Upgrade from P4 - Please Advise

Smithy

Smithy

Smithy

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Joined
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East London
Hi, I'm currently running the following spec;

P4 "Prescott" 2.4
1GB RAM - DDR
6600GT 256MB - AGP

I'm looking to upgrade to a Core 2 system for around £350. If I can get it lower then great. (student budget)

So here is what I'm thinking;

Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard

Asus ATI Radeon X1950 Pro HTDP 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA804)

First question is; Is there anything fundamentally wrong with this? Or anything that would be advisable to change?

I know this falls short of my original £350 budget, but that's because I originally thought I would have to buy an E6600 to see any reasonable speed when playing games. But after looking through a few threads on here, it looks like I'll be able to overclock the 2180 with stock cooler to outperform the 6600 anyway, is this feasible? If so then I have potentially just saved myself £90.

I realise the x1950 Pro is a bit small-fry compared with other cards on the market, but will it be enough to see me through the new games to date? (Possibly barring Crysis)

Cheers.
 
Yeah, it'll all work together. You could save a little by switching the RAM to the Geil PC2-6400. If overclocking I really recommend forgetting the stock cooler and getting an aftermarket cooler. The Scythe Ninja might be a good choice for you.

The X1950 Pro is a decent card. You should be able to play just about everything, albeit not at maximum graphics. Older games like Far Cry can run at max settings on a 19" widescreen in my experience.
 
To be honest, if I could get BF2/2142, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, HL2 etc running on near enough max, then I would be happy.

Is the Scythe Ninja going to be an absolute necessity? Given that it would add a further £30 to the price. Obviously avoiding cooking the CPU is first priority though.
 
Since you'll end up getting the retail version of the CPU you'll be buying the retail heatsink along with it. You might as well try it, I suppose. See how it 'clocks with that. If temps are too high (I'd say around 60 C at load) you might consider an aftermarket heatsink, even the cheapo Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.
 
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Gigabyte GA_P35_DS3P (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£74.99
(£88.11)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB22GB6400C4DC)
£36.99
(£43.46)

Thermalright Ultra-120A CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)
£21.99
(£25.84)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail
£46.99
(£55.21)
Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
£154.99
(£182.11)

Sub Total : £335.95
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £60.36
Total : £405.26

i realise it's over budget, bt it does include an 8800GTS 320mb (which is in my experience a damn good card for the price) and it includes a good CPU cooler, which if you are serious about overclocking you will need to buy.

you could just add the CPU cooler to the spec you made (which is by no means a slouch, the 1950 is a good series)
 
bringerofdecay said:
did not realise they were out :eek: have fallen a bit behind in hardware recently :)
Click to expand...
Thanks anyway, you tried. :D

BillytheImpaler said:
Since you'll end up getting the retail version of the CPU you'll be buying the retail heatsink along with it. You might as well try it, I suppose. See how it 'clocks with that. If temps are too high (I'd say around 60 C at load) you might consider an aftermarket heatsink, even the cheapo Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.
Click to expand...
This is exactly how I see it, and it seems to make the most sense economically.

I'm looking at this now then;
46344070wg3.jpg


Quite a sexy performance increase over my current rig I think. I didn't think I would be able to do it for £277 either.

Edit: Is there much point to the "Black Dragon" kit other than the LED's?
 
Last edited:
Smithy said:
Edit: Is there much point to the "Black Dragon" kit other than the LED's?
Click to expand...

for some reason when i sorted it by cheapest first it put the black dragon stuff before the other GeIL RAM (get the cheaper stuff).

i do recommend spending a bit extra on a decent CPU cooler and an 8800GT(;)) as otherwise you will have to pay extra to ship the CPU cooler, and you will be chucking out/selling the GPU in a few months time when you want a new GPU :)
 
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