joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Going to be upgrading my PC soon.
Just a board/CPU/RAM upgrade as I've got all the rest.
Want something dual core. Any suggestions? Will need at least two IDE slots for one of my HDD and for an optical.
Budget of £150 for the board and CPU, can source the RAM separte if required.

Thanks

bob269

Dependent of how old your current system is you may need a new power supply as well.

Overclockers UK do bundles

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

PSU is a fairly new 450w one.
I'll check overclockers, but I've never really seen bundles on there, and I don't like the idea of buying the CPu separate to the mobo, its too confusing for me

EDIT: Just checked thier site, plenty of bundles. Only 2 in the price range.
Any other places to check?

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

could try

computer hardware, components, systems and peripherals at the lowest prices from IT supplier Aria Technology they sometimes have bundles

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK again sometimes they have bundles

Microdirect.co.uk is the UK leading retailer of quality computer components and electronics. cant remember if they do or not but worth a try

Depending on what you want long term, you could go for a pentium D dual core 805, this is only a 2.6 however it overclocks like a **** over 3.6ghz, these are cheap as well (less than £40 last time I looked), get a decentish motherboard and some corsair ddr2 ram (higher the speed the better) could get that for under £150 in total and have a decent system

john banks

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L iP31 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard - Ebuyer £45

Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 Socket 775 (2.66GHz) FSB1333 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor - Ebuyer £112

Stretching the budget by £7 on CPU/motherboard would get you an E8200 and this would be my favourite Dual core combo for £150 I think.

I recently bought an E8400 and it overclocks to 4GHz with a cheap air cooler (using P5K-E motherboard). The Gigabyte should do the required 450 MHz FSB to allow the E8200 to get to 3.6GHz from the reviews I have read.

Intel E2160 Socket 775 Pentium Dual Core 2x1.8Ghz 800FSB Retail Boxed Processor - Ebuyer is a cheaper CPU option - will prob overclock to 3GHz, but will be slower due to crippled cache.

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll check them links out.
The cheaper the better for me, as I'm not a gamer. My current pc is overclocked and its still only 1.53ghz.
I only really surf net and download, and convert divx files to DVD. And thats what slows it down, memory is maxed out at 2GB.
So based in that, the E2160 doesn't seem too bad to me. Will certainly be better then what I've got.

john banks

In that case, how about:

AMD 4000X2 DUAL CORE CPU, 2GB RAM, MOTHERBOARD BUNDLE on eBay, also With AMD CPU, Motherboard CPU Bundle, Desktop PC Components, Computing (end time 22-Mar-08 08:19:02 GMT)

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

ha ha. was just looking at that one on ebay.
would probably consider that one.
Not sure about the max 2GB ram though.

john banks

You prob realise that there is no point going over 3GB (awkward amount depending on the board) unless you use a 64 bit OS since the chipset uses most of the 4th GB with 32 bit memory addressing.

This time for upgrading I couldn't decide between getting the cheapest or decent mid range stuff. Previously I'd gone cheap. This time I really appreciate the performance and feature gains from spending a bit more on the components even though I know in a year the stuff I've bought will be the new cheap stuff.

By the time 64 bit OS are mainstream I suspect that DDR2 and the motherboards that run it will be obsolete, yet now DDR3 makes no sense on a budget system. Boards like the P5K-C that can run either won't run Nehalem.

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Didn't know about the 3gb thing. But I do have my PC's for a few years, so like to know that ram at least is upgradeable at some point. I probably won't upgrade it when 64 bit OS's are mainstream, so would still like something thatcan go up to at least 4gb.
I'm hard work, I know

john banks

I'd get something with a P35 chipset then [Intel] (P31 is a bit cheaper like on the Gigabyte board I linked to, but there are some memory limitations that might hold you back in future).

Re P35 chipset, I bought an Asus P5K for £70 from Ebuyer, but returned it for the P5K-E because I wanted RAID 0 on two internal drives, and the extra £20 also added Wi-Fi and better power supply for overclocking.

If you got the P5K and a £40 E2160, then you have future potential to add a 45nm Quad Core Penryn when they become more affordable in future, and could also go up to 8GB of RAM. I expect this will be my upgrade path when my 4GHz dual core gets tired

The memory architecture of the AMD boards is different with a memory controller on the CPU - worth looking into, don't know much about it, AMD seems poor at present except for bargain bundles.

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Went for this in the end:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ / Foxconn 6150M2MA-KRS2H Micro ATX / OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Kit

Got it today, will install tomorrow.
The heastsink has some adhesive on it. Is that thermal paste already on there?
Also, could I use the bouards floppy connector to add another IDE device rather than a floppy? It looks just like a normal IDE connection.

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

floppy connectors are different to the ide connectors, so no is your answer

Good luck with the build

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Cheers. Started it last night, and getting a BSOD right after the windows XP logo. It's too fast to see what it actually says.

I thought I'd be able to get away with not re-installing windows. There is obvioulsy something that the old OS doesn't like about the new hardware.

Any reccomendations about that, or have I got to bite the bullet and do a fresh OS install?

I should have paid more attention to the spec, as there is no AGP slot for my current graphics card

Ghetto Dude3

i have only managed to make a new system and not reinstall windows once, the rest of the time i have had to start from fresh.

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Oh well, I thought that might be the case.
Cheers

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

if its xp, then if there are I think 3 major hardware changes then you will need to do a fresh install. There is a hidden file that you can delete before hardware change, that will allow you to install a new mobo and processor etc without a fresh install.

To be honest though, with any new hardware change I prefer a fresh install anyway it will make the system in the long run a lot faster. Disadvantage though is re installing all the other software

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

It is XP, and I'm just replacing the mobo, cpu and ram.
Whats the file I need to delete? I'll give that a try.
I should do a fresh install, but not ready for moving all the files over etc, yet.

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

will try and find a link for you, its years since I did it, nowadays I just reinstall

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

times may have changed a bit, well I did say it was a few years!!

Swapping your board without so much as a reinstall (243kB of images, updated Jun '06) - Topic Powered by eve community

How to change Motherboards without reinstalling XP... - PC hardware - General discussion FAQ - Tek-Tips seems a simpler one

How to: Upgrade your motherboard without reinstalling Windows. - [H]ard|Forum - looks like possibly the best way of doing it

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Seems like a lot of work
Another option for me is to do a fresh install on a spare 20gb HDD I have, and use my previous 80gb for storage, and that way I still have access to some stuff from before. Not too worried about app's.

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

yep its not easy, and if you had a spare hd, then thats the way I would do it, just have the 20gb for the operating system and then everything else store on your existing hd

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Those swap mobos without reinstall are quite good, as far as the info goes. But you can't guarantee that all types of hware specs will be catered for correctly, even if some of them say it doesn't matter, it does! So if you get issues, it's going to be a nightmare to resolve. I ALWAYS do fresh installs for a new box.