The £300 upgrade

carrot1401

carrot1401

carrot1401

Soldato
Joined
2 Oct 2007
Posts
4,280
Location
Oxfordshire
With me being 18 in 2 weeks parents are allowing me £280 for 'stuff'. So that means a PC upgrade :)

First off, what I've currently got:

Intel Pentium 4 3.4Ghz HT Prescott
Gigabyte P35-DS3P Rev1.1
4gb DDR2 6400 OCZ Ram
HIS Ati x1950pro 512mb

I really want to know how to spend that £280 best. On my shopping list at the moment are:

A q6600 (OEM cause I have a gigabyte cooler)
A standard case (Coolermaster Centurion 5 maybe?)
New power supply (current one is cheap 550watt that came with case, I want something quiter while being able to power all this stuff. Would a ThermalTake TR2 550Watt PSU be enough and quiet?)
Any additional QUIET fans that would fit for your selected case idea.

Another thing I'm looking at is a soundcard like the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1, as I'm currently using onboard audio. Now, I'm off to uni in september so won't be taking anything bigger than my current 2.1 speaker setup. Is it really worth spending nearly £20 as I really don't know if I will hear an improvement. You tell me really:D

I am a gamer but as you could probably tell by the case idea I want to go for the more subtle approach than bright LED's and all of that malarky. Current games I am playing are Call Of Duty 4, Sega Rally etc on my 17" monitor (1280x1024)

Think thats everything...over to you;)

P.S Yes it was originally £300 but already brought a new headset lol. And no, mummy and daddy have not already brought me Porsche, this is like the most money I've ever had lol.
 
1. Maybe yes, if it all allows. I can remember people saying how 4 RAM sticks limit an overclock. I know a bit about overclocking, but not too much. Current CPU cooler is Gigabyte G-Power Lite

2. Um, writing essays too I suppose. But gaming is probably the main bit. Am gonna wait in the graphics department I think for now, see how next years ATi/Nvidia war turns out

3. Put simply, yes :p This one is a few years old, unbranded (£35 with that 550watt power supply) and the LED fan at the front is dead.
 
Ok, then I would avoid a quad, and get something like a E2160 and overlcock that. At £46 they are a thirda of the price. Quads are not much good for gaming.

Consider this:
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £139.99
(£164.49) £139.99
(£164.49)
Sub Total : £241.97
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 : £44.09
Total : £296.01

Is just a little over budget, but will give you a good boost in games and should last you a while.

Remember that you can sell all your current stuff and make, probably, £50 to £100.
 
Only thing I have against that is the processor (which in turn, ruins everything lol)
As much as I do agree with you, I'd rather have quad and futureproof the PC slightly more. Forget about a graphics card, that may come out of my own pocket in the form of that HIS 3870XT somewhen soon :)
 
Best I could recommend then is:

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £129.99
(£152.74) £129.99
(£152.74)
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Sub Total : £249.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £43.74
Total : £293.71
 
Oops, forgot about that.... then best can come up with in budget is:

Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (30SB073000002) £43.99
(£51.69) £43.99
(£51.69)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £129.99
(£152.74) £129.99
(£152.74)
Sub Total : £235.97
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 : £43.04
Total : £288.96
 
The onboard 7.1 sound should be fine for what you need.

I would spend the money on

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail - £152.74
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU - £72.84

Total - £225.58

This would leave you around £55. Now if your going to Uni a set of 5.1 speakers may be the way to go.

Logitech X-530 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System - £39.94 (£265.43)
Creative Inspire A500 5.1 Speaker System - £50.51 (£276.06)

or you could give some consideration to your neighbours and go for a gaming headset. The set below comes with GRAW2 which is a good single and multiplayer game which you could easily sell if you already have it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-030-SN&groupid=702&catid=22&subcat=502 - £35.24 (£260.82)

Both options come within your budget and gives you the retail version of the Q6600 as it's cheaper than the OEM, plus OCUK havean offer of free shipping on orders over £250 at the moment.
 
So you reckon I won't see any improvement with a seperate soundcard?? Already got my new headset mate :)

I need to do some research into those Antec 500w power supplies...

EDIT: And I already have GRAW 2 too lol
 
Like most things the quality of sound will depend on how much your willing to spend on a soundcard and speakers.

IMO, onboard sound is sufficient for most set ups. I see a lot of high end sound cards coupled with low standard speakers/headphones, IMO a waste of money, you need good set of speakers to make full use of the sound card.

As you are on a budget I guess you want to see something for your money which makes a difference to you system. I would wait until you have some spare cash to get a soundcard if you think one is needed.

As far as the PSU goes, here is a review that jeebus found - http://www.techaddicts.net/reviews/a...nt_ea500w.html
 
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Was reading a review elsewhere on them and they seem alright. Extra good thanks to the lockable case, so thats both case and psu sorted :)

Sod the sound card for now then if ya reckon I don't need it. That leaves £18 of the £280 left (chucked in an Antec VCool expansion slot cooler and coolink 120mm fan for the front) Will probably keep that to go towards a 3870xt in the very near future :p

Thanks everyone.

P.S Wiil prob not be buying this til next weekend so sods law it will probably all changed by then lol
 
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