Spec me an upgrade!

Doc Rob

Doc Rob

Doc Rob

Associate
Joined
11 Oct 2005
Posts
138
Hi,

My PC is borked right now after a Seagate 1TB HD went **** up on me. I've decided that now is the time to do a proper upgrade of the system I bought in 2004, though several bits have been upgraded since.

My current spec is:

Alienware Area-51 case
Hiper Type-R 580W PSU
Intel D925XCV MB
2 x P4 3.6 GHz CPUs
GeForce 7800 GTX
Audigy 2 ZS
3GB RAM (2x Corsair 1GB and 2x generic 0.5 GB)
Generic DVD-RW and DVD drives
No functioning HD!
Windows XP Pro

I'm hoping to keep the case, PSU, sound card and optical drives and replace the MB, CPU, video card and of course the HD.

Not sure what to do about the memory. I expect I can keep the sticks I have, but 4GB is pretty standard now and I may be better to get 2 more 1GB sticks to replace the 0.5GB ones.

I'm not as hardcore a PC gamer as I used to be, but I would like a spec good enough to avoid major upgrades for the next few years at least. (Before my failure I had begun to notice that the CPU/s was holding me back most, followed by the video card).

Budget is £600-ish. (May or may not include the HD, which will be £130-odd).

All advice welcomed.

Rob
 
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came up with the following, memory, processor and cpu cooler will allow for overclocking and keep it running for a bit longer once you notice that the default speed is getting a bit slow.

Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (AX-48701GBD5-H) £165.99 (£190.89)

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.16GHz (1333FSB) - Retail £139.99 (£160.99)

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £88.99 (£102.34)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) £71.99 (£82.79)

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Platinum Series DDR2 (OCZ2P10664GK) £47.99 (£55.19)

Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £26.99 (£31.04)

Sub Total : £541.94
Shipping : £8.99
VAT : £82.64
Total : £633.57
 
Thanks for replies so far - I have just noticed that this thread http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17971986 has an i7 build with similar components (minus the HD) for £770. Would I be better advised to pay a wee bit extra and go for that?

And is the Samsung 1TB drive a good buy? I was going to get a WD drive, but the Samsung is a lot cheaper...

EDIT: Seems the Samsung is a good buy indeed - just read the product reviews.
 
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If you can stretch to £700 then go for the i7. It will be much faster and future-proof than the above specs. The only problems there is you would have to sacrifice the graphcis card, but the 9800 is still a good card and you did say you aren't as keen on gaming as you once were.
I would go for the i7, and maybe look at upgrading the graphics card and getting 6gb of ram in the future.
 
I assume you say that because the first build in the other thread has the 9800?

The last build suggested there has the GTX 260 as well as the i7 with a total cost of £773.31. The Samsung drive would take that to £850ish, but it might be worth paying that for the futureproofing effect.

I'm still a gamer, but my PC problems have led to me playing more on console in recent times. Hoping a good upgrade may fix that! Also, I really don't want to end up having to upgrade again in a year or so.

One idiot question - I am aware that my current DDR2 memory sticks need to be installed in matching pairs in a 1&3 and 2&4 configuration. Is this no longer a requirement for the DDR3 sticks? (As the suggested build has 3x1GB sticks).
 
If you can stretch your budget, I would highly recommend you get the i7 with the 260 or a 4870 1GB. This will definately future proof you for now. Although nothing is truly future proof.
As for the ddr3, you have 6 slots in the motherboard and i assume they are colour coded and you will place the 3 1gb sticks into matching slots. so you could always add another 3gb and get a bigger graphics card in the future for a simple upgrade.
Plus the i7 920 should overclock nicely for you.
 
I am aware that nothing is entirely future proof, and that anything that is cutting edge now will be old hat in a few years. When I bought the PC 4.5 years ago, I spent quite a lot on making it as up-to-date as I could, but despite sporadic upgrades to the video card, memory and elsewhere, I can't now deny it needs a total revamp. But this time I intend to spend £600-800 and not £1.5k!

Will my 580W PSU (purchased from OCUK after the last one couldn't cope with the 7800 GTX) be enough to power the i7/GTX 260 build? And if not, will it cope with the builds above?

EDIT: also wanted to ask whether it is now viewed as a good idea to go over to Vista. I have it on my laptop, but I prefer XP and older software runs on that much more easily. Is DX10 worth it?
 
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psu will be fine, whether u go q6600/8500 or i7.

wouldn't bother going to vista if it was me.

any of the configs will suit you now at default, once they start to slow a bit you could then look into overclocking them to get a bit more performance out of them.
 
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