General Upgrade.

Atrax

Atrax

Atrax

Associate
Joined
28 Jul 2006
Posts
24
Hi guys,

Im wondering if anyone could help me with a few issues I have.
I upgraded my PC a few years back and it has served me well.

I recently bought a Dell 24" Widescreen monitor.
Due to the 1900x1200 res my graphics card now just aint cutting it.

I have an AGP card (Geforce 6800 Ultra) and I wish to upgrade to the newest Nvidia Card. As UIm sure most of you will be aware they are PCI/PCI-Express.

Due to this Im having to upgrade my motherboard and probably my RAM. So while Im at it I might as well upgrade from my Athlon64 3400.

Ive been looking at the bundles on the OC site and noticed a few which took my fancy.


AMD Athlon X2 4200 Retail / Asus A8N-SLi Premium / 2GB Geil PC3200 Dual Channel Kit - Bundle (BU-049-OK) at £367

AMD Athlon X2 4400 Retail / Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe / 2GB Corsair XMS 3500LL Dual Channel Kit - Bundle (BU-050-OK) at £481.57

AMD Athlon X2 4400 Retail / Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe / 2GB Corsair XMS 3200C2PT Dual Channel Kit - Bundle (BU-058-OK) at £440

I am aware that the Process speed on the first option is slower, so I understand why the price is lower.
Is it worth the extra to upgrade to the 4400 and why the £40 difference in price between those 2 selections.

Im not too bad with PCs as I built my last one. But I was just wondering what people thought would be the best option.

Im mainyl playing WoW at the moment so my current PC set up isnt an issue but Im a bog FPS fan and as I previously mentioned HL2 etc is struggling with the new res. So Id like to upgrade with regards to being resonablly future proof. ie- I dont mind having to get a new GFX card in a year or so, but wouldnt fancy having to completely upgrade again like Im doing now.

Just in case it makes a difference, Im looking to get the

EVGA GeForce 7950 GX2 1024MB GDDR3 HDTV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-009-EA)

as my new GFX card.

Unless anyone can suggest otherwise.


Thanks in advance for your help

:)
 
If you're going to get a new motherboard and RAM, and you're spending that much, there's only one sensible route - conroe! Also, be certain that your future motherboard is 100% compatible with the 7950, as I hear some don't work with it?
 
Atrax said:
OK Thanks.

Ill have too look into this conroe. :)
Click to expand...

Best value for money, speed-per-pound line of CPUs you can get at the moment. Even some of the slowest conroes can give the most expensive AMD's a run for their money! :eek: Check out the numerous threads on the forum and google up some benchmarks for the big picture.
 
Mmm...I agree..

Also bundles tend to only be good value when they first come out. Their prices aren't as updated (i.e. lowered) as often as the selection of individual components are.
 
Well guys,

Ive looked around and decided on the following.
As you can see I still havent decided on a make for Memory or GFX card.
So any help would be greatloy appreciated.
Also, are the components Im buying worth the money/compatible etc.

Thanks

-----------------------------------
Asus P5N32 SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi X16 (Socket 775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-117-AS) £142

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN) £253

Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case & Window (BU-000-AK) £97.17

GeForce 7950 (Not sure what kind yet) - £400 ish

Akasa Ultra Quiet 650W PowerPlus Active PFC ATX2.0 PSU - Black Nickel (CA-015-AK) - £86

RAM 2G (Not sure on make) - £130 ish

------------------------------------------------------------
 
You might want to be sure on the RAM ..

Make sure u get a decent make / model, you have a really good spec there, you don't want to fall down on the RAM ...

Thats a lot of power ... 500w/580w+ would be enough
 
 
Don't think that mobo is out-of-the box compatible with the conroe (if at all). I couldn't advise you on what would be the best alternative, but I gather a lot of people on these boards have Gigabyte mobos (DS3 is most popular afaik)

edit: though if you do go Gigabyte be careful of which RAM you chose as a number of people report issues with certain brands
 
Thanks guys.

Im at work just now so dont have time to look into it.
But Ill have a good read up once I get home.

Also, would people recommend the nVidia 7950's?
Are they worth the money or would I be better off with the 7900's?
 
Im gonna wait a couple of weeks till I get back from holiday.

Hopefully by then it should be easier to pick out compatible parts.

But Ill keep looking in the mean time.
 
i still think you cannot really beat the x1800xt for 150 quid. but if i were you for 400 quid i would be looking at the x1900. plus i think conroe is then best option available to you. but if u were to have a budget which u clearly have not i would go with the amd athlon 4400+x2.
 
My budget is roughly £1200. Give or take.

Im going to have to look into the whole processor thing. But from what Ive seen so far conroe seems like the best option.
It just appears that the Athlons can really compete (price to power ratio).
But Ill have a good read up on it before deciding, in case theres something Ive missed.

If I do go over budget Ill just have to wait a month or so to get the final parts. Which isnt too much of a hassle.
I just want a system thats going to be reasonably future proof (if there is such a thing nowadays :p )

I dont mind having to get a new GFX card in a year or so, but I dont want to have to upgrade my Motherboard, processor, memory etc again, like Im having to do just now.
 
You might not have upgrade your proccessor or your memory. What pin set does it use?

If you want to spend your budget i hope this helps. The motherboard and ninja cooler is for overclocking, i don't know if you wanted to do that.

CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
£214.95 £214.95
MB-062-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-062-GI)
£104.95 £104.95
GX-012-EA EVGA GeForce 7950 GX2 SuperClocked 1024MB GDDR3 HDTV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (E595-AX) (GX-012-EA)
£354.95 £354.95
MY-108-CS Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-108-CS)
£144.95 £144.95
CA-009-TG Tagan TG580-U15 580W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-009-TG)
£69.95 £69.95
CA-054-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)
£48.95 £48.95
HS-003-SY Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY)
£26.95 £26.95
Subtotal £965.65
VAT £168.99
Total £1,134.64
 
Ive never really given overclocking a try before.

Thanks for the advice though. Looks good.

Are all the parts definitely compatible?

Thats my only real problem at the moment. As the Conroe is new and there have been compatability issues with the GFX card, I was considering waiting till I return from holiday ( 3 weeks time) before I order and hopefully Id get more info regarding compatability.

But your advice is definitely the way Id like to go right now. :)

Thanks
 
OK.

Im back from holiday and was plesantly surprised to see that OC have now got conroe bundles.

---------------------------------

Ive decided on going with the following (unless anyone thinks otherwise);

Intel Core 2 DUO LGA775 E6600 2.40GHz Retail / Asus P5W DH Deluxe / 2GB G.Skill PC2-6400C4 DDR2 Dual Channel Kit - Bundle (BU-038-OK) - £585

Leadtek GeForce 7950 GX2 1024MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-086-LT) - £370

Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case & Window (BU-000-AK) £97.17

Akasa Ultra Quiet 650W PowerPlus Active PFC ATX2.0 PSU - Black Nickel (CA-015-AK) - £89

Total- £ 1142

-----------------------------------

I have a Hard Drive I can use, so thats not an issue.
I hope I havent forgotten anything :p

Ill need that too
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC) - £6 :p
 
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