Spec me a budget upgrade please

Michael Myers · 2 May 2006 at 08:53

If possible im looking for an nf4 based machine, all i need is the main components minus case, psu and monitor for as close to £500 as i can get. i mainly use my machine for games such as halflife 2, i would also like some decent hard disk space

cheers

fenderbass86 · 2 May 2006 at 09:56

CP-131-AM AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-131-AM) 1
£73.95 £73.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) 1
£15.95 £15.95
MB-046-MS MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-046-MS) 1
£64.95 £64.95
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL) 1
£48.95 £48.95
BG-026-PC **B Grade** PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (BG-026-PC) 1
£100.00 £100.00
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) 1
£54.95 £54.95
CD-030-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE) 1
£22.95 £22.95
CA-009-HP Hiper HPU-4M580 Type R 580W ATX2.2 PSU - Black (CA-009-HP) 1
£41.95 £41.95
Subtotal £423.65
VAT £74.14
Total £497.79

You will need the PSU as this is a pci-express system.

semi-pro waster · 2 May 2006 at 10:18

That looks pretty good, 2gb Ram would be better but that would mean compromising on other parts or maybe getting a B Grade motherboard.

fenderbass86 · 2 May 2006 at 10:26

I already checked that out.

Michael Myers · 2 May 2006 at 10:41

oh i forgot to say i dont really need a dvd writer or psu

semi-pro waster · 2 May 2006 at 10:45

CoreKrogoth said:
oh i forgot to say i dont really need a dvd writer or psu

What PSU do you have? If it dates from the same time as the rest of your system(in signature) then you probably will as that PSU won't be ATX 2.0 compliant plus also likely not to be powerful enough even without the fact that PSUs become less efficient over time.

fenderbass86 · 2 May 2006 at 10:46

You will need the PSU because it's a pci-express system, the one you currrently have won't work with this system.

fenderbass86 · 2 May 2006 at 10:50

CP-131-AM AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-131-AM) 1
£73.95 £73.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) 1
£15.95 £15.95
MB-046-MS MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-046-MS) 1
£64.95 £64.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) 1
£94.95 £94.95
BG-026-PC **B Grade** PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (BG-026-PC) 1
£100.00 £100.00
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) 1
£54.95 £54.95
CA-009-HP Hiper HPU-4M580 Type R 580W ATX2.2 PSU - Black (CA-009-HP) 1
£41.95 £41.95
Subtotal £446.70
VAT £78.18
Total £524.88

Taken out the DVD-RW and put in 2GB RAM, much better now even though it's nearly £25 over budget.