Mate is looking for a cheap upgrade..advice plz

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Hi all mate of mine is looking to upgrade his comp he is currently running a

Xp2500
9800pro
1gig ram

and is looking to upgrade to the fiollowing

CP-120-AM AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-120-AM)

MB-101-AS Asus A8N-SLi SE nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-101-AS)

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

Now his current system isnt bad at all for the games he plays, will this upgrade make a massive difference and will it last him for netc couple of years with the latest games coming out, crysis etc?

Thx in advance
 
Will be a massive difference in performance, not sure about the motherboard choice though, why SLI for an X1800 XT? There are cheaper single card 939 mobos.

Make sure his PSU is up to the task too ;)
 
see, this is why i asked :D i didnt see that when he told me about mobo, whats going to be the best crossfire mobo so he can get another gfx card in future and whats goping to be minimum psu needed to cope :D cheers for that
 
He won't be able to play Crysis on DirectX10 and if he wants it to last I would recommend Conroe/Dual core but if he has a tight budget stick with what you have got other than mobo.
 
yeah he's on a bit of a budget so what would anyone recommend would be best for a upgrade on £400 he wants to keep his ddr400 ram and sata drives but wants new mobo graphics and processor?? Crysis would run ok on a x1800xt wouldnt it? + if he had 2 of them?
 
Trouble is that a decent 939 crossfire mobo is just as expensive as the SLI ones, you'd then be looking at paying so much a Core 2 Duo looks better value. I doubt he'd get around to filling the second slot either, especially with DX 10 cards out soon and the hefty Crossfire power requirements.

For a single X1800/X1900 Seasonic S12 430 Watt @ £50 is a good buy, for Crossfire your looking at, at least £70 odd which again is defeating the point of a value build :(

If he really likes idea of SLI / Crossfire I'd suggest downgrading graphics to a 7600 GT, which will still be a big upgrade and then he could get a nice cheap mobo like:
Asrock 939SLI-eSATA2
£51.64 (inc VAT)

Only certain nVidia driver versions work properly with it but then it is cheap and not an nVidia chipset so...

Other options I can see are the Asrock 775Dual-VSTA which would let him use current DDR with a Core 2 Duo chip: http://www.asrock.com/product/775Dual-VSTA.htm

and the Asrock ConroeXFire-eSATA2 at £63.39 (again Core 2 Duo support but would require DDR2 RAM).
 
Core 2 DUO 1.86ghz
Geil 2x512 ddr2 pc6400
x1800xt connect3d
MSI 965P NEO

£411

No sli/crossfire or psu if needed, just a suggestion
 
ste_bla said:
Core 2 DUO 1.86ghz
Geil 2x512 ddr2 pc6400
x1800xt connect3d
MSI 965P NEO

£411

No sli/crossfire or psu if needed, just a suggestion
Click to expand...
You could even save money by going with the ASrock conroe x-fire mobo and a X1600 pro/xt graphics which would allow for crossfire in future.

I personally wouldn't say it would be worth going 939 now, as unless you are on an extremely tight budget there is no reason to go with a discontinued socket - as it will only mean having to shell out a fair whack next upgrade. Plus I don't see it offering a major return performance wise for the cost
 
j00ni said:
You could even save money by going with the ASrock conroe x-fire mobo and a X1600 pro/xt graphics which would allow for crossfire in future.
Click to expand...

Its seriously not worth getting a X1600XT imo.
 
for either platform I'd recommend a single graphics card mobo ie nforce 4 or intel 965 combined with the best graphics card he can afford. When he next wants to upgrade just sell the old card on auction & put the money towards the best card he can afford then.
Either way, it will be a significant upgrade not just for games but for general desktop use.
If he gets a powerful graphics card then a decent 400W+ PSU is in order, around the £40 mark assuming his current one is generic or low powered.
 
UKTopGun said:
Its seriously not worth getting a X1600XT imo.
Click to expand...
If it meant the difference between going core2duo then i'd say it's worth it. If of course the OP can afford to stretch the budget to cover a better card then fine
 
Thanks for the reply guys ive let him know, says he was thinking of crossfire/sli for a bit of future proofing, getting one gfx card now and another later for when one starts to struggle on its own as a cheap boost. SO, what upgrade would be best that would last him a couple of years just to play the latest titles until the next group of gfx cards directx10 jobbies come out?

He wants max details ingame with a budget of £400 aslong as its better and quiker than he has already he'd be well happy. I'd look but i havnt done pc building since i last built my current comp and im not with the times so if guys could do me some specs id appreciate it and pass them on.

Thanks again
 
j00ni said:
If it meant the difference between going core2duo then i'd say it's worth it. If of course the OP can afford to stretch the budget to cover a better card then fine
Click to expand...

The X1600XT is roughly the same as a 6600GT. If he wants it to last he doesnt want a card which is already terrible ;). No point in getting a Core 2 Duo if your stuck with a "6600GT" because that can hardly play games now on decent settings.
 
=GAMMO= said:
Thanks for the reply guys ive let him know, says he was thinking of crossfire/sli for a bit of future proofing, getting one gfx card now and another later for when one starts to struggle on its own as a cheap boost. SO, what upgrade would be best that would last him a couple of years just to play the latest titles until the next group of gfx cards directx10 jobbies come out?
Click to expand...

By the time he can probably afford a second graphics card, a single card will be able to beat it.

How about;
REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£126.95 £126.95
MY-057-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB6400UDC) (MY-057-GL)
£62.49 £62.49
CP-166-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-166-AM)
£89.95 £89.95
MB-057-GI Gigabyte GA_M55_S3G Plus (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-057-GI)
£54.95 £54.95
Subtotal £334.34
VAT £58.51
Total £392.85
 
UKTopGun said:
The X1600XT is roughly the same as a 6600GT. If he wants it to last he doesnt want a card which is already terrible ;). No point in getting a Core 2 Duo if your stuck with a "6600GT" because that can hardly play games now on decent settings.
Click to expand...
I'm not trying to suggest that a cheaper gfx card would be anything other than a compromise. Something like ste_bla's spec would be ideal, but if the budget is strict it is out of the question.

Am really just saying better to get a mobo/processor/ram that has some degree of futureproofing (ie core2duo or AM2) so that the OP doesn't need to fork out another £400+ on mobo/cpu/ram next upgrade
 
says he was thinking of crossfire/sli for a bit of future proofing, getting one gfx card now and another later
Click to expand...
By time he'd get around to it, as already said there will be a faster single card and with DX10 not far away the chances are much greater whatever he buys now will be redundant in the future. He'd also have to get a pretty powerful PSU for Crossfire and it won't come cheap.
 
Everyone's missing out a MAJOR factor, RAM.

You will NEED 2gb to run the nice looking games coming out in the future at medium/high settings.

I advise him to simply go 939, with a cheap 4000+, an extra gig of DDR and a x1800xt bargain until DX10.
 
Zefan said:
Everyone's missing out a MAJOR factor, RAM.

You will NEED 2gb to run the nice looking games coming out in the future at medium/high settings.

I advise him to simply go 939, with a cheap 4000+, an extra gig of DDR and a x1800xt bargain until DX10.
Click to expand...

Well with AMD its pretty important to get a good CAS latency so that puts the G.Skill ram out of the question (which is cheap). So for some decent 2GB ram thats £150 (geil stuff), gfx thats £150, that leaves £50 for processor and £50 for mobo. Mobo = done easily but if you want a good processor you need a tad more than £50 :).

Plus if he goes 939 when he does want to upgrade in 6months or w/e he will probably then need new ram, possibily mobo and processor. Personally I'd rather just buy a new processor in 6months ;).
 
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