speccing time =]

evolis

evolis

evolis

Associate
Joined
17 Dec 2006
Posts
9
YAY finally got given permission to post :D

anyway i have a AMD athlon 2500XP+ and 9600XT with 1gig ram and its time to upgrade.

I love my computer to bits and it was the first one i built and i had no probs with it

Anyway so i need something with abit more beef to play world of warcraft as sometimes my computer cant handle it in high fps areas, and i would like to stick with AMD, BUT if someone can convince me to stay i will, my budget is strictly £550 inc del

So this was my original spec, also include a case with 520V PSU which is priced at £50 but didnt link it

I dont need cd/dvd drive as ill swap it from mine etc, so just include cpu, ram, gfx card, hard drive, ram and anything else necessary

LN14251
AMD AM2 Athlon 64 4600+ Windsor Core, Dual Core 2.4GHz, 2x 512KB Cache, Retail £118.99 £139.81

LN16080
256MB Gainward 7900GS Bliss Golden Sample, PCI-E, Mem 1400MHz+, GPU 500MHz+, 20 Pipes, 2xDVI/HDTV £89.79 £105.50

LN14711
ASUS M2V, VIA K8T890, S AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA I, SATA RAID, ATX £37.65 £44.24

LN11545
120 Gb Western Digital WD1200JS Caviar SE, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9 ms £30.85 £36.25

LN12201
2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5300 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15 £116.53 £136.92




Net Total £393.81

Carriage £5.98

V.A.T. £69.96

TOTAL £469.75

then i came up with this spec but i hear that many games to handle dual core so it would be cheaper and more efficient to go single core:

basically the same spec but single core instead of the x2

LN14246
AMD AM2 Athlon 64 3800 Orleans Core, 2.4GHz, 512KB Cache, Retail £56.99 £66.96

i would appreciate if you guys can sort something out for me asap as i need to order parts today so i can get it for xmas

Many thanks
 
Last edited:
I'd go for X2 over single core. If you get single core now you will be looking for a dual core chip in a few months anyway because future games will be dual core optimised.

If gaming is all you do you may want to drop the cpu to a X2 3800+ and put the extra funds + £20 to get a nice Leadtek 7950GT.

X2 3800+ should be able to reach 2.4Ghz without too much effort.
 
Last edited:
No, you will most likely see around 50% of each core being utilised so the total CPU utilisation is around 50~60%, even a dual core optimised application is unlikely to utilise 100% of both cores.

The best thing to do is to install A64 driver then install X2 optimiser after that. Both can be downloaded from AMD site.
 
right i have had a good look through and came up with this

Asus M2N-E Socket AM2 NF570ULTRA Audio Lan USB2 2000FSB SATA ATX 112086 41 in stock £51.25 £51.25

Innovision GeForce 7950GT 256MB DDR3 256Bit PCI-E 119682 2 in stock £140.94 £140.94

Crucial 2GB kit (1GBx2) DDR2 PC2-5300 CL=5 UNBUFFERED NON-ECC DDR2-667 1.8V 106133 2 in stock £124.52 £124.52

Extra Value Black/Silver Wizard 25cm Side Fan Mid Tower Case - With 600W PSU 122762 3 in stock £42.53 £42.53

Athlon 64 3800 box 2.4GHz AM2 940 pin 119607 428 in stock £54.25 £54.25

Seagate ST380211AS 80GB 7200rpm SATAII - OEM 112116 1495 in stock £23.29 £23.29
(click if you have changed any details) Cart Total: £436.78


Shipping Band:
Shipping Surcharge:
Subtotal:
VAT:
Total: £4.89
£4.90
£446.57
£78.19
£524.76


can you please tell me if this will be decent enough for what i want, also does that mobo support pci-e

Many thanks
 
Yes the mobo has PCI-E.

My main concern however is the PSU; you don't want to depend your entire rig on a generic unbranded 600W PSU that comes with an unbranded case, it's most likely to have insufficient +12V rail amperage and will casue you a lot of problems later.
 
also u see i went single core, but as its am2 i have the option to upgrade at a later date, ill look into the psu, does everything else look ok?

thanks again
 
would this do the job?

Hiper 530W Black Type-R Modular PSU - SLI Certified with Active PFC 112897 143 in stock £46.05 £46.05
 
evolis said:
{snip}Extra Value Black/Silver Wizard 25cm Side Fan Mid Tower Case - With 600W PSU 122762 3 in stock £42.53 £42.53{snip}
Click to expand...
A case with a 600w PSU at that price, (IMO) will not be very good :eek:

A decent case & good/reputable PSU is the 'gospel' round here :)

Also, why not buy from OcUK shop?
  • AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £62.99
  • MSI K9N Neo-F nForce 550 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £44.99
  • GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) £129.99
  • Leadtek GeForce 7950 GT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £136.99
  • Samsung SpinPoint P HD080HJ 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £25.99
  • Antec NSK6500 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W PSU £58.99
  • Sub Total : £459.94
  • Shipping : £9.95
  • Vat : £82.23
  • Total : £552.12
:o
 
Stretch to Core 2 Duo to be honest mate. See other specs for ideas. For example (in a nearby thread):
core2spec.png

Needs a psu and case though.
 
evolis said:
would this do the job?

Hiper 530W Black Type-R Modular PSU - SLI Certified with Active PFC 112897 143 in stock £46.05 £46.05
Click to expand...

It is OK but Hiper doesn't have good reputation around here, it' more of a hit or miss actually; search the forum and you'll find lots of "Hiper PSU advise" threads with lots of people having good experiences and lots of others having bad ones.

If you really do have limited budget then you may want to look for OCZ modstream series, other brands like Seasonic, Corsair, Tagan, OCZ (gamers extreme), Antec, Enermax are also good brands.

Apart from this your spec looks good. Conroe is obviously better but cost a lot more too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom