Time for a new spec from OCUK - hepl plx! :)

Teknodeamon · 18 May 2008 at 17:50

Hi its that time again. Been shopping with OCUK since forever! Upgrade my comp every few years. Usually read up on everything and try to understand purchases and tech before I do commit, but these forums have advanced so much over the years, as well as the technology, I might as well ask!

So current old setup is athlon 3200 @ 2.4 ghz, 2 gigs of samsung 3200 memory, geforce 6800.

I was looking at the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail 130 quid.

And the BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail 130 quid.

No clue what motherboard is best, I would like to oc the cpu to around 3.8ghz on air (read this is easily achieveable on air), so need a suggestion on Air coolers. Artic Freezers/Tuniq towers started to become popular and better than Zalmans back then!

I have an old Coolermaster atx 2.0 case, Coolermaster Cavalier 3, wondering if this will be enough to house all the new components?

Would also love some advice on memory. I would upgrade to 4gigs of ram, its super cheap and I got a cheap retail pack of vista premium 64 bit O/S from work, never used vista, wondering if you recommend it.

Could you also please recommend some hard drives, I need storage for torrent downloads!

neoboy · 18 May 2008 at 17:53

What is your total budget?

Dark_Angel · 18 May 2008 at 17:56

Probably a bit subjective, but if your PC lasts you a few years at least, I would go for a Quad core CPU.

Software is slowly starting to take advantage of them, and in a few years it won't hurt for sure. I am using the Q6600 G0 for what its worth, and completely love it.

lunarwolf · 18 May 2008 at 18:06

looks like nice upgrade

you could consider the E8200 basically same chip and has similar OC speeds from what I have read and you save £20.

For mobo i recommend either a Evga n680 or Gigabyte P35 - good for OC

4Gb of Ram on Vista x64 (it's better than most people give it credit) but I would recommend Geil Black Dragon PC6400C4 so 4x1GB sticks

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache should give you enough room for the torrents

Teknodeamon · 18 May 2008 at 19:04

Budget has never been an issue, all the parts ive bought have always been good, but these days I am seeing so many pc's made/built for sub 500 quid, that its a good base to start from. Guess my usage will be for WoW, Age of Conan and the new UT series.. As well as movies.

I am using a 26 inch samsung lcd tv as my pc monitor and love it

but as you know the resolution isnt massive, but I dont mind!! Was also considering a seperate PC monitor, maybe the ocuk dsg 24 inch lcd for pc games and Samsung for my 360. But anways lets stick to Base unit please sirs and madams!