Time for an upgrade...

Trackbikes · 16 Mar 2008 at 16:02

3-4 years ago I was into overclocking, and serious cooling but then I sort of got new interests.. Anyway what used to be a pretty good PC when i built it is showing it's age now so it's time to build a new one.

I was going to get a PS3 but I've decided I'd rather upgrade the PC and then buy COD4.. although I will be using it 80% for work. (internet marketing , affiliate sales etc...)

The spec of the Current PC is below and I have about €600 to spend (£450 ish)

Any suggestions about what to buy??? (wifi on the mobo would be nice but not necessary as i can get a wifi card...

Thanks a hugggge bunch......

CPU Type : Intel Pentium 4, 3200 MHz (16 x 200)

Motherboard :Abit IC7-MAX3 (5 PCI, 1 AGP Pro, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)

System Memory : 1024 MB (PC4200 DDR SDRAM)

Video Adapter : GeForce FX 5700 Ultra (128 MB)

Audio Adapter :Creative SB0350 Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card

semi-pro waster · 16 Mar 2008 at 16:09

Something like this might do for your needs, you could also overclock a fair bit as well although aftermarket cooling would come in handy beyond a certain point.

Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD4000AAKS) £46.99
(£55.21) £46.99
(£55.21)
Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ) £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.99
(£18.79) £15.99
(£18.79)
Antec NSK 6580 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W Earth Watts PSU £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail £45.99
(£54.04) £45.99
(£54.04)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £109.99
(£129.24) £109.99
(£129.24)
Sub Total : £371.93
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £67.00
Total : £449.88

Trackbikes · 16 Mar 2008 at 18:33

Thanks for that,

As it's an upgrade I've got the case, a 450 watt PSU, plus DVD drive so thats going to knock a bit off the price.

Got to say though I was shocked at how low the price of ram has gone in the past few years..it's the one thing that stood out when I started to look at upgrading yesterday.

Now just got see if OCUK ship to spain..

Grumpy · 16 Mar 2008 at 20:11

That old PSU may not be up to powering the new kit and probably won't have the required connections for mobo/gfx card.

Trackbikes · 17 Mar 2008 at 14:05

Grumpy said:
That old PSU may not be up to powering the new kit and probably won't have the required connections for mobo/gfx card.

it's not an old one.. i though a new one in there about 6 months ago when the old one phutted..

Trackbikes · 17 Mar 2008 at 15:07

I've decided to spend a bit more on the CPU.... will the following be a good basis.. anything that i should be aware of?

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

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-8000C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ)

semi-pro waster · 17 Mar 2008 at 18:16

It looks as if you need to update the bios to support Wolfdales according to the Asus website, other than that it should work. Any particular reason for the Asus motherboard?

Trackbikes · 17 Mar 2008 at 19:50

semi-pro waster said:
It looks as if you need to update the bios to support Wolfdales according to the Asus website, other than that it should work. Any particular reason for the Asus motherboard?

no particular reason, had them before without any problems...

what would you suggest??

semi-pro waster · 17 Mar 2008 at 22:57

I wasn't sure if you were picking it for the SLi potential (albeit at two slots of 8x), if you just want a solid cheap motherboard then the Gigabyte I suggested is fairly decent and should overclock decently. Next step up would probably be something like an Abit IP35-E which costs about £10 more, slightly more features but doesn't have solid capacitors so in theory might not last quite as long, the difference is probably academic though since most people replace the entire system before capacitors get close to wearing out.