What to upgrade???

Soldato
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What to upgrade??? Conroe, what MB and what RAM?

okay ill try and keep it brief.

Seeing as Conroe has been SUCH a big success i was thinking now is a good time to upgrade my current rig, so to make sure i get it right and its worth my while here is my current setup i built for the first time :D about a year ago.

x 1 - Intel Pentium 4 640 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.2GHz (800FSB) with HT
Technology
x 1 - Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI
(PCI-Express) -
x 2 - GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
x 1 - Abit AW8-MAX Intel 955X (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard

x 1 - Akasa Eclipse-62 Aluminum Case

x 1 - Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JS SATA-II 8MB
x 1 - Antec TruePower 2.0 430W PSU
x 1 - Zalman CNPS7700-CU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler -
x 1 - Panasonic SW-9584-CF 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter -
x 1 - Linksys WMP54G Wireless-G PCI Adapter
x 2 - Akasa AK-183-L2B Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3 pin

So what i was thinking was athe new conroe E6300? would that show a big diffrerence or do i need to spend more and get the E6600?

Obvvoulsy then i need a new motherboard? maybe a max spend of around £150 recommendations would be great!

And a GPU at or around £150, i dont play games on my PC to be honest.

Will i need a better/ more powerful PSU? was concern with that.

And i might like to change cases just to have a change and for vanity lol.

And help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!.
 
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Ahh yea would help.

I mostly work in Photoshop Creative suite, so between having Illustrator, PS and Bridge running, then a couple of file and wanting to prcess large filters for effects you get the idea.

Im not an expert, hence the questions, but i would imagine that would be mostly CPU intensive stuff, i didnt think much of the COnroe till i saw just how much of an improvment it was (mostly read from users on this site).

Also just add i have a few more HDD's but they are just for backups and stuff.
 
If you don't play games, then £150 would be a waste on a gfx card. I'd keep the one you have and go for better memory than you currently have, with an e6600 and a good motherboard. Not sure which is best mobo, as I'm still on the AMD side of the fence at the moment.
 
Thats what i wondered but i thought i better include it as i just dont know how much a GPU is reponsible for.

If it really is a games only thing then i dought i need to change ,i dont play ANY games on my PC to be honest.
 
The gfx card you have will handle anything you use easily. I'd make sure that you get at least 2gb of decent memory, as it will be the cpu and ram that make the most difference with what you use. I'd also look at the e6600 as it has the extra cache, and this may make a difference in the apps you use.
 
Okay so ill dump the GPU, that ggo do thear ill use it to invest on.

Better motherboard

Stronger CPU

Better RAM

Will my PSU be okay though? from what i have read shouldne the COnroe be using LESS power than the P series?
 
Ohh yes another stupid question.

I assume my current Zalaman cooler will be ok to use again? just its done such a great job i cant see the point of chaning it!.

Again i should ask, what Mobo ( Iread that Asus are pretty good for some OC'ing).

And what ram?

Sorry to be such a noob about it.
 
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