Spec me up

[dai]

Hi guys.

Im looking at building a new box but i dont really want to spend an insane amount. I'd be happy to pay around £500 for a mothierboard, cpu, Graphics card and Case. Will probably pay a bit extra if i need ram too but i got 1gig Geil Value ddr 2.5 cas PC 3200 that i can take out of my current box.

Can anyone recommend the best mobo,cpu,graphics card (possibly Ram) Combo for about £500, maybe a bit more if its a dramatic improvement.

 

[Explicit]

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
£152.69
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£72.79
OcUK Value 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (MY-006-OK)
£105.69
OcUK GeForce 6800 GS 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-034-OK)
£129.19
Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£64.57

Total inc VAT: £524.94

You can get the powercolor x850xt, but it's a bit more expensive.

 

[volt9291]

CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£182.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£79.95
GX-032-OK OcUK GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-032-OK)
£164.95
Subtotal £427.85
VAT £74.88
Total £502.73

Just over £500

your ram will be fine for now,
Havent put a case in because i didnt know if you needed a psu as well?
case and psu prob add 50-100 depends what you want?

 

[semi-pro waster]

As a kind of amalgum of both specifications this may be suitable. You have a good single cored CPU, fast graphics card, good solid motherboard and a decent case and PSU. You do have to re-use your old Ram for the moment though.

CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
£129.95 £129.95
MB-088-AS Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£61.95 £61.95
CA-001-AR Arctic Cooling T2 Silentium Silent Midi Tower Case - 450W Seasonic Silent PSU (CA-001-AR)
£49.95 £49.95
GX-069-LT Leadtek GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-069-LT)
£169.95 £169.95
Subtotal £411.80
VAT £72.07
Total £483.87

 

[dai]

Thanks very informative.

What is better however the new ATI Cards or the Nvidia 7 series?

Also in terms of the best Motherboard available what would you guys recommend?

Its mainly these two components and obviously the CPU that i want to be as close to top notch as possible and if it means stretching to around £600 i think i will do that.

Im currently running a P4 2.8 northwood c1 on an Abit IT7 Max 2 with a leadtek geforce Ti4600. So im assuming whatever i upgrade to i will see the difference.

 

[semi-pro waster]

Yep you will see a pretty big difference although it obviously depends partly on what games you play and at what resolutions.

If you are willing to stretch the budget slightly then I'd change my above specification to include an X1800XT 256mb which is about on a par with a 7800gtx or even better at around £235 so almost £100 cheaper. I'd leave the CPU as it is because it is a good combination of price and performance, you could try dual core for not too much more though.

At the level of 7800gt or X1800XL there is very little difference performance wise but beyond that I'd be picking ATI unless you have a special reason for wanting Nvidia. The X1900XTX is an astounding amount of performance for the price, comparable to SLi'd 7800GTXs for instance.

 

[dai]

Ok thanks.

How much better are the dual core cpu's than single core tho?

I will take a look at the ATI X1800/1900 series and im assuming the DFI LanPArty board is the best available at the moment?

 

[volt9291]

Dfi mobo's are very good.

Soon games will use dual core cpus

 

[iraiguana]

dual core will be slower at individual tasks than the dual core, so depends what u will be using it for.

if u game then single core for u. if u heavily multi task then use dual core.