Gaming Rig Upgrade...

Rokfire · 7 Jul 2006 at 14:22

Hi, I need to upgrade my games machine over the next couple of weeks so that I can play CS:S, FEAR, COD 2 etc I don’t use FSAA that much and highest res is 1280x1024. Need to get a new motherboard, CPU, RAM and a gfx card, currently have 450watt PSU.

I don’t really want to spend more than £550 and was thinking of getting a Core 2 Duo E6300 but would I just be better waiting for the price cuts and getting a skt AM2 3800 X2. Would the E6300 be noticeably faster?

I’m planning on getting a standard 7900GT as they are quieter and need much less power and standard 7900GT’s seem to have avoided the problems of the OC’d 7900GT’s. Would my PSU be able to handle a X1800XT?

Anyway this is what i've come up with please let me know what you think, thanks.

CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN) 1
£129.95 £129.95
MB-011-IN Intel DP965LT 965 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-011-IN) 1
£74.95 £74.95
MY-012-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 LA PC2-5300 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-5400PHU2-2GBLA) (MY-012-GS) 1
£99.95 £99.95
GX-028-GW Gainward BLISS Geforce 7900 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-028-GW) 1
£174.95 £174.95
Subtotal £479.80
VAT £83.97
Total £563.77

booyaka · 7 Jul 2006 at 15:06

what model/make is the psu?

Would maybe consider the X1800XT instead of the 7900GT as there has been some problems with the 7900GT.

Rokfire · 7 Jul 2006 at 15:44

Currently using a Jeantech 450 Watt PSU http://www.jeantech.com/450.htm not had any problems with it but not sure if it could handle a X1800XT.

In terms of gaming performance only, would the Conroe E6300 be noticeably better than an X2 3800, if not then i'll just the cheaper AMD chip.

ACESHIGH · 7 Jul 2006 at 18:18

I think its definitely worth waiting for the price cuts for the AMD chips if you can & want to save some money at the same time. At the cheaper prices the AM2 X2 3800+ will likely be a competitive buy against the Intel Core Duo chips. The real world difference will probably be negligible (though PC Mark etc may show a difference). For gaming the GPU plays the biggest role anyway.

As for the graphics card - many people run their X1800XT on 400W+ PSU's as long as the 12+v rail is stable. If not the slightly slower 7900GT should fit the bill with its lower power consumption.