Cheap gaming upgrade.

georges

georges

georges

Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2006
Posts
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Hey, I'm thinking for Christmas I'll ask for a subsidy to help me buy a few bits to make my ancient PC better. (1ghz athlon, 256mb ram GF2)

I have most things, but will need the following:
PSU
GFX
CPU
Motherboard
RAM

To make this cheap, I was thinking perhaps the following:


HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ 3 V2 TURBO SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (H195PRQT256DD-R) £75.99 (£89.29)

Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) £36.99 (£43.46)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £46.99 (£55.21)

Corsair 2GB DDR2 Value Select PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) (VS2GBKIT667D2) Corsair 2GB DDR2 Value Select PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) (VS2GBKIT667D2) £25.99(£30.54)

Can't change basket as the site has stopped working for me, but the other part was a DFI P965-S Dark (Socket 775) motherboard


I've got a few questions about this setup:

Now, Would this be able to run HL2 + all the HDR stuff ok?

Also, how would COD4 perform on this system with XP pro?

Will the PSU have enough power to power this, an EMU 0404 soundcard, 2 hd's, a CD drive, a dvd drive, with a USB printer, with me using the 5.1 sound of the motherboard and it will be on a wired network.

Is it worth going for the cheaper X1950 512mb OcUK card over this 256mb silent version, despite the fact that the silent one has higher clock speeds? I'd like the silence of the HIS, but not if the performance difference was significant.

Could I get away with an E2160, or is that too slow, assuming the 2180 is ok?

Will that RAM work with the motherboard/CPU combination (I've no idea about the various details you need to keep the same.)?

Thanks a lot!
 
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It should handle HL2 just fine. I don't have any experience with such rigs and COD4 though. Yes, it'd work. The graphics memory needed is largely dependent on your monitor's resolution. What is your monitor's resolution?

I bet you could get away with the E2160. I dont' know if or how well that mobo overclocks, but the 965 chipset itself overclocks nicely. If you find that it's good you can 'clock E21x0 chips sky high for free extra performance. :)
 
Sounds good. Yeah the reviews of that mobo said it was good for overclocking.


My monitor is a CRT and 19" so I can put it as anything really.

Thanks :)
 
256 MiB should do for most anything 1600 x 1200 or under. :)

Since the mobo is a decent 'clocker perhaps you should get the 2160 and an AC Freezer 7 Pro to maximize your bang-for-the-buck.
 
Yeah, had a look at the 2160 reviews and saw:
"What can i say. I bought it when it was £60.00 but still. My lord. I bought a £12.00 artic cooler 7 pro and it runs stably at 3.4ghz, with my memory being the thin holding it back. I run it at 3.2 for safety but still, its temps never go above 47 degrees. this thing is ridiculous. it will go faster than a stock 6800 any day... Pair it with a 650i motherboard for ultimate overclock for little money."

Sounds fairly reasonable ;)

Thank you very much for the advice and help!
 
Well i have something similar in sig and i get roughly 180+fps on full detail in HL2, lowest I've seen it go to is 90 fps+ so in answer to your Q you will run it easily. I play COD4 on full setting and even though in some places it dropps to low 20's in fps its still very smooth.

Also I would stay with tjhe E2180, having a higher multi than the other E21** will make getting higher clocks a breeze.

For instance my mobo doesnt let me go over 380 fsb so I'm limited to 3040mhz (8 x 380) but If i had gone for a E2180 that gives me 3800mhz (10 x 380) :) if you plan to go that far though :)

I would change the gfx card for the ocuk 512mb version as it's cheaper LINK or even wait a few weeks and see what the 8800gt drops to.
 
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