Computer died, time for an upgrade

MidnightLamp

MidnightLamp

MidnightLamp

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21 Jan 2004
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My gfx card conked out today, so I thought its about time for an upgrade!

Asus P5LD2 Deluxe Intel 945X (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-108-AS)

Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-121-SP)

Intel Pentium 4 940 Dual Core "LGA775 Presler" 3.2GHz (800FSB) - Retail (CP-113-IN)

I use my computer for audio work, as well as gaming and heavy multi-tasking.

I'm guessing I'll have to also buy some DDR2 ram, as currently I only have DDR? I've really gone over my budget already, so would look to spend max £70 on memory. Any thoughts?
I've got an old Zalman low noise CPU fan that I thought I could use but how hot do these dual cores tend to get?

Thanks
 
So because one part conked out you will replace all? Fair enough but I'd not suggest it as the most cost effective way of doing things :)

Why particularly do you want Intel? Just to save you scrapping decent DDR Ram I'd suggest something like this which will cost you about the same and perform as well if not better than the Intel equivalent and still get the same graphics card. Dual core may get marginally hotter than single core CPUs but a retail cooler is easily enough to cope.

CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£169.95 £169.95
MB-088-AS Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£59.95 £59.95
Subtotal £229.90
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £8.25
VAT £41.68
Total £279.83
 
Thanks for the posts, I'm gonna go with the AMD.
How would the above motherboard compare to the A8N-SLI Premium?

I'm gonna add some more ram too. At the moment all I've got is this stick of corsair 512mb 3700. Would I still be able to use that as well if I bought 1gb of corsair (or any other brand) at a different speed? OC no longer stocks the 3700. :(

edit: yeah the 9800pro is bust. I'm gonna go with the Sapphire X 1800xt 256mb.
 
It is a good solid motherboard based on a proven chipset, the Premium will be quieter due to passive cooling but SLi isn't a feature that I'd be particularly bothered about especially if you are choosing an ATI graphics card.

You could use the PC3700 however if you buy say 2x512mb then you won't be able to use all 3 in dual channel so will lose a bit of performance. If you can't find any PC3700 then you might be able to run some ordinary PC3200 in dual channel assuming you get a 512mb stick also but I can't obviously guarantee this will work. The other option is to sell off your your existing stick of Ram and put the money towards 2x1gb Ram although this then isn't technically any better as a course of action than getting the Intel as you still end up replacing the Ram.
 
hmm, it's never easy :D
I'll be keeping my current pentium and mobo, as later this year I'm building a family computer. I guess my current ram will be used in it too, so maybe I should just get 2gig of ram and be done with it.

I originally thought on the pentium as it's always been the case in the past people have recommended them over AMD for audio/video work. But having read around the forums a bit, it seems the majority are in favour of the AMD, and I do game quite a bit.
 
ok, I think I've decided.

AMD opty 170
Asus A8N-E nForce 4 Ultra
ATI X1800 XT 256 mb

I'll get another 512mb stick of corsair 3700 to go with my current one. This should allow for a decent overclock?

Its either that or getting the AMD 3800+ dual core and 2 gig of ram.
 
A64s can be overclocked using a divider quite easily so that shouldn't be much of a problem. I think I'd suggest the X2 3800 with 2gb Ram as being better and more balanced overall than the 170 with 1gb, it should overclock very nicely as well.
 
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