Spec Me Upgrades Please

Tenatious

Tenatious

Tenatious

Associate
Joined
14 Jan 2006
Posts
243
Hey,

Time of year when christmas money needs spending and what better place to do it than on new computer parts =)

Basically what I need is:

Processor
Motherboard
Memory
GFX Card

I am looking to spend maximum £300 not including shipping as I will pick it up in store tomorrow.

I am looking for the system to have 4GB memory and I was considering having: 2x GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Black Dragon

The upgrades will be mainly for graphics design (3d aswell as photoshop etc) but also for games such as CS:S, BF2 and WoW

Thankyou for any specs given =)
 
What do spec do you have already?

Also, the games you mentioned are not particuly new, current games are quite a bit more demanding, are you happy just playing those, or do you want to run current games also?
 
At the moment just those. Nothing that I'm likely to buy that's highly graphic demanding at the moment.

I normally play games like San Andreas graphics so not too demanding.

Spec at the moment is something like this:

AMD X2 4200+
1GB Cheap DDR2 ram
256mb XfX fx5600 GFX card
DFI Lanparty NF3 250GB Motherboard
 
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
HIS ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £89.99
(£105.74) £89.99
(£105.74)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £24.99
(£29.36) £49.98
(£58.72)
Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Sub Total : £274.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £49.68
Total : £333.57

drop the cooler to help bring cost down. change cpu to e2160 if desired, it does have a lower mulltiplier making OCing to 3+ ghz a tiny bit harder.
 
Cheap 2GB ram, to make 3, total, and a better graphics card 8800GT (which is a massive step up from your current card).

I think that will be ample for your needs from what youve described.
Will alow you to run your current games maxed out, and will be ok for current titles.
 
This is what I was planning so tell me what you think of it:


AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00GHz (Socket AM2) - OEM

Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 nForce 570 SLi (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

2x GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB22GB6400C4DC)


Either:

PowerColor ATI Radeon X1950 Pro AC2 SILENT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

OR

OcUK ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

(Not sure which card is better?)




Total cost is £305
 
Dont know about ATI card TBH, but for what you need, I would just get more ram and a better graphics card.

Dont think youll see a major benefit with a new CPU or mobo.
 
Well I just read a review on the three gfx cards mentioned in this post

The Nvidia one is best but obviously more expensive and then closely following by the HD 3850 so I think I will get that one.
 
So I'm left with this then:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00GHz (Socket AM2) - OEM £76.99
(£90.46) £76.99
(£90.46)
Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 nForce 570 SLi (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £48.99
(£57.56) £48.99
(£57.56)
OcUK ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £24.99
(£29.36) £49.98
(£58.72)
Sub Total : £270.95
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £48.86
Total : £328.06


Minus shipping total is £318. Only £18 over my budget.
I upgraded the graphics card slightly to the 512mb version as I read that from now on that will be what is needed.
 
are you OverClocking?
if you are then the e2180 will easily clock to over 3GHz with a p35 chipset board.

or you could get the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ Black Edition 2.60GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail and increase the multiplier to reach at least 3GHz

or simply try Overclockign your current CPU first.
 
overclocking is easy and quite safe to do. if you dont increase the volts to anything, the risk of somethign blowign up is very very small. also most if not all modern CPUs have safety features built in that will turn the pc off if something is wrong
 
Maybe I'll give it a shot on my current stuff and then try it when i get the new stuff tomorrow. But will that spec that i put up there work ok together? No big problems stick out from it?
 
if ocing goes well you could even forget buying a new CPU and/or MB, and put the extra money into a better GPU.
 
Abit AN52 nForce 520 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-130-AB&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=805
£43.46 inc VAT

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813
£29.36 inc VAT or 2 sets for £58.72 inc VAT

HIS ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-085-HT&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=416
£105.74 inc VAT

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ Black Edition 2.60GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-198-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=803
£84.59 inc VAT

Total £292.51 inc VAT (with 4gb of ram)

Just a few notes too. if you are just playing those games and thats not likely to change much soon you can actually manage with just 256mb of ram 512mb will future proof you more but I think It would be better to buy another card later down the line as you have a £300 budget. I would have recomended the OCUK 3850 512mb card for £111 but as of yet it doesn't exist. I also think the other versions are a little to overpriced in comparison. If you do have to have 512mb try a x1950 Pro 512mb It will still play those games very well. Also if you are on those games at a resolution of 1600x1200 or over you may also want to consider a 512mb card.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom