Help me upgrade... slowly.

mks2005

mks2005

mks2005

Associate
Joined
27 May 2004
Posts
2,400
Location
UK
Hey guys,

I need to upgrade. Well, more than just upgrade, pretty much get a whole new rig. I intend do this somewhat gradually (probably two stages due to money issues). Obviously the first stage will be the core of the upgrade.

My current spec:

Akasa 400W PSU
Foxconn NF4K8SAA 939
Athlon 64 3000+
1GB GeiL DDR400
Radeon X800
2 IDE HDs 160GB, 80GB

Clearly a bit dated.

In the first stage of my upgrade I intend to spend no more than £230.

From a bit of reading around, it seems the following would be a good bet:

Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £54.99
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £29.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB)
Sub Total : £126.97
Total : £158.88

Sound like a good idea? From what I've read it would seem I could clock the E2160 to 3Ghz easily with reasonable cooling. If possible, I'd like to remain within budget and get a cooler and case also keeping it under £230. Specs appreciated. :)


Obviously I plan to temporarily use my current PSU, optical drives, HD's and graphics card for the time being :( Will my modest 400W PSU cope with dual core? Since I enjoy gaming, I think it'd be worth saving for a 8800GT. Thoughts? I'll probably end up whacking a 500GB SATA HD in to replace thee old HDs. (My PSU wont cope then will it? :()

Advice and specs appreciated :)
 
What is it your going to be doing with it for a start?
Gaming, Office Work, Business? e.t.c
 
andr3w1984 said:
What is it your going to be doing with it for a start?
Gaming, Office Work, Business? e.t.c
Click to expand...

Sorry, should have been a bit more clearer. As mentioned, I enjoy gaming. In addition I enjoy music production - even though my PC at the moment can still cope with the majority of stuff I do this is still something to bear in mind. (I have a soundcard). Other than that, general usage.
 
That is cool, well because your have a low end amd 64bit it would be a nice little move to a C2D system.

The board,memory and cpu is an excellent choice of componants and will definatly see an enhanced inprovment in speed from your current system.

Your power supply should cope well enough to power the basics but once you start putting bigger graphics cards in it's going to struggle alittlebit so....

Upgrade board,cpu,memory for now and then next a power supply and then hard drive and graphics once you have alittlebit spare money. Hope this helps with what you wanted to know.
 
Here...
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £46.99
  • Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99
  • GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £29.99
  • Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black £49.99
  • Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £46.99
  • Sub Total : £188.95
  • Shipping : £8.95
  • VAT : £34.63
  • Total : £232.53
Current PSU is fine, BUT you'll need to upgrade to 450W+ for 8800GT :(
 
Why do people waste money? If the op got your system HP then he would be accually wasting £73.65, which could get him a faster Sata drive or half way to an 8800 just about. He also said to keep it under 230, you gone over by £2.53 lol.

I think I know what I would choose..
 
andr3w1984 said:
Why do people waste money? If the op got your system HP then he would be accually wasting £73.65, which could get him a faster Sata drive or half way to an 8800 just about. He also said to keep it under 230, you gone over by £2.53 lol.

I think I know what I would choose..
Click to expand...

He's not wasting me money :) I did ask for a case and cooler in the spec. My Sonata II is really really battered...

I really like that spec hp7909. Any reason for the Gigabyte board over the Abit?

The next upgrade GFX, HD and PSU is gonna be quite expensive then. Haha. Oh well, better get saving.

Cheers for the advice!
 
Not sure if I've misread the intentions in the original post, but it appears that following the spec through you would not be able to use it until you've upgraded your graphics card as the current one will only be AGP I presume?
 
BlizzardX said:
Not sure if I've misread the intentions in the original post, but it appears that following the spec through you would not be able to use it until you've upgraded your graphics card as the current one will only be AGP I presume?
Click to expand...

Nope, that board has PCI-E on.
 
BlizzardX said:
Ah my mistake. I wrongly figured it was an early S939 before the PCI-E started being used.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's PCI-e :) Don't worry though, part of the reason for posting here was for people to notice any flaws in my plans! :)

Anyone had any experience with regard to quietness of the Lian-Li case and the overall quietness of the build? I have a Socket 939 Freezer atm and it's fairly quiet - although when I first made this build in the Sonata it was all VERY quiet.

One other small question - that cooler includes a decent thermal paste right? (Since I'm gonna be OCing this chip as much as I can really...)

Thanks a lot guys, much appreciated. :)
 
I believe it comes with AC-MX1 paste, which is meant to be pretty good. Some googling will probably result in some comparison tables betwwen it and other pastes.

- Pea0n
 
The Gigabyte board doesn't seem that bad (see here) ;)

Might want an extra tube of Thermal Compound. Made a mess installing my AC64 Pro. Luckily had some AS5 around.
 
Sorry to bump, but I was looking at the Sonata III - I could be getting a new case (which is quiet) and a 500W PSU for £67.99? Seems I could save a bit of money there, as opposed to getting the Lian Li, then forking out £50+ on a new PSU. Is there something crappy about this case/PSU I should realise? It's not the nicest looking case ever, but it's fairly sleek, black and (I'd hope) quiet... Any thoughts?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom