Upgrade - Worth It?

j98

j98

j98

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Joined
19 Jan 2004
Posts
87
Hi!

I built my first system a few years ago and have been considering some upgrade options.

I currently have:

Intel 2.26ghz Northwood
Asus P4T533-C Mobo
512mb Samsung RDRAM 1066 -32ns
Leadtek Geforce 4 Ti4200 (128mb mem)

Since there is only one processor (imo) worth upgrading to in the Northwood range (3.06 HT - hard to get hold of), I've been thinking about replacing the whole lot and hopefully shifting the old stuff online. I'd like to keep as much as possible of my current setup to save £££.

I spent a few minutes looking around OCUK today and picked a few things out. Would these components give much of a performance improvement?:

Intel Pentium 4 915 Dual Core "LGA775 Presler" 2.8GHz (800FSB) - Retail (CP-133-IN)
£105.69 Including VAT at 17.5%

Asus P5GPL-X Intel 915PL (Socket 775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-128-AS)
£52.82 Including VAT at 17.5%

GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£70.44 Including VAT at 17.5%

EVGA GeForce 7300 GS SILENT 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-001-EA)
£46.94 Including VAT at 17.5%)

= £275.89. I would like to stay as close as possible to this kind of figure.

I don't need a gaming monster but each time I update Photoshop/Illustrator they take longer and longer to load, and my occasional bouts of WoW could do with a boost.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as I've been out of the game since I built this pc! I have no clue about current gfx cards etc but don't want to spend too much on this as I hardly play any pc games these days.

Thanks in advance!
 
You should try and get a new conroe processor into the budget other wise i don't think its worth it

What is your current power supply you need a ATX 2.0 for PCI-E cards

CP-135-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£114.95 £114.95
MY-030-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB5300DC) (MY-030-GL)
£51.95 £51.95
MB-003-AK Asrock ConroeXFire-eSATA2 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-003-AK)
£51.95 £51.95
HS-017-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR)
£14.95 £14.95
GX-001-EA EVGA GeForce 7300 GS SILENT 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-001-EA)
£39.95 £39.95
Subtotal £273.75
VAT £47.91
Total £321.66
 
Hi, first of all. The last generation CPU contest was won by AMD who crushed Intel. At the very moment Intel are releasing their latest effort which beats AMD's current offerings. However, this is irrelevant to you as these new Intel chips will bust your budget in no time!

So I would recommend you check the Special Deals section "This week only" where you can find AMD's rather current line of CPU's at MAD prices. They are more than 50% cheaper than last year. For a little less than the system you quoted you would get the AMD 3700+ CPU with 1mb cache. These are fantastic CPU's which overclock very well! And at the current price they are probably the best value for money PC hardware I have ever seen.

If you can stretch it to £300, you can get a very fine AMD system with dual core!

FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) £9.95 £9.95
MB-088-AS Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS) £54.95 £54.95
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL) £59.95 £59.95
GX-001-EA EVGA GeForce 7300 GS SILENT 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-001-EA) £39.95 £39.95
CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM) £94.95 £94.95
Subtotal £259.75
VAT £45.46
Total £305.21

Thats not a bad system all. To 'average joe' thats a high end spec.
You can count on everyone in here backing me up when I say DONT BUY the presler Dual cores. They are a failure compared to the AMD offering.
 
Big thanks for the quick replies! This is exactly the kind of advice I was after. Yes maybe an AMD system would be better value right now. Never bought AMD before so again, any advice welcome!

I have been contemplating a new PSU for a while too since mine seems very noisy. It's the one that came in the case so is probably not up to the job anyway. Any recommendations for a (very quiet and cheap as possible) suitable power supply?

Edit: I don't have my heart set on that gfx card if there is a better one for similar money.
 
Last edited:
Enermax Noisetaker 370W EG375AX-VE(G) SFMA ATX2.0 PSU (CA-005-EN)

for £36.00 (£42.30 Including VAT at 17.5%)

or the
Seasonic S12 430W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (CA-000-SS)

for £39.95 (£46.94 Including VAT at 17.5%)
 
Ghost's spec (when it has a Seasonic PSU) looks pretty good to me. If you want to save up an extra few quid I recommend you get a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 motherboard instead of the Asrock mentioned there. The Gigabyte is a FAR better overclocker.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions!

Will the two systems mentioned offer similar performance then? How do I choose between AMD and Intel or does it not really matter?
 
The AMD is the faster system for almost every task, by a long way.

AMD run cooler, require less power and perform better.

I recommend getting a 3700+ tommorrow, at £64 its got £140 of what it cost in october!

The 3800 X2 is another good option, its dual core so very nippy in windows.
 
Are the integrated graphics on the nForce ultra 4 boards comparable to my Geforce 4 Ti4200 or would it be totally useless for gaming?
 
j98 said:
Are the integrated graphics on the nForce ultra 4 boards comparable to my Geforce 4 Ti4200 or would it be totally useless for gaming?
Click to expand...

They are useless. Btw which board are you refering to? The A8N-E/SLI/DELUXE dont have any onboard graphics.

For reference I am using the A8N-E mobo and I am very pleased. It is a solid board with good features and strong overclockability.
 
j98 said:
Ah I misunderstood, I thought all nForce boards had integrated 3d graphics! Was talking about A8N-E.
Click to expand...

Aha, you are fooled by the 'nForce' in the name. I know some people think this means onboard graphics. It sounds very much like 'GeForce', thats why :)

nForce is the common name for a chipset which Nvidia make for motherboards. They are very good quality.
 
If I get the

Seasonic S12 430W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (CA-000-SS)

now, will that work with my Asus P4T533-c until I can scrape together the cash for the main upgrade? The noise is driving me crazy!
 
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