Hi - sorry for yet another upgrade thread but I've not kept up on hardware much since my last PC build a few years ago. Got some great advice from here last time, and my pc has been fine, but it's getting old
I'm considering upgrading/rebuilding my system, and have some of the parts in mind but others I have no idea about.
This system is for - Photoshop/Illustrator CS3, general web stuff, some older games like Company of Heroes, Stalker, Orange Box, EVE Online, Oblivion and possibly newer ones in DX10 (not aiming for maxed out Crysis etc though).
Not confident with overclocking so doubt I will just yet.
Considering getting:
Antec 300 Case
PSU *
Mobo *
Intel Core 2 Duo E8200/E8400
4GB Ram *
GeForce 8800 GT/GTS 512MB
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
* = no idea
Already have 3x Samsung Spinpoint SATA HDD, DVDRW, Samsung 2232BW 22" and USB Mouse/KB/Headphones I plan to keep for the new system.
So can anyone help advise me on the remaining parts? And additional questions:
- Are all those parts so far compatible with each other, and the peripherals I already have? (the HDDs are SATA 1, not 2 I think)
- I would like Photoshop to run nicely, but I'm guessing a Quad Core CPU is not exactly necessary at current, right? Not looking for the best here, just decent!
- With XP > Vista 64, if I use 1 formatted HDD for the OS/apps, would my data (images/music/videos) on the other two drives be recognised fine?
I'm basically looking around and not prepped to buy so budget is not set - maybe £350-450? Also, if I sold my current base unit how much do you think I could ask for - is £100 too much?
Current base unit:
Antec SLK3700-BQE
Enermax Noisetaker 420W [EG425AX-VE]
LanParty UT nF4 Ultra-D
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
GeIL 1GB [2x512MB] PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5
PowerColor Radeon x800XL 256MB
LG DVD-RW
Windows XP Home
Thanks for any help

I'm considering upgrading/rebuilding my system, and have some of the parts in mind but others I have no idea about.
This system is for - Photoshop/Illustrator CS3, general web stuff, some older games like Company of Heroes, Stalker, Orange Box, EVE Online, Oblivion and possibly newer ones in DX10 (not aiming for maxed out Crysis etc though).
Not confident with overclocking so doubt I will just yet.
Considering getting:
Antec 300 Case
PSU *
Mobo *
Intel Core 2 Duo E8200/E8400
4GB Ram *
GeForce 8800 GT/GTS 512MB
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
* = no idea
Already have 3x Samsung Spinpoint SATA HDD, DVDRW, Samsung 2232BW 22" and USB Mouse/KB/Headphones I plan to keep for the new system.
So can anyone help advise me on the remaining parts? And additional questions:
- Are all those parts so far compatible with each other, and the peripherals I already have? (the HDDs are SATA 1, not 2 I think)
- I would like Photoshop to run nicely, but I'm guessing a Quad Core CPU is not exactly necessary at current, right? Not looking for the best here, just decent!
- With XP > Vista 64, if I use 1 formatted HDD for the OS/apps, would my data (images/music/videos) on the other two drives be recognised fine?
I'm basically looking around and not prepped to buy so budget is not set - maybe £350-450? Also, if I sold my current base unit how much do you think I could ask for - is £100 too much?
Current base unit:
Antec SLK3700-BQE
Enermax Noisetaker 420W [EG425AX-VE]
LanParty UT nF4 Ultra-D
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
GeIL 1GB [2x512MB] PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5
PowerColor Radeon x800XL 256MB
LG DVD-RW
Windows XP Home
Thanks for any help
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