Check my spec please!

rich_g85 · 26 Mar 2006 at 11:52

Hi all,
I'm looking to drastically improve my current spec - Abit NF-7, Athlon 2500+, 512Mb TwinMOS, Radeon 7500

with this:

1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon Xpress 200P SKT939 mATX w/LAN 6Channel Audio USB2.0 SATA - £37.94
1 x Corsair 1GB DDR2 533 Mhz 128mx64 Non-ecc 240 Dimm Unbuffered Cl4 - £55.44
1 x AMD Athlon 64 (ADA3700DAA5BN) 3700 CPU Skt 939 San Diego *OEM* - £114.09
1 x Sapphire X800GTO² 256mb GDDR3 PCI-E VGA/DVI/TV-out Lite Retail - £93.60

Carriage £0.00
Subtotal £301.07
VAT £52.70
Order Total £353.77

I want a good, solid system that will happily play the current games (Half-Life 2, Battlefield 2, COD2 etc) and hopefully be future-proof until at least next week

.

Budget is £400, I already have a case, Enermax 350W PSU and Creative SB X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS.

So.. are the bits I've selected above a good choice? Should I spend more on a motherboard? Or maybe go for 2Gb of RAM?

Any suggestions or tips are very welcome!

Thanks!

rich_g85 · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:02

Dark_Angel said:
you could probablly sell your stuff you currently have second hand, and use the money to add to what you have. If you have a friend with a really old PC, offer him all your current stuff for 100 or something

Apart from that, get the DDR1 RAM, and if possible a better video card... say an x800XT or something...

Sounds cool... is an x800XT a lot better than the x800GTO? I can't find many of those about, did you mean an x850XT?

Also, what about the motherboard - £40 doesn't seem like a lot for a decent mobo...

Cheers!

rich_g85 · 26 Mar 2006 at 22:53

Right, I've revised the spec somewhat. Gone for the retail boxed CPU as can't be ****** choosing a heatsink & fan!

Motherboard: Sapphire ATI Radeon Xpress 200P SKT939 mATX w/LAN 6Channel Audio USB2.0 SATA £37.94

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 (ADA3700BNBOX) 3700 CPU Skt 939 San Diego Retail inc Heat Sink Fan £125.29

Graphics: Asus Extreme X850XT 2DHTV 256MB PCI-E 2xDVI £150.62 - is this better than the X800 GTO2?

RAM: Corsair (VS1GBKIT400C3) 1024MB (2 x 512MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL3, blah blah £47.01

SubTotal: £360.86
VAT: £63.16
Total: £424.02

Someone please tell me that this is a DECENT spec which will handle HalfLife2, Battlefield2 etc?!

rich_g85 · 26 Mar 2006 at 23:50

Raikiri said:
May as well get a 7800GT for £176

Is it worth the extra £26? Please be honest with me, I'm really out of touch with this stuff!!

rich_g85 · 27 Mar 2006 at 00:38

Hmm, I'm already sligthtly over-budget so I'm not sure!

I reckon the x850XT would give me such a HUGE performance increase over my Radeon 7500 - that I'd probably be totally impressed by that, let alone the 7800GT!

Why is the £176 XFX 7800GT so cheap - surely it can't be as good as the £230+ cards? Can't say I've ever heard of XFX...

One other question - what does "2DHTV" mean in the X850's description?

rich_g85 · 27 Mar 2006 at 00:40

Monstermunch said:
Just thinking about upgradability for you, 350w PSU should be okay with an x800 or x850 but won't really be enough for an x1800 or upwards. The x1900's need 450w minimum according to ATI.

Thank god for that, I really didn't want to have to fork out for a new PSU as well!

Saying that, I really like the look of the 'Hiper' branded PSUs, with what looks like a long-barrelled BNC connector for each power lead to keep things tidy.

Maybe next month...

rich_g85 · 27 Mar 2006 at 17:51

Monstermunch said:
If it's an older style PSU you may need a converter to run with ATX2.0

Where can I find one of these?