Potential new Upgrade!

[AceFactor]

Hey everyone, im just tryin to get back into this great forum again lol seems like ages since i had last posted, and ive already made about 10posts today i think

But anyway, down to business

My current set-up jus aint doing the trick anymore, im running 40Gb ATA 133 HDD's atm, and the rest of the stuff in my specs. It just doesnt seem to be fast enough for my needs anymore, and a want to do a decent rebuild/upgrade.

I know i wont be needing a PSU for starters, cause i have this current one and a spare Akasa PowerPlus 650w and i hopefully wont need other DVD-RW's if my problem gets sorted out ( see other thread). So i already have a few decent 19" TFT's picked out and im happy with my current case, although i wouldnt turn down the idea of getting another of it was gd

Whatr i really need to know is abwt the rest of the components. I'm only looking to go wiv AMD, but as for gfx card it doesnt fuss me etc. I have a reasonably tight budget, but i can get parts month by month if need be

Thanks in advance guys!

-Adam

 

[gR3iF]

to be future rdy my tipp would be an intel 975x mobo so you would be conroe rdy and then go ocing an pentium d or something or wait one month till the conroe comes and buy one of it


so it would be:

ddr2 ram
intel 975x mobo
a conroe cpu
a pcie vga if your isnt one
(take an x1800xt 512mb for 230 euro)^^

 

[bruins004]

First question (and very important)...What will this machine be used for.
If your mainly using it for gaming then it makes no sense to get another CPU since the GPU is used mainly (CPU isnt a huge factor).

Plus with what gR3iF said, why would he go get a new Motherboard since
1. He has an AMD, hence not compatable with Intel
2. He has a good processor that will last a while

Thats the only thing that I hate is that people just jumped on the Conroe bandwagon.
Yes it is good, but when you have a great processor (like the 3700+), dont waste your money.

I would def. look into getting 2 x 1GB sticks since right now your RAM is running in 2T instead of 1 (hence slower). Plus 2GB is not that expensive anymore.

If you really need it then get more space, but I must say for gaming and an OS that 160GB is way too much at the moment, but 80GB seems too little. I see you are setting up a 160GB for gaming so that should be enough.

If you really want to upgrade bad then you could get a new GPU, but yours is pretty good and you have the choice to upgrade now or wait a while for DirectX10 to get well established. If you do get a new one I might be interested in your card, just let me know. As for cards go, the 7900GT, x1800s are nicely priced at the moment.

 

[zekrahminator]

Yeah, I agree, you really should wait for Conroe before buying a new rig. When you say reasonably tight budget, exactly how much money are you willing to spend on this rig? We can work on this build after we know how much money you can spend .

 

[{JNT}Raptor]

Get the 2gig kit of G.Skill

Slap on a better cooler for your CPU like the Artic Cooler Freezer 64 Pro and ramp up thae clock abit.....with 64bit total clock speed matters more than Latencies of the memory......so start pushing It up over there.

As far as Video goes.....you have to wait If you want to get the Next gen DX10 cards.....should be out by end of year I think.....Thats where the Bulk of your Upgrade cash should go.........the other stuff I mentioned will be under $230

As far as the drives go....add In a 250gig serial ATA 300 drive and then Raid 0 the 2 40gig drives you have....that'll be quick enough.

Happy shopping.

 

[AceFactor]

The new build will mainly be for Gaming, hence why i am setting up the Sata drive. The only problem wiv upgraded the CPU, would be that I would have to get a new MBord aswell, and most probably a new GFX card, since the current one is AGP

Going to Intel is just not an option for me, and its pointless trying to over clock my CPU, because it just doesnt have any OC'ing potential, and trust me ive tried

The main options i think are to either upgrade my gfx card and ram, or just do a whole new upgrade and do the whole lot. Either way i still want a decent sound card aswell. I'm starting to get into proper how cinema / audio set-up and my current card just doesnt give me a high enough quality output

@bruins004 - i take it your in the UK, and i would be interested in selling the card out to you at the right price etc.

Im willing to spend about £200-£350 on the gfx card, and about £150 on ram if i only upgrade those two parts.

@Raptor - i have had a look at the AC CPU Freezers before, but do you really think that will help to improve my performance?

Thanks in advance guys

-Adam

 

[bruins004]

Hey AceFactor,

Actually I am in the USA, sorry I didnt look at location.
Also, I didnt realize that it was AGP as I have PCI-E.

I will try to help you out more, so how much can you afford to spend?
Thats the main question and will determine if you can upgrade or build a new system.

 

[AceFactor]

Well i wana spend as little as possible lol, im also trying to save for a car and lessons etc atm.

If the CPU will surfice i rekon i will just do the gfx card and ram. My problem is that i'm so picky, i will only play games at the highest levels wiv everything maxed out. Once my PC doesnt do that, i wana upgrade it.

If my CPU will be able to keep up with a 7800/7900 gt(x) and about 2Gb of decent ram, then i will keep the 3700+ (S754 btw)

I rekon i will go for about £300-500 for a new gfx card and ram total, if the CPU will be fine

-Adam

 

[bruins004]

My first rig has a 3200+ and has no problems with everything maxed in many games (CS:S, COD2, etc). Mind you that that had a 7800GT in that rig. So you could get 2 x 1GB sticks of RAM for about $130-200. The only higher card that might not be worth it is a 7800GS. I would just go with RAM and save up for an upgrade....What seems to be the issue right now with your card?

 

[gR3iF]

to say something ;p i looked up his board and saw that it was an 754 so i guess a new board and a new cpu would be good for him, but then a new gfx is a must

to upgrade as little as possible i would go this way:
buy an cheap am2 board board in my opinion an
GigaByte M55SLI-S4
buy a cheap am2 cpu AMD Athlon64 3000+
buy new hdd Samsung HD160JJ
buy new ram OCZ DIMM 1 GB DDR2-667 Kit
and a new gfx HIS Radeon X1800XT 512

that would be lowcost fast upgrade and for future opinions its althoug upgradeable


on 775 it would cost more
on socket 939 you have ddr1 ram which is dead
so my way

 

[AceFactor]

I had major problems with the fog effects on COD2, i ended up wiv a 1fps slideshop at certain points in the game. It also didnt wana play FEAR at higher settings, though sumtimes i can be a little extravagant with my settings

I just dont seem to get any performance outa my current setup atm, or maybe im just doing sumething wrong

And i seemed to have missd the whole AM2 thing, i would appreciate a bit of enlightenment if possible and yer, Intel stuff still isnt an option. Im thinking maybe a 4000+ or higher 939?

Thanks again

-Adam

 

[zekrahminator]

Lets see...if you're looking to upgrade, make sure your windows XP key still works, and then listen to me very carefully . Sell your X850XT AGP, it will go for alot of money because it is AGP. Then, you'll be wanting to buy a new AMD motherboard, A gig or two of low-latency stuff (like Corsair XMS, look for a CAS latency of 2), an AMD A64 3800+ (my processor .), and something in the Geforce 7 series department (at least 7600). Actually, get ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 and you can keep your X850XT AGP and see if it will do what you want. After you set up your system, boot to the windows XP disk, select "install windows", and then after it detects your copy of XP, select "repair". You win . Edit: This stuff looks like good memory.

 

[noneed4me2]

With s754 you can keep your cpu and just focus on mobo and graphics if you wanna go real cheap, you can get alot on a slim budget with s754 and can go pci/e and get better gaming performance. You might find that your 3700 Clawhammer will overclock better on a different board. As far as AM2 i wouldn't fret as you can get alot out of s939 and for alot cheaper. AM2 seems more of a speed bump to ddr3 supported mobos and AMD is gonna have to give a better response to the performance of the Intel's Conroe cpu. This place can handle your upgrade needs for your area http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ . good luck.

 

[AceFactor]

First off i'll need to get an XP Pro, since i only have a legit copy of XP Home atm

I think i'm kinda decided on a S939 since im gona have to upgrade the mbord anyway to incorporate either a x1900xt(x) 512Mb or a 7900xt 512Mb / 7950GX2 1024Mb.

As for CPU its gona have to be a 4000+ or higher, or perhaps an X2 core 4200+ or higher.

From past experience i would never touch an asrock mbord again, but wana look into decent OC'ing mbords, and some that look a bit fancy

Ram is gona be at least 2Gb now, hoping to aim for about 4gm is money permits lol. Anyways, im gona be making the whole order from www.overclockers.co.uk so was just wondering if you guys could have a look at the stuff on there and tell me what you would all recommend especially the connect3d x1900xt if it mite have to 1.1ns ram rather than the 1.2 so tht i could flash it to x1900xtx

Thanks again guys

-Adam

 

[AceFactor]

Just had another look on overclockers, and think i've found some memory for the job.

G.Skill 2GB DDR ZX PC3200 (2x1GB) CAS2 Dual Channel Kit (F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX) (MY-007-GS)

is the stuff im looking at @ £140.94 with vat. only thing im wondering is if i need to get any faster that pc3200 to be future safe, cause i can buy pc4200 on there, but the timing are nearer 3-2-3-8 and they are about £20-£50 more than the G.Skill stuff above

Thanks in advance

-Adam

 

[gR3iF]

jup but the 4200 ram is dedicated to run@266 mgh with 3-2-3-8
that means it runs also @200mgh with 2-2-2-5 in addition its the better ram
but i wouldnt buy now expensice ddr1 ram just because on your nest upgrade u cant use it

 

[AceFactor]

thanks for all your help guys. since the introduction of vista is quite so close, ive decided to hold out till thst starts to get integrated properly. then i'll do my full upgrade, since it would be pointless to do 2 upgrades, when i can get away with one.

Thanks

-Adam