spec me with a twist

jakeke

jakeke

jakeke

Soldato
Joined
8 Jan 2006
Posts
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Location
sheffield
right, i have a system at the moment -

gigabyte AGP mobo
850xt pe
2GB Corsair XMS 3500
3800+

anyway i'm semi moving into a house with friends over the summer and i'm sure i'll need a pc there for lans etc. I want the new system to be PCI-E. I have about £500 - £600 to spend on it, it doesn't need to be good enough to play the newest games at the highest settings, as we will mainly be playing counter strike 1.6, but i would like it to be able to play cs:s / HL2 at least.
If you could spec me a PCI-E system with a small'ish HDD and good enough ram / CPU to play decent games and run comfortably with a few programs i'd be thankful :D.
Thank you for any help, i am not really in touch with the newest advances and this is why i'm asking for some more knowledgable advice.

This isn't AS important, but i wouldn't mind swapping a few parts - e.g putting a gig of my current ram in the new system if it means that i can get a better graphics card / cpu.
 
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So i'm guessing you currently have an AGP card, in which case theres only a few boards that offer both AGP and PCI-E. Unless you mean to change graphics card, but in this case i'm assuming you dont.

So as to utilize your AGP still but give the option to add in a PCI-E card later i'd say go with something like the following. (btw i've built on this board, its nothing fancy, no abundance of options, but it does what is suppose to just fine)

I've based this on parts i'd see as the best value for money/performance. The CPU, anything above what i stated and you'll be paying a larger margin for, though realisticly you could get a 3000 or 3200 and clock it as high as the 3500 quite easily with the cooler i suggested. Anyways, just read below.
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MB-002-AK Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 (Socket 939 & Upgradable to AM2) AGP & PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-002-AK)
£36.95 £36.95
MY-079-CS Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS)
£124.95 £124.95
HD-002-HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI)
£46.95 £46.95
CP-147-AM AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-147-AM)
£82.95 £82.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.95 £14.95
Subtotal £306.75
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £8.25
VAT £55.13
Total £370.13

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Its quite a bit below budget, but it'll make a good cheap upgrade, and even leaves space to get a new PCI-E card if you want.

You could add an Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO).

You then have....
Total £535.39 includes VAT and delivery.

If you wanted to add a graphics card to the equasion though i'd suggest a different board, such as the Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS) .
 
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I want everything new, so essentially 2 systems, BUT i don't mind taking a gig of ram out of my current system and putting it in the new one, saving some money i suppose, but i need everything else, hdd / psu / case / cpu / gfx etc.
Essentially i am looking for a good recommendation on a graphics card, cpu, motherboard and ram that will perform well and not bottleneck.
I will buy a new graphics card, and just have this system fully PCI-E, i know my original post was kinda confusing : p.

Does the motherboard with PCI-E and AGP perform to the same standard as one with just PCI-E ?
 
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yes as far as i know the ASRock dual SATA is a great motherboard, there's a massive post/sticky about it on the motherboard forum, so check it out......my brothers mates have it and its great.
 
Thanks :D
Also, do you think i should definetely get another 2 GB of ram, as i'm pretty sure it's worth it, and should i go for a raptor or just a 7,200 hard drive?
 
Depends how much you are willing to spend, normal SATA should suffice seeing as you're not looking to play all the newest games, Raptors are quite expensive. 2gb of RAM is helpful, but mainly for new games, playing on max settings with all the details etc, 1gb should do the trick....

Also, if u did take 1gb of RAM from your old system, the RAM would then not be dual channel in the new system, so maybe getting 2x512RAM would be good for your new system.....

EDIT: 2gb of memory is also helpful for stuff like video encoding, editing etc......
 
Yeah i think i'll need 2GB for the new system, i also think i'll go with a normal SATA, as i'll be maybe making a few frag movies and just playing lesser quality games.
Thanks a lot!
 
From the sources i've read about the Asrock board, apparently in some cases the PCI-E does not work as well as some of the pure PCI-E boards, but i suggested because i was under the assumption you needed a board that would take the other card, alternatively the ASUS one i mentioned should be a good board, though i cannot comment on that one since i've not used it.

If you do want just a PCI-E board, then you turn you attention to the Bundle deals, they come with the ASUS board i mentioned, and vary between the A64 and different amounts of memory, the 2gb ram with the nForce ASUS mobo looks like the best deal in that range.

I have got to pickup an x800 GTO that was RMA'ed this should be going into the ASROCK board tomorrow, so i can give you the low down on how well it does, it'll be running with an A64 3000 and 1gb of Corsair, the same stuff i recommended just the 2 x 512 version. If you are willing to wait i can test some of my games, like FEAR, BF2, or any you can think of that have a demo. Generally the pal i'm building for hasnt played games before, largely because he didnt have a game capable system, and because he's not really into them, but then if you never been able to play them you don't know what you're missing till you have it. If you'd like me to install a few games on his system or benchmark programs, i'd be happy to, but do bear in mind he has an old IDE 2mb cache HDD, so will hold his system back a bit in some areas.

If you could list exactly what you want, without saying i could swap this or that, not being rude, but if you give me some definitive hardware to suggest i'll be happy to.
 
:D thanks a lot for your help, no offence taken - i'm just a little indecisive
I have finalised on this though - a whole new, pure PCI-E system, I like the Lian - Li 7+ case, i'm pretty much certain on that, I would like a PSU where i can remove the wires i don't need as i'm useless at wiring :p.
I was looking at a 3700+ / 3500+ (not boxed - the 3700+ is on this week only.), i know i might to go a little over budget, but i can spare a little more money i guess. If you think that is a good deal, i'll go with that.

I need to know a good motherboard + graphics card, some decent heatsinks + fans for all, which processor to go with, i can probably choose a HDD - but if you know a good bargain i'm all ears, 2GB of capable ram, and a PSU. If you can keep this within £600 i'll be delighted, but £650 or so won't matter too much!

Thanks a lot in advance i know i was a bit unclear : )
 
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Pretty sure thats all compatible, unless i missed something :p

Slightly over budget though :mad:

CP-150-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£99.95 £99.95
CA-054-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)
£48.95 £48.95
MY-039-CS Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS3 (MY-039-CS)
£114.95 £114.95
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£139.95 £139.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£74.95 £74.95
CA-005-HP Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Black UV (CA-005-HP)
£54.95 £54.95
SY-002-AR Artic Cooling Accelero X2 Cooler (X1800/X1900 Series) (SY-002-AR)
£19.95 £19.95
HS-023-TR ThermalRight SI-120 (Socket 754/939/478) Heatsink (HS-023-TR)
£26.95 £26.95
Subtotal £580.60
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
VAT £103.53
Total £695.08
 
I'd disagree with the last spec, if you're gonna buy a custom heatsink and fan then i'd have to assume you're overclocking, in which its pointless spending money on a high CPU, save money get a lower one, 3500 or 3200 and clock it, they run quite cool anyway, my 3200 idles at 30-32 with the stock cooler in my Soprano case.

The memory in that last spec is slower then the one i quoted, hence why i bothered to choose that one over the other ones, its still a bargain and has much nicer timings then the other ones.

Though looking at the price of the CPU, if you can afford it, then do so..... its not much more.

Mobo i'd disagree on unless you want hardcore OC'ing.

Thermalright is also more expensive then the other alternatives, again unless you plan to OC, its a waste of money, and still there are good other cheaper alternatives.

HDD i'd have to recommend Hitachi, i've had Maxtor, WD, and some older other name ones, but overall the Hitachi is quiet and performs really well. Heck i spent 2 weeks researching when i did a HDD upgrade a while back, i opted for the Hitachi, and i've been buying them since, great drives, great price, and quieter and still faster then some of the other drives (wont mention names, dont want to offend the fan boys ;) )
 
I'm not really going to be overclocking much, if at all, it's only for casual gaming / browsing and making the odd frag movie, nothing that i'd see any need to overclock for!
 
In which case the retail CPU will do you fine, no point getting the OEM unless you plan to use a custom HSF to help on overclocking, unless you had a poor case with poor cooling in which case it would help, but if you're gonna get a Lian then i doubt you'll need anything other then just the retail.

ASUS board should suit you just fine.

I don't know what else to suggest, if you'd like help with anything else just ask.

PS. HSF stands for (H)eat(S)ink & (F)an incase you or anyone else didnt know.
 
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