Upgrade time - Serious help required!

Boycie

Boycie

Boycie

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Joined
2 Jul 2004
Posts
1,820
Location
East Midlands
Hey Guys,

It's been about a year since i've bought anything remotely related to my pc since I have been too busy working and have just been putting up with a pc that has been bodged from different bits over the years. So to start, last may i bought the following stuff:

Team Elite 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Dual Channel Kit X 2
Tagan TG420-U01 420W ATX2.0 Silent PSU
Lian-Li PC-60A PLUS Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Silver
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB)
Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Also i added an Nvidia 7900GT and various SATA hard/Disc drives from all my previous computers. It was never intended to be anything amazing and was literally just a stop gap till I got other things sorted.

Now over xmas i was given a copy of FSX and Vista by my parents and it runs like a pup (quite predictably) and being a huge fan of microsofts flight simulator series i would like an upgrade that will play it at a decent level of detail smoothly. I don't play any other games at all and have no care for overclocking or anything like that and apart from FSX i only watch films and work generally on it.

So two questions really, is there anything out of that original spec i could keep? Including the case/PSU etc and what would people suggest with a budget of 500 - 600 pounds for everything else? Please note i dont need any drives etc so it is basically just any combination of CPU/RAM/GFX/PSU/MOBO.

Thanks for the Help

B
 
This might do you, I've included a PSU but would suggest you keep the case. There are supposed to be new graphics cards coming out from ATI and Nvidia relatively soon but I a) don't know if you want to wait that long and b) if they will be within your price range.

Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
BFG GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £171.99
(£202.09) £171.99
(£202.09)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £113.99
(£133.94) £113.99
(£133.94)
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Sub Total : £485.94
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 : £86.61
Total : £581.50
 
You're looking at Q6600/E8400, decent mobo, 4GB RAM and PSU combo costing around £350 leaving possibly £150-250 to spend on a graphics card. AFAIK new ATI range will be targeted at mid level and not the high end so maybe worth holding on until June to see what the score is with it. I'm sure your 7900GT will be more than a capable stop gap until until then.

Oh and FSX runs like a dog even on high end machines with everything turned up :)
 
Hi

I'm considering a similar upgrade, and came up with the following options for taking what I could from my current system into the new one
(taking, case, HDD's, DVD-RAM, wireless)


OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR10664GK) £79.99(£93.99)
Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99(£76.36)
Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GV-NX88T512HP) £109.99(£129.24)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £113.99(£133.94)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £3.99(£4.69) Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99(£17.61)
Akasa Ultra Quiet 500W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU - Black Nickel £44.99(£52.86)

Total including post & packaging is ~£520


I've not placed my order yet, as I'm still wondering if i should go for the IP35 pro or not... I don't think I need anything on the board, but it's always better to be sure before ordering ;o)
 
The Ram is rather overkill for a Q6600 (or any 1066mhz FSB CPU) unless seriously overclocking - 3.6ghz+ sort of region). It also boots at 2.Xv initially, the Abit defaults to 1.8v unless it has changed recently, you might want to look at the 4gb G.Skill PQ PC6400 or Corsair TwinX PC6400 kits which can both work at 1.8v.

Other than that the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro comes with MX-2 paste pre-applied so you might be able to drop the AS5.

The rest looks fine although for the money you pay for the 8800GT OC you aren't far from 512mb 8800GTS territory (~£10 away) and it is a better card.
 
Thanks for the input, it's really appreciated...

i've downgraded my RAM selection a little as suggested, would the "G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-8000C5" be suitable? I ask as I do intend to overclock the CPU a fair amount, but hitting 3.0GHz would be enough.

Also taken the advice to upgrade the graphics card to the ocuk GTS card at 119.99 +VAt... oh, and removed the thermal paste ;o)

cheers again.
 
A Q6600 has a 9x multiplier so you only need the Ram to hit 333mhz for ~3ghz, this is PC5300 sort of area, PC6400 would be easily enough (9x400mhz = 3.6ghz and that is running the Ram at rated speeds). The PC8000 boots at 2.0v+ if memory serves and the Abit motherboard defaults to 1.8v I think so you might find it to be an issue getting it to boot initially, if you can borrow some Ram that works with 1.8v then you could get round it but it is slightly more hassle.
 
once again, thank you for your help... i guess i'm being over cautious about the slower speeds of RAM, and my lack of understanding was pushing me towards a "ignorant" purchase.

From what you are saying abotu the RAM speeds etc, then I think I can take quite a substantial saving, buy using the OCUK RAM..."OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit" @ £45?
 
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Should be fine, it is just bog standard generic Ram so it will work at the rated speeds, I'm not sure about taking it any further than that but for 3ghz you shouldn't even need to get it to those.
 
cheers... this is the revised order for £500+post...

OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS Extreme 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £119.99
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £113.99
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99
Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99
OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £44.99
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £69.99

I hope now that Adobe Lightroom and the odd game are a breeze :)

Apologies to Boycie for the apparent Hi-Jack, but it looked liek we're after the same thing... upgrading significantly, yet harvesting a few things from the old machine... so rather than start a new thread ;o)
 
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