Feel like upgrading, need help

FrostFox

FrostFox

FrostFox

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Joined
30 May 2004
Posts
245
Hi guys been a long time since Ive been on the forums but i need your help again is speccing some upgrades.

Current spec:-
Windows xp sp3
Motherboard - ASRock 775Dual-VSTA
Cpu - Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB)
GFX - Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 XT 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/DVI (AGP)
Memory - GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3500 Golden Dragon CAS2.5
PSU - Antec TrueBlue 480W PSU

So what do u guys recommend? If you need more spec let me know ;)

I was also looking at maybe a new monitor too as the one I have is a 15" samsung syncmaster 151s

Should I also get Vista 64bit when i upgrade my hardware?
 
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It will be a gaming rig yes, at the moment I have my monitor at 1024 x 768

At the moment I play WoW heavily but I also like football manager,Command and conquer series and the odd FPS game.
 
Tetsu said:
Show me the money
Click to expand...

Ummmm well i suppose I could go up to maybe £600-700 but If i can get the new hardware etc for cheaper id be happy , all depends If i have to splash out on a lot I might get some of it now and get the rest later.

I dont mind maybe saving money on one piece and spending abit more on something else, as long as the saving wont have a big impact on performance.
 
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Personally i would go with a full upgrade. Let me see what i can whip up for >£600

EDIT: Also what case do you have + your HDD seems fine.?



Thats what i have so far. Will check monitors now.

Need someone more experienced with power supplies to say whether or not you need to upgrade that. If not, then you could get a 19" wide screen and still keep it under 600, if you do however need the new psu it will come in the region of £650.

 
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Personally the only things i would upgrade are the motherboard, ram and graphics card. Nothing wrong with the rest of your rig especially this close to the Nehalem launch. Your psu will be fine and i would'nt bother going to Vista unless you are really desperate to. This is what i would go for:-

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £62.99 (£74.01)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99 (£17.61)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB22GB6400C4DC) £23.99 (£28.19)

Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £94.99 (£111.61)

Sub Total : £196.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £36.03
Total : £241.94

With that lot you can overclock your E6400 which should reach at least 3Ghz and will tide you over until Nehalem comes down to a reasonable price. Loads of money spare for a good monitor too. If you go for a 24" monitor then change the graphics card to a 4870.
 
I do agree with you, however, how long would you be waiting for the Nehalem + compliant mobo, from what i have been told, you would only look at it coming down to reasonable prices by May next year. I may of course be wrong.
 
i'd go for the following, stick with Xp for the time being, cooler included to give you chance to overclock the E6400:

Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £98.99 (£116.31)

Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99
(£76.36)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB22GB6400C4DC) £23.99 (£28.19)

Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £29.99 (£35.24)

Samsung SM-223BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black £149.99
(£176.24)

Sub Total : £367.95
Shipping : £9.95
VAT : £66.13
Total : £444.03
 
Anominity said:
I do agree with you, however, how long would you be waiting for the Nehalem + compliant mobo, from what i have been told, you would only look at it coming down to reasonable prices by May next year. I may of course be wrong.
Click to expand...

Nehalem is out in September although it will be October before we see them for sale. Hopefully, prices will drop around Christmas. To me it's pointless to do a big upgrade now when Nehalem will require you to buy new everything (new socket, so new mobo, cpu and triple channel DDR3).
 
tyvm guys for all this feedback, if there is new processors etc on the way i might hold out and get a few more months saving to get the new stuff. But Ill wait to see prices 1st.

If anyone has anymore feedback for upgrading spec plz feel free to add to this post
 
Im just wondering guys/girls, if i buy a brand new gfx card i.e pcie 2.0 will the connector be ok for my current Mobo, which only supports pcie x4?
 
Hello

I also feel like upgrading at the momant
and i was wondering whats the best rig i can get for under £550
i only have a 1280x768 monitor (and i dont want a new one)
So whats the best rig i can get for that monitor. (its going to be used for Gaming)
I want to be able to play Far cry 2, crysis, red alert 3 and Stalker clear sky on highest settings.
Can anyone help me out also?
Many thanks
 
White_hell said:
Hello

I also feel like upgrading at the momant
and i was wondering whats the best rig i can get for under £550
i only have a 1280x768 monitor (and i dont want a new one)
So whats the best rig i can get for that monitor. (its going to be used for Gaming)
I want to be able to play Far cry 2, crysis, red alert 3 and Stalker clear sky on highest settings.
Can anyone help me out also?
Many thanks
Click to expand...

Have'nt a clue about the games as they are not out yet but this is a good spec here. If you only have a 32 bit operating system then drop the ram to a 2Gb kit. The only thing i would change is the motherboard for a Asus P5Q. Still brings it in around £520 and should keep you going for a good while. The cpu should clock to around 3.6Ghz at least.
 
FrostFox said:
i thought it might but I was thinking of getting a nice gfx card now and then getting the new socket later, or is there a new gfx socket coming too?
Click to expand...

No. Pci-e 2.0 is the latest and i can't see that changing for a while. The cpu socket will be a big change as we are going from 775 pins to 1366 pins and the socket is huge. Even current coolers are unlikely to fit unless manufacturers release an adapter of some sort and i can't see that happening. Maybe for waterblocks though. The motherboards will look totally different too. The ram slots will be turned through 90 degrees so that they are across the board instead of lengthways down the board. Cooling should be much better due to this. The NB on one of the boards we have seen is on the edge of the board instead of the middle (ish). You will also need 3x sticks of ram to support tri channel memory. It should support single and dual channel still but most performance will be gained from tri channel.

Why don't you buy a cheap 775 board to tide you over? Something like a Gigabyte P31 DS3L would do nicely. If you shop around you can find one for less than £42. It's a cracking board and will still be able to clock your E6400. You will have to get some DDR2 as well but you can get 2Gb for less than £30 now. This lot with your new card will see you alright until the prices for Nehalem stabilise and possibly reduce around Christmas-January.
 
FrostFox said:
so

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard


what GFX card would u recommend? I dont really want THE best but a card not far from best would be nice.

also what ddr2 ram would u recommend , im using 32bit OS so not more than 2gb right?

Also would u recommend the
Samsung SM-223BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor as mentioned earlier in this post? or what monitor would u recommend.
Click to expand...

I would go for a ATI 4850/4870 and a 2GB kit of Geil Black Dragon PC2 6400.

Have'nt a clue about the monitor but have a check in the monitor section of this forum.
 
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