- Jun 26, 2006
- 82
- 0
- 18,630
I've had my current PC for just over 2 years and I've not really upgraded it since I bought it except for an additional hard drive, here's the current system:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Winchester)
Zalman CNPS7700-CU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler
Gigabyte K8NXP-9
1Gb Crucial DDR400 RAM
Powercolor ATi x700 Pro 256Mb PCIe graphics card *crap*
2 36Gb Western Digital Raptors running in RAID 0 for games
250Gb Seagate Barracuda hard drive running as my main storage
Enermax Noisetaker 350W PSU *NO PCIe connector!*
I'm using on-board sound which I've been happy enough with so far. The audio is sent via SPDIF to an A/V receiver so there's no real loss of audio quality due to connections as it's digital to digital.
I'm happy with the pair of monitors I've been using, which are Iiyama Prolite 435S LCDs.
I'm just using a microsoft wireless multimedia keyboard and wireless comfort mouse which I'm pretty happy with.
I bought Half Life 2 Episode 1 on Steam and it crashed occasionally because my system just isn't up to running the latest games. I'm very much aware that my decision to go with an ATi x700 instead of an nVidia 6600 was a poor one to say the least. I don't want to run Episode 2 in anything less than the native resolution of my monitors, I don't think 1280*1024 is too much to ask for nowadays. I don't particularly want to play games on both monitors at once.
I'd like you guys to come up with a reasonable solution to make my PC suitable for some new games. I'd like to play F.E.A.R. and I'd like to have a pop at Oblivion. I own Doom 3, its add-on Resurrection of Evil and also Quake 4 but as I own an x700 they could have been so much more enjoyable in higher frame rates with visual goodies turned on.
I'd prefer to shop at www.overclockers.co.uk, but if you feel there are better deals to be had elsewhere in the UK, please let me know.
I was thinking of the following pieces of hardware:
On a lower budget I think an nVidia 7600 of some kind. I'm not so keyed-up on which to go for - GS, GT or what have you. I would also consider upgrading the CPU on a lower budget, perhaps a lower-end Athlon 64 X2? I assume I should wait for Conroe and then perhaps all CPU prices might drop a little.
On a higher budget I think I'll definitely need to replace that PSU. I don't think I'll be in need of a dual graphics solution, I feel that's a little too high budget for me and I don't feel I spend enough time playing PC games for this to pay off. I think I could get some extra mileage out of that RAM, it seems to overclock happily enough to give that 20% extra that you should always be able to coax out of hardware, the same is true of the CPU, although it's looking a bit dated now, especially since it's only a Winchester class A64.
I would definitely be open to suggestions of upgrading to an nVidia 7900 of some sort. I view the 7900GT as a chip that's not going to be a worthwhile investment if I want to be able to play the most modern games at 1280*1024 with all the settings up on full for at least a year and a half. I believe that because nVidia have released the 7950 they're not in any hurry to quit productions of the 7900 chips just yet, but maybe it is a way of suggesting that just one on its own won't be able to cope in late 2007.
I'm not a fan of my motherboard but I know I want to upgrade that to the Asus K8N Premium motherboard if I want to stick with socket 939, but frankly I don't see myself switching sockets just yet. S939 has a long shelf life in it yet and there's going to be a time when it's as cheap as 754 is now. Just imagine being able to pick up something perhaps just a little less powerful than an FX60 for £50-60!
One last thing...do you think I'll need to upgrade that Zalman fan? It stops me from plugging in the daughterboard to my motherboard which supplies more stable 6-way power to the CPU.
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Winchester)
Zalman CNPS7700-CU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler
Gigabyte K8NXP-9
1Gb Crucial DDR400 RAM
Powercolor ATi x700 Pro 256Mb PCIe graphics card *crap*
2 36Gb Western Digital Raptors running in RAID 0 for games
250Gb Seagate Barracuda hard drive running as my main storage
Enermax Noisetaker 350W PSU *NO PCIe connector!*
I'm using on-board sound which I've been happy enough with so far. The audio is sent via SPDIF to an A/V receiver so there's no real loss of audio quality due to connections as it's digital to digital.
I'm happy with the pair of monitors I've been using, which are Iiyama Prolite 435S LCDs.
I'm just using a microsoft wireless multimedia keyboard and wireless comfort mouse which I'm pretty happy with.
I bought Half Life 2 Episode 1 on Steam and it crashed occasionally because my system just isn't up to running the latest games. I'm very much aware that my decision to go with an ATi x700 instead of an nVidia 6600 was a poor one to say the least. I don't want to run Episode 2 in anything less than the native resolution of my monitors, I don't think 1280*1024 is too much to ask for nowadays. I don't particularly want to play games on both monitors at once.
I'd like you guys to come up with a reasonable solution to make my PC suitable for some new games. I'd like to play F.E.A.R. and I'd like to have a pop at Oblivion. I own Doom 3, its add-on Resurrection of Evil and also Quake 4 but as I own an x700 they could have been so much more enjoyable in higher frame rates with visual goodies turned on.
I'd prefer to shop at www.overclockers.co.uk, but if you feel there are better deals to be had elsewhere in the UK, please let me know.
I was thinking of the following pieces of hardware:
On a lower budget I think an nVidia 7600 of some kind. I'm not so keyed-up on which to go for - GS, GT or what have you. I would also consider upgrading the CPU on a lower budget, perhaps a lower-end Athlon 64 X2? I assume I should wait for Conroe and then perhaps all CPU prices might drop a little.
On a higher budget I think I'll definitely need to replace that PSU. I don't think I'll be in need of a dual graphics solution, I feel that's a little too high budget for me and I don't feel I spend enough time playing PC games for this to pay off. I think I could get some extra mileage out of that RAM, it seems to overclock happily enough to give that 20% extra that you should always be able to coax out of hardware, the same is true of the CPU, although it's looking a bit dated now, especially since it's only a Winchester class A64.
I would definitely be open to suggestions of upgrading to an nVidia 7900 of some sort. I view the 7900GT as a chip that's not going to be a worthwhile investment if I want to be able to play the most modern games at 1280*1024 with all the settings up on full for at least a year and a half. I believe that because nVidia have released the 7950 they're not in any hurry to quit productions of the 7900 chips just yet, but maybe it is a way of suggesting that just one on its own won't be able to cope in late 2007.
I'm not a fan of my motherboard but I know I want to upgrade that to the Asus K8N Premium motherboard if I want to stick with socket 939, but frankly I don't see myself switching sockets just yet. S939 has a long shelf life in it yet and there's going to be a time when it's as cheap as 754 is now. Just imagine being able to pick up something perhaps just a little less powerful than an FX60 for £50-60!
One last thing...do you think I'll need to upgrade that Zalman fan? It stops me from plugging in the daughterboard to my motherboard which supplies more stable 6-way power to the CPU.
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