Considering an upgrade

Capodecina
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I've really not paid much attention to hardware lately so I felt it's better to ask those with more up to date knowledge.

Current system spec:

Motherboard: Gigabyte K8NF-9
CPU: AMD 64 3500+
Hard Drive: 200GB
GFX: ATI X1800XT
PSU: Tagan 420W
RAM: 1GB Corsair PC4000

Not that long had the graphics card and I don't honestly play too many modern games. I'm guessing it's really only the CPU/Mobo/Ram that will need upgrading?

I've long been an AMD fan boy but from what I can tell Intel are looking a lot more affordable and decent right now? I'm not too sure on what's good value for money and so on either. I don't want absolute top of the line stuff but it has to be futureproof. Some of the new AMD chips look so cheap for what would be considerably better than mine (I remember paying quite a lot for mine back when I bought it), is it because a new core is expected from AMD?

Will be PSU handle the new equipment?

I will not be overclocking.

Budget about £200 if possible? I'm quite flexible dependinf on the advantages etc.
 
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Whats your max budget?

What Res will you be playing at?

Finally will you be overclocking?

If your not going to be overclocking stick with AMD as they offer much better performance corresponding to the price than Intel do.
 
stickroad said:
Whats your max budget?

What Res will you be playing at?

Finally will you be overclocking?

If your not going to be overclocking stick with AMD as they offer much better performance corresponding to the price than Intel do.

Amended the main post to help you :)

Not sure about what resolution i'll be playing in, I don't really play many modern games.

Sometimes 1.6 (I play 640x480 soooooooo)
 
Something like this will be fine:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.20GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
Asrock ALiveSATA2-GLAN (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB)

Total : £172.98

If you don't game that GPU you already have will be fine.

The PSU will also be fine.
 
stickroad said:
Something like this will be fine:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.20GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
Asrock ALiveSATA2-GLAN (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB)

Total : £172.98

If you don't game that GPU you already have will be fine.

The PSU will also be fine.

I'll check it out, thanks a lot :)

I'm guessing i'd probably see quite a performance increase over my old 3500+ with that dual core?

Shouldn't my GPU be fine for most games aslong as i'm not running stupidly high resolutions and settings? Games aren't really about that for me anyways and i've never wanted to run games like that.
 
Wardie said:
I'll check it out, thanks a lot :)

I'm guessing i'd probably see quite a performance increase over my old 3500+ with that dual core?

Shouldn't my GPU be fine for most games aslong as i'm not running stupidly high resolutions and settings? Games aren't really about that for me anyways and i've never wanted to run games like that.

You should see quite a boost from your old machine.

One quick question though, what sort of Graphics Card have you got, AGP, PCI or PCI-E?
 
The following would make for quite a nice boost:



It's only recommended if you would be happy overclocking though, otherwise stickroad's suggestion would probably be best.

edit - oh yes and depending on which 420w tagan you have the connectors might not be compatible with the motherboard I've suggested. If it's the black series it'll just have a 20-pin and 4-pin which won't work without adapters, whereas if it's an i-Xeye (all flashy colours and bling) it'll have 24-pin and 8-pin which will be fine.
 
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