Decent upgrade? New spec

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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
3,376
Location
Northants
Atm i have the pc listed below

Asrock 939 Agp
Amd 64 3200
2 gig no name ram
3x 160 sata drives
6800gt
Hyper Hpu 4s525 psu

The plan is to upgrade to these .

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-165-AM)
Price: £84.95 (£99.82 Including VAT at 17.5%)


Asus M2N-E (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-147-AS)
Price: £69.95 (£82.19 Including VAT at 17.5%)


Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
Price: £144.95 (£170.32 Including VAT at 17.5%)


G.Skill 2GB DDR2 LA PC2-5300 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-5400PHU2-2GBLA) (MY-012-GS)
Price: £99.95 (£117.44 Including VAT at 17.5%)


Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 250GB 6V250F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-088-MD)
Price: £47.95 (£56.34 Including VAT at 17.5%)


£526.11


Can anyone see in issues with the above choices ( i heard the Asus board is fussy with ram ) Mainly for playing WOW/BF2/HL2 etc etc
Will be running on a CRT so no weird resolutions i need to run at .

Does it look future proof for at least 6 months where i could maybe drop in a dual core chip?

Max budget is £550 really but the less the better .
Also i cant see any decent AM2 heatsinks listed on ocuk ....Is there any out ?


Regards

Persil
 
To be honest I think you'd be spending a hell of a lot of money for not a lot of gain there. The CPU is only 400 Mhz faster, the RAM is not really going to help your performance (and it'd not be optimum for pairing with a fast dual core later) and with a CRT you can easily drop the res to 1024 x 768 with no ill effects.

That 6800 GT has enough power for even really demanding games (like Oblivion) at that resolution and I'd be worried that all the upgrade would give you is 1280 x 1024 with some bells and whistles and a costly ramp up at a later date.

It isn't an original thing to say but I'd try to stick with what you have until DX 10 cards have matured and next gen CPUs are established, rather than risk feeling rather underwhelmed at what you got for £550.
 
couldnt have said it better myself tetris....

if your money is burning a hole in your pocket - send it me :)

seriously dont bother...its so not worth it....

If you really want to tho I would sell your current bits first then do so....but I would not order until everything was sold...

your call but I say stick with what you have...
 
Well i have a buyer for my old stuff (£300) so the upgrade is gonna cost me £200 tops .

Would it maybe be better to get a better 939 board (pcie) and one of the cheaper 939 chips?
The reason i was going AM2 was to semi future proof myself... But im not happy with the Asrock as it a MAtx board so only 2 pcie and no onboard firewire ...Also for some reason it up my dvd drives .

So if you can suggest a different angle on my upgrade then feel free . (no intel though )

Ta

Persil
 
You should get a dual core proccessor (amd x2 or intel conroe). I don't think you'll notice much of an increase in performance in terms of CPU and memory otherwise.

I don't understand why you don't want to get an intel as they will soon have the best cpu.


The CPU you selected will come with a decent enough fan
 
Proberly because the conroe will cost more then the X2.

AMD is generally known as the gamers choice of cpu to, not to say it is, but its generally the gamer choice as things stand.

Once conroe is more widely available the X2 will look an even better choice if prices drop as expected.
 
The new conroe will be the "gamers" choice once it is released if the benchmarks are anything to go by.

Back on track if you have £200 to spend if you don't sell your kit then why not upgrade to a PCI-E board and an x1800xt from this week only? Keep the 2GB RAM and the 3200. You'l then be able to sell the 6800gt and the old motherboard to get back some of that £200. If your lucky the uprgade will only cost you £100.
 
Well i can get £100 for my 6800gt ...But its not really future proofing myself .
Also i would like to get 6x sata and doing that with a 939 board will cost me £120+

Also i have heard a lot of people moan about dual core chips ... Not compatable with games and making them run slower etc ...And does it give any real benefit?

I will check the prices of the dual chips .

Persil
 
Hmm dual chips are to expensive ... And never liked intel ..although the new chip looks interesting its not even for sale yet... I have to get the stuff this weekend .

Hmm what to do ... Its also a 300 mile round trip so come on guys help me out!!

Persil
 
Persil said:
Also i have heard a lot of people moan about dual core chips ... Not compatable with games and making them run slower etc ...And does it give any real benefit?

I will check the prices of the dual chips .

Persil
Click to expand...

Where did you read that from? Admittedly dual-core on some games in slower because games are not optimized to use dual-core yet but its not a huge difference.

Dualcore is great for encoding and multi-tasking.
 
Stelly said:
thats not true what so ever... and I know that half of the forum would disagree with you too

Stelly
Click to expand...

Ok maybe i worded it badly...... it would be the choice for those with more money. Generally AMD have always been better price/performance wise.

Half the forum doesnt account for the millions of the people around the world.

What this forum says will no doubt clash with what another forum does. I never take the word of one crowd over another. Plus i've seen some of the most shocking advice given to people on this forum, so i never take anything here as fact without first spending time researching myself. That said, theres some really good people here who offer nothing but quality advice.
 
Go check the game forum on ocuk...seens loads of posts about x2 issues ...Although not having one i tend to skim read the posts .

Im not saying its a major problem just some people have issues with certain games .

Anyway i cant afford a x2 so no issue really

Persil
 
Are you driving down to pick your stuff up? That roughly 40 quid petrol when you can just pay around 10 quid to get it delivered

I'd do what Dureth said and just sell the gpu and motherboard and get a new motherboard and the x1800

The BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG) £99.95 (£117.44 Including VAT at 17.5%)

is a good card and would save some cash. Cash you could spend on an X2 perhaps
 
t31os said:
Ok maybe i worded it badly...... it would be the choice for those with more money. Generally AMD have always been better price/performance wise.

Half the forum doesnt account for the millions of the people around the world.

What this forum says will no doubt clash with what another forum does. I never take the word of one crowd over another. Plus i've seen some of the most shocking advice given to people on this forum, so i never take anything here as fact without first spending time researching myself. That said, theres some really good people here who offer nothing but quality advice.
Click to expand...

Well thats ok then :)

Stelly
 
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