Spec me an Upgrade

DizzyEgg · 26 Nov 2007 at 17:38

Hi all,

Looking for a christmas upgrade. I have £200 to spend. This is what I have currently got:

Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz (The early ones, forgot model number)
Asrock VSTA-4Core Board (Has AGP and PCI-E Port)
2gb Geil Ram
8600GT 256MB
2x 80GB Hard Drive.

Well I know I could do with a new hard drive, but I have an external 160GB that I use for MP3's/Movies etc, so its not that desperate.

I play lots of games.

Thanks

Matt

Dharok · 26 Nov 2007 at 17:56

If you can stretch £50 go for the following,

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

If not then still get that motherboard but get this video card instead which is within your budget,
PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro Extreme Silent 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

There is a fairly significant difference between the two cards, and I'd say the extra £50 spent is definately worth it.

TheRedZealot · 26 Nov 2007 at 18:05

Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £76.36
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS) - £65.79

£151.85 inc Shipping

Save the £50 for a 8800GT

semi-pro waster · 26 Nov 2007 at 18:24

Your current CPU will be an E6300.

Are you happy with the current CPU power? If so then I'd buy an 8800GT and perhaps a new hard drive. You might be able to get some overclocking from the ASRock but probably fairly limited, from memory most top out at about 280-290mhz which is still good for ~2ghz given your multiplier is 7x, not much but better than nothing.

hp7909 · 26 Nov 2007 at 18:29

DizzyEgg said:
I play lots of games

Then get a 8800GT BUT hope your PSU is up-to-it

Dharok · 26 Nov 2007 at 18:52

semi-pro waster said:
Your current CPU will be an E6300.

Are you happy with the current CPU power? If so then I'd buy an 8800GT and perhaps a new hard drive. You might be able to get some overclocking from the ASRock but probably fairly limited, from memory most top out at about 280-290mhz which is still good for ~2ghz given your multiplier is 7x, not much but better than nothing.

Hold on, isn't the PCI-E speed x1, not x16 on that board (AsRock)? I believe it was, reason being why I upgraded from one to my DS3R.

semi-pro waster · 26 Nov 2007 at 18:59

Dharok said:
Hold on, isn't the PCI-E speed x1, not x16 on that board (AsRock)? I believe it was, reason being why I upgraded from one to my DS3R.

Pretty sure it is PCI-E 4x but the ASRock website is being less than helpful in confirming this, it does mention support for 8800GTS cards (or at least one of them which means all should work) but it doesn't say too much more.