Upgrading my PC

syke

syke

syke

Soldato
Joined
18 Feb 2006
Posts
10,654
Hey im upgrading my PC from: AMD Athlon 2800+, 512mb Ram and 9800 Pro 128mb. I have around £600 to spend and need a Motherboard, Processor, RAM and a Graphics card. I want the graphics card to be good enough to play CoD 2 smoothly and also the other games that may arrive. Also i would like my whole pc to last around 2+ years.

Can you please help me to decide. So far ive come up with either AMD 64 3700 and 1GB PC 3200 Ram and a 7800 GT OC. Or a AMD 64 4000, 1GB PC3200 Ram and a 6800 GS (PCI-E).

Thanks for any of the help,

Regards

Adam
 
Welcome to the forums, I'm making the assumption here that you will need a new PSU as your PC is getting on a bit and unless you have a good PSU it probably needs an upgrade. If you don't need a new PSU because you have a good one then you could get an X1800XT into the budget.

MB-120-AS Asus A8N5X nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-120-AS)
£51.95 £51.95
CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
£134.95 £134.95
MY-006-OK OcUK Value 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (MY-006-OK)
£89.95 £89.95
GX-042-HT HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-042-HT)
£179.95 £179.95
CA-030-AN Antec TruePower 2.0 430W PSU (CA-030-AN)
£44.95 £44.95
Subtotal £501.75
VAT £87.81
Total £589.56
 
Thanks.

At the moment i have erm.. i think a 450W Q-Tec or something. Also ive been told NVidea is the way to go nowdays? the 7800 GT's? Im also thinking whether i want a higher CPU and a lower graphics card. Or am i thinking the wrong way? Im also thinking about a new monitor..but maybe later. At the moment i have a 15" TFT (which is good..as its close to my face).

Thanks for any replies.
 
I'd replace the PSU then, unless it is a quality PSU then I think it better to replace it and be surer of it being adequate to power your system.

Nvidia do make good cards although at the high end the ATI X1900XTX is the card to get, cheaper and more powerful than Nvidia's offerings. In the more midrange 7800gt and X1800XL both are about on a par, I happen to think that the X1800XL may perform slightly better and gives a better chance for overclocking plus it has a good cooler but you can't lose with either card :)

You can always try overclocking your CPU, I don't think the price jump between a 3700 and 4000 is worth it but it will depend what you do with your PC mostly.
 
I dont want to take the risk of OC'ing it. (Never Tried any OC'ing) :(

edit:

I play Games and use it for Graphics Design mostly. Want to play CoD 2 and all the newer games that might appear.
 
Last edited:
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
158.57
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
72.79
OcUK Value 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (MY-006-OK)
105.69
OcUK GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-032-OK)
211.44
Enermax Liberty 400W ELT400AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-026-EN)
52.82

Total inc VAT £601.31

OR

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
158.57
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
72.79
OcUK Value 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (MY-006-OK)
105.69
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-042-HT)
211.44
Enermax Liberty 400W ELT400AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-026-EN)
52.82

Total inc VAT £601.31

I would choose the second one with the x1800. If you raise another £25, you can have the GeIL value kit which I think is slightly better ram.
 
Ive found a bundle of the 3700 for £292. Its the 3700 processor. 1GB PC3200 Corsair Value Ram and then a EPoX Motherboard. But, i dont know whether i want to do that or not. The only reason i was thinking of doing this is because the X1800XT is £306 and i can JUST about afford that. If i use this bundle...
 
Syk3 said:
Ive found a bundle of the 3700 for £292. Its the 3700 processor. 1GB PC3200 Corsair Value Ram and then a EPoX Motherboard. But, i dont know whether i want to do that or not. The only reason i was thinking of doing this is because the X1800XT is £306 and i can JUST about afford that. If i use this bundle...
Click to expand...

You'll be better off with one of the 2GB ram specs above, especially as you want it to last 2+ years. And dont take them above specs for granted, they will play COD2 very well like you want. :)
 
Well is there much difference between the 1800XL and the XT? What would you say is the best for the money around £200? For around 2+ years.
 
Syk3 said:
Well is there much difference between the 1800XL and the XT? What would you say is the best for the money around £200? For around 2+ years.
Click to expand...

The XT has faster clocks and also boasts 512mb ram. It will make a slight difference, but it depends on what resolution you play your games. If 1024 x 768 the difference will be negligible.

Either way, here is the XT spec:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3200BPBOX) (CP-118-AM)
117.44
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
72.79
OcUK Value 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (MY-006-OK)
105.69
Enermax Liberty 400W ELT400AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-026-EN)
52.82
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
276.07

Total inc VAT: £624.81

Again, I would take the x1800xl spec in my other post.
 
The GT is better then the XL in benchies i've seen.

I'd go with what was posted a little above this. The GT version not the XL ;)

Also, Q-Tec psu's are cheap & tacky. Never use one in a system you care about or you could lose everything!
 
haha :D could i get a cheaper motherboard? or is that a good motherboard? because £600 is getting slightly high ;).
 
Syk3 said:
Oh ok :D Erm, what do you guys think? 7800 GT or X1800 XL? Or even another card? :)
Click to expand...
the 7800GT performs better at stock, not by much but it is noticable. but the X1800XL is the better buy in this case for two reasons. with a slight overclock they will be on par, and if you overclock further then it will outperform the GT without much hassle. and it also has a bigger feature set such as AVIVO which you may want. i personally use nvidia, i just know where i am with them.. and would go for the 7800 but i must admin that the X1800XL is the better buy.
 
Well I spec'd £600 as you said in your first post :)

Yup, you can pickup a cheaper mobo, the possibilities are endless. :D I'm not very clued up with the £50 mobo's, but this looks ok:

Gigabyte K8NMF-9 nForce4 Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-041-GI) £49.29

The Asrock is supposed to be good too, but OcUK don't have it.
 
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