Upgrading - Views welcome

Xbandito

Xbandito

Xbandito

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Joined
18 Feb 2008
Posts
33
Hi Guys (an Gals), Another "lurker" here asking about some advice on an upgrade I am planning to do in the next week or two.
At the moment I have a "failing" Asus A8N-E mobo with a AMD 64 4200 dual core, 2 GB (4x512mb) Geil pc3200 and a Sapphire HD 2600xt (was looking to add a 2cnd one to it but they have gone):( .

Now I have sitting in my basket at OC -:
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX x2 = 4GB
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00GHz (Socket AM2) - OEM
Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 AMD 790FX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2
Zalman CNPS8700-NT CPU Cooler
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

(and a Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter) for the hell of it :D

Now being a somewhat of an old'ish man with a tiny ammount of pc know how, will this set up be ok ?.

I was hoping to add an extra HD 2600xt to it but alas it seems as if OC have stopped selling them:(
 
Just my thoughts, but if I was buying a new CPU, motherboard and RAM, I certainly wouldn't buy a AMD x2. Surely you'd be better with a core 2 duo of some description. Just my thoughts though, I could be wrong.
 
I think the first place we start is budget, do you have one set? The second, almost as important is usage, is this just an internet/office pc or will you be playing series games and/or doing lots of video editing?
 
@bigred - I hate intel, always have ever since I got a packard bell 286. I have always had AMD since then and that equals a lot of cpu's and not one of them has let me down.
@Ginger - Yup, I have a budget of £350 could stretch it a bit but I dont really want to (missus would kill me). It's mainly for photo editing and strategy games (as I am one of the poor gamers who cannot play FP games because of motion sickness).
 
Hi xbandito

I have bought a few athlons etc in the past, then went over to intels was on a 3.4ghz duo not dual core whilst playing strategy games ie mainly TAsprings like c&c, it lagged whilst so far into game, now since upgrading to a core duo mine is the intel E8500 I suffer no lag and hear people whilst in game complaining off it :-)
AMD is a no winner look at amd vs intel benchmarks to see.
 
I was hoping to add an extra HD 2600xt to it but alas it seems as if OC have stopped selling them....

but look online auction site:-) u know the one eb! lots up for sale one at 4 hours to go
 
maybe have a look at the following if you want amd, leaves a fair bit under £350 to add a cooler if required.

AMD Phenom Quad Core 9500 (Socket AM2) - Retail £109.99 (£129.24)

Asus M3A AMD 770 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £54.99
(£64.61)

G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ) £51.99 (£61.09)

Sub Total : £216.97
Shipping : £8.25
VAT : £39.41
Total : £264.63
 
Xbandito said:
@Bigred - I hate intel, always have ever since I got a packard bell 286. I have always had AMD since then and that equals a lot of cpu's and not one of them has let me down.
@Ginger - Yup, I have a budget of £350 could stretch it a bit but I dont really want to (missus would kill me). It's mainly for photo editing and strategy games (as I am one of the poor gamers who cannot play FP games because of motion sickness).
Click to expand...

That was probably due to Packard Bells setup not Intels fault. If you want bang for buck today then the only way to go is Intel. I used to build AMD rigs right up to the Intel Core2Duo's launch. They are much better than anything AMD has to offer at the moment.

Personally, if i was in your place at the moment, i would buy this lot:-

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Leadtek GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £124.99 (£146.86)

Coolermaster Hyper TX 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £6.99 (£8.21)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £45.99
(£54.04)

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £44.99 (£52.86)

OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £22.99 (£27.01)

Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99 (£16.44)

Sub Total : £259.94
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 : £47.06
Total : £315.95


A quick overclock on that E2180 will easily see it running at 3Ghz with that motherboard and that cooler is almost as good as the Freezer 7 Pro but half the price. This way you get a 512Mb 8800GT as well and still comes in under budget. This rig would hammer the AMD rig in your basket even if the AMD rig was overclocked.

The 2600XT has been superseeded by the better 3650 now.
 
Ok, Ok, you may have persuaded me to go intel.....thought of this lot -:

Asus P5KC Combo Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 x2
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.66GHz (1333FSB) - Retail
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) = £321

leaving me enough for another 2600xt from EBay ;)
 
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I think it's a good call, I never understood the irrational "i hate intel/AMD" logic, they both make decent processors so just buy what's fastest at the time and right now thats intel. What's the problem?
 
would go for that mobo, ip35pro ocuk or abit versions are both good. My abit ip35pro does 500fsb with my e6420 and I've just ordered up an e8200 which I'm aiming for 4gig with.
 
siege2 said:
ps will I be seeing U on TAspring playing..
Click to expand...

Hmm now come on, my brain cells are fast dissapearing, whats TAspring when its at home ??:confused:
If its what I just googled http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4256642040867983612
Then I doubt it, more into world in conflict, medieval total war 2, company of heroes etc


@Viper - I dont think I will be doing any overclocking, I more than likely to fry the damm thing and that means more cash, which equals me being cremated rather quickly by the missus ;)
 
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