major overhaul advice

[minorflex]

Hi to all,

Im searching the forum for some advice on my computer to be.

Currently I am using a p4, 1.4ghz 384mb rambus ram machine with a radeon 9700pro. The thing plays GTA sa which keeps me happy but its slow using winrar and other cpu intensive tasks, and I can not even consider any newer games!

Anyways im looking to salvage some bits off it like the psu, the dvd/cd burner and the hard drives but need a new mobo cpu and ram combo

Browsed the net and came across the following components:

AMD cpu (Venice) 64bit 3200+ socket 939 (£110)


http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=88109

and the following ram:

Corsair 1024mb (2x 512) ddr400 cl2 (£75)

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=14505841244&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=52471

or

OCZ 1 GB el DDR pc-3200 400Mhz gold edition CAS 2 dual channel

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=14631190482&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=99494


Coupled with a DFI LAN party UT NF4 SLI-D motherboard (£117)


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Socket_939.html (4th item down)

How are these bits rated and if you see any problems with that potential set up, any recommendations?


I will sell my agp graphics card and get a pci-e one and later a 2nd one to take advantage of the sli, and I believe that’s the cheapest long run option for me. But on the graphics card front im still undecided on a reasonable performer, any suggestions for something around the 9700pro mark?

I am able to provide any more info if needed to help me out!

 

[Flakes]

ok right first off im a big Corsair fan so i would go with that, how much exactly do you have to spend on a GFX and which do you prefer ATI or Nvidia?

at the moment the 7800GT is the best bang for buck card but it may be out of your price range, next is the 6800 GT, or the 6600.

if i where you i would save a bit more and up the GFX to the 7800GT then wait till its adsolutly nessecary to get two...sorry if you guys havnt of guessed by my posts by now ive only ever used AMD and NVidia, someone else will help you out if you want a ATI card.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

ATI X800 has the biggest bang for the buck with ATI...although I'm an NVIDIA fan too myself...

 

[minorflex]

Thanks for your replys guys.

Saw the ram timmings were the same so will opt for the corsair ones as they are a tad chaper. In terms of graphics card budget is not all that big!

Because of work my time is tight and therefore gaming as a priority has dropped slightly. However that may also be due to the slow system im currently running!

Are all nvidea pic-e cards sli compatiable? If so I'd rather get nvidea, purely for the reason that the mobo is sli. Maybe something in the region of the 6600 ..and sometime down the line pick up another 6600 cheaper an up the gfx power? thats the line of th inking I had.

Just a bit curious, different ram modules with different timings, will whichever ram I put in the mobo be detected at its rated timings, or would I need to adjust in the bios?

 

[Flakes]

Just a bit curious, different ram modules with different timings, will whichever ram I put in the mobo be detected at its rated timings, or would I need to adjust in the bios?

depends on the RAM i know Corsair had some modules that default to some timings but yet they where meant to run at faster timings, so you had to change the setting in the BIOS is like a safety feature those defaults are designed to always work.

the 6600 sounds like a decent card and a nice upgrade path.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

"Are all nvidea pic-e cards sli compatiable? If so I'd rather get nvidea, purely for the reason that the mobo is sli. "

Yes, all nvidia PCIe (GeForce PCX series excluded) are SLi capable.

 

[minorflex]

Thanks for the reply guys, I've been b usy, but managed to find time to tinker with the ram choices.

I've decided to go for 2 x 1gig kit of ram, just so I have 2 slots free in the future ...in case..

also , some good news is that my friend is off in the states so im odering the ram from there because its cheaper and hes bringing it back! This kinda helpped my decision to go for 2gig.

Anyways I found this ram on newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146970

and on the surface it looked good enough. What are the opinons for the rig I suggested in the beging + this for the ram?

and to add more confusion ... I think I might be able to strech to a 6800gt 256mb however all the versions of this card are sold out on newegg! any other decent american sites I could order from?

cheers for the input

 

[h3llscream]

OCZ make good quality memory as does Corsair. I don't think you could go wrong with either of them. http://www.tigerdirect.com and http://www.directron.com are also some other places you could look for that card. Those are a couple of trusted sites I use when I can't find it on new egg.