Oh Oh, Spec me, Spec me :)

[Davoricus]

I am looking to upgrade my current pc. Its a packard bell i upgraded 2 years ago. I use it for 3d modeling, photoshop and gaming so it really needs updated. Alas I need to spend as little as possible. I am not looking to spend any more than £300. What components should I keep / replace.

Possible components worth keeping are as follows:
(excluded cheap packard bell crap eg. motherboard, case, etc)

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS
Ram: 3GB 3 x 1gb Packard Bell iXtreme X2712 (DDR2-667MHz)
HDD: 2 x 350GB 7200 SATA-II 16MB Cache

I have dvd, monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS all covered.

Any help welcome!;

 

[dfour]

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 GS 1024MB GDDR5 £177

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-128-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=

Cheaper
OcUK Value GeForce GTX 260 "Core 216 55nm" 896MB GDDR3 £118
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-114-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1341

Maybe a better heatsink if your using the stock one and then some overclocking. Get the Q6600 to at least 3 gig for a nice free boost

Akasa AK-966 Blue Aurora CPU Cooler (Intel LGA 775) £15
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-050-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

Look for some second hand 4gb ddr2 PC8500+ if your board supports it as I dont know why your running 3 sticks as your board must only be dual channel.

 

[95thrifles]

Welcome to the forums

bit of a quandry tbh
dfours advice is good, but I doubt your mobo would allow OCing, plus as he says youll need new RAM to allow you, plus a better heatsink
On the gaming side of things that gfx card above is very good recomendation and will destroy your old one, however youll prob want a new psu too as the generic one packard bell provide prob isnt up to the task, and also I expect they dont use standard ATX case so you prob need a new case too

Options
1) Up your budget a bit so you can overhaul everything now (bar cpu, hdd, optical drive, most other things would need replacing)
2) Replace gfx card and psu now, possibly case if needed, keep mobo etc for now then replace them too when you can afford, this will massively improve your games but not help with 3d modelling/photoshop
3) Do it the other way around, upgrade mob/ram/cooler so you can OC which will help with others but not gaming

If you were to go for option 1 these are the bits Id recomend, however if you cant do that then for option 2 you want this gfx card and psu as a minimum, you can see if they fit in your old packard bell case, but you may need to change that too, and option 3 youd need mobo/ram/cooler and Id prob get the new psu now too for OCing

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 GS 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £176.24 (£149.99)
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel (KHX8500D2K2/4G) £72.84 (£61.99)
Asus P5QL/EPU Intel P43 (Socket 775) DDR2 Motherboard £55.99 (£47.65)
OCZ StealthXStream 2 500W Power Supply £49.98 (£42.54)
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99 (£22.97)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1156 / 1366) £18.99 (£16.16)
Sub Total : £341.30
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £61.78
Total : £414.83