Upgrade help needed

teh_captain

teh_captain

teh_captain

Soldato
Joined
2 Jun 2003
Posts
3,038
Location
Bristol UK
Hi everyone,

Apologies in advance for the long n00bish post but been out of the hardware game for a while now and I'm not 100% sure what's hot and what's not :p

At present I have:

Athlon XP 2500+ @ 2.2GHz
Coolermaster Aero 7+ Cooler
Abit NF7-S
Sapph Radeon 9800 Pro
1Gb Corsair PC3200/DDR400 (2x512)
60Gb Seagate Barracuda HDD
48x Samsung CD drive
4x Liteon DVD-+RW Burner
Antec PlusView 1000AMG case
5 case fans (2x Antec, 3x YS-Tech)
Antec Trueblue 480w PSU

Right, now i'm looking to upgrade in a couple of months to something a bit beefier, i've had my current rig for a couple of years now. I'm not looking for something to set the world alight, just a worthwhile upgrade :)

How does this look?

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
46.82
ThermalRight XP-120 (Socket 754/939/478) Heatsink (HS-017-TR)
£29.32
YS-TECH FD1238 120mm Fan - 4 Pin (FG-004-YS)
£11.69
Abit AN8 SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-073-AB)
£93.94
PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express)(GX-037-PC)
£152.69
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB ST3250824A ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-055-SE)
£77.49
Thermaltake VA3000BWA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower - Black (CA-010-TT)
£74.03
Antec TrueBlue 2.0 480W PSU (CA-031-AN)
£70.44
Sony DDU1613 DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (CD-020-SO)
£12.87
Sony DWQ30AB 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-044-SO)
£26.97

Total £696.26

I'm going to keep the memory out of the current rig as it runs very smooth and I believe 1Gb is still pretty much the norm still (or advise me otherwise)?
The HDD is nearly on its way out, so if I sold the current rig w/o the memory and HHD how much would it be worth roughly? (but thats a price check thread :D)

Anyway as i've got a crapload of stuff on my HDD at the moment that I don't want to lose; could I install a fresh copy of Windows on the SATA drive, have the 2 DVD drives in Primary Master+Seconary, and theoretically put the old drive in Seconary Master and just pull the files onto the new drive?

Phew! Thanks in advance :)

t3h :cool:
 
Looks ok although might change the board to something cheaper unless you plan to sli in the future.
I went from a very similar system to the two in my sig. Got caught up in opteron fever hence two systems plus I still have my old one.
You should be able to copy your stuff over without too much hassle.
 
looks fine to me although i'm not sure why you've gone for an SLi motherbaord when you are intending to use an ATI card? afik, you can't run dual ATI cards in these boards.

You best bet if to go foe an Nvidia card ging you the option to add a second later, or opt for a crossfire board.

also, are you overclocking? if not i wouldn't waste the monet on the HSF. the stock cooler is fine.
 
Mr Huddy said:
looks fine to me although i'm not sure why you've gone for an SLi motherbaord when you are intending to use an ATI card? afik, you can't run dual ATI cards in these boards.
Click to expand...

Correct you need a Crossfire motherboard :) ATI cards will obviously work fine but like said unless there is a specific reason to get an SLi motherboard I probably wouldn't bother, NForce4 ultra or Crossfire motherboards work equally well.

***_captain you could re-use your existing PSU if you wanted by getting a couple of adapters. If you are thinking about SLi or Crossfire though I'd advise getting something with a bit more power than 480w though, look for at least 500w.

I'd also change the DVDRW from a Sony to either an NEC 4551 or Pioneer 110(although it is getting a little dated).

1gb is fine still although for new builds I'd normally put in 2gb as it isn't all that pricey.

//edit yes you can install Windows on the SATA and then put the old hard drive as a slave or master to one of the IDE devices :)
 
Have to agree. Get the Abit AT8 ATI RD480 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-091-AB) at £88.07*Including VAT. Good board with all connections you will need. Considering the PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express)(GX-037-PC) at £152.69 is imo the best value card at present, i would stick with it.
Great CPU too.
Personally i think the PSU is a good choice.
 
Righty ho, sorry for not replying to my own thread; was at work from 10-6 and work has OcUK blocked :mad: (damn police force :p)

Right I changed the DVD to:

NEC ND4550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £29.96

and added:

Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2PT Platinum CAS2 - £99.82 (i'm right in thinking 3 sticks of memory won't hinder dual channel performance?)

Brings the total to £799.07

I had a quick look at the mobos... there are Abit, Asus, MSI and DFI boards that are are either vanilla NF4 or Crossfire, which would be the best option. I've heard the 3700+'s do decent speeds on air, so i'll keep the HFS, and I don't think i'll be Crossfiring :p so i'll stick with the Trueblue 2.0 :)

Many thanks,

t3h :cool:
 
Changed my mind again :o

Here is the current list, decided i'll get rid of current memory and get a 2Gb dual channel kit. Found the NEC 4551 :p Sticking with the mobo, don't want to go nVidia and my current Abit board has been great :)

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£146.82
ThermalRight XP-120 (Socket 754/939/478) Heatsink (HS-017-TR)
£29.32
YS-TECH FD1238 120mm Fan - 4 Pin (FG-004-YS)
£11.69
Abit AN8 SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-073-AB)
£93.94
PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express)(GX-037-PC)
£152.69
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 NCQ 250GB ST3250824AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-058-SE)
£77.49
Thermaltake VA3000BWA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower - Black (CA-010-TT)
£74.03
Antec TrueBlue 2.0 480W PSU(CA-031-AN)
£70.44
Sony DDU1613 DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (CD-020-SO)
£12.87
NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£32.84
G.Skill 2GB DDR HZ PC4000 (2x1GB) CAS3 Dual Channel Kit (F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ) (MY-008-GS)
£152.69

Comes to £854.82.

Any good?

Cheers,

t3h :cool:
 
one point.. I wouldn't go with the ATI - Nforce 4 Sli motherboard combination as you are limiting your upgrade path later.

If you are going for the Nvidia motherboard than go for an Sli compliant graphics card.

If you want an ATi card, then look at a crossfire.

It just means you can add a second card later of the same type if oppertunity arises.
:)

Otherwise, all looks cool :)
 
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