Help me upgrade from AMD XP2200+

p13tr0

p13tr0

p13tr0

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2 Feb 2009
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My current spec is 7 years old (it was cutting edge at the time!) :cool:

XP2200+, 1 GB Corsair RAM, ASUS A7V333 mobo, WD Caviar 80 GB HDD, 5.1 Sounblaster Audigy, Leadtek Nvidia GForce 4 Ti 4200, Dell 19" LCD, Plextor CD RW drive, Coolermaster case (can't remember model, but has a blue plastic door).:o

OK, now you have stopped laughing ;), my budget is around £1000. I do not play a lot of PC games, although I would like the capability to play games like Crysis now and again. I like high quality audio and want the new build to act as a quality source for my headphone and streo amp's. I want to be able to multi task without breaking a sweat (e.g. java based share trading platform with multiple instances, firefox, mp3's, Photoshop). I am also looking for a 26" LCD as I need the space to open up all my trading charts etc..). I would also like the system to be as quiet as possible.

I need almost everything really, including case. Things I can re-use are: Wireless keyboard + mouse and possibly the Plextor CD/RW drive?

So far, all I have done is selected a case I quite like: Lian Li PC-A05B. I am so far out of the loop on the components that I don't know where to start!

I am more than happy to build my own system as I did 7 years ago, but for comparison, I took a look at Dell and saw this for £969. The monitor is smaller than I am looking for, but the question is, can I build something better than this without spending loads more money?

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Components
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec) edit

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 64Bit - English edit

HARDWARE SUPPORT 1Yr XPS Premium Warranty Support - Priority Call In and Onsite Support edit

MONITOR 23in S2309W WIDESCREEN UK Black (1920 x 1080) edit

MEMORY 4096MB (4x1024) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel edit

HARD DRIVE 500GB Serial ATA (7200RPM) Hard Drive edit

GRAPHICS CARD 512MB ATI® Radeon® 4850 Graphics card edit

OPTICAL DRIVE 16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)

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

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and help!
 
OK, so I have had a go at putting together a system. Please take a look below.

A few questions:
1) Will I be able to run Crysis with "eye candy" on?
2) Will my chosen RAM support an overclock of the CPU to 3.4Ghz?
3) Will this set-up be quiet or would you suggest any alternative components to achieve this?
4) What are your general thoughts/ comments on this spec?

Cheers

Untitled-1.jpg
 
Exchange the monitor, CPU and mobo for:

Samsung SM2343BW 23" (2048x1152 - I have two of these for charting and trading, picked them BOTH up fo £340)
AMD X4 Phenom II 940 3GHz (easily overlock to 3.5GHz)
Asus M3A78-T AMD 790G

Phenom II is overclocks higher, is cooler and has a lower power draw than the Q6600, if you raise the NB slightly it also beats the Q6600 clock for clock.


PS: What do you trade? FX over here. :)
 
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Thanks for the feedback. I will cost out your proposed spec. I was under the impression that Intel were at the head of the pack at the moment hence my original CPU choice. You give some sound arguments for the AMD Phenom though!

I am interested to know why you prefer the Samsung SM2343BW 23"? I went for the T240 for a couple of reasons:
1) I like the looks
2) It has HDMI input for my xbox should I want to hook up the xbox in my office at any time.

I was toying with the idea of the 26" version, but wasn't sure if the GFX card could cope with that size/ resolution.

I also left out the OS. I will be going with Vista Home Premium 64bit.


P.S. I am mostly trading in commodities, but I do also trade equities and FX. Fun times at the moment!
 
Could you stretch your budget to another £200-250? If so, you can get a nice i7 rig for that.
 
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icey_haj said:
Could you stretch your budget to another £200-250? If so, you can get a nice i7 rig for that.
Click to expand...

Yes I could. My intention is to try and excersize some restraint, as I could easily get carried away and end up spending £3000. Do you think I would see any "real world" benefit of increasing my budget by £300. I really don't play games that often at all, so I am not trying to achieve best possible FPS etc..

I will likely keep this rig for around 3 years. Bear in mind that I have been running my AMD 2200+ rig for 7 years with no upgrades except for replacing a broken DVD drive. I do have more modern laptops, but I have to say that my desktop build has kept pace quite well with my Intel Centrino Duo 2.16GHz laptop up until recently. I badly need to do an OS re-install, but rather than do that I decided to upgrade the whole lot.

Cheers
 
p13tr0 said:
Yes I could. My intention is to try and excersize some restraint, as I could easily get carried away and end up spending £3000. Do you think I would see any "real world" benefit of increasing my budget by £300. I really don't play games that often at all, so I am not trying to achieve best possible FPS etc..

I will likely keep this rig for around 3 years. Bear in mind that I have been running my AMD 2200+ rig for 7 years with no upgrades except for replacing a broken DVD drive. I do have more modern laptops, but I have to say that my desktop build has kept pace quite well with my Intel Centrino Duo 2.16GHz laptop up until recently. I badly need to do an OS re-install, but rather than do that I decided to upgrade the whole lot.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Well, it will get you the newer tech. Since you don't upgrade often, I would go with the i7 personally. Others may disagree.
 
Samsung T240 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor (LS22TWHUSUV)

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM

Gigabyte EX58-UD4P Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

Corsair 6GB DDR3 XMS3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (3x2GB) Triple Channel DDR3

Lian-Li PC-B25B Aluminium Midi-Tower - Black (No PSU) L

Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express)
- Retail (90-C1CLC0-J0UAY00Z)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939)

Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-Express Sound Card (90-YAA060-1UAN00Z)

Coolermaster Real Power 520w Modular Power Supply

Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD642JJ)

Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) -

Sub Total : £1,266.88
Total : £1,474.15


:confused: Does this look OK for an i7 spec? How would this compare with the spec above?
 
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