Out of the loop for a while!

Affothunder · 10 Dec 2006 at 16:42

Hi all,

I've been out of the PC loop for a while, I used to post on here reasonably often but haven't done for about a year or more.

Anyway, I'm going to have about £800 - £1000 to spend on upgrading my PC at home, I'm going to be playing games on it, hopefully all the latest ones.

Presently I have a Centurion case, which I would be willing to keep. A Sony 17" TFT max. res of 1280 x 1024. I have 5.1 speakers and a Logitech MX1000 mouse, my keyboard is also ok at the moment!!

I basically need:

Graphics Card - Haven't a clue with these, they seem to change that often!
Hard Drive - Only ever used IDE but guessing that SATA is the main format now. (looking for about a 250gig)
DVD Drive
Sound Card
RAM - Hoping to get 2gb
Probably need a new power supply aswell to be on the safe side!

Could someone please spec me!!

Thanks in advance!!

Affothunder · 10 Dec 2006 at 16:48

Forgot to add, it would be in my room and probably be left on overnight, so noise is a consideration!!

Alty · 10 Dec 2006 at 17:33

I leave my PC on in my room 24/7 - try and get used to the noise n you will find it easier to fall asleep anywhere in future

Affothunder · 10 Dec 2006 at 17:46

Thats probably not a bad shout, would save me some pennies aswell

Mattus · 10 Dec 2006 at 18:37

You're not gonna need an obscenely expensive graphics card if you'll be playing at 1280x1024 maximum - unless you're planning to upgrade your monitor soon.

Core 2 Duo is the way to go. Are you planning to overclock? The cheapest C2D can easily clock from 1.86Ghz to 3Ghz-ish, saving you a lot of money. The spec depends on your answer

Affothunder · 10 Dec 2006 at 18:39

I've tried overclocking previously and not had any results that have made it worth while, if I could get an extra Ghz out of the CPU then I would probably do it, as long as I could keep it cool!!

Mattus · 10 Dec 2006 at 19:00

Affothunder said:
I've tried overclocking previously and not had any results that have made it worth while, if I could get an extra Ghz out of the CPU then I would probably do it, as long as I could keep it cool!!

You're not guaranteed a Ghz, though it's quite likely... there's probably a 99% chance you'll get it to at least 2.6, though. See what you think of this:

Core 2 Duo E6300
Gigabyte DS3 mobo
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU cooler
Corsair XMS2-6400 2gb TwinX RAM
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320gb SATA HD
BFG Geforce 7950GT 512MB graphics
Seagate modular 500W PSU
Creative Sound Blaster X-fi Xtreme Music
Sony DVD writer

Comes to about £900.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-108-CS

Affothunder · 10 Dec 2006 at 21:58

Looks pretty sound to me, was mainly after a guide proce so about 800-1000 beans should sort me out!

Thanks