system upgrade

duvet77

duvet77

duvet77

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22 Nov 2005
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well, it's been two years since I last posted on here, when I bought the ATI Radeon X800GTO2 which has served me well. I'm pretty much out of touch when it comes to computer hardware these days, but I'm looking to give my system a general overhaul with the hope that I might be able to enjoy Crysis!

I currently have:

Asrock 939 dual motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 4000+
Radeon X800GTO2 (overclocked to X850XT speeds)
1.5 Gb of pretty cheap crap RAM

I don't really want to buy a new motherboard so my first option is buying a cheap dual core 939 processor. Would a dual core 4200+ or 4400+ give much increase in performance over my existing CPU?

My second option is to buy the Asrock AM2 expansion board and get a decent AM2 CPU. Has anyone used one of these expansion cards? Do they work well?

I also want to upgrade my memory. Whats the norm for gaming these day? 2Gb or 4Gb? What do I need to be looking out for when buying new memory?

Finally, I suppose I would probably need a new GFX card. The last time I even looked at gfx cards, the nvidia 7800gtx or whatever was top of range... everything seems to have changed since then. I assume pretty much anything I buy these days will be better than what I currently have. Can anyone recommend a decent middle range card for gaming?

Thanks for any help and advice offered.
 
anyone else got any thoughts on my upgrade options?

PS. Am I being dim or is there no search facility on this forum... I can't find it if there is. :confused:
 
Search/New Posts must be down again. Think it makes the forum crash so has to be put down/removed sometimes :confused:

'Norm' is 2GB but most here with XP & or Vista 64-bit recommend 4GB (XP & Vista 32-bit can't see/use beyond 3.5GB).

Do you have a budget, or cheap as possible? How about...



If budget's around £300...



A good overclocking setup above.
 
Cheers HP7909 (are you a printer or a scanner?!)

I wasn't expecting shopping baskets as well... don't suppose you want to enter your credit card details too!!! ;)

A couple of questions:

Is the 8600 GT going to give much of a performance boost over my current card with i can run at X850XT PE speeds? i've been browsing the forums and the x1950 pro looks like a good cheapish card so was thinking of getting that.

I've never done intel CPUs before. Is the one you've listed much better than the dual core athlon in the cheap option. Also, how much more life has the socket 775 got (i'm out of touch with these things)? I know my socket 939 is nearing the end of its life but I don't want to change motherboards if there is yet another socket change over the horizon. How I long for the day when socket types will be standard and never change! (i know it won't actually happen).

I don't really have a specific budget to be honest. The appealing thing about the first option is i can spread the cost, whereas if i have a mobo change I'll need to buy everything at once.

Thanks for the input.
 
Socket 775 seems will be around for a while BUT mobo chipset matters. Like the new P35 mobos (here) are currently the only ones which support 1333mhz & next generation 45nm multi-core cpus :cool:

you can compare processors here.

The X1950pro is a good card but (getting) old. If sticking with Windows XP & 'older' games then it will be the better option. But hope your PSU is up-to-it?
 
still not sure which route to take on my upgrade. I've pretty much convinced myself to get x1950 pro 512MB. It seems to be a bargain from what everyone says on here, and i can't afford to spend loads on gfx card.

I just can't decide whether to put extra ram and a cheap dual core cpu in my existing mobo and accept it won't be much better that it is now or go for an upgrade with a bit more longevity.

I'm actually willing to give overclocking a go if someone can convince me it's easy and safe. I've OCed my gfx card but never cpu or memory.

It seems Intel is the way to go now, so if i said heres £300, go buy me a CPU, motherboard and RAM, what would you buy me?

I want to play FPS with good FPS!!!
 
i'm reviving my upgrade thread as i should be getting round to doing this soon. I've been playing around overclocking my athlon 64 4000+ but not very successfully.

CPU - I'll be buying the Intel E2180 with a view to overclocking, that much I'm decided on.
Motherboard - I've narrowed it down to Abit IP35 or Asus P5K, what are peoples thoughts on this?
Memory - Not too sure about this but what from what I've read on here, OCZ, Corsair and Crucial Ballistix are good overclockers. I want 2Gb for about £70, any recommendations?
Cooling - Will stock cooling be adequate or should i buy something a bit better?

thanks for input.
 
thanks... i'll look for some reviews

they all look pretty much the same as each other. I assume I need to attach a fan them.
 
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finally got round to ordering my new bits. I've ordered:

Intel DualCore E2180
Abit P35 motherboard
Crucial Ballistix 2GB DDR2 pc6400
Thermalright Ultima-90i CPU Cooler
Xilence XPF120R Red Wing 120mm Quiet Fan

should be getting it all monday.
 
system upgrade.... arrgh, whats going on?!

right... i received all my bits today and i've started my build but it doesn't want to power up.

when i press the power switch, the light comes on and the fans spin round but only for a split second, then they stop and it does it again 2 seconds later... anyone know whats going on.

I've got a hiper type r modular power supply :rolleyes: which only has a 4 pin 12v power connector... my mobo has a 8 pin power socket but according to the manual you can use a 4 pin in the right holes. not sure if thats relevant.

please help me, i won't be able to sleep tonight! :(
 
You can use that 4-pin connector. Verify that everything is connected as it should be. Re-seat the RAM and GPU.

If it still doesn't work take all the RAM out and begin testing it using one module at a time. Test it in another machine if possible.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
You can use that 4-pin connector. Verify that everything is connected as it should be. Re-seat the RAM and GPU.

If it still doesn't work take all the RAM out and begin testing it using one module at a time. Test it in another machine if possible.
Click to expand...

gpu isn't in. took that out and disconnected everything except ram and cpu.
i'll try reseating the ram and see if that makes a difference.
 
It's all up and running fine now... still need to connect the second hard drive and my front panel audio and usbs, but apart from that it's done.

best thing is, i didn't have to phone up to reactivate windows.
 
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