Upgrading!

[mps83]

Hi im lookin to upgrade my current set up, which is this....


AMD Athlon XP 3200 2.19GHZ
512mb DDRam
80gb Hitachi HD
Asus ATI Radeon a7000 32mb AGP Card
Microstar MS-6570E Mobo

Don't know where to start really, don't really play many gam,es on it, apart from the odd Unreal Tournament deathmatch now and again, would be nice to play some new games though i guess.

Can you recommend me some new hardware?

Thanks

P.S i know my motherboard is old, a Socket A i think.

My budget is about £200 ish, not much i know but all i can afford.

[Xiathorn]

To be honest with you mate, very little of your stuff seems reusable. If you want to be able to truely see the difference an upgrade makes, you're going to have to spend more than that £200.

Let's start with the top. The CPU is old, and that's probably the biggest thing you'll want to improve if you're doing an upgrade. Unfortunately, the 3200XP is the best CPU for that motherboard. If you're going to get a new Motherboard, you need to get a new CPU.

For £200 you could get an up-to-date motherboard that still has an AGP port, but it sorta seems insane to do so. If you can stretch your budget a bit more, you could get..

A new, DDR1-capable motherboard that has a PCI-E slot and has a high-end processor. That way you can keep your RAM, keep your hard disk (All new mobos still have one IDE slot), buy a new processor and buy a really cheap PCI-E graphics card. That cheap PCI-E GPU will STILL be better than the 32mb a7000.

However, if you're just wanting it to play a few games but stay the same in terms of everything else, then just get an AGP card. For about £100 you can get the XFX 7600GT AGP model, and that's capable of running stuff like Oblivion, although you'd need more RAM to do that. I ran Oblivion on an inferior processor than you before, although it really did struggle in some of the more difficult bits, and combat had a tendency to bog down the CPU.

[mac124]

I have to say i tend to agree with alot of what Xiathorn has said you might be better off saving a bit more and selling your current pc and starting from scratch.

Check this thread out ( http://www.lucyslair.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=2048&start=0 ) i specced up a current pc for someone for around £330 which included everything except a case / keyboard and mouse which only need add another £30 or so to the cost. With the £200 you have now if you sold your current pc for £175 or so which would be a fair price for it imho you could afford the setup, or a similar one, thats in the other thread.

If you really don't want to go down that route then get the 7600gt as suggested and 2gb of memory (2x 1gb sticks) that should help with gaming quite a bit and current day to day tasks.

[mps83]

thanks for the advice, as a temporary solution i can afford a half decent mobo and processor then at least i can use my current RAM and HD until i can purchase a better one. what dya recommend in the CPU and mobo department for £200ish

thanks

[Biodoid]

could always go for this

mobo
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=26474

cpu

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=23826

and grapchics card

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=24384



Total comes to £223.84 + £7.95 citylink delivery


you can still use your ddr ram for time being until you an get some more money to but ddr2

[mps83]

just been lookin at that gfx card haha, don't know if i'll bother gettin the gfx card yet, im not fussed about waiting at the moment. I can use my agp at the moment. Its £152 for the mobo and cpu together, seems reasonable. Would i need a certain PSU to run with it? or can i use my current one?

So you reckon thats best do ya?

*edit* seen as though id have bout £50 spare still what about takin it up another notch and gettin this one?

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=23825

to use with the mobo u stated.

If anyone fancies givin me some advice you can catch me on msn @ mps83 @ hotmail.co.uk

[Anonymous]

I would reccomend getting a new one, as the atx's are going (to/from 20pin cant remember), yours will work, but its reccomended that you get a newer not generic one.

[Biodoid]

it's looks the only *cheap* way off upgrading to something current while keeping the option of using some of the stuff you already have. I have the AMD 939 version of that board and it runs fine, using 4gig ddr in it right now and also have my X2 3800 running at 2.35ghz.

So I would say yeah

as for psu

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=24512

or if you want modular
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=24514

[Barley]

[quote:c5f29de1cb=\"Biodoid\"]could always go for this

mobo
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=26474

cpu

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=23826

and grapchics card

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=24384



Total comes to £223.84 + £7.95 citylink delivery


you can still use your ddr ram for time being until you an get some more money to but ddr2 [/quote:c5f29de1cb]

That motherboard is a classic case of jack of all trades, master of none

[Biodoid]

it works though...and if your on a budget and still want to use some h/w you already have then not much else you can do..

[mps83]

what of my current hardware wouldn't work on that mobo?

If its the agp card i won't get it then aslong as my new mobo has built in graphics i'll just use that for the time being

*edit* as long as i can use my HD and RAM for the time being recommend me another.

[Biodoid]

with that mobo you can use your h/d ram and agp..plus it has the option to upgrade to dd2 and pci-e when needed where as if you got a different mobo then you would need to buy ddr2 and a pci-e graphics card as well

[mps83]

right so thats decided then, im gonna get a new pci-e card too, no point in using an old agp. Recommendations?

*edit* just realised the one u recommended is a pci-e, d'oh

[mps83]

should be able to afford this lot over 2 months

[Biodoid]

if your not going to be using your old ram or agp then look at chaning mobo :wink: