Building a new system, but need advice please!

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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,048
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! :)
 
Get an Asus P5Q mobo. About £90-100

The E8400 should be fine, you can always overclock with the right cooling.

ATI radeon 4850 512mb should be fine, you could get a 4870 for about £180 if you're playing a lot of games, otherwise it's overkill.

I have a corsair HX620 PSU, very good quality and plenty of power for the future. It's pricey, but it's worth having a good PSU holding up your rig. It's modular too, so great for keeping the cables tidy.

For the price, this OCZ memory is fantastic, should work no problems.

Need more of an indication of your budget to give any more info! Also, do you have a case already?
 
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:
 
The 4870 will be better than the 4850, the retail cooler will be fine and the psu will cope with what your looking at buying no problem.
 
At 1920x1200 I'd go for a 4870, the 512mb version will be more than enough. Since the E8500 is only £5 more I'd be tempted to get this over the E8400. Like it's been said above, go for a P45 motherboard, this one is really good

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

I'm not sure about how good the earthwatt power supplys are, but 500W should be enough to run it. The new wolfdale dual cores run on a lot less power, so should be fine.

P.S. They are amazing overclockers, I'd say get it done, it would be a crime not to ;) obviously get yourself a decent cpu cooler.
 
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 ;)
 
I now pronounce you man and...machine :p

Looks a good build mate, that should go together nicely.
 
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