Suggest me a CPU !

[witchking72]

Looking at upgrading an aging AMD XP3200+ system, but could do with a bit of advice.

I mainly use the PC for boring stuff like surfing / photo editing / video encoding / word etc, not the greatest of taxing on a cpu!

I play online gaming and my game of choice (EVE Online) is about to have it's first major graphics engine update in 4 years.

It's not the most advanced cutting edge engine and will only require SM3.0 shader support to see the shiny new graphics, with that in mind I'm looking at somthing like an X1950Pro.

What's the best CPU to pair with this, as not to bottle neck the card, like I said I not need the best of the best (no Crysis for me!) but somthing that will see me though the next few years.

I've been veering to wards Intel Dual Core , but there are so many, I could do with a bit of help!

Many Thanks

Tony

 

[BENdage]

Are you planning on overclocking?

If you are a nice E2180 should do nicely with decent cooling it'll clock up nicely, or if you have more money to spend, try a Q6600, its quad core so much more future proof.

If you're not planning on overclocking just get the best core2 you can afford. They are the best buys at the moment.

 

[SBD]

Only probelm is if you upgrade to a core2 you will need a new mobo ram and maybe a new PSU. What sort of budget do you have?

 

[Cupra]

Only probelm is if you upgrade to a core2 you will need a new mobo ram and maybe a new PSU. What sort of budget do you have?

agreed but he could sell his current combo

 

[BENdage]

Only probelm is if you upgrade to a core2 you will need a new mobo ram and maybe a new PSU. What sort of budget do you have?

Pretty much whatever he gets he'll need new mobo and RAM, and prob PSU. He already has the best skt A CPU, he'd have to go to at least skt 754 to get better and there wouldn't be much point in upgrading to obsolete technology

 

[queamin]

Something like that not sure if 1 gig ram slow you down but it a start if your budget tight
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-035-OK&groupid=701&catid=339&subcat=

 

[witchking72]

The total upgrade budget is around £500, It's a complete refresh , just don;t want to waste money on a top end CPU when I'll never use it's capabilities.

So far I have in mind - 4Gb DDR2 Ram (Will be using 64 bit Vista)
X1950Pro GPU

New CPU
New Mobo
New Case

Obviuosly the choice of CPU wil have some effect on the mobo (even though it will be a 775)

does this help?

 

[DavidB]

Wasn't the eve online update going to add dx10 content too ? I think so, best off gettinga 8800gt for £150 when there released(think monday ?) to take advantage of that imo.

Grab a E2140 and a p35 board, DS3R mb, overclock it and your good to go.
Any E21*0 series would do well mind, the higher ones seem to add very little extra overclock potential from what ive seen though.

 

[witchking72]

Wasn't the eve online update going to add dx10 content too ? I think so, best off gettinga 8800gt for £150 when there released(think monday ?) to take advantage of that imo.

The DX10 engine has been put on the backburner for at leat 12 months, but for the cost the 8800 may be a god choice.

 

[semi-pro waster]

Something like this might do for your £500, I've left about £90 in the budget which should give you a decent choice of cases - the Antec P182 is worth a look.

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £31.99
(£37.59) £63.98
(£75.18)
Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £46.99
(£55.21) £46.99
(£55.21)
Samsung SH-S182MBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer LightScribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A32728) £25.99
(£30.54) £25.99
(£30.54)
OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £66.99
(£78.71) £66.99
(£78.71)
Sub Total : £341.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £61.58
Total : £413.45

 

[SBD]

The above rig looks good. Also if you want a really sexy case the black Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS and it is so nice to work with

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-054-LL&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=187

I think wait untill monday and see how much the 8800GT costs if you leave it a few weeks some of the 8800GTS 320 may be cheaper than the GT