Check a spec please

CF93

CF93

CF93

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28 Jan 2005
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Well my pc is dying, so it's time for an upgrade.

I'll be keeping my existing optical drives, floppy disk, case & PSU - everything else gets replaced.

It'll be used for usual office/internet/email/MSN video calls, and of course some gaming - Quake 4, Doom 3, HL2 type stuff.

On a very tight budget just now, so cost has to be kept to a minimum.

Opinions on this please:

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
MB-002-AK Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 (Socket 939 & Upgradable to AM2) AGP & PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-002-AK)
£39.99 £39.99
CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-121-AM)
£74.99 £74.99
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£79.99 £79.99
GX-045-OK OcUK GeForce 7900 GS 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-OK)
£119.99 £119.99
HD-078-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE)
£62.99 £62.99
Subtotal £377.95
VAT £66.15
Total £444.10
 
I'd probably suggest this, you get dual core and the system is not based on old technology so can be upgraded more easily. 512mb is a bit of a waste on most graphics cards unless you are gaming at high resolutions so I'd suggest you save a bit of cash and get the 256mb version instead. :)

MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK)
£45.99 £45.99
CP-102-IN Intel Pentium 4 820 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.8GHz (800FSB) - Retail (CP-102-IN)
£64.99 £64.99
MY-030-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB5300DC) (MY-030-GL)
£79.99 £79.99
GX-042-OK OcUK GeForce 7900 GS 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-042-OK)
£97.99 £97.99
HD-078-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE)
£62.99 £62.99
Subtotal £351.95
VAT £61.60
Total £413.55
 
Cheers

What's the retail P4 fan like for noise? My old AthlonXP is a bit of a noisy git and I'd like something quieter.

[edit] Don't mind going up to around the £500 mark though either [/edit]
 
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Sorry I don't know what the retail fan is like, probably not too bad but nowhere near as quiet as a good aftermarket solution, you could easily fit an Arctic Freezer 7 into the budget though.

Also if you are happy to go up to £500 or so then I'd suggest going for Conroe and an Arctic Freezer 7, that will give you new technology and great performance. :)
 
Ok, since it looks like there's better out there for the money than the spec I did, what would people suggest for a max of £500 if I keep my existing case, PSU and optical drives.

Also, my while my PSU has a couple of SATA connectors, it's 20-pin not 24, so will it be compatible with modern boards and gfx cards? (flippin hope so, it's only a couple of years old and cost £100!) Or am I looking at a new one?

Ta.
 
You'll probably need a couple of adapters for the PSU, a 20-24pin one for the motherboard and also a 4-6pin plug for the graphics card which I have included (but you might also get one with the graphics card).

MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK)
£45.99 £45.99
CP-135-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£99.99 £99.99
HS-017-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR)
£14.99 £14.99
GX-042-OK OcUK GeForce 7900 GS 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-042-OK)
£97.99 £97.99
HD-078-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE)
£62.99 £62.99
CB-019-AK Akasa ATX 20-Pin to ATX 24-Pin Adapter Cable (CB-019-AK)
£3.99 £3.99
CB-018-AK Akasa PCI Express 6 Pin to 4 Pin Power cable adaptor for PCI-E Graphics Cards (CB-018-AK)
£2.99 £2.99
MY-057-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB6400UDC) (MY-057-GL)
£81.99 £81.99
Subtotal £410.92
VAT £71.92
Total £482.84
 
What's the sound like on that motherboard? Better than the Audigy 1 I've already got?

If it is I'll probably go with that board, if not I'll need to chop things around a little to include a soundcard (system is used for listening to CDs a lot - hardly use the hifi anymore!)


Cheers.
 
The sound should be decent but probably not great, I'd think about just transplanting the Audigy from your old system or maybe try the onboard then try the Audigy and see if it makes a noticeable difference. :)
 
Can't you just use the Audigy 1 on the new mobo? I assume it's using PCI interface??

And yes the rig in the post #6 looks good, but I would stretch just a little bit more for a Sapphire X1950pro 256Mb for £111.99 this week only!! a lot more powerful for just £15 more, plus you won't need the £2.99 PCI-E power cable then because it will almost certainly come with the Sapphire card.

If you can also stretch for a DS3 mobo then I'd say your rig is perfect, unless you want to go for 2Gb memory.
 
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Yeh, think I'll try both sound setups, see which is best.

Don't think I can stretch the budget any further for 2Gb RAM or a DS3 though (won't be overclocking so I don't think I need the DS3 tbh.) Not got the cash to spare. Probably haven't got that much now anyway looking at the Christmas budget!!!!

Looks like I'll have to sort something soon though, one of my drives in the RAID0 array is making the odd clicking noise. Not good!
 
Hmmm, looks like I've got to trim the budget a bit.

Opinions on this please?

MY-083-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2) (MY-083-CS)
£72.99 £72.99
GX-025-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG)
£84.99 £84.99
CP-166-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-166-AM)
£94.99 £94.99
MB-006-AK Asrock ALiveNF4G-DVI (Socket AM2) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-006-AK)
£39.99 £39.99
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£44.99 £44.99
Subtotal £337.95
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £8.95
VAT £60.71
Total £407.61

(I've ignored the adaptors for the PSU, I'll add them on when I order.)

Any changes you'd make to this?

[edit] I've changed the motherboard to one with 2 IDE connectors, as I've currently got 3 hard drives and 2 opticals. As one hard drive is dying, that leaves the 4 IDE places full on the new board already! [/edit]
 
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I'd still advise getting Conroe as it is significantly faster and will cost you barely any more. This specification ought to be suitable, I don't know much about the motherboard other than it supports Conroe and has 2xIDE ports(specifications here). If you are willing to spend £10 more then you can get an Arctic Freezer 7. :)

MB-109-AB Abit SG95 SiS 662FX Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-EXpress DDR2 Motherboard (MB-109-AB)
£39.99 £39.99
CP-135-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£99.99 £99.99
HS-021-AR Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-021-AR)
£5.99 £5.99
MY-083-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2) (MY-083-CS)
£72.99 £72.99
GX-025-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG)
£84.99 £84.99
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£44.99 £44.99
Subtotal £348.94
VAT £61.07
Total £410.01
 
semi-pro waster said:
I'd still advise getting Conroe as it is significantly faster and will cost you barely any more. This specification ought to be suitable, I don't know much about the motherboard other than it supports Conroe and has 2xIDE ports(specifications here). If you are willing to spend £10 more then you can get an Arctic Freezer 7. :)

MB-109-AB Abit SG95 SiS 662FX Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-EXpress DDR2 Motherboard (MB-109-AB)
£39.99 £39.99
CP-135-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£99.99 £99.99
HS-021-AR Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-021-AR)
£5.99 £5.99
MY-083-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2) (MY-083-CS)
£72.99 £72.99
GX-025-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG)
£84.99 £84.99
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£44.99 £44.99
Subtotal £348.94
VAT £61.07
Total £410.01
Click to expand...

I'll have to agree with this one although the mobo sucks big time!! But you can alway upgrade mobo later if you decide to oc. For only £10 extra I'd go for the Freezer 7 pro, too.

Although the AM2 is not that bad considering that it is compatible with K8L.
 
semi-pro waster said:
MB-109-AB Abit SG95 SiS 662FX Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-EXpress DDR2 Motherboard (MB-109-AB)
£39.99 £39.99
CP-135-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£99.99 £99.99
Click to expand...

According to the spec on the Abit site, that board only supports CPU's with 800FSB, so I don't think that combination is compatible.
 
CF93 said:
According to the spec on the Abit site, that board only supports CPU's with 800FSB, so I don't think that combination is compatible.
Click to expand...

I think you are right, that is what I get for not reading closely enough. You could still get the ASRock mATX motherboard and a PCI IDE card if you want Conroe or I guess the simplest way is to go AM2. :)
 
I'd like to go the Conroe route, just seems to be the best thing on the market right now. I guess I can squeeze a few quid into the budget.....

Thanks for your help guys, I'll let you know once I've ordered it (not today cause I've lost my wallet with my cards in it!! :( )

[edit] Never thought of the PCI card for the extra IDE ports, not a bad idea! Cheers! [/edit]
 
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