A few quid to spend, where should it go?

Matt Van Dam · 3 Apr 2006 at 16:16

Can spend up to around £400-£500 on my system, it was a really good spec when I bought it around 18months ago but it's starting to look slightly dated, so fancy putting some life back into it for minimum expense before going for a new build in 6-12 months time.

Was thinking of going for a nice 26inch Samsung HDTV to use as a gaming monitor, however having just recently purchased Oblivion and being an avid BF2 player I need a bit more meat in my system I think, current spec is:-

AMD64 3500+
1gig Kingston Hyper X DDR 400
Geforce 6800 Ultra
74gig Raptor Drive
Asus A8V Deluxe Mobo

Was pondering upgrading the ram with another 1gig but finding it hard to find more Kingston Hyper X, so would have to buy 2 gig from fresh,

The games I'm playing certainly aren't laggy but not as smooth as I'd like, any suggestions welcome

fenderbass86 · 3 Apr 2006 at 16:36

MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) 1
£89.95 £89.95
GX-112-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP) 1
£254.95 £254.95
Subtotal £344.90
VAT £60.36
Total £405.26

Your CPU will do fine for now, you could upgrade to dual core later in the year. 2x1GB RAM will be better on an AMD system than 4x512MB, I think there's compatibility issues.

xirokx · 3 Apr 2006 at 16:45

Asus A8V Deluxe Mobo - isnt that an AGP board? hmmm

what psu do u currently have?

what type of cpu do u have a newcastle or winchester?

So atm you have 400 - 500? why not sell the system u have atm for a couple of hundred then u should be able to get yourself a dual core with a decent gfx card?

I'm sure you could get an x2 3800 (good overclocker) decent mobo, geil value ram and a 7800gt or x1800 for in and around 500 - 600? Then beginning of next year you can change the CPU and GPU if you wanted.....

IMO by adding more components using the 400 - 500 you have atm you may bottleneck....

Dunno what do others think?

LoadsaMoney · 3 Apr 2006 at 16:45

The 3500+, and the memory should be able to drop straight into a PCI-E mobo, so if you have around £400-£500 to spend, then you could get a new PCI-E mobo, and upgrade your 6800 Ultra to something like the BFG 7900 GT, then use the rest for finding another gb of the Ram you have, but if its difficult as you say, then you could get a 2gb kit.

xirokx · 3 Apr 2006 at 17:34

hmmm im confused.....lol

Vegeta · 3 Apr 2006 at 17:38

I dont reckon you should upgrade at all until you fully upgrade in a years time saving you a few bob.
Reason I say this is because what resolution will the 26" monitor use? If it uses a low res then your system should be able to run games nicely on it.

Matt Van Dam · 3 Apr 2006 at 18:33

It's an AGP board so the X1900 and 7900's are out of the question. There isn't anything wrong with the 6800 on today's so I'm guessing I'm left with replacing the RAM. I don't see much point in getting a new board/GFX card/RAM now as I'm only going to do it in a year anyway.

PS - I don't overclock (wrong forum eh :eek:

), thanks for the input guys, I'll have to scour the net for more Kingston Hyper X or buy a new 2GB kit.