939 upgrade advice please

Participant · 30 Jul 2006 at 15:31

To tide me over until conroe is truly established I am looking to spend ~ £300 on upgrades to my slooow PC (as per sig).

-I need a dual core Skt 939 CPU (must be dual core)
-I need a Skt 939 motherboard (doesn't need onboard sound or SLI / crossfire, does need RAID / SATA, not sure what else I need to look for in terms off features except good overclocking ability)
-I need some PC3200 RAM (have no idea on this front)

...and that's pretty much it until I decide upon a faster GPU.

Can someone put together a list please? Cheers

squiffy · 30 Jul 2006 at 15:35

How about CPU and memory in my sig? Damn those price reductions..gone down 50%

Dreadi · 30 Jul 2006 at 15:36

x2 3800+ cpu
geil value ram

and i'll let some else guide you on the mobo front

benjo · 30 Jul 2006 at 15:39

If i were you, i wouldn't spend too much on 939 stuff if you're going to Conroe soon.

This spec list will allow you to use your 9600pro until you get a new card (i would suggest the x1800xt 256mb)

MB-002-AK Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 (Socket 939 & Upgradable to AM2) AGP & PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-002-AK)
£34.50 £34.50
CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£91.95 £91.95
MY-061-CS Corsair 1GB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS3.0 Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT400C3) (MY-061-CS)
£63.95 £63.95
Subtotal £190.40
VAT £33.32
Total £223.72

Still got plenty to spare if you want to change anything, and has space for a pci-e card when you do get one.

Slam62 · 30 Jul 2006 at 15:47

that lot is amazing for that price, and you can get a decent gc for less than £200, i just love the rate of change of pc tech.

Participant · 30 Jul 2006 at 16:09

benjo said:
If i were you, i wouldn't spend too much on 939 stuff if you're going to Conroe soon.

This spec list will allow you to use your 9600pro until you get a new card (i would suggest the x1800xt 256mb)

MB-002-AK Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 (Socket 939 & Upgradable to AM2) AGP & PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-002-AK)
£34.50 £34.50
CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£91.95 £91.95
MY-061-CS Corsair 1GB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS3.0 Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT400C3) (MY-061-CS)
£63.95 £63.95
Subtotal £190.40
VAT £33.32
Total £223.72

Still got plenty to spare if you want to change anything, and has space for a pci-e card when you do get one.

Hmmm that sounds very nice. I was looking at the Conroe and realised the 6300 is only £125! However taking into account the expense of the rest of it that looks a superb option. Now to try and source at the lowest price

How does that Asrock overclock? I'll hopfully be pushing whatever chip I plump for afap.

benjo · 30 Jul 2006 at 16:24

It isn't the best overclocker. The only thing i've found annoying about them is you cant alter the VCore voltage. But it's the best choice if you're considering staying with your 9600

Monstermunch · 30 Jul 2006 at 16:27

There's nothing to stop you going down the Conroe route now though......

CP-135-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£114.95 £114.95
MB-061-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-061-GI)
£94.95 £94.95
MY-092-CS Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-092-CS)
£124.95 £124.95
Subtotal £334.85
VAT £58.60
Total £393.45

benjo · 30 Jul 2006 at 16:28

He has a 9600pro, so you would need to plonk a new pci-e card on top of that budget

Monstermunch · 30 Jul 2006 at 16:39

benjo said:
He has a 9600pro, so you would need to plonk a new pci-e card on top of that budget

True enough, but I can't see what good it would do him to upgrade without changing the gfx card..... It would be such a bottleneck in games and even upgrading to a dual core and 2gb ram would make little difference with the gfx card holding everything back.

I still have a Barton 2500+, 9800pro and will be upgrading myself in the next few weeks..... I did toy with the idea of doing a partial upgrade and also just buying a new gfx card for now, but neither seemed a good idea looking at how cheap Conroe is.

benjo · 30 Jul 2006 at 16:43

Yeh i thought that aswell. I just made a spec that the OP requested

A better spec would be going for a cheaper single core cpu, x1800xt and some value ram.

CP-150-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£54.95 £54.95
MB-086-AB Abit KN8 nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-086-AB)
£46.35 £46.35
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£129.95 £129.95
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£59.95 £59.95
Subtotal £291.20
VAT £50.96
Total £342.16

Monstermunch · 30 Jul 2006 at 16:47

benjo said:
Yeh i thought that aswell. I just made a spec that the OP requested

A better spec would be going for a cheaper single core cpu, x1800xt and some value ram.

CP-150-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£54.95 £54.95
MB-086-AB Abit KN8 nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-086-AB)
£46.35 £46.35
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£129.95 £129.95
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£59.95 £59.95
Subtotal £291.20
VAT £50.96
Total £342.16

Agreed, or even possibly buying some 2nd hand stuff for a temp upgrade!