Associate
- Joined
- 12 Feb 2009
- Posts
- 514
Hi folks
I'm looking to upgrade my old system to something a little more current. Plan is to re-use the case, HD, gfx card and PSU. This is the existing system:
Athlon 64 3500
MSI Neo-4 mobo of some description
4x512Mb ram
250Gb WD SATA
Sapphire X1950 pro PCI-E card (256Mb IIRC)
Old Antec case
Antec 520W PSU
I'm not a heavy PC use in any respects these days, only game I play is X3: Terran Conflict which like all its predecessors is known to bring even top end machines to their knees. Hence it generally runs like a dog on my old system despite having most settings down low. I care about FPS rather than pretty pictures.
I've got around £200ish to play with at the moment and this is what I'm considering:
Abit IP35 Pro XE Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Abit £65.54
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £62.09
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500 Gold Edition 4GB Dual Channel £43.69
Sub Total : £148.97
Total : £181.08

I'm going to try and use the gfx card for now and upgrade that at a future date. I'm also planning on overclocking hence my choice of CPU. I was thinking about just starting out with the stock cooler and seeing how it goes or should I go for an aftermarket cooler from the start? If so any recommendations?
Would I be better going for a higher end CPU?
Any general comments? (other than Abit no longer making mobos
)
I'm looking to upgrade my old system to something a little more current. Plan is to re-use the case, HD, gfx card and PSU. This is the existing system:
Athlon 64 3500
MSI Neo-4 mobo of some description
4x512Mb ram
250Gb WD SATA
Sapphire X1950 pro PCI-E card (256Mb IIRC)
Old Antec case
Antec 520W PSU
I'm not a heavy PC use in any respects these days, only game I play is X3: Terran Conflict which like all its predecessors is known to bring even top end machines to their knees. Hence it generally runs like a dog on my old system despite having most settings down low. I care about FPS rather than pretty pictures.
I've got around £200ish to play with at the moment and this is what I'm considering:
Abit IP35 Pro XE Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Abit £65.54
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £62.09
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500 Gold Edition 4GB Dual Channel £43.69
Sub Total : £148.97
Total : £181.08

I'm going to try and use the gfx card for now and upgrade that at a future date. I'm also planning on overclocking hence my choice of CPU. I was thinking about just starting out with the stock cooler and seeing how it goes or should I go for an aftermarket cooler from the start? If so any recommendations?
Would I be better going for a higher end CPU?
Any general comments? (other than Abit no longer making mobos
