Building a new system, but need advice please!

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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,052
Location
London
With Left4Dead coming out I'm supecting my aging PC will need a boost after I've played the demo tomorrow.. So I'm looking to upgrade the core of my components. But it's been so long since I last looked that I don't know what's in there at the minute, and I don't know what's hot or not really..

After looking at the system/invoices, this is what I have:

AMD athlon 64 x2 duel 3800+ 2ghz
2gb of something
Nvidia 8800 gt 512mb
Xp
1920*1200 (but usually run Source games in window mode).


From looking around and general advice it seems that the E8400 is around about the sweet spot for price, after that it seems to skyrocket!

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Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail - £135.11
or
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.16GHz (1333FSB) - Retail - £140.99
4gb ddr2
Radeon HD 4850 - £130 - £160 ?
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Radeon was recommended by a couple of people actually, and seems to be a good price. But I need help on the Ram and mobo that will link these things together. I just don't have a clue what works together :o

I'm going to be running vista business (64 I assume) since I have a MSDNAA copy.

Any advice would be great! Not looking for the best of the best, just something along these lines (i.e. not the worlds most expensive ram if it's wasted, or the cheapest mobo if it doesnt do the components justice).

Thanks again! :)
 
Thanks for the tips there, great stuff :) Yeah I have a old (massive) coolermaster case, so that should be fine. I think my current mobo is an asus so thanks for that one :) I have a few questions now..

1. Is it better to get a 4870 512mb or a 4850 1024mb?

2. Is the retail cooler "good enough" for just stock speeds? I dont really have any interest in OCing these days.

3. I have an Antec Earthwatts 500w psu from May 08, will that be ok?

4. 38 quid for 4gb ram! Things really have changed... :eek:
 
Unfortunately that cheaper PowerColor 4870 is now out of stock :(
However this is what I have lined up now:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.16GHz (1333FSB) - Retail
£140.99

Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£99.86

HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
£193.86

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK)
£38.76

Hopefully stays instock for a couple more days :) So if anyone see's any reason we should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak up ;)
 
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