£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

.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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....

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

.

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?

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 17:41

Explicit said:
Actually, I've just found this...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=97395

Overclocked E6400 @ 2.7GHz looks like it gives the FX60 @ 3.6Ghz a run for it's money, so I'm quite sure it'll destroy the X2 3800+

Won't I have to buy a £180 mobo just to get conroe though? I really dont want to spend anything above £120 on a mobo, £120 seems too much to me anyway!

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 18:00

Explicit said:
There will have to be some cheaper motherboards, Intel know very well that everybody has a different budget. Just think how silly it would be for Intel to release the cheap E6300 with no cheap motherboard to go with it...not sensible. £180 is for the other end of the spectrum, where you don't mind going to extreme lengths to get extreme performance at an extreme price.

Thing is, cheap mobo for conroe will probably be about £100 and not half as good for overclocking.

And I noticed, say I buy this X1800XT 256mb for the £165, is it worth me then buying a cooler for it and overclocking it a bit? How much do these things overclock?

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 18:49

Explicit said:
We shall have to wait and see when Intel releases its new 965 chipset in July...

So are you not considering any of the above specs then?

About the X1800XT overclocking, your best bet is to ask in the graphics section, I'm not too sure. Of course it will overclock a bit, but how much I don't know.

Im consdiering...
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
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£164.44
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£17.57

Total cost: £435.64 Inc VAT

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:04

Hmmm, maybe I should get a 7900GT and overclock it. I know the X1800XT beats it stock but the 7900GT looks a very nice card to overclock and I assume it beats the X1800XT as that hardly clocks at all.

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:11

Explicit said:
Looks good to me today, but maybe not on July 23rd

I don't want to tell you to wait nor do I want to tell you to buy a 939/AM2 rig because everyone has a different opinion. It's upto you to decide how urgent your need to upgrade is. Ask yourself whether you really need to upgrade now as opposed to the end of next month - that might help you decide. I should also add that you probably won't save much money by buying a Conroe rig, but what you certainly will get is better performance for your money.

HTH

Please do tell me because I hate making decisions on my own!

:

Man, I think I'll give it a month, I seriously want to know how much these conroes/motherboards are going to cost!

UKTopGun · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:36

Right lets do some maths

IN US Pentium D 960 = £280 ($528)
IN UK Pentium D 960 = £388 ($731)
Now thats a 39% increase

Soooo....

Theoretically
IN US E6400 = £129 ($243)
IN UK E6400 = £179 ($337)

UKTopGun · 3 Jun 2006 at 11:48

I was just thinking, how will my board be for overclocking? I heard the DFIs are good but I have some cheap value crucial memory. I really do want to overclock my X2 3800+ so I'm hoping that this motherboard is good for overclocking, can anybody tell me?

Cheers,

Also, I have decided not to go conroe because of the more expensive mobo's and new ram I would have to buy which I just cant afford.

And another... Should I still wait until July 23rd to see if AMD lower there prices? Will AMD lower there prices at all?

UKTopGun · 3 Jun 2006 at 12:55

Pr0t0c0L said:
WAIT FOR CONROE

even a 2.13ghz conroe beats a stock amd FX

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=101425

i know people say that cpu tech is evolving constantly, this isnt just a 200mhz bump ist a big generation/architecture bump

so wait till end of July when these are released

But I dont know if I will be able to afford a conroe! Although it could be worth the wait... I will just have to see what prices the mobos are.