Yet another one of those 'Spec a System for me Threads!

OLD JUD · 13 Apr 2009 at 17:40

I'm well and truly out of touch with system building, so any help would be much appreciated folks.

I'm pondering on upgrading my system, it's mainly used for gaming and browsing the net, my budget is around £500, i obviously want as much 'Bang for my Buck' as possible, i want a system that will last a fair while before it needs upgrading again.

Something that has good overclock potential would be nice, but i don't want to mess with water cooling so it would have to be done 'On Air'

I will be keeping my XFX GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card and maybe get another at a later date so i can link them via SLI?..(I know i'll have to invest in a beefier PSU to run two cards)

So your advice please.

This is my present set up.........

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ Socket 939

Mobo - AsRock Model - 939NF6G-VSTA

Memory - 2 Gig OCZ DDR PC 4000

H/Drive - Western Digital 250 Gig SATA

Graphics Card - XFX GeForce 8800 GTX

DVD Burners - 2x Optiarc

Operating System - Vista Ultimate (32 Bit)

Akasa MIdi Case

Not sure of power supply Akasa 600 Watt maybe?

siumatfung · 13 Apr 2009 at 17:44

do you know the model of case you have? is it an eclipse or mirage?

gazfocus · 13 Apr 2009 at 17:47

I think your system looks pretty good. Do you really need a new one?

siumatfung · 13 Apr 2009 at 17:51

i have this so far

OLD JUD · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:01

siumatfung said:
do you know the model of case you have? is it an eclipse or mirage?

Hi mate, It's a ECLIPSE-62 CASE

gazfocus said:
I think your system looks pretty good. Do you really need a new one?

Really Gaz? Like i said i'm out of touch but got some spare cash knocking about....However, if my £500 won't make a significant difference then it stays in my pocket!

siumatfung said:
i have this so far

I don't really need a hard drive upgrade, and i guess the PSU is fine unless i go for two graphics cards, so in reality i just need the following........

CPU/Mobo/Memory.......Unless you guys know better (And no doubt you do!)

Kenai · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:07

Bear in mind if you want to go two graphics cards with SLI and using Core 2 you need to get an nVidia chipset, the Intel chipset boards only support Crossfire. These are generally more expensive.

I'd ignore the TriCore AMDs, from what i've seen they often struggle to outperform dual core AMD offerings and where they do are still trounced by quad offerings from both parties. They aimed for the best of both worlds but ended up achieving neither.

If you just need CPU/Mobo/RAM you might want to consider Core i7.

gazfocus · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:11

Well I'm currently using a P4 2.4GHz so your system is far better than mine lol.

OLD JUD · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:15

Kenai said:
Bear in mind if you want to go two graphics cards with SLI and using Core 2 you need to get an nVidia chipset, the Intel chipset boards only support Crossfire. These are generally more expensive.

I'd ignore the TriCore AMDs, from what i've seen they often struggle to outperform dual core AMD offerings and where they do are still trounced by quad offerings from both parties. They aimed for the best of both worlds but ended up achieving neither.

If you just need CPU/Mobo/RAM you might want to consider Core i7.

Thanks for that, so would i be able to use a second graphics card with the bundle you've linked to me?

Kenai · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:18

As far as I know yes, the X58 Intel chipset supports SLI and Crossfire so you can use dual cards whether an nVidia or ATi setup.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong though.

siumatfung · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:19

yeh i was just checking but your case is a very nice case so its worth keepin and i think kenai has the right idea about just goin strate to i7 but the AMD phenom ll X4 is also worth considering aswell

mame · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:20

I think you are making a wise decision in keeping you 8800GTX for now while you upgrade everything else, You would want a minimum of a 4870 for a worthwhile upgrade and it probably wouldn't blow you away. I doubt anything you can't play now would suddenly play flawlesly on a 4870. However, I wouldn't bother with SLi. Wait untill a new generation of cards come out that makes a £150 card a big upgrade.

siumatfung · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:20

Kenai said:
As far as I know yes, the X58 Intel chipset supports SLI and Crossfire so you can use dual cards whether an nVidia or ATi setup.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong though.

its dependant on the motherboard manufacture and which board your buy off them some are both but some do not support SLi so be careful which board you choose

RJC · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:22

Kenai said:
As far as I know yes, the X58 Intel chipset supports SLI and Crossfire so you can use dual cards whether an nVidia or ATi setup.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong though.

Yep, your correct, but some lower end boards only support crossfire, The Asus to name one.

Gigabyte have launch a new BIOS for the UD3R to support both.

OLD JUD · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:34

siumatfung said:
yeh i was just checking but your case is a very nice case so its worth keepin and i think kenai has the right idea about just goin strate to i7 but the AMD phenom ll X4 is also worth considering aswell

Decisions Decisions!........What do i do for the best? :confused:

gazfocus said:
Well I'm currently using a P4 2.4GHz so your system is far better than mine lol.

I'm surprised at that Gaz!

And thanks to you other guys for advice, i'm just need some more help to decide.

As an afterthought what do guys think i could sell my present CPU/Mobo/Ram for?

Kenai · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:41

Socket 939 dual cores go for mind bogglingly silly money on eBay, you could probably shift that alone for £50-£70.

siumatfung · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:43

between 50-70 tbh things move on so quick you wont get much

edit:didnt know ppl flog em on ebay tho

Kenai · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:46

There are a lot of people, oddly, desperate it would seem for S939 dual core chips.

I thought a few months ago 'ooh, i could probably stick a dual core in this PC now for like £20' but seemingly not.

Quick look on eBay shows a 4200+ for £80, 3800+ for £65, 4800+ for £100...

OLD JUD · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:46

Kenai said:
Socket 939 dual cores go for mind bogglingly silly money on eBay, you could probably shift that alone for £50-£70.

siumatfung said:
between 50-70 tbh things move on so quick you wont get much

edit:didnt know ppl flog em on ebay tho

Cheers guys, i'm surprised the parts would go for that amount, i really expected you chaps to advise me to bin them.

BTW, i've just seen a photo of an ECLIPSE-62 case on a website, mine has an additional fan on the side panel, so i'll assume it's either a different model or an optional extra.

siumatfung · 13 Apr 2009 at 18:50

you can just buy the side panel yeh its kinda an option extra