My PC has gave up sooner than later & although I was planning on upgrading I've been caught out. I'm not familiar with what's good & not so good at the minute so if some folks could give me a few pointers as to what I should be looking at.
Here's some details:
Budget 500 - 600 absoulte max. although if something suitable can be had for much cheaper I'd be grateful.
I already have monitor (1650 x 1080), keyboard, mouse, soundcard, case & PSU
I don't intend make use of SLI or Crossfire
I haven't overclocked before but I'll maybe have a stab at it this time.
Uses are mostly gaming and a bit of photoshop although I've been happy with my current AMD 64 3700+ for photoshop so that'll give you an idea of what sort of user I am.
I generally upgrade every few years so something that would be do me for a while is the goal. I wasn't sure if a Q6600 would suit that purpose or if a cheaper dual core would have been every bit as good for my needs. I'd also thought about an E8400 although recent price increas have ruled that one out. Would eithe rof those be better for gaming than the other just out of interest?
I have no clue clue regarding graphics cards, I currently have a 7800GT and mostly play Eve online though wouldn't mind having a stab at some of the more recent releases although I'm not one for benchmarking or playing Crysis at as high as detail as possible. Would it be worth holding on to the 7800GT until nvidias 9 series hit the shelves? If not then something that works well at 1650 x 1080 max.
Ram & motherboard to suit the above. I'd thought about an Asus P5K-E although again it might be too much for what I require, to be honest I looked at the available motherboards & it was a minefield.
I'm also thinking of moving to Vista and may as well make use of 4GB RAM.
A few ideas would be great and don't feel that you have to hit the budget if something suitable could be had for less.
Here's some details:
Budget 500 - 600 absoulte max. although if something suitable can be had for much cheaper I'd be grateful.
I already have monitor (1650 x 1080), keyboard, mouse, soundcard, case & PSU
I don't intend make use of SLI or Crossfire
I haven't overclocked before but I'll maybe have a stab at it this time.
Uses are mostly gaming and a bit of photoshop although I've been happy with my current AMD 64 3700+ for photoshop so that'll give you an idea of what sort of user I am.
I generally upgrade every few years so something that would be do me for a while is the goal. I wasn't sure if a Q6600 would suit that purpose or if a cheaper dual core would have been every bit as good for my needs. I'd also thought about an E8400 although recent price increas have ruled that one out. Would eithe rof those be better for gaming than the other just out of interest?
I have no clue clue regarding graphics cards, I currently have a 7800GT and mostly play Eve online though wouldn't mind having a stab at some of the more recent releases although I'm not one for benchmarking or playing Crysis at as high as detail as possible. Would it be worth holding on to the 7800GT until nvidias 9 series hit the shelves? If not then something that works well at 1650 x 1080 max.
Ram & motherboard to suit the above. I'd thought about an Asus P5K-E although again it might be too much for what I require, to be honest I looked at the available motherboards & it was a minefield.
I'm also thinking of moving to Vista and may as well make use of 4GB RAM.
A few ideas would be great and don't feel that you have to hit the budget if something suitable could be had for less.
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Those are the components I'm after Billy, all the other items will be reused.
