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Upgrade Advice



ViolentJ

ViolentJ

  Not a Clio
I have a bit of money to spare at the moment (which is rare lol) and I'm thinking about an upgrade.

Not having upgraded for a few years has left me out of the loop a bit, so I'm after some advice.

I have about £350 give or take, although I want to spend as little as possible and would need:

Motherboard
CPU + cooling
Memory (At least 1 Gig, preferably 2)
Graphics Card (Nvidia only)

I don't need a high spec for the OS as I use Linux and I'm not a huge gamer but I do want to be able to run UT2007 with as many settings as possible on high when it's released.

I currently have an Athlon (XP) 3000+ overclocked to 3200+, 1Gig PC3200 and a Geforce 6800 128MB.
 
seb

seb

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio trophy
i found microdirect quite good for prices si.

i have a amd 4600 iirc.

amd all the way for the budget issues.

i have a 8800 so i blew my load on that but i am sure you can get many decent cards within your budgets, like you said, you don't need an uber spec graphics card since you don't really play many games.

my dual core seems to work very wuickly. but i was runnig an old skool 1.4 amd thunderbird before lol (s**t is not the word...)
 
ViolentJ

ViolentJ

  Not a Clio
Just taking a look at microdirect now Seb, cheers.

Looking at the price of SATA drives, I'd probably replace my 2 ageing drives with one SATA as well.
 
seb

seb

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio trophy
agree with a) indeed. always got time on yourside with upgrades.
 
GazCB

GazCB

  BMW Z4 3.0i
www.ebuyer.co.uk

I used to get all my stuff from microdirect as I lived in Manchester so liked to know I could physically walk into the shop. But I've got the last few things from ebuyer because at their prices, I couldn't afford not to! :)
 
seb

seb

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio trophy
i think the problem is the budget requirements. a dx10 card will be out of budget?
 
AhmedRSi

AhmedRSi

  ?
Sell what you currently have on ebay, and youll have up to another 200 quid. (if you split)... the old barton chips seem to go for a lot on there. then with a budget of 550, your laughing...
 
seb

seb

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio trophy
i spent 550 on my pc. (thesloth) thread is in tech somewehre si. got a nice pspec for the price, but my budget was pushed to £550 due to the 8800.

maybe an idea selling the old rig?
 
Last edited:
seb

seb

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio trophy
lol yeah i type like some sort of gimp... the spell checker sorts it at work for me ;)

i will try harder :D
 
AhmedRSi

AhmedRSi

  ?
A rough idea of prices for you...you should be looking for a system simular to this...

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300/E6320 - £100-110
Socket 775 Motherboard - £50-70
GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB - £160-200
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 (or simular 2gb kit) - £50-60

That makes a total of £360-420.

Just a rough idea of what you can get for that money.
 
ViolentJ

ViolentJ

  Not a Clio
ok, this is what I've come up with so far:

Abit KN9, Nvidia NF4 Ultra, Skt AM2, 2000FSB, PCI-E, SATA 3G RAID, 8ch Audio, GB LAN, USB2, ATX Motherboard @ £44.06

2x ELIXIR 1024MB DDR2 800 PC6400 @ £51.68

AMD CPU AM2 Athlon 64 Dual Core 5600 Retail Box inc Fan Socket AM2, 940 PIN (3yr Manufacturer's Warranty) @ £116.31

XpertVision GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR3, PCI-E @ £79.43

Total = £291.48
 
ViolentJ

ViolentJ

  Not a Clio
What kind of power do you think I would need for the above + hard drive, DVD RW + sound card?

Is it worth forking out a few extra quid for an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 instead of the AMD?

Edit: Just done the CPU comparison on Toms Hardware, using Ut2004 as a benchmaek, which I play a lot and there's virtually nothing in it. E6600 got 114 and X2 got 112
 
Last edited:
seb

seb

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio trophy
i dunno re the power thing... i imagine a 500w PSU would suffice?

Yeha the difference between performance of amd and intel is marginal, but the costs however ... ;)
 
AhmedRSi

AhmedRSi

  ?
ViolentJ said:
ok, this is what I've come up with so far:

Abit KN9, Nvidia NF4 Ultra, Skt AM2, 2000FSB, PCI-E, SATA 3G RAID, 8ch Audio, GB LAN, USB2, ATX Motherboard @ £44.06

2x ELIXIR 1024MB DDR2 800 PC6400 @ £51.68

AMD CPU AM2 Athlon 64 Dual Core 5600 Retail Box inc Fan Socket AM2, 940 PIN (3yr Manufacturer's Warranty) @ £116.31

Go for Intel. A c2duo (e6300/whatever) will give u much more bang for buck, expecially when overclocked.

XpertVision GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR3, PCI-E @ £79.43

Well thats dx10 anyway?

Total = £291.48
Click to expand...
 
AhmedRSi

AhmedRSi

  ?
ViolentJ said:
What kind of power do you think I would need for the above + hard drive, DVD RW + sound card?

Is it worth forking out a few extra quid for an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 instead of the AMD?

Edit: Just done the CPU comparison on Toms Hardware, using Ut2004 as a benchmaek, which I play a lot and there's virtually nothing in it. E6600 got 114 and X2 got 112
Click to expand...

I wouldnt go by toms hardware. There benchmarks have been known for there innacuracy. Also, the E6600 will be miles better once overclocked, as im sure the E6300 would be! I use to be an amd fanboy but once core2duos came out i said "f**k em!"

For power, 500w (but a DECENT one)
 
ViolentJ

ViolentJ

  Not a Clio
OK, opinions on this lot please!

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+ 2.80GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail

MSI K9N Neo-F nForce 550 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM

OcUK GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
 
Daz

Daz

^^ Still no Intel C2D. :rasp:
For what you want to do with it, I think C2D is the way to go.. personally.. :)
 
ViolentJ

ViolentJ

  Not a Clio
It's all about balancing the figures though, the above inc shipping + vat is about £360 give or take. If I go down the E6600 route then it's £415 give or take.

I only wanted to spend £350 ish.

I'll have to have a think!
 
AhmedRSi

AhmedRSi

  ?
ViolentJ said:
It's all about balancing the figures though, the above inc shipping + vat is about £360 give or take. If I go down the E6600 route then it's £415 give or take.

I only wanted to spend £350 ish.

I'll have to have a think!
Click to expand...

Then go for a e6300?
 
ViolentJ

ViolentJ

  Not a Clio
Done some research and apparently anyone buying the Nvidia 8600GT and wanting to do gaming needs their head looking at. The guys on overclockers recommend either the 7600GT or jump to the 8800 range.

The 8800 bumps the price up to far for me and I doubt I'll be playing anything that would need such a powerful card.
 
AhmedRSi

AhmedRSi

  ?
ViolentJ said:
Done some research and apparently anyone buying the Nvidia 8600GT and wanting to do gaming needs their head looking at. The guys on overclockers recommend either the 7600GT or jump to the 8800 range.

The 8800 bumps the price up to far for me and I doubt I'll be playing anything that would need such a powerful card.
Click to expand...

7600gt?! NO THANKS! its like the current 6800 i have, there performance is the same, and i cant wait to upgrade!

And the intel e6300 and amd comparison is at STOCK, once overclocked. the 6300 will fly past the amd!!!

Anyone wanting to play games on linux needs there head examined ;)

But hey, dont believe me... post on futuremark.com forums, theyll soon set you straight!
 
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