Upgrade Advice

Jotun · 23 Aug 2006 at 19:08

I'm looking to spend around £450 on an upgrade of my current system.

AMD Semperon 3000+
2 x 256MB RAM
Asus A7V400-MX
Sapphire Radeon 9550 256MB
160GB Western Digital HDD
NEC DVD RW
300W PSU (Cheap)

I plan on keeping the HDD & DVD Drive and replacing the rest of the parts in the case... had a look, and came up with this:

CP-166-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-166-AM)
£89.95 £89.95
MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£109.95 £109.95
CA-029-AN Antec TruePower 2.0 380W PSU (CA-029-AN)
£38.95 £38.95
HD-078-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE)
£59.95 £59.95
MB-070-MS MSI K9N Platinum nForce 570 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-070-MS)
£64.95 £64.95
GX-109-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1300 Hyper Memory 512MB DDR2 AVIVO TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-109-SP)
£33.95 £33.95
Subtotal £397.70
VAT £69.60
Total £467.30

If anyone can see any problems or can think of any better alternatives then I'd appreciate any comments, as I've not really kept up to date with whats happened over the past year or so, and aren't too sure about the graphics card

Thanks

Tetras · 23 Aug 2006 at 19:14

I'd swap PSU for the Seasonic S12 430 Watt, mobo for the MSI K9N Neo-F nForce 550 (any reason why you wanted the 570?) and definately get a better graphics card if you do any kind of gaming (the X1300 HM won't be much better than the 9550), like the BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT @ £93.94 inc VAT.

lee87 · 23 Aug 2006 at 19:19

I'd go conroe instead and get a better graphics card.

MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL) 1
£109.95 £109.95
MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK) 1
£44.95 £44.95
CA-000-SS Seasonic S12 430W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (CA-000-SS) 1
£39.95 £39.95
GX-025-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG) 1
£79.95 £79.95
CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN) 1
£115.95 £115.95
Subtotal £390.75
VAT £68.39
Total £459.14

Jotun · 23 Aug 2006 at 19:32

Tetras said:
I'd swap PSU for the Seasonic S12 430 Watt, mobo for the MSI K9N Neo-F nForce 550 (any reason why you wanted the 570?) and definately get a better graphics card if you do any kind of gaming (the X1300 HM won't be much better than the 9550), like the BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT @ £93.94 inc VAT.

I was only thinking of getting the 570 as it has more sata connectors and raid support, although it isn't critical, i just thought i'd have more options for expansion in the future.

Also the 9550 does play all of the games i've got so far at 1280 x 1024 on max settings, although i've not played any of the more recent ones, but if it's worth it then i'll go for the 7600, since lee87 woul go for it aswell :cool:

lee87 said:
I'd go conroe instead and get a better graphics card.

MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL) 1
£109.95 £109.95
MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK) 1
£44.95 £44.95
CA-000-SS Seasonic S12 430W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (CA-000-SS) 1
£39.95 £39.95
GX-025-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG) 1
£79.95 £79.95
CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN) 1
£115.95 £115.95
Subtotal £390.75
VAT £68.39
Total £459.14

I was looking at a conroe also but didn't think i'd be able to for that cheap, although that looks pretty good too

Edit:

I *think* i've decided to go for this:

CP-166-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-166-AM)
£89.95 £89.95
MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£109.95 £109.95
HD-078-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE)
£59.95 £59.95
CA-000-SS Seasonic S12 430W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (CA-000-SS)
£39.95 £39.95
GX-025-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG)
£79.95 £79.95
MB-071-MS MSI K9N Neo-F nForce 550 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-071-MS)
£46.95 £46.95
Subtotal £426.70
VAT £74.68
Total £501.38

thanks for your help guys