Upgrade advice.

Ben Cole · 30 Oct 2006 at 22:09

Looking for opinions really.

Main PC is abit an7 with athlon XP-M clocked up to 3400+(and above sometimes),or underclocked to keep consumption down depending on usage,
AGP Radeon 9700 128Mb.
I don't play games except for occasional flight sim, but do a fair bit of video editing/conversion and handling of large files from my digital SLR.

Been out of the loop for around 2yrs and now find that if I upgrade it'll need to be major. New graphics (PCI-e), RAM etc.

Money is not really an issue but percieved value for money is.

So the question is..shall I upgrade what I have or start from scratch. I only have 512Mb of Ram at the moment. Would 2x1Gb sticks work wonders for what I already have given my usage? Would a better AGP card help?

If I upgrade what I have then I'll also upgrade my media PC with a nice Silverstone case with VFD etc.

Any other suggestions?

Android · 30 Oct 2006 at 22:22

Core 2 Duo rig tbh.

semi-pro waster · 31 Oct 2006 at 00:47

A good dual core system is almost certainly the way to go, what is your budget here? I know you say it doesn't matter too much but a rough figure would help deciding what you could get for the money.

jongeeone · 31 Oct 2006 at 00:52

Hmm

e6300 + a/c 7 freezer
Asus P5B / Giga DS3/DS4
2gb geil pc6400
7600GT OC

anything along those lines and you will be far from disopointed

Ben Cole · 31 Oct 2006 at 17:46

I've always been AMD in the past but it seems the Intel core duo is very popular.

Regarding budget it's a tricky one.

Say £400 quid for mobo, CPU/cooler and RAM. I already have a 250Gb IDE drive that I was going to slot into my system..which of course got me thinking of upgrades...now here I am!!!!

I hade previously not bothered with SATA...do you think I should?

Matrix · 31 Oct 2006 at 18:00

Ben Cole said:
I've always been AMD in the past but it seems the Intel core duo is very popular.

Regarding budget it's a tricky one.

Say £400 quid for mobo, CPU/cooler and RAM. I already have a 250Gb IDE drive that I was going to slot into my system..which of course got me thinking of upgrades...now here I am!!!!

I hade previously not bothered with SATA...do you think I should?

a lot of new boards like the DS3 DS4 seem to only have 1 IDE slot, so if yo uhave a dvd writer that will use that slot to.
So maybe it's time to move to SATA?

semi-pro waster · 31 Oct 2006 at 18:16

Matrix said:
a lot of new boards like the DS3 DS4 seem to only have 1 IDE slot, so if yo uhave a dvd writer that will use that slot to.
So maybe it's time to move to SATA?

One IDE port supports two devices though so it would be fine until ready to move to SATA.

Something like this ought to do you and although the motherboard won't be great for overclocking there is still a bit of potential.

MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK)
£45.99 £45.99
CP-135-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£99.99 £99.99
HS-017-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR)
£14.99 £14.99
MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£139.99 £139.99
GX-040-OK OcUK GeForce 7300 GT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-040-OK)
£49.99 £49.99
Subtotal £350.95
VAT £61.42
Total £412.37

Matrix · 31 Oct 2006 at 18:34

semi-pro waster said:
One IDE port supports two devices though so it would be fine until ready to move to SATA.

Something like this ought to do you and although the motherboard won't be great for overclocking there is still a bit of potential.

MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK)
£45.99 £45.99
CP-135-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£99.99 £99.99
HS-017-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR)
£14.99 £14.99
MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£139.99 £139.99
GX-040-OK OcUK GeForce 7300 GT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-040-OK)
£49.99 £49.99
Subtotal £350.95
VAT £61.42
Total £412.37

Ah true you me using the middle connector of the ribbon i take it?

semi-pro waster · 31 Oct 2006 at 19:06

Matrix said:
Ah true you me using the middle connector of the ribbon i take it?

Yep, it isn't generally a problem nowadays with devices running at different speeds although obviously it can only be one device sending data at a time.

Arkanoid · 31 Oct 2006 at 19:12

With the new Microsoft Flight Simulator X a new cpu/GFX card is a must.
Also the more ram the better for photo/video work.

Ben Cole · 31 Oct 2006 at 20:23

Thanks guys.

ASrock always had a bit of a bad name though IIRC..has their rep improved?

semi-pro waster · 1 Nov 2006 at 00:38

Ben Cole said:
Thanks guys.

ASrock always had a bit of a bad name though IIRC..has their rep improved?

Well, to basically quote what I've said in another thread. ASRock are basically Asus' budget brand and they do offer a fair few innovative technologies(AGP and PCI-E on one board or DDR on a socket 775 motherboard), they aren't the most overclockable motherboards in the world but for half the price of most they aren't bad either.

Monstermunch · 1 Nov 2006 at 02:20

Personally, i'd go for something like this:

Core2Duo E6300
Gigabyte DS3
Geil Value PC5300 2gb
X1300XT 256mb
Seagate Baracuda
Nec 4571
Lian-Li PC7+
Enermax Liberty 500w

This whole lot will only set you back around the £700 mark!