Another spec check please!

madmaxx

madmaxx

madmaxx

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Joined
18 Aug 2003
Posts
868
Location
S Yorks
Right, bargains of the week have tempted me to upgrade from my barton 2500 and 9800 pro to the following :-
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM) £64.57 inc vat
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) £11.69 inc vat
DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF) £88.07 inc vat
Asus Extreme AX800XT /2DT ATI Radeon X800 XT 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM (GX-054-AS) - £96.35 inc vat
Total £260.68 inc vat
Does anyone think thats a good combination - i must say im not really looking to spend any more that that! Was alos looking to re-use my 1gb of ddr400 ram, i assume thats ok with that processor and mobo?
As usual, thanks folks :)
 
All compatible and your existing Ram will work fine, I might suggest going for a cheaper motherboard and getting a dual core CPU instead but that partly depends on what your main uses for your PC are.
 
Excellent CPU, cracking price isn't it? Got one coming my way this week :D

Excellent Cooler, I have one on my OCd 4400+ and its doing a marvellous job, also have one coming for the 3700+

Excellent mobo - have the same one in this rig. Minor note, a lot of the UT boards under report CPU temperature. As far as I know DFI hasnt fixed this yet, but in the newer BIOSs you can calibrate the temp [to do this accurately you need to measure the temp of your CPU directly]. Apart from that, the Ultra-D is a fine board :D

Don't know much about the X800, but i am sure itll be just fine!

RAM should not be a problem either :)

SiriusB
 
Thanks very much for the advice guys! S-PW, to be honest, i dont really use the PC for anything amazing, mainly office work, with a bit of gaming, video editing thrown in. I dont use Premier much, so didnt really think it was worth splashing the extra cash on a d chip - unless you think different? The only reason im ugrading really is to keep up with things, and to give gaming a bit of a boost! Sirius, thanks for the headsup on the temp reporting - i think calibrating it might be a bit beyond me, i dont have any means of measuring the on-die temp directly! I think i'll just be cautious - what kind of overclock would be expected using that kit, do you think?
Cheers :)
 
As a general rule of thumb, and going off the info from about 30 pages of replies to a thread about the temp readings on dfi-street, the temps are about 10C too low. In my BIOS I increased the reading by 10C and just keep in mind it could be more or less.

If you don't plan to overclock then it really isn't something you need to worry about. Calibrating would still be a good idea, so the system can warn you of overheating sooner in case your HSF fails or whatever other catastrophe :D

Again, if you're not overclocking like mad you might go for a cheaper motherboard, save yourself some cash - but it's up to you and what your plans are.

From what I have seen the 3700 can do at least 2.6GHz, probably more. Considering how cheap this baby is, I would stick with it. You can always upgrade to a dual core in the future.

SiriusB
 
SiriusB said:
Again, if you're not overclocking like mad you might go for a cheaper motherboard, save yourself some cash - but it's up to you and what your plans are.
SiriusB
Click to expand...
I thought of that mobo just because i assumed it would give a little headroom to overclock - but im not a mad overclocker at all - current rig is the 2500 running at 3200 speeds, not anything earthshattering at all! If i was to live with the stock speed of the 3700+, what mobo would you suggest? Am just wondering if it might be better to get a less flash mobo and spend a few quid more on a better graphics card?
 
Thanks for that - will the Asus be as good for overclocking as the LanPArty board? Also, there seems to be an SLi variant listed below the board you mentioned GhostRider, for only £2 more - is one any better than the other, or do you think its worth having the option to go SLi for only another £2?
Cheers! :)
 
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