general buying question

Micronaut · 22 Feb 2007 at 13:55

Hi,

I have a general upgrade purchasing question:

I am currently running a 3ghz Northwood P4 with 1gb ddr500 ram.

I have a £600 budget (max) to buy 2gb ddr2 ram, 1 dual core processor, 1 motherboard, and one nvidia pci express graphics card (potentially to go SLi at the end of the year).

I have recently purchased supreme commander, so would angle the system against running this at a half decent frame rate (although I understand this is a tall order).

Does anybody have any advise on best bang for your buck with this budget? I have tower, disk drives, and monitor already.

Thank you very much for any assistance.

GreenMint · 22 Feb 2007 at 13:58

I actually had this quoted to me on my thread:

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £101.99
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £99.99
Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £69.99
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) £13.99
Sub Total : £285.96
Shipping : £8.25
Vat : £51.49
Total : £345.70

(Thanks HP7009!)

Which would leave you enough to get a 8800 for £190ish leaving you about £70 under your £600 budget, unless that would push you to needing a new PSU too?

syke · 22 Feb 2007 at 14:02

Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB)

Total : £594.44 inc. Delivery

melbourne720 · 22 Feb 2007 at 14:26

I have a feeling you might want a new PSU in there as well, with such a powerful new spec:-

Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B Heatpipe CPU Cooler (478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA755)
(£35.24)

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NQ PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit
(£105.74)

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
(£119.84)

Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£70.49)

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£193.86)

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
(£70.49)

Total : £606.17

semi-pro waster · 22 Feb 2007 at 14:32

Micronaut your signature is way oversized, you have 4 lines according to the FAQ so you should probably change that.

Other than that I'd probably take a mix between melbourne720s specification and Ivan Drago's, I'm not sure if that GSKill works ok with the S3, that brand has problems with some Gigabyte motherboards but I don't know about that one exactly.

melbourne720 · 22 Feb 2007 at 14:43

semi-pro waster said:
I'm not sure if that GSKill works ok with the S3, that brand has problems with some Gigabyte motherboards but I don't know about that one exactly.

Good save semi-pro, swap the G Skill for Geil if you want to leave it at stock, or for the team elite stuff if you want to overclock.

Spec mark 2:-

Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B Heatpipe CPU Cooler (478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA755)
(£35.24)

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
(£119.84)

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£193.86)

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£82.24)

Team Elite 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (TEDD2048M800HC5DC)
(£135.11)

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
(£70.49)

Total : £648.47

Micronaut · 22 Feb 2007 at 15:45

Thanks for your replies, much appreciated.

I have adjusted my signature.

I have an Enermax 440W noistaker PSU at the moment. I take it you would recommend >500W for SLi? Do you all recommend the Intel systems over AMD at the moment?

I would have to keep my budget at a maximum of £600, so would have to swap out some of the components from melbourne's list. I will see how much my old kit can make for sale too.

semi-pro waster · 22 Feb 2007 at 16:05

Taking melbourne720s system as a base this is what I'd change to if it has to stay below £600. No aftermarket cooler but the retail cooler is fine for a bit of overclocking.

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £99.99
(£117.49) £99.99
(£117.49)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
Intel Core 2 DUO E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £95.99
(£112.79) £95.99
(£112.79)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £169.99
(£199.74) £169.99
(£199.74)
Sub Total : £495.95
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 : £88.36
Total : £593.26