Help upgrading PC

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 23 Mar 2006 at 16:08

Heya

I am looking for a vast upgrade from my current spec.

Abit Maxx3 IC7
P4 - 3.0Gig
Corsair 2x 512mb = 1gig (2700 or 3200 I cant remember)
Saphire 9700 Pro

I dont have much to spend and I am looking for something to run battlefield 2 very well and work with 300dpi photos in photoshop very well.

Here is a quick list I have come up with,

Abit AN8-32X nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-092-AB)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4200BVBOX) (CP-126-AM)

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-5400 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-095-CS)

Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)

That is the best I can come up with to result in a price of just under £800.

If anything in that list is a terrible choice then could you advise me further. I wish I could pull all the stops out and get the very best but money is an issue.

Thanks

NeptuneUK · 23 Mar 2006 at 16:09

that setup rocks, make sure u have a good PSU to put in it tho

Devlish · 23 Mar 2006 at 16:17

It may be worth dropping to a cheaper RAM and using the cash to push up the processor to 4400 for the extra cache.

Explicit · 23 Mar 2006 at 16:24

Fstop11 said:
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-5400 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-095-CS)

Not compatible with that spec, you need normal DDR

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 23 Mar 2006 at 16:34

Explicit said:
Not compatible with that spec, you need normal DDR

What would you recomend ?

Explicit · 23 Mar 2006 at 16:35

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£326.59
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£70.44
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR CAS2 (OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K) (MY-057-OC)
£164.44
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC **this week only**
£234.94

Total inc VAT: £796.41

Much superior CPU with 1MB L2 cache per core, good ram, and a brilliant graphics card. You can save £50 by getting GeIL value 2GB RAM. Also consider a crossfire mobo if you realistically think you will want it one day.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 23 Mar 2006 at 16:41

just a note. That motherboard I spec'd up first is on offer this week for £117 quid

And the motherobard you have recomended does not support the dual core CPU

Explicit · 23 Mar 2006 at 16:46

Fstop11 said:
just a note. That motherboard I spec'd up first is on offer this week for £117 quid

Yes that's right, but unforunately an expensive SLI mobo will be of little use with an X1800, hence the cheaper A8N-E. You could also get a crossfire mobo.

Fstop11 said:
And the motherobard you have recomended does not support the dual core CPU

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=171&model=455&modelmenu=1

This motherboard supports AMD 939-pin Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core processor with 1MBx2 or 512KBx2 L2 cache which is based on 64-bit architecture. It features better multithreaded / multitasking performance than Athlon™ 64 FX / Athlon™ 64.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 23 Mar 2006 at 16:52

oh right sorry to question you.

I wont ever go crossfire either. This machine will only be used until xmas and then I will be getting rid.

Explicit · 23 Mar 2006 at 16:54

lol, no worries mate

I'd say that's a good spec and will easily last until xmas.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 23 Mar 2006 at 17:03

I have been worried to use Asus motherboards since a problem I had with a few some 5 years ago. But other than that I seem happy with that spec.

Explicit · 23 Mar 2006 at 17:09

If you don't like asus, then you could always go for the DFI Ultra-D which is a legendary overclocking mobo but slightly more expensive. Or if you're really keen on abit, then the Abit KN8 Ultra (MB-087-AB) should also be fine.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 23 Mar 2006 at 17:20

It would either be Abit or Asus no doubt. Im not interested in overclocking at all (maybe making the memory run a bit quicker) It all depends on how this stock spec performs.

I only play BF2 and it would be nice to see it for once in all its glory and I do a mass ammount of photography editing at high res. Hense the 2 gig of ram minimum.

Explicit · 23 Mar 2006 at 17:30

Fstop11 said:
I only play BF2 and it would be nice to see it for once in all its glory and I do a mass ammount of photography editing at high res. Hense the 2 gig of ram minimum.

For both BF2 and photoshop, the above spec will be more than enough. It costs £800 for a damn good reason