Upgrade for a poor man :(

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

As I said, I've now got a 8800GT up and running, I've also salvaged a few bits just to get the thing to power on, system update is;

8800GT
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Packard Bell motherboard
4GB 5300 ram

Not too fussed about bleeding edge as I mainly play emulators and TF2, but would like to be able to run Mass Effect, AVP & Street Fighter 4.

Cheers again guys, you've been really helpful.

If you really want the cheapest system which will do the job and are not that worried about overclocking too much I would get the following bits:

AMD Phenom II X3 720 ~ £100

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-238-AM

Asus M4A77D ~ £60

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-376-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1482

If you have an Earthwatts 380W this should be fine.

However if you want to get a better PSU get the following one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-026-OC

The motherboard can overclock the X3 720 but I would make sure that the VRMs are cooled by a fan. The motherboard even has all solid capacitors too.

 

[BIGBC]

...integrated ATI 4200. It won't be a graphics card that will be running everything on max but it should be able to handle stuff pretty well I think.

It cant. Have one in my HTPC and gaming really isnt worth considering on one.

 

[eddyc]

It cant. Have one in my HTPC and gaming really isnt worth considering on one.

I do not agree. Once overclocked it actually handles games I have tried quite nicely, including mass effect.

But not on 1080 only on lower res.

 

[FoxEye]

If you really want the cheapest system which will do the job and are not that worried about overclocking too much I would get the following bits:

AMD Phenom II X3 720 ~ £100
<snip>

Why the ph3 x3?

the i3 is the same price, and probably a better gaming chip.
the athlon ii x4 is cheaper, and has one more core.
the athlon ii x3 is almost 1/2 the price

I can see the logic behind the ph2 550/555 if you're going to try unlocking, but why the ph2 x3?

just curious, I don't see many recommendations for this chip anywhere.

 

[BIGBC]

I had MW2 on lowest settings at 1680x1050 and it was stuttering badly.
Gaming was a bad experience on:
Mass Effect 1, Dirt 2, Far Cry 2, Frontlines, Mirror's Edge.
It was ok on source engine games with med graphics.
It was decent on Guild Wars.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Why the ph3 x3?

the i3 is the same price, and probably a better gaming chip.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

I put these links in post 14:

http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=7488

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=118&p2=83

The Core i3 530 cannot run DDR2 RAM. Within the limited budget the OP had the 1066MHZ DDR2 which was much cheaper than DDR3 on OcUK at the time and the AM2+ motherboard which was also cheaper meant that much more money could be spent on the graphics card! At the time, I calculated that the difference between the cheapest 4GB 1333MHZ or 1600MHZ DDR3 RAM set and the cheapest AM3 770 motherboard available on OcUK was £22. The budget was £300.

Low latency DDR2 AT 1066MHZ only makes a small difference when compared to 1333MHZ DDR3 with a Phenom II. DDR3 offers a better upgrade path though and is probably better if you intend to overclock the processor.

This is why I recommended the X3 720BE in post 14.

the athlon ii x4 is cheaper, and has one more core.
the athlon ii x3 is almost 1/2 the price

I can see the logic behind the ph2 550/555 if you're going to try unlocking, but why the ph2 x3?

just curious, I don't see many recommendations for this chip anywhere.

Not everyone is going to be unlocking though. Hence if they are not unlocking and overclocking the X3 720BE is a better choice over the Core i3 530 for gaming especially if you have a limited budget and have DDR2. The X3 720BE has been one of the most recommended CPUs AMD has produced for a long time.

However supplies have know dried up and OcUK are one of the few places which actually stocks it. This has meant that people have either recommended the X2 550BE or the X4 955BE. The X3 720BE is the middle ground chip between the two. If you don't want to overclock or unlock it is an excellent mix of performance in single and multi-threaded applications in games.

The Phenom II will no doubt be a bit bottlenecked by the 667MHZ DDR2 the OP now has but the memory controller seems to be more sensitive to latency rather than outright bandwidth only.

If the OP wants to try unlocking the X2 550BE then I would go with it instead of the X3 720BE.

 

[Insanties_birth]

It cant. Have one in my HTPC and gaming really isnt worth considering on one.

Alright then, 4650 it is unless people can get a better graphics card in.

 

[Guest2]

second hand
Q6600 £80
mobo £50
ram £60
8800GT £30

==total: £220==

Could maybe get that stuff for £200

I recent got the following for £60. Ive bought a Q6600 to replace the CPU

775 motherboard (XFX 650i)
4gb (4x1gb) memory
E2150 cpu
scythe heatsink
120mm fan
160gb hard drive

 

[eddyc]

I had MW2 on lowest settings at 1680x1050 and it was stuttering badly.
Gaming was a bad experience on:
Mass Effect 1, Dirt 2, Far Cry 2, Frontlines, Mirror's Edge.
It was ok on source engine games with med graphics.
It was decent on Guild Wars.

Yes you are right. It is not good on high res.

But it performs very well (for what it is) at around 765p.

 

[CrispyXUK]

second hand
Q6600 £80
mobo £50

I'm on the hunt for something like this secondhand, not found anything yet.

 

[Ricardox1]

I'm on the hunt for something like this secondhand, not found anything yet.

Have you tried ebay?
would have thought there would be some on there mate.

 

[Guest2]

For the Q6600 try on here, ebay and avforums. Mine arrived from a guy on here today and will be fitting it tonight. Paid £85inc SD with a heatsink/fan

 

[CrispyXUK]

Do you guys have a sales forum then?

Got a thread going on AVF, prefer to avoid ebay.

 

[Guest2]

Do you guys have a sales forum then?

Got a thread going on AVF, prefer to avoid ebay.

Yep, members market. You need 250 posts i think then enable your trust. Its in the FAQ next to calendar and user CP. Think you might be able to use it after 100 posts but then you need to be registered for 6 months i think

 

[CrispyXUK]

I've been registered for aaaaaaaaaaaaaaages, just don't post much.

I'm pretty buggered on that front. Cash waiting if anyone is selling

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I've been registered for aaaaaaaaaaaaaaages, just don't post much.

I'm pretty buggered on that front. Cash waiting if anyone is selling

Make sure you get a P43,P45 or X48 motherboard though!!

 

[Ryan-3]

i3 £100
mobo £70
ram £80
2nd hand 8800gt <£50

==total: £300==

But don't i3's have onborad graphics? I know they'll not be very good, but still

 

[CrispyXUK]

Just put a bid in for this;

Intel Q6600 2.4ghz currently at 3.00ghz with no problems with Artic freezer 7 pro
Gigabyte p31 motherboard (S775)

£125

No good on the motherboard front?

 

[ghop]

Just put a bid in for this;

Intel Q6600 2.4ghz currently at 3.00ghz with no problems with Artic freezer 7 pro
Gigabyte p31 motherboard (S775)

£125

No good on the motherboard front?

I had that motherboard with an e2160 and it was a great motherboard, clocked my e2160 to 3ghz on less than stock volts with it and it ran 100% stable for 2 years, and it's still working perfectly, just stuck in a motherboard box atm . I wouldn't bid any higher for it though but if you get it for 125 it's a relatively good deal. Also make sure it's the g0 stepping one. The b3 is pretty hot running and doesn't clock too well.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Q6600 overclocked consumes quite a bit of power. The E2160 is a much cooler running processor. I would probably get a few heatsinks for the VRMs and blow some cool air on them using a fan while overclocking.