Upgrading my PC - please help! :o)

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bigweed

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 15, 2004
Messages
144
Hi to everyone!

Well after my last build, which I had lots of help from the great people here at H with, I have decided to finally upgrade again after almost 5 years of use! I want to replace the motherboard, graphics card, processor and power supply (can I get away with keeping my memory?? Its 2x512mb of Geil Ultra X memory, not sure if I can use it with the new mobos out there now??). So the answers to the questions:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming (not too worried if this isnt at the HIGHEST res/quality, as my girlfriend gets a strop on if I game too much, so there wont be a lot of gaming :), browsing, a little video converting but not much, Bittorrent downloads, movie/DVD viewing, office programs
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
£400-450, including tax and shipping
3) Where do you live?
UK
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU, motherboard, PSU, graphics card, RAM (if I cant use my Geil Ultra X memory). CPU fan cooler (if I cannot re use my 92mm Tornado fan)
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Keyboard/mouse, case (Thermaltake Tsunami Dream ATX case), DVD drive, hard drives (3 SATA 1 drives, function fine, no issues that I am aware of), soundcard (Audigy 2 Platinum)
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes, but only a little basic overclocking
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
22inch LG M2262, with 2 HDMI inputs
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
One PCI slot for my soundcard :) Dont know if SATA 3 or USB 3 can be achievabale or if there arent any good boards with that tech yet, but would be nice to have those two things on there too. eSata port as I have an external eSata hard drive. At least 4 internal sata ports.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Legit Win XP Pro 32 bit

Really hope i can get some tips here as I dont even know whether AMD or Intel have the best bang for the buck processors these days.

Thanks
Bigweed
 
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I can order from any UK shop - overseas shipping might be too expensive, but if not then I am more than happy to get from US too, as I know that parts in US can be quite a bit cheaper
 
bigweed said:
I can order from any UK shop - overseas shipping might be too expensive, but if not then I am more than happy to get from US too, as I know that parts in US can be quite a bit cheaper
Click to expand...

Don't order from the US... you will be slammed with customs tax which make it as expensive to get it from the UK, i bought a whole load of watercooling kit of a guy in Canada, had to pay £40 in tax to collect it, even tho it was sent as a gift...

I would use scan.co.uk, they are really good price wise and very reliable...

550w Corsair VX = £65.76
Core i5 750 = £151.28
Gigabyte GA-P55-US3L = £78.20
Asus GTX 260 = £127.48
Shipping = £9.43

Total = £433.80

You would need DDR3 memory with that tho... all that was from Scan
 
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sandyduff said:
Don't order from the US... you will be slammed with customs tax which make it as expensive to get it from the UK, i bought a whole load of watercooling kit of a guy in Canada, had to pay £40 in tax to collect it, even tho it was sent as a gift...

I would use scan.co.uk, they are really good price wise and very reliable...

550w Corsair VX = £65.76
Core i5 750 = £151.28
Gigabyte GA-P55-US3L = £78.20
Asus GTX 260 = £127.48
Shipping = £9.43

Total = £433.80

You would need DDR3 memory with that tho... all that was from Scan
Click to expand...

Hey sandyduff - would you say Intel is the way to go then? As I dont have too much cash at the mo, and if I can go AMD and still have great performance for a better price then that would be great. Or are they generally not too much of a good thing these days?

Cheers
 
I said intel because i know very little about AMD!!

I'm sure you could probably build a Phenom II system for cheaper... but like i said, i wouldn't know what a good AMD board is...
 
550w Corsair VX = £65.76
Asus GTX 260 = £127.48
AMD Phemon II x4 940 AM2+ 3GHz = £109.83
Asus M4N72-E = £80.22
Shipping = £9.43

Total = £394.37

I would imagine that would be pretty good too... and you could use your old RAM in it, altho i would plump for at least 2GB of RAM
 
 
Would I be able to reuse my PSU? As it seems that a recommendation of 400w PSU is being made - but I dont know if mine would be able to handle PCI express graphics...apart from that it seems like it would be okay?

Are the ATI graphics cards a better recommendation, for value for money, than Nvidia? If so, what would be a good bet - the 4870? I dont need it to run current games at high res - I would be quite happy with 1600x1200, or even 1280x1024! :)

Would I be able to use my existing dual channel PC3200 DDR 2x512MB RAM, and use it with two sticks of matching 1GB RAM of a different make/model? Or would that cause issues as they wont all be the same make/model?

So at the moment, I am thinking roughly along the following lines - £100 CPU (prob AMD??), £100 graphics card, £75 mobo, £75 RAM, £40 PSU - would I be in about the right ballpark with those figures?

Cheers
 
Your Psu i would not recommend to use with the new system. The 400cx is a continous duty 400w power supply that is rated at 80% or better efficiency.

Ati are the best bang for the buck and the 4870 is a very good value.

The pc3200 is outdated, your best bet is to sell that whole system intact to someone local, or use it for a media server.

The Phenom II 550 is only $72, so you really don't need anything more $$ unless you want to compromise something else.
 
Yeh i agree... New PSU and new RAM, if you pair 2 512MB sticks with a single 1GB it won't run in duel channel, and you will get a big performance hit...

4870 is good bang for buck... better than a GTX 260 (not by much) and cheaper!!
 
sandyduff said:
Yeh i agree... New PSU and new RAM, if you pair 2 512MB sticks with a single 1GB it won't run in duel channel, and you will get a big performance hit...

4870 is good bang for buck... better than a GTX 260 (not by much) and cheaper!!
Click to expand...

You cant run DDR1 and DDR2-DDR3 at the same time....
 
It's DDR1 memory?!?! Holy crap... ditch that junk!!

I just assumed it was DDR2 coz... you know, even it has been out for ages!!
 
Thanks so much for this, I didnt realise that the RAM would be incompatible. Also, I take it my PSU is not cut out for the duties either so that will have to go too then. And good to know that ATi are the ones to go for when it comes to VFM - a £72 4870 it will be then methinks. Is there any particular manufacturer of this card that is recommended, or are they all much of a muchness? Also, I would need a PCI Express x16 mobo for this card?

But the main question is - AMD or Intel? I am tempted by the AMD TBH, as they are more in my price range. Do Intel have anything for a similar price - £72 - which can compete performance wise? I have been lookign but cant find ANYTHING at that price point by Intel in the i3 or i5 range, never mind if it would be comparable in terms of performance! Should I be looking at anything else, or is the above AMD CPU 'the one'? Also, are the AM2+ CPUs from the previous generation for AMD, so should be left alone, or are they worth looking at?

Cheers!
 
The X2 4200-6000 really should be left alone and not used. The Phenom II 550 is much faster clock for clock than thier predessors.

I3-I5 would add a significant cost that wouldn't translate into the games, since you would have to cut the graphics budget to get a better CPU.
 
You can use AM3 processors in AM2+ boards... so you can mix and match a little bit

As for brand of 4870... try and go for one with a good HSF on it, the stock one is ok but noisy. Also get one with a good warranty...
 
Wow, I have almost made up my mind on most of it already! The only thing I am not sure of is AM3 motherboards - anyone have any ideas that I can look at?? Is MSI still a good one to go for, or do other brands have a better reputation?

Cheers
 
What i like to do is find a few, google them and read lots of reviews... that should give you a good idea on functions, layout, overclockability etc...

So what you going for so far then?
 
Well, when I say I know what I am going to get I'm not completely sure - but roughly:

AMD 550 Phenom CPU, suitable mobo, 400cx Corsair PSU (not sure if I would need the 550vx...), Radeon 4870 card, basic DDR3 Corsair 2GB RAM (should I go for 4GB?? what about DDR2, or is DDR3 'better'??) - lol actually Im not that close after all!! Any more suggestions/advice re: the above??

Thanks!
 
DDR2 is end of life, the ram companies are scaling back production in favor of DDR3, prices are about the same on each, so go ddr3.
4gb of ram is the sweet spot for ram, with 4gb if you decied to upgrade your os to win7 (now or in future) you don't need more ram :)
 
DDR3 is better than DDR2... altho it is more expensive, unless you can get lucky... i bought my 6GB kit off ebay for £45!!

I would go for the 550vx, gives you room to expand or get a more power hungry card later down the line... does that 550 have hyper threading? If not i would go for a quad core... games are slowly becoming optimized to run on quad cores, but thats my opinion...

Edit: Holy hell... prices of DDR2 has sky rocketed... you used to be able to get 4GB of DDR2 for 40 quid... that price has almost doubled!! Yeh... go DDR3
 
Wow! 6Gb for £45!! Does it matter what the manufacturer is of RAM, or are they all near each other for performance/stability? I am looking at 4Gb now I think, as 2Gb is probably too little. Would one stick of 4GB RAM run as fast as 2 x 2GB sticks of identical RAM? If so, then I might get just one stick of 2GB now and another later, otherwise if one stick of 4GB is better then just get 4GB now. Also, what speed RAM should I be looking at - PC3200, etc - is the higher the PC number the faster the RAM?

Do AMD CPUs have Hyperthreading? I always thought that was an Intel thing? But then I am a newbie to all this so what do I know!
 
Yeh i got lucky with that one...

AMD have hyper transport... i sometimes get the two mixed up... i would still go with a quad core...

One 4GB stick would run slower as it would not be in duel channel... get two 2GB sticks...
 
Okay - so I am thinking then - one of the following 4 CPU's:

AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition, £72 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-249-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1328

AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 545 3.00GHz, £73 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-250-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1328

AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.80GHz, £96 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-238-AM

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz, £122 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1328

What I am not sure of is - is there any point in getting a Quad core over a Tri core?? Considering I am not heavily into gaming, I do some occasional video conversion type work, otherwise its Bittorrent downloading, DVD viewing and office apps. Is the 720 going to be far behind the 955?

Should I not even think about the 550 and 545 CPUs, versus the 720? Are they far behind the 720 in performance? If not, then which one should I go for out of the 550 and 545, as they are priced the same, but one has a higher clock speed and more L2 cache (550) and the other has more L3 cache (545)?

Thanks!
 
I would still go for the quad core... be better for your video converting work.... plus at only £26 over the tri core its a better buy in my opinion. Plus it has a higher stock speed so if your not into overclocking you are good from the start...
 
I am now also thinking maybe the Athlon X4 CPUs may be a good thing - any thoughts on the following:

AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 620 2.60GHz, £82 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-258-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=803

Thanks for the info Sandy, but I think I want to spend the additional money on a video card, as mine is frankly quite crappy...

So it is between the 620 Athlon Quad core (£82), the 550 BE Phenom II Dual core (£72), and the 720 Phenom II Tri Core (£96).

Does anyone know what is more important - faster CPU and greater L2 cache, or more L3 cache?

Cheers!
 
reading some reviews show that the Athlon is not quite as good as the Phenom... so if you don't want to go Quad core i would go with the Tri core phenom...
 
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