Spec me a budget upgrade that has the potential to be upgraded

[Phal]

Need a MOBO / CPU / GFX Card and RAM!


Was thinking of getting a half decent Mobo that will last a while and 4gb of decentish RAM together with a GFX Card and a new CPU.

I would then be able to keep the MOBO and RAM for a while and Upgrade the CPU and GFX card in 6 months or so.

Im not really sure what to go for as far as the MOBO or CPU :| For the GFX card I was looking at the Overclockers 8800GT which looks quite cheap at the mo and I was looking at this for the RAM :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-096-OC





Feel free to list hardware along the lines of what Ive already listed or something different. Ideally, I dont want to spend more than £400 and obviously anything less is cool.

Currently Ive got a 7800GS ( AGP ) with a AMD 64 4800 and 2GB of RAM so as long as what I upgrade to is better I dont mind. All Im really looking to do here is get myself on the Core 2/ PCIE ladder because at the moment Im obviously at a bit of a dead end with my AGP MOBO and my DDR1 :|

 

[mp260767]

Came up with the following,if you're thinking of getting a wolfdale swap the memory for the G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-8000C5.

Also be worth adding a tuniq tower 120 or other after market cooler if you want to overclock and something a bit quieter than the retails fan, retail should be ok short term if not clocking.

Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail £48.99 (£57.56)


Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99 (£76.36)

G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ) £49.99 (£58.74)

OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £109.99 (£129.24)

Sub Total : £273.96
Shipping : £8.25
VAT : £49.39
Total : £331.60

 

[Phal]

Any reason why youve chosen that Gigabyte mobo? I was looking at

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-266-AS

But thats mostly because Ive has ASUS mobos for the last few upgrades Ive done over the years and not had problems Any major differences between the two that Ive missed?




The other problem I can foresee is the fact that Ive still got a couple of IDE hard drives and these mobos dont seem to have IDE connectors? :| How do I get around that? Are there IDE connects that Ive missed? Or do I have to get an expansion card for IDE ports?

 

[schumi84]

If you look closely on both the Giga board and the ASUS, there is 1 IDE socket, therefore allowing you to use 2 IDE devices.

Any more than that and you would need to get an expansion card.

 

[Phal]

If you look closely on both the Giga board and the ASUS, there is 1 IDE socket, therefore allowing you to use 2 IDE devices.

Any more than that and you would need to get an expansion card.

Wasnt sure whether it was a floppy IDE connector or a regular one on the ASUS board but I can see two on the Gigabyte board :E

Guess I can always what my IDE drives into my other spare PC lying around and use em from there.

 

[mp260767]

you should be fine with either, recommended the gigabyte cos i'm happy with mine, all down to personal preference.