Suppose its getting to that time, Budget £450

Richeh · 4 Dec 2007 at 17:34

URGENT: Ordering now! Spec check £500ish!

Right, Current spec:

AMD64 3200+
1GB DDR
9800Pro
Antec Trueblue 480w
1 SATA hard drive
2 IDE hard drives
2 IDE DVD and DVD-RW drives
Antec AMG1000 Case

Really want to keep the IDE Drives as have much info stored on them and don't wanna have to buy new DVD-RW drives for obvious reasons.

Basically looking for a boost, haven't upgraded in years (as you can tell).

Budget £450 could stretch a little further but the cheaper the better (IE under £450 would be nice). Will not be overclocking.

Mainly be used for general surfing, music, movies, encoding and some gaming.

Thanks (I have been out of the loop for ages so no point me trying to spec something up myself as have no idea on most things).

Edit: Budget has gone up to around £500ish

jak731 · 4 Dec 2007 at 17:36

can or do you want to keep any parts from that pc?

Richeh · 4 Dec 2007 at 17:40

Would like to keep the dvd drives, hard drives, case and if possible PSU assuming they will all work.

jak731 · 4 Dec 2007 at 17:44

most, in fact nearly all modern MBs only have 1 IDE port nowdays.

a tiny bit over

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)
PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro Extreme Silent 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £109.99
(£129.24) £109.99
(£129.24)
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £137.99
(£162.14) £137.99
(£162.14)
Sub Total : £387.95
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £69.46
Total : £466.36

you will be able to conenct in 2 of your IDE devices and all of you SATA devices

Richeh · 4 Dec 2007 at 17:55

Hmm, is it worth going for a duo core as they are much cheaper or were you mainly looking at my encoding habits? Also is the new PSU necessary if i'm not going to do any overclocking?

hp7909 · 4 Dec 2007 at 17:58

Mobo above has 2-IDE connectors.

Don't think current PSU conforms to ATX 2.x, i.e. 24-pin power connector, split +12V, SATA, PCI-E, etc? Case can be 'recycled'

jak731 · 4 Dec 2007 at 18:07

nice spec hp7909. richeh if you go for his spec and you order before wenesday before the this week only offers change, i suggest getting the retail q6600 for £2 more it has a longer warranty and higher resale value

Richeh · 4 Dec 2007 at 18:08

Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £61.99
(£72.84)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel £46.99
(£55.21)

OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2
£29.99
(£35.24)

OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply
£39.99
(£46.99)

Sub Total : £178.96
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 : £32.88

Total : £220.79

Anything wrong with this? Thinking i'd maybe like to get a 8800GT as they seem to be a hell of a lot faster than the ATI. Even if I don't push it now it will be more future proof so that will bring me in at around £415?

jak731 · 4 Dec 2007 at 18:11

nothign from what i can tell, just that quads are better for encoding

Richeh · 4 Dec 2007 at 19:02

Either would still be a big leap over my current cpu though correct?

jak731 · 4 Dec 2007 at 19:06

yes in almost every way
yoru electricity bill might suffer a slight increase though

hp7909 · 5 Dec 2007 at 10:05

Richeh said:
Either would still be a big leap over my current cpu though correct?

Yes. If not a 'hardcore' encoder then the E2180 is a better option

Would still recommend the Corsair VX 450W over the OCW StealthXStream 600w. Some here claim that its not very silent. Note that the Corsair despite its lower Watts is a very well built & powerful PSU! Its also very quiet & highly reputable reliability. Will run that rig fine with even a 8800GT.

Rest of your spec is OK

jak731 said:
yoru electricity bill might suffer a slight increase though

bloodline76 · 5 Dec 2007 at 14:26

I would go for the cheaper dual core. They can be overclocked really well and you dont NEED quad cores at this stage for normal use.

Richeh · 5 Dec 2007 at 17:25

I'm not planning on overclocking, out of curiosity the Antec Piano case that comes with the Earthwatts PSU is that a decent enough PSU, like the look of the case as well and my current one is a monster lol

Richeh · 5 Dec 2007 at 18:29

Don't wanna push this but planning on ordering tonight (for friday delivery).

Thinking of upping my budget to around £500.

Basically need:

CPU
Mobo
RAM (Maybe 4GB?)
GFX
PSU

Want:
Case (Smaller than my tower and preferably quiet, if it includes a useable PSU obviously better)
New SATA hard drive (I want a decent mobo, and since most new ones dont use IDE I think I will need at least one more to replace my current ones).
Vista (Have been using XP and since Vista is more reliable now, I mainly use, Firefox, Nero, ConvertXtoDVD, AoE2, AoE3, WMP, MSN, Teamspeak, Office 2000, VLC, Azureus, Limewire, Ares).

I have a Viewsonic VX2025 at 1680x1050 and would't mind trying a few new games but not HEAVY gaming. Just nice and playable with good graphics.

Can anyone do most/all of this for £500?

Richeh · 5 Dec 2007 at 23:46

Hate bumping my own threads but no replies and need to get it delivered for friday as have the day off work.

How does this look, i'm not too happy with GFX card, wanted something a bit better but nothing in stock and looks like I couldn't really save much money elsewhere.

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS) Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS) £37.99
(£44.64) £37.99
(£44.64)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £29.99
(£35.24) £59.98
(£70.48)
Asus P5K-E WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Asus P5K-E WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £84.99
(£99.86) £84.99
(£99.86)
OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £35.99
(£42.29) £35.99
(£42.29)
Asus ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail Asus ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Sub Total : £418.92
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 : £75.05
Total : £503.92

hp7909 · 6 Dec 2007 at 03:18

Richeh said:
Asus P5K-E WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Since on a budget I'd go for the P5K. See this thread

Hope you've checked that all software, peripherals, etc you have/want to use will work fine with 64-bit Vista.

Richeh · 6 Dec 2007 at 10:09

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS) Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS) £37.99
(£44.64) £37.99
(£44.64)
Asus P5K SE Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Asus P5K SE Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £29.99
(£35.24) £59.98
(£70.48)
OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £35.99
(£42.29) £35.99
(£42.29)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
Gainward BLISS GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (4718462008927) Gainward BLISS GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (4718462008927) £164.99
(£193.86) £164.99
(£193.86)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Sub Total : £463.92
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 : £82.93
Total : £556.80

Difference between the Mobo i've chosen and the P5K standard? I don't really understand!

Final check as about to hit order!

ByteJuggler · 6 Dec 2007 at 10:30

Just a few notes:

I recently did a cheapo upgrade from a similar spec to yours (also have an Antec TrueBlue PSU.)

Anyway, point is, I got the Abit IP35, and it will actually run on the Antec TrueBlue [ATX 2.0 PSU] (with 20 pin mobo connector and 4 pin CPU power header), even though it also supports/wants the 24 pin mobo connector and 8 pin CPU power hearder. So, you *can* do that if you want and not bother with a new PSU. That said, I'm very tempted to get a better/newer PSU anyway, just in case, but the point is you don't absolutely have to, at least with the Abit IP35 board. (I got an IP35, E2180, HIS 3850 256 and Geil PC6400C4. Best cheap upgrade I've ever done.)

Richeh · 6 Dec 2007 at 10:38

Thank you, do you think it would run my latest spec ok? Am thinking the GT might be a bit more power hungry.