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parfin67w
22-09-09, 23:28
Hi this is my first post on here. I currently have...
Q6600
4 GB ram which is OCZ 2 x 2GB sticks I think 800 MHz ddr2
A very poor HD 2400 pro graphics card
And as for my mobo well I don’t have a clue......

I would like to spend about £200 in total upgrading my graphics card and mobo.
The ram I installed does not run well with the mobo so the mobo will have to match the ram (yeah wrong way round!)
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on which type (manufacturer) of mobo and graphics card I should get I would be grateful for the help.

Aaron
22-09-09, 23:34
Upgrade the graphics card, yes.. But upgrade the motherboard for £200, no.. To spend money on upgrading to another 775 setup would be money wasted, as everything is going the i5/i7 route which arent compatible. So realistically, you'd need to look at motherboard, CPU and RAM to make the upgrade worthwhile doing.

As far as video cards go, I reckon a lot of people here would recommend the GTX260, GTX275 or the ATi 4890 for less than £200. They range from around £100ish to £180ish depending where you look, so it depends on how much of your budget you'd like to spend/save :)

alexnifty
23-09-09, 00:18
New ATI graphics cards coming out pretty soon, they will make prices drop so you might want to hold off a month if you can.

Monkey
23-09-09, 01:18
Don't listen to that fool, you wanna go with a mean Green graphics card, such as the nVidia 260, 275 or even a 280

And id have to agree with what Aaron said, upgrading to another 775 CPU/MOBO just isn't worth it now, I would either wait a while and upgrade the whole lot to i5/i7 :P

Or i would just keep your shining light of a CPU which is the Q6600 (have one myself and its a beast)

mac124
23-09-09, 07:12
You may need to upgrade your psu too if getting a beefy graphics card. Depends on what you have currently though.

haroon
23-09-09, 10:26
Gigabyte M/B are usually good.

wonderlust
23-09-09, 10:33
Gigabyte M/B are usually good.

except their QC sucks.

My last gigabyte board died due to over heated chipset. Turned out the factory hadnt removed the protector for the thermal past when applying the heatsink of the north bridge.

I will never buy gigabyte again.

haroon
23-09-09, 10:49
Sheesh, never heard of that before. I sure that must of been a one off. They must off replaced it for you though.

wonderlust
23-09-09, 12:20
no it died outside of warranty

alexnifty
23-09-09, 13:44
no it died outside of warranty

It had a manufacturing fault and was clearly not fit for purpose. Unless this mobo was over 6 years old they should have replaced or refunded it. All in the sale of goods act.

This BBC article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8253915.stm) clearly says it.

wonderlust
23-09-09, 13:46
yeah but good excuse to scrap socket A and go to amd64 (at the time) :D

alexnifty
23-09-09, 13:55
Fair enough. Still important to note that just because an item is out of warranty does not mean you can't get it replaced if you can show it has died before you would reasonably expect it to within 6 years.

parfin67w
23-09-09, 16:25
Thanks ppl I was only gonna upgrade the mobo (about £50) so it would work with my RAM its got the same rating as my mates 2GB we have the same comps on vista 64

Lynx
23-09-09, 16:58
New gfx cards for ati released today, they dont affect standing of current cheaper cards atm.

Monkey
23-09-09, 17:00
I would just upgrade your PSU to a branded 600watt ish one, and get a Nvidia 260, you cant go wrong really

OCZ 600W ModXStream PRO Modular Power Supply PSU (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/OCZ+600W+ModXStream+PRO+Modular+Power+Supply+PSU+? productId=33612)

BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC Maxcore 896MB PCI-E (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GTX+260%2F280+Series/BFG+GeForce+GTX+260+OC+Maxcore+896MB+PCI-E+?productId=37707)

Those should see you right, and around £200 for a very good gaming rig

coiler
23-09-09, 17:07
Get the Asus 260 £40 cheaper here and in stock ;)

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Asus+ENGTX260+GL%2B%2FHTDI%2F896MD3%2C+PCI-E%2C+896MB+DDR3%2C+Glaciator%2B+Edition.+?productI d=37691


If you want a PSU in stock this would do well

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/500W+Silverpower+by+Seasonic+SP-SS500+PSU+?productId=37543



for games your CPU is more than ok! memorys ok too BUT as the components above only total £157.11p you could spend the remaining cash on another 4gb kit of memory to take you to 8gb!

Do you really need 8gb? probably not but it would be rude not too if you have the cash LOL :D

Monkey
23-09-09, 17:51
You would have to outdo me Coiler, I just thought I'd suggest some items on aria via links as no-one else had

:getmecoat:

parfin67w
26-09-09, 15:02
Thanks... But one of the main problems I have is that my RAM don't work too well with my mobo... i never thought to look b4 I got it so my 2x2 GB are runnin the same as 2GB and also my mobo only supports 4GB ram (2x2GB)

Monkey
26-09-09, 16:05
That cant be right, surely your mobo can support more than 4GB, most motherboards in the last half a decade can support atleast 4-8GB

Download and install everest so we know what motherboard it is your using, maybe a setup problem, either that or its not clicked in properly

Aaron
27-09-09, 01:19
maybe a setup problem, either that or its not clicked in properly
I was wondering both of those, but specifically the bit in bold - its an easy thing to do, and it can even look like its in when its not..

marsey99
27-09-09, 19:05
q66 is still a good cpu and the truth is that unless your a benchmark junkie a newwer cpu will go un noticed.

not knowing what your current mobo is makes trying to figure out what the issue your having is hard, as it could be as simple as a bios update. for the gpu, well not to be nasty but it would be harder to find one that wouldnt be an upgreade from the 2400 because its a media card really not a gaming one.

what res do you play at? only you could be spending money on a gpu that you will never see the benefit for having?

imo that gpu and psu coiler picked are good and if you want to throw a mobo into the mix with those than my money would go on this one (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+(Intel)/Gigabyte+GA-EP31-DS3L+iP31+Express+Socket+775+Motherboard+?productI d=33793) and overclock you q66 a bit which most do with ease :D

parfin67w
30-09-09, 14:29
Hi sorry for the late reply.. My mobo is a Biostar phoenix, I asked the company after I got the RAM and they sent me a list of what types they support, OCZ was not on the list. My computer says I have 4GB BUT I had to mess about with the timings and voltage because I kept getting the BSOD when I first installed it.... http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/content.php?S_ID=307 Thst is my mobo.

coiler
30-09-09, 14:34
does anyone actually check the mobo memory support list though?!

99.9% of people just buy memory based on speed and type.

Will
30-09-09, 20:17
does anyone actually check the mobo memory support list though?!

99.9% of people just buy memory based on speed and type.

+1 :thumbsup:

Monkey
30-09-09, 21:30
I checked

alexnifty
30-09-09, 21:55
I checked, didn't see it, bought anyway :p

marsey99
30-09-09, 22:11
I checked, didn't see it, bought anyway :p

pmsl i did the same with mine :rofl:

alexnifty
30-09-09, 22:34
Yeah it worked out fine. This is what RMA is for :p

coiler
30-09-09, 22:47
No one checks, kinda like Gordon Brown when he did the budget :getmecoat:

Monkey
30-09-09, 23:52
Ha ha ha, good one