Mid range system

[arqueturus]

Ok, little bit of a challenge here, my current system specs are:

Barton 2500+
Nvidia 7600OC(agp) with 512mb
2 x 512mb DDR400 ram
80gb EIDE HDD
Couple of random DVD drives
450w Thermaltake PSU
19" Samsung TFT

As you can see, this system is rather creaky. My technical knowledge is rather out of date these days so I wonder if someone could spec me up a system for around £350 that incorporates as many parts of current one (I'm not out of date enough to know that's likely most of it unusable)

I'm not bothered about ultra powah(tm) - just something solid that will last me a year and have a decent performance boost over the above. if you don't think it's possible to do it for £350, try to get as close as you can.

cheers arq

 

[arqueturus]

Welcome to the forums. I think that for £350 you may have to use some of the old parts so I'd suggest the ASRock 4Core DUAL-VSTA as it supports DDR and DDR2 as well as AGP and PCI-E so it would allow you to upgrade in stages if necessary. Other than that I'd go for an 4300 and maybe a new PSU, something like an Enermax Liberty 500w. It comes in under the budget but the choice is either a bit under or probably a fair bit over because you will need a new graphics card and Ram.

Wonderful! didn't know there was a motherboard that could combine so many things - forgot to mention, i'm not interested in DX10 - won't be getting Vista for a couple of years I expect so I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Are you sure the bigger PSU is necessary?

Any other suggestions folks?

cheers arq

 

[arqueturus]

Thanks to everyone for the replies, one final question. I'm thinking my harddrive is on the way out not to mention being tiny - the motherboard above supports SATA I only - can you plug SATA II HDD in there and run it slower as it were?

cheers arq

 

[arqueturus]

Thanks one more time to everyone that replied, a newer system that can at least cut the (DX9) mustard is looking likely now. All I need is OCUK to sell that mobo

cheers arq

 

[arqueturus]

If only there was a powerful search engine that could locate things for sale in the UK. Wait, i have a business idea!

Whilst you wait for my startup you could post in the product suggestions forum.

Oh, I've found it for sale in the Uk It's just I'd rather purchase it from here...

cheers arq

 

[arqueturus]

Ok, all this looking at pc parts and theorizing has made me start thinking...

What would I be able to knock together for around £650? (oh my gawd! don't tell the missus! )

I'm thinking It'll be a :

New Motherboard, CPU, Memory, PSU, Graphics, and HDD.

I'll rely on other folks suggestions for the spec, thanks in advance.

cheers arq

 

[arqueturus]

Thanks for the prompt reply there. One of the area's that I was having trouble deciding over was the motherboard, mainly due to the variety of them so it's nice to get some well informed advice. I also wasn;t sure it was worth going for a 8800 as they have no competition atm - I'm still not that interested in DX10.

cheers muchly

arq