Will this do the job?

Ysmalari

Ysmalari

Ysmalari

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Ok, this is my first post and I've been out of the upgrade loop for a while so here goes...
I'm about to order a whole new system at a reasonable budget (I'll be using it for gaming and music recording and mixing) and after reading reviews for hours on the net I've come up with the following choices:

AMD Athlon 64x2 5200+
DFI Infinity nF UltraII-M2/G (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (need the PCI slots!)
Sapphire X1950XT 256MB
Corsair 1GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x512MB)

I already have an M-Audio 10in/out PCI sound card and two 120GB standard SATA drives.
Just for info I'll be running this on a 19" widescreen LCD.

Any comments, suggestions or hints are warmly welcomed.
:)

P.S. For the moment at least I won't be overclocking but time will tell...
 
AMD really isnt advisable. But if you really do want to, change it to the 5000+ and also try and get 2gb of ram which is pretty much essential for smooth gaming on the latest games.
 
What's wrong with AMD? Last time I did an upgrade (admittedly about two and a half years ago) they were much better value and faster than Intel, has this now changed?
 
Yes, AMD were much better for like 3 maybe 4 years, but recently intel has gone back on top with there C2D proccessors.

But good choice on the graphics card though as thats pretty much the best 100-200£ card currently avaiblable.
 
Al Fearnley said:
What's wrong with AMD? Last time I did an upgrade (admittedly about two and a half years ago) they were much better value and faster than Intel, has this now changed?
Click to expand...


Yep, completely opposite now :)

Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £74.99
(£88.11) £74.99
(£88.11)
Scythe Infinity Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 775, AM2, 754, 939, 940) Scythe Infinity Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 775, AM2, 754, 939, 940) £28.99
(£34.06) £28.99
(£34.06)
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1950 XT Extreme SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail PowerColor ATI Radeon X1950 XT Extreme SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £154.99
(£182.11) £154.99
(£182.11)
Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £126.99
(£149.21) £126.99
(£149.21)
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £124.99
(£146.86) £124.99
(£146.86)
Sub Total : £510.95
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 : £90.98
Total : £610.88

Cheaper and all round better :)
 
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For a little bit more you could get the E6600, other than that its a E6400 or E6300. But E6300 and E6600 are the ones to go for depending on budget imo.
 
tomanders91 said:
For a little bit more you could get the E6600, other than that its a E6400 or E6300. But E6300 and E6600 are the ones to go for depending on budget imo.
Click to expand...


The e6400 has the 8x multi which allows you to overclock it to 3.2ghz before the RAM is overclocked at all and it doesn't cost a huge amount more than the e6300. Fair enough the e6300 is the one to go for if you're spending £250+ on ram but in this case I don't think it is.
 
Thanks for the info so far guys but that leads me to the next question, the motherboard!
I'm intending to spend up to around £75 on this but won't have Gigabyte or Asus as both manufacturer's boards have fried components of mine in the past when they failed; what would you recommend?
 
the current gigabyte ds 3/4 boards are very good everyone loves them you wont go wrong with a ds3 for a ton, slightly over your £75 budget tho
 
Raikiri said:
The e6400 has the 8x multi which allows you to overclock it to 3.2ghz before the RAM is overclocked at all and it doesn't cost a huge amount more than the e6300. Fair enough the e6300 is the one to go for if you're spending £250+ on ram but in this case I don't think it is.
Click to expand...


You have to overclock the ram to overclock an E6300?
 
With PC6400 RAM you will be able to OC to FSB 400Mhz, which brings the E6300 upto 2.8Ghz, Anything above that will OC the RAM as well, unless of course the mobo has options to run a divider.

Yes 2Gb is a must, will help with music production, too, especially when the file is big.

If you don't like ASUS or Gigabyte there is the DFI 975X mobo available for just under £100.
 
tomanders91 said:
You have to overclock the ram to overclock an E6300?
Click to expand...


As steve has said.
I didn't say is was a nessecity, just that the 6400 will allow a good amount more overclocking than the 6300 for minimal outlay.
Once you factor in the cost for better ram they are about equal in overclocking terms and value wise.
You are also less likely to be limited by the motherboard with the 6400 and you should be able to use slightly lower voltages with them (picked for higher frequencies).

If you won't have the Asus or Gigabyte (best boards really at this price range) then the DFI Infinity or Abit AB9 is a good choice, both will be ok up to around 430-450 fsb.
 
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