Hi All
Here's my story, need some advice.
I spend a lot of time on my pc but am a novice when it comes to the bits inside (i know what they all do but when people start talking about overclocking, volt modding, fsb's etc i am lost, but would love to learn). Anyway i surf the web, play games off and online, download 'stuff', a bit of video editing(home movies of my son etc etc) and have it hooked up to my 42" plasma and dolby digital amp for watching downloaded movies.
I bought in Jan last year a Packard Bell Imedia 2770 - Intel core 2 duo E6400 2.13ghz with 320g Hd ATi radeon x1600 graphics card etc etc, all good and did all of the above ok till i got Crysis for xmas..........
I have been playing COD 4 and loving it and my system plays it ok on all the low setting but Crysis just won't work smoothly enough to enjoy it, so thought OK lets upgrade some 'stuff' and after speaking to some people found that the graphics card was my weak point.
Decided on a 8800GT from Gigabyte but in my reseach found that i would need to upgrade my PSU (bought a 470w thermaltake) and everybody has said the card adds heat so i bought some more cooling fans.
OK so after 3 weeks waiting my 8800GT arrived on Friday
, come to put it in yesterday and yepp you guessed it. 
It didn't work. 
So after some posting on forums and translating some German fourms the mother board ( ms-7301 ) in my system will not work with any high end graphics card and therefore i will not be able to upgrade
So I have decided to change the system, now I want to build my own so I know whats going in it and that if needed i can change/upgrade things at a later date when needed. But i am new to this sort of thing.......i am fairly happy to take my pc apart and put it back together so this doesn't scare me but need some advice on the bits.
For the mobo i am looking at a Asus P5KC Combo Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard, then a Q6600 with 2g of ram. Reason for this mobo is it seam ready for DDR3 ram and the new quad core processor, but may need to use the E6400 for a while depending on funds, so should be ok for a few years (Right??) but in the spec it goes on about ATI crossfire (not that i will be going down the SLI/crossfire route anyway)........does this mean it won't support my 8800GT???
Or should i be looking else where???? I have worked out that new mobo, cpu, ram, case, HD, dvd drive etc and encluding the 8800gt (which was £155) will cost about £650 (don't need a monitor as i have a 19" w/s plus 42" pioneer plasma also got a Razor mouse etc). Is that achiveable or am i in cloud cookhoo land???
Don't really want to be spending £1k on a system like this one from overclockers if i could build something simular for less.
Anyway what i want is a system that does all the stuff you read i do about half hour ago well and if i decide to hack the FBI central mainframe or design the next space station i don't need to replace the whole system just upgrade the relevant part!!!
Many thanks for any help/sugestion anyone may give.
Mark
Here's my story, need some advice.
I spend a lot of time on my pc but am a novice when it comes to the bits inside (i know what they all do but when people start talking about overclocking, volt modding, fsb's etc i am lost, but would love to learn). Anyway i surf the web, play games off and online, download 'stuff', a bit of video editing(home movies of my son etc etc) and have it hooked up to my 42" plasma and dolby digital amp for watching downloaded movies.
I bought in Jan last year a Packard Bell Imedia 2770 - Intel core 2 duo E6400 2.13ghz with 320g Hd ATi radeon x1600 graphics card etc etc, all good and did all of the above ok till i got Crysis for xmas..........
I have been playing COD 4 and loving it and my system plays it ok on all the low setting but Crysis just won't work smoothly enough to enjoy it, so thought OK lets upgrade some 'stuff' and after speaking to some people found that the graphics card was my weak point.
Decided on a 8800GT from Gigabyte but in my reseach found that i would need to upgrade my PSU (bought a 470w thermaltake) and everybody has said the card adds heat so i bought some more cooling fans.
OK so after 3 weeks waiting my 8800GT arrived on Friday
, come to put it in yesterday and yepp you guessed it. It didn't work. So after some posting on forums and translating some German fourms the mother board ( ms-7301 ) in my system will not work with any high end graphics card and therefore i will not be able to upgrade
So I have decided to change the system, now I want to build my own so I know whats going in it and that if needed i can change/upgrade things at a later date when needed. But i am new to this sort of thing.......i am fairly happy to take my pc apart and put it back together so this doesn't scare me but need some advice on the bits.
For the mobo i am looking at a Asus P5KC Combo Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard, then a Q6600 with 2g of ram. Reason for this mobo is it seam ready for DDR3 ram and the new quad core processor, but may need to use the E6400 for a while depending on funds, so should be ok for a few years (Right??) but in the spec it goes on about ATI crossfire (not that i will be going down the SLI/crossfire route anyway)........does this mean it won't support my 8800GT???
Or should i be looking else where???? I have worked out that new mobo, cpu, ram, case, HD, dvd drive etc and encluding the 8800gt (which was £155) will cost about £650 (don't need a monitor as i have a 19" w/s plus 42" pioneer plasma also got a Razor mouse etc). Is that achiveable or am i in cloud cookhoo land???
Don't really want to be spending £1k on a system like this one from overclockers if i could build something simular for less.
Anyway what i want is a system that does all the stuff you read i do about half hour ago well and if i decide to hack the FBI central mainframe or design the next space station i don't need to replace the whole system just upgrade the relevant part!!!
Many thanks for any help/sugestion anyone may give.
Mark
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