cheap and cheerful !

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i really need to upgrade my current pc so ive been looking at various upgrade options, and now im just baffled :confused: i havnt the foggyest idea what to do hehe so i would really appreciate some help here !

i have a p4 3.2 s478, 1gb ddr ram, x1650 pro 256mb at the mo, so im looking for something better than this but on a £300 budget. uses will be gaming, photo editing and browsing.

i will use my existing case - TT soprano, psu - 600w jeantech artic, dvd drive and hdd drives, and 19" monitor, so i will need cpu, mb, memory and gfx.

i was thinking along the lines of c2d cpu, 2gb ddr2, and a better gfx card than the x1650 pro. not sure which motherboard but something that will let me do a bit of overclocking would be a bonus!

so what would you suggest i go for? any help here would be really appreciated!
 
How about the following, could drop the gfx card to a 3850 and get better cpu/cool/mobo if you dont game that much.


BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £119.99 (£140.99)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £45.99 (£54.04)

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £55.99 (£65.79)

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400C5 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400 £24.99 (£29.36)

Sub Total : £246.96
Shipping : £8.95
VAT : £44.78
Total : £300.69
 
How about this lot? Slightly under budget but would be a massive upgrade. I chose the E2200 over the E2180 as it's only a couple of quid extra and the higher multiplier could come in handy. Should have some good headroom for clocking with that lot too. Could go even cheaper if you wanted by swapping the 3870XT for a 3850 but it would'nt be quite so good when gaming. You could also take a chance on a E2160 and hope that it reaches 3Ghz and then you could have the OCUK 8800GT 512Mb at £130. Would'nt be that much of an improvement though.

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cheers guys both specs look good, i like the look of the 8800 gt oc its got good reviews. i cant believe how cheap the ram and processors are, 2gb of ddr is £68 but yet you can get 2gb ddr2 for around £30 its crazy!

what i was going to do originally was get 1gb ddr (£68) and the x1950 pro agp (£117) for my existing pc but for a little more i can get c2d ddr2 ect so it makes sense.
cheers again!
 
you could save on mobo Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L is good and cost around £50
would recomned 8800gt even if it means spending bit over the budget.
 
ok i could go slightly above budget and get this, if i sell my curent bits i could get extra 2gb ram and vista home 64, what do you recon?

BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £119.99 (£140.99)

Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail £66.99 (£78.71)


Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £55.99 (£65.79)

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400C5 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400 £24.99 (£29.36)

Sub Total : £271.96
Shipping : £8.95
VAT : £49.16
Total : £330.07
 
If yoru gonna spend that much then go for this:
BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £124.99
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £55.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £43.99

Sub Total : £274.96
Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £49.68
Total : £333.59

You should be able to clock the CPU to 3GHz, you got 4GB of ram (for vista if you decide) and your 8800GT
 
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