Budget upgrade

andyp · 10 Oct 2007 at 14:25

Current specs are as follows:

AMD64 3700+ S754 + Zalman Aeroflower
DFi Infinity NF4x
2 GB Corsair XMS PC3200
7900GTO

After being out of the game for over a year with pregnancy/baby-related things, I've managed to secure around £200 (all-in) to spend on an upgrade.

I've set my heart on an E2180 - reading about them reminds me of the Sempron 3100 and it's great overclockability.

Other than that I need a good overclocking motherboard, 2 gig of decent DDR2 and a cooler that will keep the E2180 from becoming toast.

I was looking at a Asus P5N-E 650i but to be honest the new host of C2D chipsets are all new to me and the differences go over my head.

Any ideas welcome

Admiral Huddy · 10 Oct 2007 at 14:36

I think you are going to struggle on £200 to be honest. What are you salvaging from your current rig?

mp260767 · 10 Oct 2007 at 14:39

you could get the following, processor will come with the standard fan which is ok to start with:

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £41.99 (£49.34)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74)

Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99 (£76.36)

Sub Total : £156.97
Shipping : £8.25
VAT : £28.91
Total : £194.13

andyp · 10 Oct 2007 at 14:40

Admiral Huddy - Just the graphics card - I can muddle by with the 7900GTO for now.

mp260767 · 10 Oct 2007 at 14:42

is the gfx card pci-e or agp ?

if its agp get the asrock agp/pci-e ddr/ddr2 mobo.

andyp · 10 Oct 2007 at 14:44

mp260767 said:
is the gfx card pci-e or agp ?

if its agp get the asrock agp/pci-e ddr/ddr2 mobo.

PCI-e

mp260767 · 10 Oct 2007 at 14:53

andyp said:
PCI-e

wahey my original spec should be fine then

andyp · 10 Oct 2007 at 15:00

what's the intel stock coolers like when overclocking?

I was thinking about getting a decent cooler with this order - it'll take be above £200 but i think i can get away with it

andyp · 10 Oct 2007 at 17:38

Well it's either a Tuniq Tower or another Zalman as i've thrown the LGA775 brackets away for the one installed in my 754 system.

One quick question - I've noticed the couple of P35 boards I've been looked at seem to only have one IDE port. I have 3 IDE HDD's and 1 IDE optical drive. Are there any P35 boards with the usual 2 IDE ports?