View Full Version : Computer buff help required...
valleyboy
23-12-06, 10:14 AM
Right, Im bored of my current system... and I want to upgrade, now Im no longer a student and dont have student loans to build my computer with, I cannot afford to fork out £3000 building this system.... :lol:
I want to build myself a new computer.. not sure whether to go the Intel or AMD systems.. but rather one thats going to get me good performance, and not cost the earth to build!
so that means a slight lean towards the AMD side of things possibly... As £150 (ish) will get me a good processor and a good motherboard, whereas if I went Intel, that would get me just the CPU if I was lucky....
Whatever I build it has to be better than the following, and will probably use some bits of it as well...
XP3200
1Gb PC3200 RAM
9800Pro AGP graphics card
A7N8X-E motherboard
80Gb SATA HDD
and thats about the major bits of it....
I was thinking possibly this as teh CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Socket 939, ManchesterCore, 2x 2.2GHz, 1MB Cache, OEM
and whatever motherboard thats recommended around the £50 area....
I'll be looking at buying new DDR2 RAM (probably 1x 1Gb stick so I can go to dual channel with another stick later) and Im thinking of possibly a 7900GT graphics card ?
hard drive, I will use the one from above system... not sure if SATA 2 is worth buying a new hard drive yet... :lol:
anyone have any recommendations ?
cheers!
For starts I have to say that my PC is AMD 2800 and the rest the same as on urs apart from the HDD
I AM NOT UPGRADING IT!
Reason is that my housemate got a 64bit a couple of months ago.....we are both gamers and we both play the same games with no issues AT ALL
So unless you just fancy a new one or do something VERY demanding on yours I would keep the money or spend it on sthing else:)
my 2p
Scan (www.scan.co.uk) have some Foxconn 939's with the nforce 4 chipset for about the fifty quid mark. They're generally pretty good and in budget.
Just in the the process of upgrading myself but I'm going for a media centre so its all about SATA II storage and wildly overpriced cases :D
valleyboy
23-12-06, 02:08 PM
I play flight simulators... and not the type you just happily fly about in.. more the ones where you try and shoot down your opponent before getting shot down yourself... Im upgrading ready for a new release which I know will kill my system stone dead.... as its predecessor is CPU intensive as it is... :lol:
Scan is where I plan on buying me stuff from anyway.. unless Dabs comes out cheaper somewhere along the line...
cheers !
If you're selling your CPU or graphics card could you drop me a PM please? I need a new CPU and the missus could do with something a bit more powerful for running her games.
I can get quite good prices from www.MicroDirect.co.uk
mysteryjimbo
23-12-06, 05:09 PM
A cheap motherboard will be a false economy as will a socket 939. Go AM2 or possibly consider an Intel which gives a better bang per buck.
_drummer_
23-12-06, 05:16 PM
A cheap motherboard will be a false economy
:thumbsup: Whatever you do always throw as much as you can at a mobo.
Historically (ie I havent read up on recent comparisons) AMD out perform Intel when it comes to games, with Intel being better at multitasking. www.ebuyer.co.uk may be worth checking out
valleyboy
23-12-06, 05:43 PM
AMD AM2 Athlon 64 4600+ Windsor Core, Dual Core 2.4GHz, 2x 512KB Cache,
one of them processors ? As for Motherboard, something ASUS or other well known manufacturer I will probably lean towards...
Around £50 should get me a half decent motherboard, not looking for all the bells and whistles.... :lol:
valleyboy
23-12-06, 05:50 PM
I do have a question about SATA though.... will a SATA 2 Mobo take a SATA 1 Hard drive ? I would hope there would be some backwards compatibility..... but its not the end of the world I f I have to invest in yet another hard drive... :lol: I can leave that until much later, and probably get Vista along with it as OEM.... or upgrade..
mysteryjimbo
23-12-06, 05:54 PM
yes it will run SATA 1 (normally), the interface is identical. Its much the same as the AGP and UDMA progression of old.
A cheap motherboard isnt about bells and whistles. A cheap board will seriously impact on performance.
I'd consider a cheaper model from DFI.
I do have a question about SATA though.... will a SATA 2 Mobo take a SATA 1 Hard drive ?
Yeah, no problem. Worst case scenario is you might have to change some jumper settings.
valleyboy
23-12-06, 05:56 PM
I know what bad motherboards will do.. :lol: when I built my first PC, it had a VIA chipset which took a dislike to doing anything.... so changed that to somehting a bit more upmarket and put the same XP1800 chip into that, and you could tell the difference straight away....
edit: any recomendations on the Mobo's ? I dont need SLI... so no need to pay an arm and a leg to support that....
A cheap motherboard isnt about bells and whistles. A cheap board will seriously impact on performance.
It is a good point, if you have a budget set in stone it's worth making a compromise elsewhere and free up a bit more for the MB, £20-£30 more will make a big difference in what you can get. Think of it like those Southend boys that drop £15,000 on trick engines and rims and then put them on a Nova :shock:
fizzwheel
23-12-06, 06:04 PM
Well...
If that were me I'd be using the money to get my bike fixed properly and not spending it computer bits and pieces.. but hey its up to you isnt it :wink:
Otherwise I agree with mysteryjimbo, dont whatever you do scrimp on motherboard spec its a false economy. The other thing I would never scrimp on is Ram either, especially for a gaming machine.
valleyboy
23-12-06, 06:09 PM
Im probably going the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe mobo route now.. dont know how much it costs, but been reading up on some reviews.... and its come out rather well.. so will probably break that limit.. ;)
As for RAM, probably Corsair stuff... the RAM I have in this sucker here now cost me over £300 when it was new.... looking at 1Gb to start off with in 2x512 then at a later date, look to get another 2 sticks...
poop.. need to check the dates on these things, article is 5 months old... probably better things out there now.. anyone got a recomendation in the £80 ish area then ?
cheers!
You may well have seen these reviews (http://www.custompc.co.uk/) already, but lots of AMD64 MoBo's
valleyboy
23-12-06, 06:20 PM
cheers, will read up anyway.... :D
Ive not kept myself up to date on computer stuffs for a few years... use to be rather keen on the technology involved and read up on stuff... but then decided just to play on the damned PC instead... :lol:
p.s. Fizz, bike appears to be sorting itself out.... I have been potching with it, but its gradualy getting better..... going to get a new front tyre put on, and get new bearings put in front wheel, and thats the end of my potching... was talking to a GSXR750K6 rider today, hes an ex ZX-9R rider, and he recons the Suzuki has more engine braking than the Kwak did.. so who knows.. lol
valleyboy
23-12-06, 07:26 PM
Scratch the above mobo I was thinking of :shock: Ive seen its price... :lol:
this should suffice ?
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=471615
valleyboy
24-12-06, 02:56 PM
Scratch all the above... new plan, means buying a bit at a time :lol: but none of the parts will be cheap things...
an ASUS AM2 M2N32-SLI-Deluxe mobo... (it has an Nforce 590 chip, which Im lead to believe is the dady at teh moment for AMD chips)
And an AM2 64-5200 CPU
with 1Gb RAM (for now)
graphics card will probably be a 7950GT... if I dont have to run SLI, or 2 cheaper cards if I have to...
Filipe M.
24-12-06, 04:58 PM
Scratch all the above... new plan, means buying a bit at a time :lol: but none of the parts will be cheap things...
an ASUS AM2 M2N32-SLI-Deluxe mobo... (it has an Nforce 590 chip, which Im lead to believe is the dady at teh moment for AMD chips)
And an AM2 64-5200 CPU
with 1Gb RAM (for now)
graphics card will probably be a 7950GT... if I dont have to run SLI, or 2 cheaper cards if I have to...
My advice (take it as that)
Ditch the 5200+, at that price point you might as well go Intel Core2Duo, better bang for the buck in the top ranges. Get a lower clocked X2 and invest the rest in 2 GB of RAM (decent RAM, anything lower than Kingston / Corsair and you might find yourself up a smelly creek without a paddle).
If you're really into SLI, keep with the M2N32 (two real PCIE 16x lanes will be better than the 1x 16x / 2x 8x in the lower range nForce570Ultra). You won't need two 7950, IMHO two 7600GTs will be more than enough. If not, then a M2N with the nForce570 will suffice.
Oh, and get a SATA2 HD, with NCQ. 16 megs of cache would see you some benefit also, but you'll probably only find them over 250 GB. Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 or WesternDigital WDxx00KS.
My current config is a M2N-SLI Deluxe (570Ultra), Athlon x2 3800+, one XFX 7600GT, 1 GB of kingston RAM, Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 HD. It rocks.
edit: corrected the WD HD reference.
valleyboy
24-12-06, 07:29 PM
Would it be more benifficial to go to a Core 2 Duo ? I dont need an SLI setup.. though its always nice to have it there for future use... I plan on starting off with 1Gb of RAM, and then get another gig at a later date..
Ive always built AMD stuff.. so this Intel lark is all new to me.... :lol: I just want a heck of a powerful CPU, as the games I usualy play require CPU more than GPU horse power.... hard drives again, will try and use my current SATA until I can get a good SATA II drive.. though teh WD Raptors look the dogs dangly bits.. I aint paying £130+ for a 36Gb hard drive.. lol
cheers!
ethariel
24-12-06, 09:44 PM
Whatever you do, dont skimp on the Motherboard. Its the 2nd largest bottleneck you can land yourself with (the graphics card being the worst).
Have a look at www.aria.co.uk as well for prices, sometimes not the cheapest but I have been using them for over 6 years now and never had an issue (well 1 dead stick of RAM once, they sent a new one out which arrived the next day and just told me to bin the old one).
However tho I hate myself to say it (really it does hurt as I have been an AMD user for years) the Core 2 Duo currently spanks the hell out of the AMD.
However i would probably wait foir a month or 2 before upgrading at this time, Nista will be using DirectX10 which seems to be promising about a 500% and more performance increase over DirectX9.
Might be an idea to see how things pan out on Toms Hardware regards Vista and performance increases between current(ish) and new kit before comitting to a new system or even parts for a new one till then.
Colin
valleyboy
24-12-06, 10:17 PM
Thats the problem at the moment, Im a tad out of touch with whats what these days.... a lot of pople are saying that the Core 2 Duo is the way to go, but I keep on seeing the prices for the higher clocked chips.. :shock: So an E6400 or there abouts for a core 2 duo is about the price region Im willing to go for a CPU... again, I aint got a clue on the mobo's available for intel stuffs these days... :lol:
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