£500 Inc. VAT

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 11:00

Hello guys,
I am planning on buying a new PC with a budget of £500 Inc. VAT. I will not need a whole new system just a new:

- Graphics card (PCI-E - I am a gamer)
- Motherboard (PCI-E)
- Processor (AMD or Intel but I am a gamer!)
- Coolers (If you guys think I should OC anything you recommend)

RAM not nessercary but I will see what you guys recommend.

Im currently on Skt754 w/
Asus K8VSE-Deluxe
6800GT (AGP)
AMD64 3000+ (Newcastle)
(Should be able to sell for around £160 I hope - dont add that on to my budget just wondering if it really would go for £160 or maybe I should be expecting less?)

Also I'm buying an Antec P180 off my brother so my system should have a good airflow even if it will be a pain for me to setup.

Edit: Im currently look at:
On special offer this week!
BFG GeForce 7900 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) for only £193 Inc. VAT

Cheap deal to me so thought you guys might want to look at it

.

Explicit · 2 Jun 2006 at 11:10

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£190.29
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£63.39
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-043-HT)
£205.57
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£17.57

Total inc VAT: £476.82

OR

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£202.04
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£63.39
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP)
£252.57

Total inc VAT: £518.00

I presume you have normal DDR RAM at the moment? Also, what power supply do you have?

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 11:17

Thanks for the quick reply.

Im currently on a Antec Truepower II 480W
And im some some corsair value select 2gb (2x1gb but not dual channel I dont think but they are both same models).

Do you recommend the Dualcore 3800+ for the overclocking?

Also should I maybe go AM2 if I want to upgrade my PC in 1 years time?

Explicit · 2 Jun 2006 at 11:21

I think you should go for dual core these days, it's a bit more future proof. The 3800+s have been overclocking well recently, easily reaching 2.5/2.6GHz.

If you want to go AM2, you will need to buy DDR2 RAM as well, which means more cost.

Your PSU should be fine.

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 11:26

Explicit said:
I think you should go for dual core these days, it's a bit more future proof. The 3800+s have been overclocking well recently, easily reaching 2.5/2.6GHz.

If you want to go AM2, you will need to buy DDR2 RAM as well, which means more cost.

Your PSU should be fine.

Is that 2.5Ghz/2.6Ghz stable on air?
And yes, forgot about the ddr2 ram bit, I mean I'd still want to be on 2GB and for that new G.Skill cheap stuff its still £117 and that knocks a lot of my budget down. Although I could probably sell my current RAM for about £60 not sure if it would be worth it.

Explicit · 2 Jun 2006 at 11:33

UKTopGun said:
Is that 2.5Ghz/2.6Ghz stable on air?
And yes, forgot about the ddr2 ram bit, I mean I'd still want to be on 2GB and for that new G.Skill cheap stuff its still £117 and that knocks a lot of my budget down. Although I could probably sell my current RAM for about £60 not sure if it would be worth it.

Yep, that's stable on air.

If you did want to go AM2, then here's a rough idea of costs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-166-AM)
£211.44
MSI K9N Platinum nForce 570 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-070-MS)
£93.94
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 LA PC2-5300 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-5400PHU2-2GBLA) (MY-012-GS)
£117.44
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£164.44

Total inc VAT: £587.26

Might be worth it, but the CPUs are not in stock yet and we're not sure how well these new CPUs will overclock. Nor do we know how stable these motherboards are .

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 11:55

Explicit I notice you have noted both 256mb and 512mb versions of the same cards. Is this really worth it? Im thinking it possibly is because I have 2gb of ram.

With 512mb do I get performance increases over 256mb with AA and AF on? And are there any current/future titles which require 512mb?

Explicit · 2 Jun 2006 at 14:27

UKTopGun said:
Explicit I notice you have noted both 256mb and 512mb versions of the same cards. Is this really worth it? Im thinking it possibly is because I have 2gb of ram.

With 512mb do I get performance increases over 256mb with AA and AF on? And are there any current/future titles which require 512mb?

The 512MB version is just slightly more future proof. But the deciding factor should be your screen resolution. When gaming on a resolution upto and including 1280 x 1024, you will not notice any difference between the two cards. The 512MB version only kicks in when you play games at higher resolutions e.g. 1680 x 1050.

So if you have a 20" monitor you should take the 512MB version. For 15"/17"/19" monitors, the 256MB will perform the same as the 512MB version (but there is no harm in taking the 512MB version for future proofing).

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:34

By future proofing I will probably be upgrading in 1 year, maybe a little more, will anything 512mb be any use to me then? Personally I'd rather save myself £40 and spend that towards other stuff it just depends how useful this 512mb would be.

I might be upgrading to a 19" widescreen but that still doesnt have that high resolutions.

Stelly · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:36

Explicit said:
Yep, that's stable on air.

If you did want to go AM2, then here's a rough idea of costs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-166-AM)
£211.44
MSI K9N Platinum nForce 570 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-070-MS)
£93.94
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 LA PC2-5300 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-5400PHU2-2GBLA) (MY-012-GS)
£117.44
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£164.44

Total inc VAT: £587.26

Might be worth it, but the CPUs are not in stock yet and we're not sure how well these new CPUs will overclock. Nor do we know how stable these motherboards are .

That looks rather a good set up

Stelly

Explicit · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:44

UKTopGun said:
By future proofing I will probably be upgrading in 1 year, maybe a little more, will anything 512mb be any use to me then? Personally I'd rather save myself £40 and spend that towards other stuff it just depends how useful this 512mb would be.

I might be upgrading to a 19" widescreen but that still doesnt have that high resolutions.

I think the X1800XT 256MB version is better suited to your needs. It's fine for a 19" monitor, so don't worry about not having 512MB. It will certainly last for 1 year, in time for your next upgrade.

Stelly said:
That looks rather a good set up

Stelly

Cheers mate

tom_nieto · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:45

What about an opteron 144? I hear these are capable of 3Ghz. There are many examples of these going to 2.6-2.8 on air. Cheaper to buy than the X2 3800 too. It would be socket 939 though.

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:56

tom_nieto said:
What about an opteron 144? I hear these are capable of 3Ghz. There are many examples of these going to 2.6-2.8 on air. Cheaper to buy than the X2 3800 too. It would be socket 939 though.

Thing is I still like the idea of going dual-core. Playing games while doing other stuff is sexy and I think the dual-core opterons are very expensive. And atm anyway I might be going Skt939 anyway, hmm decisions decisions....

ACESHIGH · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:03

if you have some good DDR ram, get a X2 3800+, overclock it & matched with the X1800XT 256MB (great price currently too), will be a very nice rig!

Explicit · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:03

UKTopGun said:
And atm anyway I might be going Skt939 anyway, hmm decisions decisions....

Here's my view based on the way things stand at the moment:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7152751&postcount=7

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:10

Explicit said:
Here's my view based on the way things stand at the moment:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7152751&postcount=7

Hmmm so Skt939 it is!
BUT how will a Skt 939 3800+ X2 @ 2.6Ghz compare to a 2.13Ghz or 2.4Ghz Conroe?

Should I wait?

Also explicit just a question, I have no idea what makes a good mobo but why did you choose the Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra. I dont see anything wrong with it just wondering so I can get a better understanding

.

ACESHIGH · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:13

My view is get whats best now & enjoy it.
Otherwise you could wait forever.
I would get the X2 3800+.
The Conroe chips are going to be fairly expensive from what i know too.

Explicit · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:23

UKTopGun said:
Hmmm so Skt939 it is!
BUT how will a Skt 939 3800+ X2 @ 2.6Ghz compare to a 2.13Ghz or 2.4Ghz Conroe?

Should I wait?

Also explicit just a question, I have no idea what makes a good mobo but why did you choose the Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra. I dont see anything wrong with it just wondering so I can get a better understanding .

The stock E6600 2.4Ghz Conroe will walk over the overclocked X2 3800+ at 2.6Ghz. But that's 2 months away. I don't know whether you should wait, it's a matter of debate.

As for the A8N-E, it's a simple and cheap mobo with none of this fancy crossfire/sli technology which adds to the cost. Realistically, most people don't need crossfire/sli (you certainly won't need it with a 19" monitor) so that's why I go for cheap and cheerful. The more expensive but better overclocking mobo would be the DFI Ultra-D, but that's quite picky with RAM (esp corsair).

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:26

Explicit said:
The stock E6600 2.4Ghz Conroe will walk over the overclocked X2 3800+ at 2.6Ghz. But that's 2 months away. I don't know whether you should wait, it's a matter of debate.

I can wait 2 months if it means saving me some £££.

Will there be a 2.4Ghz Conroe for £200 is the question though, does anybody know?

How will the 2.13Ghz Conroe overclocked be against a X2 3800+ overclocked?

Explicit · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:39

UKTopGun said:
Will there be a 2.4Ghz Conroe for £200 is the question though, does anybody know?

I'd be very surprised if the E6600 (2.4GHz version) was £200, I'd say it will be around the £250 mark. This is speculation, nobody knows the UK prices yet.

UKTopGun said:
How will the 2.13Ghz Conroe overclocked be against a X2 3800+ overclocked?

That's an interesting question. The E6400 (2.13GHz version) is a "watered-down" version which only has 2MB cache, whereas the E6600/E6700 will have 4MB cache. I'm not entirely sure how the the E6400 compares to the X2 3800+, only benchmarks will tell when they're released. I suspect that the E6400 will be marginally better. Also, this one is more likely to be around the £200 mark IMO.