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PC Upgrading advice needed please - Long post sorry.



Michael172

Michael172

  Shed.
Right im currently stuck on socket 939 (AMD 64), so if im to upgrade, its a case of upgrading the cpu, the ram, the motherboard and also the psu.

I REALLY dont wanna spend shitloads although in a way i know im guna have to. Below is what i currently have - and what im looking at. I also have a Geforce 7900GTX. It's spec is okay although it's on it's way out, and for money sake i want to keep it untill i can afford an upgrade again (even if i do create a bottle neck within the system)





IM REALLY after some advice as to what motherboard i should go for, dont want to spend a fortune, not fussed about sound either as ive got a Sound card to cover it. Must be a reliable motherboard with a a decent spec.

What ive got:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2Ghz 512kb)
ASUS A8N32 SLI deluxe
2GB Corsair XMS Platinum (184pin ffs)
520Watt corsair PSU
XFX Geforce 7900GTX 512mb/675mhz clock.



What im looking at-

Intel Core2Duo E8600 3.33GHz (which ocuk have modified to suposedly run at 4GHz)
ASUS Rampage Formula Intel X48 (DDR2 im afraid)
Corsair XMS2 Dominator 1066mhz

Comes to just under £590

I know full well my 520watt psu will struggle with that but i might risk running it with that for a while until i can afford a new psu.





Would you get something different ?. Theres no way in hell ill spend loads of money btw.
 
Gavin.

Gavin.

ClioSport Club Member
I've been building pc's for years mate and tbh even i would buy one ready built now! They have gone that cheap, you will get one at that spec with a flat screen for less than £590
 
David

David

  BMW e46 320 Ci Sport
forget the dual core, quad core and overclock is best imo. q6600 @ 3.2 FTW

motherboard and ram are both good but if you're on a budget you can get a lot cheaper items which will do v similar things.

i'm selling an EVGA 680i Sli mobo which will take ddr2 and c2d chipsets no problem, pm if you're intereted, will certainly be cheaper than an x48. Anyway even if you're not, again you can get a cheaper board which will function perfectly, abit pro x38 chip for example, ram wise, you can prob get away with some OCZ stuff which will again save you money and of course leave the gcard until you can afford it.

For example. overclockers do exactly what i've suggested... here... for £297...that includes an aftermarket cooler and an overclocking guide!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-101-OK&groupid=701&catid=339&subcat=&name=**%20Overclocked%20Bundle%20**%20Abit%20IP35%20Pro%20XE%20Motherboard%20/%20Intel%20Q6600%20Quad%20Core%20@%203.20Ghz%20/%202GB%20(2x1GB)%20OCZ%20PC-8500%20RAM%20/%20Freezer%207%20Pro%20CPU%20Cooler
 
Michael172

Michael172

  Shed.
Would it be worth buying that bundle???, tbh i would never have touched abit. If it's stable and all then it seems like a good idea, im not overly fussed about quad core tbh, but it's certainly cheaper than what ive got lined up. Ive always had an asus motherboard and corsair ram. Reviews are very good.


I guess itd be a good point for upgrading though, i could switch back to a processor with a bit more umph than 3.3 like that 4ghz i had my eye on. Although tbh i think 3.3 would suffice especially if i could wring a little extra from it, there are claims for 4ghz but i doubt thatd be true.


Youve really tempted me with that David!!!!


Thanks for the help and info, much apreciated keep it coming :)
 
David

David

  BMW e46 320 Ci Sport
i never used to like abit, used to go through their motherboards all the time, back in the days of pentium 4.... but overclockers ship em out daily and i've been running 3 of them all very well. no problems, easy to clock and nice and quiet. don't get too bogged down on the ghz speeds mate, quad core 3.2ghz is rapid as you like and at the end of the day...why wouldn't you have 4 cores instead of 2?! if you do video editing of any description i can't recommend them enough.

imo corsair stuff is good but pverproiced, the OCZ Sli Ram is brilliant and works very well...the geil black dragon stuff is also fantastic.

4ghz claims are true but bit pointless in some ways for the amount extra your paying, i'd stick with a proven chipset known for rivaliing the £1000 counterpart quad core...mine for example, runs 3.2ghz on all 4 cores averageing 30degress idle, up to around 45 on load which is pretty awesome.

the gcard will onyl bottleneck it when using graphics...i.e. games otherwise windows will run dandy. if you want sli then you'll need a nvidia board mind you.

your 'naff psu' will work fine also, but as soon as you get a new gcard, you can forget it, thats what i think anyway. just make sure it's got atx 12v etc etc.
 
Michael172

Michael172

  Shed.
yeah it has. Rioght then ill go for that then :), ill upgrade my psu at some point after ive bought that and then look into a new graphics card from there although i dont see it happening quickly.

Onto gpu's, dont think theres much point in me asking now as gcards move faster than an F1 car, but would a 9800GT do well? I only really play games on the PC if its a good fps like. The 9800's seem damm cheap too. or would it be worth holding out for a 280GTX like this one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp... GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail



ive read that the cpu's these days are more than enough to run games anyways. Its gcards that are holding them back.
 
David

David

  BMW e46 320 Ci Sport
imo ati 4870 are the weps of choice atm, best thing to do is check tomshardware.com when you're thinking of upgrading and it'll show you benchmarks for all the top cards.
 
Michael172

Michael172

  Shed.
righto ill check it out.

Thanks for the info.

Ill get that bundle although i probably wont overclock untill i get rid of the 7900.
 
Michael172

Michael172

  Shed.
Right ive not come to a desicion, simply becaise i dont want to spend this much on a PC as i onyl use it for general use, not much of a gamer anymore although i do play games now and again.

So ive lowerd it all a little bit. I want to upgrade because its s**t slow lol, general day to day use is causing me to have a herneia. I formatted it today and i pushed my cpu from 2.2Ghz to 2.55, could go higher but im not in the mood at the moment.

Spec is As follows:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ @2.55GHZ 512kb L2 Cache
Corsair XMS Platinum 2GB DDR2 400
XFX 7900GTX 675mhz/somehitng crap
520Watt PSU


So ive settled on:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-038-OK&groupid=701&catid=339&subcat=944&name=Intel%20Core%202%20Quad%20LGA775%20Q6600%202.40GHz%20Retail%20/%20Asus%20P5Q%20/%202GB%20Corsair%20PC2-6400C4%20DDR2%20Dual%20Channel%20Kit%20-%20Bundle

People have said they can pull 3GHz from the Q6600 easily, ill leave it as it is for the time being and get into it a little deeper eventually if i get this.


And as a GPU, somehting cheap, but i might have it in SLI eventually, the XFX 8800GT, this will be my fourth XFX card:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-103-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1008&name=XFX%20GeForce%208800%20GT%20Alpha%20Dog%20512MB%20GDDR3%20HDTV/Dual%20DVI%20(PCI-Express)%20-%20Retail%20(PV-T88P-YDF4)

So £360ish all together.





But which first ?
 
The Hoff

The Hoff

  SLK 350
Skimping on the PSU IMO is a bad idea, you can get a decent Crucial/Tagan/Antec/Enermax for sub £70.

A sh1theap OEM/Qtec is likely to have sweet FA protection on it's rails for if it goes bang...kiss goodbye to your whole PC.

Just my anal nature, but never would I skimp on a PSU.
 
M

Munson

The Hoff said:
Just my anal nature, but never would I skimp on a PSU.
Click to expand...

+1000

The PSU can be seen as the engine. You don't buy a nice car with a s**t engine. Best case scenario if it struggles, will be crashes and all sorts of instability. Worst case as The Hoff points out, although unlikely IMO, is that it'll take out the rest of your kit when it goes puff.

Saying that, you might be fine, but me personally, if I was doing a fresh build I'd install a decent, but not OTT power supply at the same time. Never underestimate its importance :)
 
David

David

  BMW e46 320 Ci Sport
They're right i bought a 650w corsair psu which was great but i need 850w+ now ...wish i had just got 1000w when i had the chance before...will lose money this time..
 
David

David

  BMW e46 320 Ci Sport
i'm getting a 4870x2

i ahve 4hdd x1 dvd drive a sound card and around 4 fans...according to OC technicians i should be looking at 850w plus....sounds about right yes?
 
Mike_182

Mike_182

  Better than yours. C*nt.
Balls, that's rubbish. I run all my system (Quad, 4 sticks of RAM, 8800GTX, all clocked to hell and back, 8 HDDs and 2 ODDs, FDD, Sound Card, Vid Cap card, RAID card, huge numbers of fans, large pump, fan controller and VFD... Total consumption on power up is 490w, thrashing in a game using both arrays is 450w...

I'd still say go with a quality 1kw unit, but don't expect to need all of it... I used a 1kw unit on a full Skulltrail setup!
 
David

David

  BMW e46 320 Ci Sport
so in your opinion, do you think i'll need anymore than a 650w for the 4870x2? i'm only going to run one initally but i'm happy holding out on psu for a bit...
 
Michael172

Michael172

  Shed.
should be fine with the 6600, 2 sticks of ram and a motherboard ? and a 8800GT when i get one ?

For me 3GHZ would be fine, hell if i reach a basic 2.8 thats good, i really cant afford to be buying more than i can afford tbh lol. Im running a stable 2.64 GHz now on my 3500+
 
David

David

  BMW e46 320 Ci Sport
if i were you...i'd get an ip35 pro....easy to clock, quiet reliable, cheap. Pointless getting the above IMO
 
David

David

  BMW e46 320 Ci Sport
yeh it's pretty good. to be fair to you the one i had in mind, they don't sell anymore :/ not sure why. And the other ip35 boards seem to be as pricey as the 45's.

I thought you were getting a bundle ayway?
 
Michael172

Michael172

  Shed.
I was, but seeing as i can get cheaper i might as well. The less i can spend the better.

So im waiting for Mike to reply to me, im getting impatient though.
 
Michael172

Michael172

  Shed.
Right. Spent about £260 lol. Still got no GPU or PSU yes so im guna have to run my 7900GTX for the time being.

Ended up with a Q6600, 2GB OCZ 1066mhz ram (the nvidia SLI ram) and an EVGA 680i Motherboard. Ill see what ive got on monday to spend on a GPU.


Ill bump this thread tuesday-ish i rekon after ive had my bday and failed my semester 1 final ccna exam. Thanks to David for all the help, much apreciated :).
 
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