£500 to spend on an upgrade

McLaren · 11 Mar 2006 at 22:03

Hi all i have £500 to spend on an upgrade so what i want to get with the £500 is a motherboard, cpu, mem. Graphics Card.
It will be for games and going on the net with.

McLaren · 12 Mar 2006 at 00:53

I need help dont no what to get my old ring that is broke now was a 2800xp, 786mb, 9700pro.

Explicit · 12 Mar 2006 at 01:08

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
£147.99
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£72.79
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£64.57
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-121-SP) **this week only**
£217.32

Total inc VAT: £502.67

OR

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£193.82
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£72.79
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£64.57
PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-037-PC)
£152.69
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.22

Total inc VAT: £499.09

I presume you have a decent power supply?

McLaren · 12 Mar 2006 at 01:13

Explicit said:
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
£147.99
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£72.79
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£64.57
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-121-SP) **this week only**
£217.32

Total inc VAT: £502.67

OR

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£193.82
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£72.79
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£64.57
PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-037-PC)
£152.69
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.22

Total inc VAT: £499.09

I presume you have a decent power supply?

Hi thanks for that they both look very good.
The ati x1800 XT Is it a better card then the x850 then?

Explicit · 12 Mar 2006 at 01:17

Oh definitely, the X1800XT is buckets and spades better than the X850XT, but the X850XT is also an awesome mid-range card.

McLaren · 12 Mar 2006 at 01:37

I all so have a 300w PSU I think i will i have to get a bigger one?

Explicit · 12 Mar 2006 at 01:47

McLaren said:
I all so have a 300w PSU I think i will i have to get a bigger one?

Yes, I'm afraid so. A Tagan 430W should cover it.

ACESHIGH · 12 Mar 2006 at 05:55

I would advise to go for the dual core X2 3800+, better long term pc.

McLaren · 12 Mar 2006 at 13:49

ACESHIGH said:
I would advise to go for the dual core X2 3800+, better long term pc.

So the dual is a lot better then just a athon 64 then?
What are the new nvida cards like?

ACESHIGH · 12 Mar 2006 at 14:30

The dual cores are great for multitasking & for futureproofing your pc as more & more games (Unreal 3 engine - UT 2007 afaik) & apps are either being patched to use dual cores or will nativley support dual core.

If you just want fast for games only then the 3700+ is still a very good cpu.
But most people do more than just play games on their pc, & dual core is better if you dont plan to upgrade your CPU for a while after.

As for Nvidia cards, their mid - low range cards are good & priced well (6800GS & 7600GT).

Their topend cards are priced very badly imo.

X1900XTX / X1900XT / 7900GTX offer similar performance & yet the Nvidia card is priced about £100+ more. THats why the 7900GTX is not good value.

The X1800XT are faster than the 7900GT & 7800GTX & yet the Nvidia cards are priced about £50 - £80+ more. Again the 7900GT is just not good value.

Melkor · 12 Mar 2006 at 23:35

Hi there,
My first post here so I bumped this thread rather than create a new one as I have a similar question.

Upgrading everything in the box atm excluding optical drives.
So that includes

Mobo
Graphics card
CPU
Power Supply
RAM
Case
Hard Disk <- maybe not

Things to consider:
I upgrade my base system on a fairly tight budget every 3/4 years so I would really like this to be as future proof and solid as possible. I may upgrade the RAM and graphics at some point though.
I dont really need to play games at the top res but would like playable frames for atleast 2 years.
I am going to overclock a bit, but am fairly new at it so nothing hardcore.
Dont realy care about the noise.

Thanks,
Melkor

Edit: Forgot about HD

ACESHIGH · 13 Mar 2006 at 01:44

Melkor said:
Hi there,
My first post here so I bumped this thread rather than create a new one as I have a similar question.

Upgrading everything in the box atm excluding optical drives.
So that includes

Mobo

Graphics card

CPU

Power Supply

RAM

Case

Hard Disk <- maybe not

Things to consider:
I upgrade my base system on a fairly tight budget every 3/4 years so I would really like this to be as future proof and solid as possible. I may upgrade the RAM and graphics at some point though.
I dont really need to play games at the top res but would like playable frames for atleast 2 years.
I am going to overclock a bit, but am fairly new at it so nothing hardcore.
Dont realy care about the noise.

Thanks,
Melkor

Edit: Forgot about HD

UIts usually best to start your own thread.
But considering your needs, this would be good.

Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-131-AS) - Allows for dual cards later if neeed.
£146.82*

HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-047-HT)
£352.44
or
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
£252.57*Including VAT - depending on budget. 512MB cards would be a must to future proof & these are the best & cheapest going.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM) - CPU should be dual core (or if on tighter budget X2 3800+
£334.82

Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS) - 2 gigs of good ram
£140.94*

Any good 500W PSU (Tagan, Antec, ThermalTake, Enermax) or better & any decent case will do.

McLaren · 13 Mar 2006 at 03:41

Can the X1800XT do Shader Model 3?

ACESHIGH · 13 Mar 2006 at 04:56

McLaren said:
Can the X1800XT do Shader Model 3?

YES, they can.

All X1300, X1600, X1800 & X1900 cards can do SM3.

McLaren · 13 Mar 2006 at 16:09

ACESHIGH said:
YES, they can.

All X1300, X1600, X1800 & X1900 cards can do SM3.

Thanks for that i will go for the x1800xt now then.

no_1_dave · 13 Mar 2006 at 16:16

You cant run some of the modern games at max settings unless you have 2Gb or ram though so a X1800 is pointless with only 1Gb...