Budget Gaming PC with bells on...

[Featofclay]

Hi all,

It's well past time I upgraded my gaming PC. The last upgrade time was 2 years ago and I ended up building a new media centre with the money instead. My poor Athlon 1800 based system is now feeling slow and Empire Total War is due out soon!

Budget £350. Can use case & 450W PSU from old PC. Also have monitor etc and a copy of XP (although I would like to get onto Vista 64Bit soon). Want to be able to upgrade in future so looking at SLI/Crossfire.

Here's what I have so far. All help very gratefully recieved

Asus Board 30984 (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Bargain+Basement/Z-ASUS+M2N-SLI+DLX++nF570?productId=30984)
AMD 3Ghz 28915 (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/AMD/Athlon+64+X2+Socket+AM2/AMD+Athlon+64+X2+Dual+Core+6000%2B+3.00GHz+%28Reta il+AM2%29+?productId=28915)
9600GT 30589 (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+9+Series/nVidia+GeForce+9600GT+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=30589)
2GB PC2-6400 27405 (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+800+%28PC6400%29/Corsair+2GB+PC2-6400+XMS2+%282x1GB%29+?productId=27405)
250GB HD 30855 (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/250GB+Hitachi+SATA+7200rpm+8MB?productId=30855)

[marsey99]

any reason you picked the parts you did other than price?

i think i could get you a better performing pc if you were perpared to overclock it a bit.

[nft99]

new pc ? intel the best choice these days ! :)

wonderlust will be along shortly to recommend the msi neo2 fr board :D

change the graphics card to 8800gt and if the budget allows it a new psu

[jonwoad]

Not if i beat him to it :P

Neo2-FR All the way!!!!!!!! :D

[wonderlust]

Lol, yes it's a good board at the price :D

[marsey99]

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Gigabyte+GA-EP35C-DS3R+P35+Socket+775+Motherboard?productId=31059
mobo
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Duo+E7200+2.53GHz+%28Retail+775%29+?p roductId=31114
cpu
http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Patriot+2GB+PC2-6400+C4+Extreme+Performance+%282x1GB%29+?productId =26802
ram
http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/500Gb+Hitachi+Deskstar+P7K500+Hard+Drive-+16MB+?productId=31456
hdd
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+3000+Series/Sapphire+ATI+Radeon+HD+3870+512MB+PCI-E2.0+?productId=31344
gpu
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Fans%2C+Heatsinks%2C+Coolers/Socket+775/Arctic+Cooling+Freezer+7+PRO+?productId=20729
heatsink

comes in under £350 and with about 5 mins in the bios it would run rings around the amd.

it gives you the option of xfire in the future but you will need a bigger power supply than a 450w

[wonderlust]

Marsey, good system, but... The neo2 is cheaper and better featured :D

[alexnifty]

Is your PSU a branded PSU or a generic one? If its old and generic then I would seriously recommend a new PSU.

You DO NOT want to buy a load of new kit only to have an old dodgy PSU fry it on the first go.

[marsey99]

its more for the ddr3 slots to give more life to the system(pricelss) i wish i had got this board now as ddr2 is stopping my overclock but if i had this i could drop some 3 in and keep going above 540 fsb.

[Featofclay]

marsey99 - price and my out of date knowledge! also I've always used AMD and thought it a good scheme to get 64 bit for the future but I see Intel is reccomended....should i forget the hopes for 64bit future?

alexnifty - i think its branded Enermax - currently running another system and has done for some years so i think it will be ok

8800GT is better than 9600 ...oh its confusing.. in my world larger numbers mean later and newer versions! But is the 3870 better value?


As for overclocking - I've always wanted to try but been a bit too frightened to but hey its about time

Cheers all

[Featofclay]

ahhhh Core 2 has 64 bit support...lovely

[wonderlust]

All Core2xxx desktop chips have the 64 bit extensions.

The 9600Gt is a replacement for the poor performing 8600Gt, where as the 8800Gt is due to be replaced/possible rebranded as an 9800gt (Nvidia are rebranding older cards with out any changes ie 8800GS is now the 9800GSO)

[alexnifty]

(Nvidia are rebranding older cards with out any changes ie 8800GS is now the 9800GSO)

Nvidia must make most of its money from people who don't properly research what they are buying.
Clever naming tricks are all it takes to convince someone that a 9xxx series card beats any 8xxx card. Its simply not true.

Always read reviews on what your are buying, can't stress that enough!

[wonderlust]

I think the whole graphics card naming thing has got out of order.

I agree I am sure Nvidia are doing it to confuse people.

Again I agree research is the most important thing, I have been lucky I have made a few purchases with out research and so far haven't bought a pup.

[marsey99]

amd was the 1 to have for a long time but now its intel, the run faster cooler and overclock further.

you could swap the 3870 for a 88gt and get about the same performance, better in some games worse in others, i just dont want to deemed as a nvidia fanbio when tbh i like both brands and they give about the same end results.

i have the 88gts (512mb) for a reason tho :D

[wonderlust]

If you go for an Intel board that supports crossfire you can run a 2nd amd card for improved performance, but i wouldn't say the cost/gain is worth it.

BTW I too run an 8800Gt