Second-Guessing Myself, Help Needed

Mechanicus

Mechanicus

Mechanicus

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Joined
30 Oct 2007
Posts
161
This is what I currently have:

XFX 7600GT XXX Edition 256mb DDR3 590mhz clock Dual DVI PCI-E
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe SKT939 RD580 Crossfire ATX
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ socket 939 Dual Core 2.2ghz 512kb and 512kb Cache
2GB DDR PC2700 333MHz CL2.5 RAM (Unkown make)
Seagate ST3160812A 160GB 7200RPM ATA/133 8MB Cache Hard Drive
Maxtor 7200RPM ATA/133 8MB Cache Hard Drive
All inside a Coolermaster Ammo case (This one, but in black)

This is what I plan on getting:

BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC2 768MB
Gigabyte GA M57SLI-S4 SKT AM2 Nvidia MCP55P PCI-E 8Channel audio ATX
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6400+
Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 (2 lots - 4GB total)
Seagate ST3320620AS 320GB

This is on top of my 2 HDDs listed above (both IDE) and 2 optical drives (1x DVD reader and 1x DVD-RW).

I plan on buying the graphics card soon (in the next few days), and putting it on the old motherboard temporarliy until I can afford the other parts. I will also be buying a PSU at the same time as the graphics card, as my current one will not do the job.

What I want to know is:

Will the graphics card work in the old setup?
What would be a good PSU to buy that will work well in the new setup, but also work temporarily in the old setup?
I don't want to spend more than £70 on a PSU, and £70 is really top of my budget. I would much rather get a £40-£50 one :)
Are there any bottlenecks on the new setup?
Are any of those old parts worth selling? I have boxes for most but some are OEM so they are only brown boxes.


Any help would be very appreciated
 
Mostly because the motherboard I chose is better-priced (the Intel equivbilent is over £100), and I know where I stand with the numbers (ie 6400 is 2200 more than my current one! :))

Thanks for info about the PSU. I pretty much have decided on that one.
Will it work on my old mobo though?

Also, is the GTX worth getting at this time, or should I go for a GTS and then SLI it with another in the future?
 
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Unless its extremely cheap, you'll be better off getting a cheaper card and going down ine intel route.
 
er.... E6400?

For the price of a 6400+ you can get a 6750 (faster) or for slightly more a Q6600 (much faster)

best bang-for-buck Intels are the E2160 (£50) and the Q6600 (£160), the former overclocks like a beast and is cheap as chips, the latter is damm cheap for a quad core, and overclocks well.

Oh, and "good" Intel motherboards start at £70-£75 for the P35 P5K SE / Neo2-FR / DS3
 
Well, I've just got a 8800GTS 640mb for £210 so that gives me a bit more breathing space with my budget (about £50)

At first I was going to go with an Intel CPU, and I my eye on the Intel Core 2 DUO E6850, with the ASUS P5K SE motherboard.

Are those good compliments, or should I go for something with a bit more power?
 
The thing that makes the core 2 duo so much better value for money is that you can buy a cheaper chip and overclock it past 3GHz easily without altering hardly anything. Even at stock they are much faster too. You would be foolish to invest in AMD, most of the guys on here will advise you this too. If money is an issue, then get a cheaper core 2 chip something like a 2180 (2GHz) and then take it up to 3GHz :)
 
Oh, I just bought the Corsair PSU that simonnance suggested, and a 500GB Hitachi Deskstar Hard Drive.

All that is left now is the CPU, motherboard and RAM, all of which will have to wait a month or 2 for me to find the money. But this lot should keep my games afloat until then.

Next step for me - install Vista as dual boot and wait for the stuff :)
 
Mechanicus said:
I don't like the idea of overclocking - I have never done it, and the thought of buying something worse to force it to be better irks me.
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That BFG "OC2" card is overclocked at stock does that worry you? BFG have pre-clocked it past the original settings, manufacturers now design hardware for the sole purpose of overclocking - the motherboard you buy has software and features built into it so that a novice can tweak a few settings and get much more out of their hardware.

I was the same when I first decided to build systems, I currently have my E6600 (2.4 at stock) sitting at 3.5GHz and its comfortable and is actually quite cool. Thats 46% overclock. I'm a rookie as well, didn't take much!!
 
Well I am comfortable with BFGs card because they did it, and considering they offer a lifetime warranty it would be a bit silly of them to overclock it and sod it up for everyone. In fact, the 8800GTS I bought Was the OC2 BFG

I haven't the faintest clue about overclocking, other than it makes the parts run faster which makes them hotter... I think.
Other than that, I haven't got the foggiest!
 
Mechanicus said:
Well I am comfortable with BFGs card because they did it, and considering they offer a lifetime warranty it would be a bit silly of them to overclock it and sod it up for everyone. In fact, the 8800GTS I bought Was the OC2 BFG

I haven't the faintest clue about overclocking, other than it makes the parts run faster which makes them hotter... I think.
Other than that, I haven't got the foggiest!
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when you get your parts, post up here for some help with your overclock. there's always plenty of people with some good advice, easy to follow steps. plus the sticky at the top of the forum.
 
Well, I've just got a 8800GTS 640mb for £210
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ID sell that and buy the 8800GT 512mb thats just been released, doing much better performance wise against price.

Comparing clock speeds isn't that easy, because the AMD processors do less calculations per clock cycle, meaning that 3ghz AMD processor is no match for a 3ghz intel C2D at the moment.

I haven't the faintest clue about overclocking, other than it makes the parts run faster which makes them hotter... I think.
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Research it a little, its never as bad as people think, for example its increadibly difficult/almost impossible to do damage to a processor now because of all the settings built into the processor that effectively switch it off when it overheats.
Its almost riskless nowadays, and on chips like the E21*0 , you can change the speed without even needing to increase voltage, leading to no real temperature change, with a fairly good increase in speed.
 
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DavidB said:
ID sell that and buy the 8800GT 512mb thats just been released, doing much better performance wise against price.

Comparing clock speeds isn't that easy, because the AMD processors do less calculations per clock cycle, meaning that 3ghz AMD processor is no match for a 3ghz intel C2D at the moment.
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Hmmm, sell a graphics card that I haven't even received in the post yet. Yeah, that's a good idea!
 
The components do get hotter, thats true and thats why there are better cooling solutions available on the market so that you can effectively increase the speed of a CPU and yet have it extremely cool. As suggestd above, everyone is here to help if you don't know what to do - I didn't until I came here and I'm now a little bit wiser and I have a bang for buck machine. I spent around £800 this time last year and my system had the value of at least a £1500 pre-built machine at stock.
 
Mechanicus said:
Hmmm, sell a graphics card that I haven't even received in the post yet. Yeah, that's a good idea!
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most places have a distance selling 7 return poilcy, no questions asked.

"Under the Distance Selling Regulations (2000) you have the right to cancel the contract relating to your order at any time up to the end of 7 working days after the goods are delivered."

from http://www.overclockers.co.uk/support.php

Just send it back to them, pay the £5 postage or whatever, and get a much cheaper 8800GT (save £35? or more?), which will be better value, AND more powerful!
 
in which case you are suck with it unless you want to sell it on.

the GTS isnt a bad card buy any means, just buying one now when the GT is better and cheaper is unfortunate.
 
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