Got £200, what should I upgrade here...

hp7909 · 9 Apr 2006 at 08:16

Like title says. But before you begin, £50 goes towards another hard disk. Seriously running out of disk space.

3000+ winnie @ stock (reason why, see 3)
1GB DDR PC3200 @ 2.5-3-3-8
A8V Deluxe (Rev 1.02)
ATI 9800PRO
Tagan TG330-U01

Budget's £200 and can't sell any of the above - will be used as hand-me-down.

brightside_ · 9 Apr 2006 at 09:52

I'd say 2GB of Geil Value RAM, and a 6600GT, but that comes in @ £205 so leaves no money for your HDD!

hp7909 · 9 Apr 2006 at 11:12

brightside_ said:
I'd say 2GB of Geil Value RAM, and a 6600GT, but that comes in @ £205 so leaves no money for your HDD!

You think a whole new set of RAM would do? Why not add another 1GB (512x2)? Besides what are the benfits? Right now, from Windows Task Manager: Available Physical Memory's 514MB and PF Usage's 409MB. & the system's very responsive.

Bit skeptical upgrading the graphics card right now. Might be tempted in the near future to take the PCI Express plunge, & that also calls for a PSU upgrade (apart from Motherboard)

sgoaty · 9 Apr 2006 at 12:26

I would get into the memers market and pck up and X800 series card XLs are going for around £70- £75 then spend the rest on a motherboard with good clocking options you should be able to get a DFI ultra-D for the remaining on the members market. I used a 20 pin psu for a good while on an Nforce 4 board with X850XT so as long as its a good make you should have no issues.

hp7909 · 10 Apr 2006 at 11:32

cheers sgoaty
my only worry is the PSU. Its a Tagan but only 330W

GAMEfreak · 10 Apr 2006 at 14:01

wattage isnt that important, as long as the amperage is high.

jezsoup · 10 Apr 2006 at 14:13

Id look at spending it on a new gfx tbh tis the only thing holding the system back

hp7909 · 10 Apr 2006 at 14:54

GAMEfreak said:
wattage isnt that important, as long as the amperage is high.

+3.3V 28A
+5V 28A
+12V 18A
-5V 0.8A
-12v 1.0A
-5Vsb 2.5A

Good or bad?

wam7 · 10 Apr 2006 at 15:33

I run the system in my sig for a good long while on a 350W Sparkle PSU that had 19A on the 12V rail.

ACESHIGH · 10 Apr 2006 at 16:04

i think a graphics card upgrade is the way to go too.

hp7909 · 10 Apr 2006 at 16:59

Eh, did i mention that i don't play any 'modern' games :rolleyes:

Just occasional HL-2 & GTA San Andreas. The rest are EA Games like FIFA & NFS Underground 2 :rolleyes:

Do quite a-bit of video encoding, though

So, yes you guessed my next question: Would a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ be good in my system?

Dark_Angel · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:10

It would be a good upgrade, but more memory would make it very happy to...video encoding loves ram TBH.

ACESHIGH · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:11

dual core CPU's are especially great for encoding & multitasking, so probably be good if thats what you do.

hp7909 · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:34

Dark_Angel said:
It would be a good upgrade, but more memory would make it very happy to...video encoding loves ram TBH.

The X2 3800+ is just right on the budget
Also, would I need to buy a new heatsink, currently have a Coolermaster Vortex Dream :confused:

mctrials23 · 10 Apr 2006 at 18:12

mate i used to have that mobo and i could overclock it fine to about 2.6 on a 300+ amd 64 winnie.

The mobo isnt that bad. You wanna upgrade you gfx most.

Spend £150 on a second hand gfx card.

I used to have a 3000 winnie at 2.6 gig, 1gig of ddr tccd, x800xt pe and it flew like a beast.

Look to ** ram as the overclocking bottle neck maybe. Make sure the multi is keeping the fsb low on the ram. Unless you have good ram you might not want the ram going about 220 fsb, maybe less.

wam7 · 10 Apr 2006 at 20:47

How about video encoding while you're playing Fifa!? It that appeals to you then get the X2 3800+. Dual core has revolutionised my computer usage.

hp7909 · 11 Apr 2006 at 04:39

mctrials23 said:
mate i used to have that mobo and i could overclock it fine to about 2.6 on a 300+ amd 64 winnie.

Revision 1.02 :confused:

The one without a PCI/AGP lock? The highest i've ever gotten out of it with the 3000+ is 2GHz. Higher than that the system wouldn't boot and several times i've corrupted the hard disk, & once had to restore from backup.