Help with my new right arm...

bigfred · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:26

hi all...

Im getting myself a new setup in the next few weeks.... thought it was time to retire this old AMD Athlon..... had it for 2 1/2 years now without upgrading...its killing me softly...

i have had a look on here, as a good friend of mine has recently purchased a new setup from OcUK and is well chuffed with the outcome. I have put together what i think should be half decent, for my budget. I'm sure i have either left something, chosen something that is incompatable with something else oir have just made a dogs dinner of it all and am miles away from what i could get or my money....

if someone could please review my choices and give a good size 11 kick in the right direction, that would be appreciated....... so here goes...

MY-079-CS Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS)
£124.95 £124.95
CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£171.95 £171.95
MB-131-AS Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-131-AS)
£109.95 £109.95
HS-007-TT Thermaltake Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe (Socket 939/754/775/478) CPU Cooler (CL-P0114) (HS-007-TT)
£24.95 £24.95
HD-070-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-070-WD)
£63.95 £63.95
CD-043-LG LG GSA-H10ABAL 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-043-LG)
£21.95 £43.90
SC-040-CL Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (SC-040-CL)
£15.95 £15.95
CC-001-OK OcUK Value 4-Port USB 2.0 PCI Card (CC-001-OK)
£7.95 £7.95
CA-015-TT Thermaltake VB1000BWS Soprano SuperMidi Tower - Black (CA-015-TT)
£42.95 £42.95
GX-054-HT HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1800 GTO ICEQ3 SILENT TURBO 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-054-HT)
£119.95 £119.95
GX-001-CP Compro VideoMate DVB-T300 Digital & Analog TV Internal PCI - Retail (GX-001-CP)
£44.95 £44.95
Subtotal £771.40
VAT £135.00
Total £906.40

Thanks a lot for taking the time to have a look....

i have a budget of around £850 - £900... its speed i am after.... and atleast 200GB HDD

Eliot · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:32

get a better graphics card i would say
like the xt version, its cheap now then you are set, may be worth cheapening your ram etc for it i would also recommend a oem cpu to save a tenner

trojan698 · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:37

I'd drop the USB card unless you use a lot of USB ports at once.
Also probably better considering a different case, I have a soprano and they're a bit cramped for working in. How about a Lian-Li PC7+ ? You need an ATX2 PSU aswell remember.
All 939 boards support dual core btw, you intent on going crossfire at some point?

ken1307 · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:38

how about this? pretty much the same as your list but with AM2 dual-core CPU, 7600GT instead of x1800gto and Lian-li PC7+ instead of the Thermaltake

MB-142-AS Asus M2N32-SLi-DLX nForce 590 SLi (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-142-AS)
£114.95 £114.95
CP-166-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-166-AM)
£181.95 £181.95
MY-011-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 ZX PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBZX) (MY-011-GS)
£144.95 £144.95
HS-021-ZA Zalman CNPS9500-AM2 Aero Flower (Socket AM2/939/754) CPU Cooler (HS-021-ZA)
£25.95 £25.95
HD-078-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE)
£66.95 £66.95
CD-030-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE)
£21.95 £21.95
SC-040-CL Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (SC-040-CL)
£15.95 £15.95
CC-001-OK OcUK Value 4-Port USB 2.0 PCI Card (CC-001-OK)
£7.95 £7.95
GX-025-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG)
£99.95 £99.95
GX-001-CP Compro VideoMate DVB-T300 Digital & Analog TV Internal PCI - Retail (GX-001-CP)
£44.95 £44.95
CA-054-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)
£48.95 £48.95
Subtotal £774.45
VAT £135.53
Total £909.98

bigfred · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:39

trojan698 said:
I'd drop the USB card unless you use a lot of USB ports at once.
Also probably better considering a different case, I have a soprano and they're a bit cramped for working in. How about a Lian-Li PC7+ ?
All 939 boards support dual core btw, you intent on going crossfire at some point?

you will have to excuse my knowledge... iv'e been away from upgrading and building for about 3 years... so not even totally sure what "going crossfire" is.....

trojan698 · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:42

crossfire is linking two ATI gfx cards together, you need a master card and a regular (slave) one. The motherboard there is designed to support it, it also costs your right arm.

bigfred · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:48

trojan698 said:
crossfire is linking two ATI gfx cards together, you need a master card and a regular (slave) one. The motherboard there is designed to support it, it also costs your right arm.

thanks for the advice mate... i like the look of the setup that ken1307 has suggested, how would you rate it? specifically compared with what i have chosen...

i take it by bieng "dual Core" i can install 2 graphic cards?..... god i sound like such a newb!!!

ken1307 · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:53

bigfred said:
i take it by bieng "dual Core" i can install 2 graphic cards?..... god i sound like such a newb!!!

no, dual-core refers to the cpu which has 2-cores on 1 die, basically 2 cpus in 1 package

to install 2 gfx, u either need SLI ( for nVidia cards) or CrossFire (for ATi cards) compatiable motherboard. the mobo I suggested is an SLI compatible and the 7600GT is SLI ready as well so you can add another card later

bigfred · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:56

ken1307 said:
no, dual-core refers to the cpu which has 2-cores on 1 die, basically 2 cpus in 1 package to install 2 gfx, u either need SLI ( for nVidia cards) or CrossFire (for ATi cards) compatiable motherboard. the mobo I suggested is an SLI compatible and the 7600GT is SLI ready as well so you can add another card later

thanks ken... think i can see a light now... great bit of advice mate... really apreciate it.. thanks

trojan698 · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:58

Yeah its a good spec, socket AM2 is a better option than 939, it being the way forward and all. I'd still bin the USB card though.

ken1307 · 13 Jun 2006 at 00:08

bigfred said:
thanks ken... think i can see a light now... great bit of advice mate... really apreciate it.. thanks

glad I can help mate

btw, you do a lot of multitasking? if not then a cheaper single core CPU with an faster gfx might be an better option

ie. replace the dual-core 3800+ with a single 3500+ could save you 125 quid (more if you went for the 3000/3200+). put 60 quid toward the gfx purchase to get an 7900GT (175ish) instead of 7600GT(115ish) and you can spend the remain money a better sound card/mouse or speaker. Im quite sure it would be faster in game but some1 correct me if im wrong here

MB-142-AS Asus M2N32-SLi-DLX nForce 590 SLi (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-142-AS)
£114.95 £114.95
MY-011-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 ZX PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBZX) (MY-011-GS)
£144.95 £144.95
HS-021-ZA Zalman CNPS9500-AM2 Aero Flower (Socket AM2/939/754) CPU Cooler (HS-021-ZA)
£25.95 £25.95
HD-078-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE)
£66.95 £66.95
CD-030-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE)
£21.95 £21.95
CC-001-OK OcUK Value 4-Port USB 2.0 PCI Card (CC-001-OK)
£7.95 £7.95
GX-001-CP Compro VideoMate DVB-T300 Digital & Analog TV Internal PCI - Retail (GX-001-CP)
£44.95 £44.95
CA-054-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)
£48.95 £48.95
CP-164-AM AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-164-AM)
£74.95 £74.95
SC-034-CL Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - Retail (SC-034-CL)
£66.95 £66.95
Subtotal £618.50
VAT £108.24
Total £726.74

the list above doesnt have gfx but the 7900GT can be had for 180ish which makes the total of 906.74 incl VAT + delivery. The Connect3D X1800XT 256MB (164 quid) is another good choice of gfx as well but you would need an 3rd-party heatsink (zalman vf-900 or Arctic Cooling Accelero X2) as the stock is just loud. Similar price for both systems, its your choice now, either dual-core CPU + ok-ish gfx + cheap sound card OR single-core CPU + fast gfx + awesome soundcard

im using onboard soundcard tbh but from what I heard, the x-fi is awesome

trojan698 · 13 Jun 2006 at 00:29

I'd go for the 3500 if your just gaming, you could always go dual core with the arrival of the 65nm cpu's.