New build - old dog

[mikelkite]

My its been a long time since i perused these forums, Last time I did i was running a 2.8ghz barton AMD chip at 3.2ghz with all the bells and whistles on the case.

After I stopped working in my own shop in Canterbury a few years ago, I have kinda left my pc for a long time its a crappy Amd hammer chip (dual core i think) with DDR memory and generally crappy and slow.

Ive opted to buy the argon bundle from OCuk 2.93 clocked to 4 + 4gb ddr3 and the gigabyte mb. They are currently OC it today for me as i was too lazy to do it myself.

Also bought an antec 300 with all the fans needed, plus a antec 550 modular PSU, 500gb HDD.

Really I have 3 questions;

1 - The i3 from what i gather has a not bad GPU built in it (i say in not on cos i read its not on die) I currently have a 3450 because it was a stop gap while my old card blew up. Is the i3 going to be better (i have read a few reviews reguarding the chip but not the intel graphics)

2 - I have an Xfi extreme music, quite old but still a goody (my old yamaha dsp-a592 amp still going strong ) but its analogue, so doesnt have HDMI or optical input. Should I stay with the Xfi or go onto the onboard for the time? I realise that cards are better but with the age of the card I wonder have there been improvements upon on board sound? The xfi doesnt sound bad at all. Especially through a set of Denon earphones I have looked at the asus range of sound cards and newer xfis but with my amp Im not sure if its a warrented purchase (until i get a set of logitech 5500's)

3 - What is the best graphic card for £150? What do people have and what do you think between AMD/Ati and Nvidia these days. I have been an AMD/Ati fan for a long time but now Ive gone intel, i wonder if i should get an Nvidia this time round?

Any help would be great as I have the case coming today, the OC mobo bundle coming tomor and will be buying the graphics card soon

 

[95thrifles]

1) Your 3450 will still be better, though neither will be capabloe of runing modern games at decent res with decent settings and frame rates

2) Onboard has moved on quite a lot, but I suspect your old dedicated is still better, especially if its still compatible with old hardware (earphones/speakers etc) as you say no need to upgrade til you need the digital out/in

3) I'd recomend a look at a 5770, bout best for that price range and also bout best price/performance atm anyway

good luck

 

[wilko49]

+1 for 5770, the HIS card is the supposed to be pretty good, as are the XFX cards. Or a Sapphire Vapor-X if you want dead silent.

 

[mikelkite]

Cool, thats confirmed what I thought. Ill be getting the 5770 on the 12th, Ive put up with gaming on my ps3 for about a year lol The 3450 is a real struggle for anything these days.

Next purchase afterwards is the logitech 5500 (My mate the cheeky git had a sticky button on his control unit and contacted logitech n they sent him a WHOLE new set!) Then a new soundcard with optical out definatley. Im tired of my ps3 only having psuedo surround sound because only 5.1 out of it is optical!

Damn my delivery is not til 4-5pm, and i got to wait til 2morro for the motherboard n chip, im itching to build this thing.

Out of curiosity whats the best soundcard <£100 with optical?

 

[Lleot]

Onboard sound is pretty good nowadays. I think you should try it first and only buy an add on if necessary.