Spec Please!

Greenlizard0 · 24 Apr 2006 at 18:33

I'm looking to upgrade my system. For reuse I have a raptor 37gig hard drive, and a 250gig Sata II hard drive for storage. I don't need a new case, keyboard, mouse, or speakers.

I'm looking for a new CPU, Motherboard, Ram, Optical Drives, Graphics Card, Sound Card, PSU.

My budget is £500, what would you guys suggest?

Hlebio · 24 Apr 2006 at 19:36

What is your current rig?

Greenlizard0 · 24 Apr 2006 at 19:52

My current rig is Asus a7n8e-deluxe, xp2100, 1.5gig pc2700 ram, the two hard drives listed above, Liteon cdrw and dvd-rom drives, sound blaster platinum ex, illyama vision master pro 450, microsoft natural keyboard, saitek gaming mouse.

Greenlizard0 · 25 Apr 2006 at 16:07

bump!

deadeyedic30 · 25 Apr 2006 at 16:11

What is your pc used for ?

Greenlizard0 · 25 Apr 2006 at 18:52

My PC is mainly used for playing music and watching DVD's, though I do use it for the internet and email too. I have little to no interest in playing games.

Monstermunch · 25 Apr 2006 at 19:01

If you don't game you could start with these:

BG-033-IN **B Grade** Intel Pentium 4 650 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.4GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology - Retail (BG-033-IN)
£140.00 £140.00
BG-104-MS **B Grade** MSI PM8M3-V VIA P4M800 (Socket LGA775) Motherboard (MB-065-MS)
£15.00 £15.00
BG-032-SP **B Grade** Sapphire X1600 Pro 512MB DDR2 AVIVO TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (BG-032-SP)
£65.00 £65.00
Subtotal £220.00
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £8.25
VAT £39.95
Total £268.20

Excellent value!

deadeyedic30 · 25 Apr 2006 at 19:14

CPU, Motherboard, Ram, Optical Drives, Graphics Card, Sound Card, PSU.

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) Price: £101.95 (£119.79 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
Price: £59.95 (£70.44 Including VAT at 17.5%)

AAMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3000BPBOX) (CP-117-AM) Price: £67.95 (£79.84 Including VAT at 17.5%) THIS WEEK ONLY

PowerColor ATI Radeon X800 GTO 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-053-PC) Price: £39.95 (£46.94 Including VAT at 17.5%) THIS WEEK ONLY

Pioneer DVR-111D Price: £22.95 (£26.97 Including VAT at 17.5% Take your pic depending on colour of case

Hiper HPU-4M580 Type R 580W ATX2.2 PSU - Black (CA-006-HP) Price: £44.95 (£52.82 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - Retail (SC-034-CL Price: £69.95 (£82.19 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Before delivery it comes too Total £478.99 Bit more powerful than you may currently need but should last a long time.

wilders · 25 Apr 2006 at 22:25

Can I ask why your upgrading if games isnt an interest? Surely £500 is a lot to spend if your main interest is music, watching dvds and browsing?
Maybe a nice super large monitor or a nice amp / speaker system would be better suited? Speed and todays technology isnt really needed in your case.

Greenlizard0 · 26 Apr 2006 at 15:31

Monstermunch that spec may well do. I might upgrade my monitor to something really smooth as a result, but only if I can find something that I feel gives as good performance as I have now.

deadeyedic30 - I was thinking of sticking with AMD, though i'm not really bothered about it.

Both graphics cards are very cheap, but tbh your choices are probably very sensible because there's no point in paying for something huge if i'm never going to take advantage of it

wilders - Good point mate. My monitor already is a 19" iiyama pro 450. It's very old (from around 1997 I think) but so far it's done a wonderful job. I've seen my mate's new monitors and haven't really seen that much an improvement to warrent a new purchase imho.

I also have a IXOS pair of headphones, and the main sound goes out through to a Technics Amp (from the 1980's, and out to a pair of Beovox 3800's

).