Help on upgrade decision!

Mr Paul · 25 Jul 2006 at 22:30

What do I do?

Option 1:-

DFI LanParty UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert PCI-E £106.34
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI/AVIVO (PCI-E) - £219.95
Icy Box Aluminium USB2.0 3.5" Enclosure +LED - Silver - £17.95
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATAII NCQ 3Gb/s 320GB 16MB Cache OEM - £60.40

£487 inc P&P and use current Venice @ 2.5~2.6GHz

Option 2:-

DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard - £74.95
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - £139.95
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM - £62.95
Icy Box External Enclosure IB-351U-BL USB2.0 - Silver - £19.95
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) - £99.95

£477.88 inc P&P.

Do I get the better mobo and GFX and keep the Venice or go for a worse mobo and GFX but get a dual core X2?

Only mainly interested in Gaming.

Advice would be great

LanceCrossfire · 25 Jul 2006 at 22:33

option 3 = Ditch SLi mobo if using ATI GPU,get AM2 based Cpu or Conroe to futureproof yourself as much as possible...

RoboCod · 26 Jul 2006 at 00:41

LanceCrossfire said:
option 3 = Ditch SLi mobo if using ATI GPU,get AM2 based Cpu or Conroe to futureproof yourself as much as possible...

That depends on his budget. The 939 isn't going to be redundant anytime too soon, it depends on his needs. Conroe and AM2 are just out, therefore very expensive. He might not need that and could just wait to upgrade for a fraction of the cost

My rig: Opty 146, x1900xt, DFI Expert 2gb G.skill. A decent setup that plays most games at the mo on highest. I bought all these components recently for a fair price. If I had the money to burn Id have got the latest gear, but I simply dont need it.

RoboCod · 26 Jul 2006 at 00:48

In fact I just read that conroes will be about £150!? If thats the case stick with the 1st reply

lol

Cyber-Mav · 26 Jul 2006 at 01:50

conroe is the main option to go for if building new pc from scratch.

Mr Paul · 26 Jul 2006 at 08:12

LanceCrossfire said:
option 3 = Ditch SLi mobo if using ATI GPU,get AM2 based Cpu or Conroe to futureproof yourself as much as possible...

That will involve getting 2Gb of DDR2 which I can't stretch to budget wise. Besides I'd rather wait a year until Conroe is a mature platform.

As long as I've gone PCI-E, 939 is more than enough for me

Mr Paul · 26 Jul 2006 at 08:13

Cyber-Mav said:
conroe is the main option to go for if building new pc from scratch.

Its not from scratch

Its a small upgrade to PCI-E from AGP.

But do I go for X1900XT and stay with current Venice or get X1800XT 256Mb and go dual core 939???

MeatLoaf · 26 Jul 2006 at 08:38

Id stay with the venice and get the x1900xt. It will be quicker in games, at least for now. You can always go dual core with the proceeds of selling your AGP stuff and your current venice.

Mr Paul · 26 Jul 2006 at 09:35

Thing is 939 chips are becoming harder and harder to come by. Espacially X2's for the current excellent price.

RoboCod · 26 Jul 2006 at 10:57

Do you really need the HD and Ice box? Maybe cutting these out or getting a cheaper model may mean you could budget a better chip AND gpu?

Alternatively you could risk purchasing your hardware from the MM here. I have bought several components, including my opty, from the MM. If you buy from a trusted member you really shouldnt have any problem. Whats best is you get the parts at bargain price's because half these guys want to pass them off quickly in order to fund their UBER E-penis rigs.

Im not sure about coupling the Venice with an x1900xt, a bit of a mismatch? Maybe something like a 3700 with a higher cache? Also, out of curiosty, have you sufficient RAM and is your power supply up to the demands of these high spec GPU's and amount of OC'ing you intend to achieve?

EDIT: Forgot about you sig. Not familiar with "modstreams"

and your RAM looks fine for the mo.

Mr Paul · 26 Jul 2006 at 11:15

Captain Planet said:
Do you really need the HD and Ice box? Maybe cutting these out or getting a cheaper model may mean you could budget a better chip AND gpu?

Alternatively you could risk purchasing your hardware from the MM here. I have bought several components, including my opty, from the MM. If you buy from a trusted member you really shouldnt have any problem. Whats best is you get the parts at bargain price's because half these guys want to pass them off quickly in order to fund their UBER E-penis rigs.

Im not sure about coupling the Venice with an x1900xt, a bit of a mismatch? Maybe something like a 3700 with a higher cache? Also, out of curiosty, have you sufficient RAM and is your power supply up to the demands of these high spec GPU's and amount of OC'ing you intend to achieve?

EDIT: Forgot about you sig. Not familiar with "modstreams" and your RAM looks fine for the mo.

The SATAII drive will be my new drive, my current Maxtor will be going in the Icy Box and my 2 WD's will be going in the server in a RAID array (need more air flow inside the case as the 3 HD's sit directly behind the intake fans).

Modstream is well up for the task

I'll have a look at the MM.