When will I be able to do this upgrade...

mctrials23 · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:30

Right..

At the moment im on agp and this is my spec:

amd 64 3000+
shuttle sn95g5
74gb raptor
160gb sata
dvd rw
1gb ddr 400 tccd, runs at 265 fsb happily
6600gt
x-fi xtreme music

The question is, I want to upgrade but I am thinking that it might be best to wait for the new socket to come out before I do this. Am I right.

I'll have about £500 to spend on the upgrades when I eventually get round to it.

What should I do, wait or upgrade now. If I upgrade to PCI now then I could keep my processor because I have it running at 2.5 happily. Or if I wait for M2 or whatever its called I would upgrade CPU, Ram, mobo, gfx.

Whats going to be my best bet, oh and when is DX 10 and DX 10 compatible gfx cards going to be out.

Any feedback would be great

cheers

Naffa · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:35

With that budget you would need a new mobo, cpu and graphics as im assuming your on 754?

The only advantage that would come from waiting for the new batch of processors to be released is that current ones may fall in price a bit.

mctrials23 · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:38

nah im on 939

Naffa · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:39

oh ok. cool :cool:

just specced you this as an upgrade:

CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£169.95 £169.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.95 £15.95
MB-119-AS Asus A8N-VM CSM Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI Express Motherboard (MB-119-AS)
£49.95 £49.95
GX-121-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-121-SP)
£159.95 £159.95
Subtotal £395.80
VAT £69.27
Total £465.07

but i should be able to do better now :cool:

Naffa · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:43

CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£169.95 £169.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.95 £15.95
GX-018-BG BFG GeForce 7900 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-018-BG)
£209.95 £209.95
SY-008-ZA Zalman VF900-CU Quiet Copper VGA Cooler (SY-008-ZA)
£22.95 £22.95
Subtotal £418.80
VAT £73.29
Total £492.09

Right, here you have a 7900GT which with a simple vote mod can reach clocks of upto 700Mhz on the core :eek:

I'm pretty sure that would have been on water cooling though, but im sure you could expect something around 650Mhz.
The 3800 Dual Core is a nice clocking CPU should see 2.5-2.6Ghz easily and with it being dual core, nicely future proofed.

mctrials23 · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:46

cheers naffa, top stuff much appreciated.

Only prob is that the shuttle is a skt 939 agp.

If I upgrade to PCI then i need a new shuttle thats PCI or a new case, mobo and PSU.

Naffa · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:47

DOH

i forgot you were on AGP

Naffa · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:50

I have no idea about Micro ATX PSUs so i left a little in there for one. If it just needs a standard ATX PSU then it should be simple to add one in without going over budget.

CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£169.95 £169.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.95 £15.95
MB-119-AS Asus A8N-VM CSM Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI Express Motherboard (MB-119-AS)
£49.95 £49.95
GX-121-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-121-SP)
£159.95 £159.95
Subtotal £395.80
VAT £69.27
Total £465.07

Naffa · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:51

or alternatively you could stick with AGP and buy a 7800GS 512MB which is basically a 7800GT on AGP..

CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£169.95 £169.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.95 £15.95
GX-030-GW Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GT SILENT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP) - Retail (GX-030-GW)
£239.95 £239.95
Subtotal £425.85
VAT £74.53
Total £500.38

and hope your PSU is upto the challange.

mctrials23 · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:59

right well this is quite a complex prob so im going to make it a little easier.

ill say the budget is £400 for mobo, gfx, cpu and then £100 for the case and a PSU.

The shuttle takes a special type of mobo that isnt micro atx i think.

I only have a shuttle because i was in uni halls this year however im out of them now so it doesnt matter. Any size sace etc is fine.

does that help.

cheers for all the suggestions so far.

mctrials23 · 11 Apr 2006 at 10:25

ive just ordered a SN25P from the overclockers store.

Now there is just one thing i need to know for the moment.

I have an x-fi which i would like to keep. Can I use the X-fi and a dual slot cooler?

If not then im thinking I am limited to only a few top gfx cards. Am I right?