Milamber

iTrader: (2)

My current pc will need upgrading pretty soon as it is falling WAY below spec. Trouble is my mobo cannot support anything above an Athlon 2.4

My Current Spec is :

Athlon 1.8xp
768mb of DDR PC2100
Nvidia Ti4200 with 128mb ram (AGP 4x)
120gb HD
180gb HD
USB 1.0
PSU: cannot remember
Onboard sound card


What would you recommend to replace it? I would dearly love but cannot afford dual SLI gfx cards so will make do with just PCI express I guess.

Links would be great if possible.

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Budget?


M

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

I guess I could get a whole unit for about £500 from the large manufacturers so less than that ideally.

RichiW

You'll not get a very good gaming machine for that (presuming thats what its from as you mention SLi'd cards) ..infact, thats not much more that a top of the range gfx card!

I'd say for a half decent maching you'll be looking at about £800 if you want one for gaming.

lightning101

You would be playing with fire building a gaming machine with a budget of £500.

If you buy a decent processor and a decent PCI-Express Graphics card, you will then need a stable power supply with 24 pin connector and SATA/PCI-express connectors and a decent case with adequate cooling. Then an upgradable board - say the Asus SLi, then decent branded memory, a 300gb sata drive is the norm now as well, DVD writer etc etc.

Say £50 for a nice Thermaltake soprano case.
£70 for a decent 550w power supply
£100 for the motherboard
£250 for a dual core (entry level) processor 3800+
£250 - £350 for a decent Graphics card 7800GTX
£100 for memory
£30 for DVD writer
£70 for SATA HDD

£920

Although you could play 90% of all games with a 64 bit athlon 3500+, a single PCI-E motherboard and a £120 ATI Radeon x800 GTO2 clocked to an 850
And a case with built in cheapo PSU with 20 pins and joey the motherboard connector.

For About £600

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

Some great ideas there, thanks guys.

I don't need an out and out gaming machine and will be quite happy with a decent cpu. I have a 1.8 at the moment after all!

The same with the gfx card, it doesn't need to be a monster card as I can always upgrade that later. I think the key is getting the mobo right from the start and getting good but not brilliant ancillaries.

Maybe £600 is the proper budget.

I have more dvd writers than you can shove a stick at....

mattbeef

how about a trip to the light from the dark side and get a mac mini

ru'

For what it's worth I've just ordered lots of loverly stuff to bring my PC back in touch. I'll be keeping my PSU and drives, but ordered these new bits which I reckon to be a good match and have room for a bit of overclock'age on the long winter nights...

Athlon 64 3700 San Diego £150
Asus A8N-SLI Premium mobo £120
1Gb (2 x 512) Corsair TwinX-XL Ram £150
Gigabyte 7800GT Graphics £200

£635.10 including shipping from Scan.

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

What and give up on my daily virus threats, malware and reformats? Where else would I learn about pc's?

D16GER

Right, how about this......

Motherboard - Asus A8N SLi Deluxe - £111

Graphics Card - OcUk 7800GT - £205

Processor - Athlon 64 3200 Venice - £117

Power Supply - Tagan 2Force 580W - £73

Memory - 2 x 512mb G-Skill ZX PC3200 - £76

Use your existing hard drives, dvd drives and case etc.

ALL IN, EXCLUDING DELIVERY - £582

The 3200 Venice normaly overclock nicely to 2.5ghz and more. And when you feel flush, you can add another 7800GT or even a dual core Athlon X2.

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

Wonderful, the fact you got missed of the new year honours list is a crying shame. Thanks a lot for the research.

D16GER

You are very welcome

Hopefully it will aid your decision. And it should provide a system more than capable of running all the latest games.