Upgrade?

giggity

giggity

giggity

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Joined
20 Nov 2009
Posts
23
what I have:

Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz
2GB RAM
Windows XP
Geforce FX 5200

It's starting to feel rather slow...

I want to upgrade to something which is noticeably faster. I doubt that's hard though.

I pretty much only use it for heavy internet browsing but would like to be able to play some games.

Budget is probably 600. Also, I have a 24" screen but would rather like another one to compliment it but don't include this in the budget, though recommendations would be great.

I've looked at 95's 700 quid build but I have no idea about making/overclocking.

Cheers
 
welcome :) how about something like
11qiu4k.jpg


the barebones unit will all come pre installed so you wont have to worry about any tricky stuff and its easy enough to install gfx card hard drive and optical drive yourself :)
 
It would be better to get an F3 rather than a caviar black tbh.
the difference between intel and AMD is basically that AMD is much better on a budget (you get "more bang for your buck") but Intel has the performance but at a higher price. i5 and i7 are both great CPUs and for 600 you could get an i5 build (maybe not including an OS) The i7 is the best processor out there now, and it's great with multi tasking whereas the i5 is better for gaming. if you can't afford an intel setup then you can still get a really good AMD setup for £600
 
Thanks for your replies.

I'll need an OS but being a student I can get it cheaper I think.

So what kind of £600 i5 build could I expect to make?

Cheers
 
Do you really need to overclock it - at least straight away?

Any of the latest CPUs are going to make your P4 look very very slow. What sort of games will you be playing?

If you buy all the parts now, you can learn about OC'ing yourself and do that when you want to push it a bit more and have built up your confidence - and it will save you a few quid over buying an OC'd bundle.
 
Well, it's just I don't really want an average machine.

I will rarely play games. I've only played 2 games in the last 5 years and they are cs 1.6 and cnc zero hour which even this computer could play well. Having said that I'd like the possibility to play games, though not too bothered about highest quality.

I'll mainly use it for internet browsing, dreamweaver and a bit of photoshop. I'll be doing a fair bit of multitasking with all 3 at the same time.

Having said that, I've coped with my PC for a long time so I'm sure any new rig will be a massive improvement.

So I guess an i5 machine with the ability to overclock later is something I should look for? I guess i7 is way above my needs.
 
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - OEM + Colin McRae Dirt 2 Full Game £135.99
(£118.25) £135.99
(£118.25)
OcUK ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card + Colin McRae Dirt 2 Full Game + Ruby Doll £117.99
(£102.60) £117.99
(£102.60)
Asus P7P55D LE Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £99.99
(£86.95) £99.99
(£86.95)
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL) £74.99
(£65.21) £74.99
(£65.21)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Ready Modular Power Supply £56.99
(£49.56) £56.99
(£49.56)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £38.99
(£33.90) £38.99
(£33.90)
Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black £34.99
(£30.43) £34.99
(£30.43)
Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1366) £32.99
(£28.69) £32.99
(£28.69)
Sony Optiarc AD-5240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£15.64) £17.99
(£15.64)
Sub Total : £531.23
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £81.45
Total : £624.43

Best i could do with i5, will run any game with great FPS :)
 
Plenty :D

One consideration for you, if you use a recent version of Photoshop CS4+ IIRC then it supports processing on an nVidia graphics card through CUDA. If you're really doing lots of complex stuff in PS, and less gaming then an nVidia card might be a better choice.

Stick with the ATI if the prime focus is gaming, or you're not really pushing PS- an i750 will still have plenty of power for PS on it's own.
 
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