Completely out of the loop

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pez
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Pez

Pez

Pez

Soldato
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Hi guys,

Having not looked into new hardware for some time now, I've found myself in the position to replace the core parts of my system, ready for replacing other parts at a later date.

I'm currently running the following:

Shuttle ST20G5
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice
1Gb Geil Ram
1x Maxtor 200gb SATA
1x WD 180gb SATA
Radeon Saphire x800 GTO

I'm looking to move away from the shuttle models, and return back to ATX. This is mainly because of heat reasons, and the ability to make system changes with less fuss.

But I'm struggling picking out a Motherboard/Ram/CPU combo that suits my needs!

I play a little BF2, maybe a little half-life, and the Mrs plays the sims. Other than that I'll be browsing the forums, downloading random rubbish, and writing eMail.

I've no preference of AMD/Intel, but I must admit that I've been tempted recently to move over to intel, having played with a few laptops.. but in turns of heat and power, I'm totally new to intel chips... the last I owned was a P3 :p

If anyone could help me out, I'd really appreciate it. I dont have a hard and fast budget, but given the light load of tasks I need it to do, I would ideally like to stay lower than £400.

Many thanks in advance :)
 
Last edited:
you'll probably want a intel core 2 duo, the E4300 sounds like it will suit your needs and the gigabyte ds3 motherboard is a great mobo, recommended by a lot of overclockers. Now personally, for what you want to do I'd 1GB of fast RAM will be more than enough, but i've said this before and some nut case had a 3 page argument with me saying 2GB was 1337 or something(even though the poster had specified 1GB :p). If you plan on overclocking you will need to consider a new heatsink, tuniq tower, scyth ninja or freezer 7 are some of the good ones.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-142-IN
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-061-GI
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-065-GL
possible CPU cooling:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-000-SB
 
bringerofdecay said:
i assume so, or he already knows what he wants in those departments :p, i say this because he only asks for help with mobo, CPU and RAM :o
Click to expand...

Quite right!

BOD:

Sounds like some mighty fine suggestions!, I'll take the next hour to read over them and see what I think.

About the RAM... I'm currently only running a gig (as you can see) and moving to 2gb was really just a whim more than anything else :p. I am tempted to move onto vista home premium in a few months, so I was more future proofing than anything else.

But, I do think you have a valid point, 1gb of fast ram could well be more than enough in my case?

I'm not going to be overclocking. I used to, but I really cant be bothered with it anymore :p

If you've got anything else to add, I'd love to hear it! you've been most helpful so far :D
 
Pez said:
Quite right!

BOD:

Sounds like some mighty fine suggestions!, I'll take the next hour to read over them and see what I think.

About the RAM... I'm currently only running a gig (as you can see) and moving to 2gb was really just a whim more than anything else :p. I am tempted to move onto vista home premium in a few months, so I was more future proofing than anything else.

But, I do think you have a valid point, 1gb of fast ram could well be more than enough in my case?

I'm not going to be overclocking. I used to, but I really cant be bothered with it anymore :p

If you've got anything else to add, I'd love to hear it! you've been most helpful so far :D
Click to expand...


im currently using 1gb of elcheapo pc2700, and it runs battlefield 2 and bf2142 no problems, does everything i need it too, 1gb is absolutely fine for what you say you want to do, but even if you want 2gb it's only £50 odd more, but it's your choice really
 
BF2 runs much nicer on 2gb ram.

512mb is just about playable, 1gb is perfectly satisfactory but at 2gb it runs a lot better still.

More ram you can throw at that game the better.
 
Yewen said:
BF2 runs much nicer on 2gb ram.

512mb is just about playable, 1gb is perfectly satisfactory but at 2gb it runs a lot better still.

More ram you can throw at that game the better.
Click to expand...

i play it on full setting with no issues, only thing i'd want 2 gigs to play it is for when i close 2142 down, i have to wait a few secs till i can do anything, but it doesn't exactly kill me
 
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