PC Upgrade... what do you think of my spec?

DeathByMonkey · 10 Mar 2006 at 15:04

Hello people of OCUK!

I'm upgrading my fairly outdated setup (athlon xp 1800+, abit nf7-s and sapphire radeon 9600xt) and so far i've got this stuff specced out, though i'm not 100% on it so any constructive comments would help me... cheers:

CPU: AMD Opteron UP 146 San Diego 2.0GHz 1MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail £163
(should overclock nicely - but should i go for an opteron 165 dual core jobby for aboot £60 extra??)

MOBO: Epox EP-9NPAJ SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-050-EP) £76 (don't want to spend loads on a motherboard, deffo not over £100 - are there any others i should consider?)

GFX: Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £235 (bear in mind I dont want to spend much more than £230 on a graphics card)

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler £15 (seems good stuff to me)

TOTAL: £489

I've got about £500 to play with, but I don't really want to go over. I'm not too fussed about SLI or crossfire and don't think i will be in the near future either. I've already got good other components so all i need is the 4 things above.

Thanks again,

DeathByMonkey

DeathByMonkey · 10 Mar 2006 at 16:06

Hey guys thanks for all your help. I considered the Opty 165 but having just toted up the total price including delivery (its £100 more than the 146 not £60 - somehow I cannot add up lol), we are talking more like £600 than £500 :eek:

So I think it's out of the question.

However I am tempted by the 512mb graphics card option as I'll definitely be going 19" LCD in the next few months. I think I can stretch to £524.

As for motherboard, I've thrown epox out of the window as I can't be bothered to order from more than one supplier and pay multiple delivery costs

So it's between:

Abit AT8 ATI RD480 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-091-AB) £88.07 Including VAT

DFI NF4 Ultra-D - £93.94

or the

Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS) £72.79

I dont know why but I'm not too keen on the Asus, and the abit board is both crossfire (getting an 1800xt remember, even though I said I didnt care about crossfire... maybe now i am lol) and cheaper than the DFI by a fiver. So I'm leaning towards the Abit, especially as I love my current NF7-s and it's never caused any problems. Anyone got any experience/opinions of this board, especially for overclocking the opteron?

ATM its lookin like this:

Abit AT8 ATI RD480 Crossfire - £88
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro - £15
AMD Opteron UP 146 - £163
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB - £252

TOTAL (incl delivery) = £529.64

DeathByMonkey · 10 Mar 2006 at 16:13

Bennah said:
Wouldnt get the Crossfire mobo, if your not going to uprgade to Crossfire in the future. The DFI would get better overclocking results.

Definatly worth a shout, getting the 512MB X1800 XT card. With a 19" LCD, you would be running 1280x1024 most probs, so the 512MB would perform better than the 256MB card.

Hmm ok. I must admit I've heard good things about DFI mobos and they look nice fo sho'

lol.

Total is £535.51 now. Any more for any more?

DeathByMonkey

DeathByMonkey · 11 Mar 2006 at 16:02

Right, just like to say thanks again for all your advice and help.

I think I've come to a decision:

Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) £12.95
AMD Opteron UP 146 San Diego 2.0GHz 1MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail £138.95
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £214.95
DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard £79.95

TOTAL (incl delivery) = £535.51

I think I'd better place the order before "this week only" offers end

I tell ya, compared to my current setup this is gonna rock for sure! (Athlon XP thoroughbred 1800+ @ 2352mhz, 1gb gskill ddr400, ATI radeon 9600XT 256mb [agp], abit nf7-s v2). I CANNY WAIT!

DeathByMonkey