2 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-053-BG&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1008

Will still bring you under budget at £411.19
including delivery@£8.95

TOTAL £420.14 INC VAT

I presume your using XP? or will you be considering VISTA?

slippy · 3 Dec 2007 at 15:41

Hi mate,

Yeah, XP. I try to give new windows versions a wide berth for a couple of years

I think I prefer the fabose one. I might as well get a retail cpu. I'm not too fussed on overclocking it just yet, so the fancy cooler would be wasted. And I've used asus mobo's since 2000 with no probs.

What's the onboard audio like these days? worth buying a soundcard on top or not? I don't have a fancy sound system, just some decent sennheisers.

CyZMyAssBaby · 3 Dec 2007 at 15:47

Unless you are a audio music buff or extreme gamer wanting to "emerge oneself"?

The abit pro has 7.1 HD Audio so IMO you should be fine with that.

R4z0r · 3 Dec 2007 at 15:48

Will's spec is exactly what I'd go for with the exception of the cooler, I'd save some money there and go for a Arctic Cooling Freezer 7.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-017-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=821

Also, is your PSU up to it? If you haven't upgraded for a while it might not be powerfull enough.

slippy · 3 Dec 2007 at 15:53

It's 500w with the pci-e connection. I had to buy one last year as my antec one went poof!

slippy · 3 Dec 2007 at 16:25

Another q, can you get IDE caddy's you can hotswap with? I have one now, but I have to turn it off before I swap the drives as otherwise it hangs.

R4z0r · 3 Dec 2007 at 16:40

slippy said:
It's 500w with the pci-e connection. I had to buy one last year as my antec one went poof!

Cool, in that case you may want to use the money you've saved one a decent graphics card cooler for you 8800GT. See the below thread for benefits:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17803694

As you can see, even passively, it's more efficient than the stock cooler so you'd get better cooling plus no noise

I don't know about your HDD question though.