hardware advice

[paki]

hi..

i finally decided to get a dell 2407 lcd monitor butt, my current system as follows may not handle it.

amd athlon 2.4
512 ram
geforce 3 ti 500

hmm i dunno, the monitor is coming tommorow so i cant know if it will work or not until then. its worked ok for most games with setting turned down*

i dont think it will handle the new monitor though so want some recommendations. nothing expensive please * i just wanna upgrade what i currently have.

its a nforce 2 motherboard, with agp so i think the old style graphic cards will work.

anyone know of a good card? radeon maybe or something

cheers in advance

 

[petevsdrm]

Just about anything would be a good upgrade from a geforce 3. How much money did you want to spend?

 

[paki]

about £100 hmm its like $200 but its really the same. things cost more in the uk.

i was lucky enough to get a pair of 1gig corsair 800 xms2 ram sticks from a cousin in america so i have the ram for my system. just need a graphic card

 

[petevsdrm]

This one
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-071-HT&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=
will do you nicely. Definitely the best in that price range.

edit: sorry didn't think of VAT (I live in the states) One more minute....

 

[paki]

hi, if i were to give you a budget of £400-500 could you perhaps choose the parts i would need?

i have the monitor, ram, dvd(old system), floppy drive(old system)

just need a cpu
case
power thing
motherboard
graphics

 

[petevsdrm]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-050-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411
This 7600gt is a good card, although it is quite a step down form the x1950 I listed above.

It is still worlds faster than your geForce 3, I can't imagine you being disappointed with it. 8)

Good luck

 

[petevsdrm]

You bet pal, as a matter of fact it's kind of a forum hobby around here to do just that. People love to see how good of a rig they can put together at minimal cost.

 

[paki]

by the way

will both those graphic cards you mentioned run on a nforce 2 motherboard?

hmm i think its 8X agp.

thanks for the help also, i really appreciate it

 

[petevsdrm]

Yeah they were both AGP cards.

 

[paki]

kinda off topic but you sound like you know quite abit about hardware .

what is the difference between a 650i and 680 i?

the nforce 6 motherboard like here

650i

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125082

680i

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/120936

680 i lt

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126014

does the 650i have fans on the board like the 680i lt? i hate the noise from too many fans so was curious.

cheers

 

[petevsdrm]

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2964&p=1
Here is a review detailing some features of the 650i and comparing it to the 680i.

I had started to put together a build for you using an AMD X2 6000+, would you prefer to go with Intel, or are you of no preference?

My advice at your price point is to go with the AMD, which is going to be slightly faster at stock speeds at the lower end of prices, unless you plan on overclocking.

The Intel Core 2 duo line is much better at overclocking if you feel comfortable doing that.

 

[paki]

nonono i suck at overclocking amd it is then

thanks for letting me know

 

[nightscope]

hi..

i finally decided to get a dell 2407 lcd monitor butt, my current system as follows may not handle it.

amd athlon 2.4
512 ram
geforce 3 ti 500

hmm i dunno, the monitor is coming tommorow so i cant know if it will work or not until then. its worked ok for most games with setting turned down*

i dont think it will handle the new monitor though so want some recommendations. nothing expensive please * i just wanna upgrade what i currently have.

its a nforce 2 motherboard, with agp so i think the old style graphic cards will work.

anyone know of a good card? radeon maybe or something

cheers in advance

Getting an x2 3600 and an am2 board would be a much better deal than spending money on an agp card. You already have the ram...which is good. You would also need a PSU though, unless you already have an efficient one. Then you can get a graphics card when you get the money...the processor and pci-e upgrade should be your main priority.

 

[petevsdrm]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-192-AM
AMD socket AM2 6000+ (AMD's top of the line right now)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-065-HT
ATI x1950pro overclocked (a solid gaming card)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-065-AN
Antec 900 (one of the most popular cases right now - high quality)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-062-AN
Antec TruePower trio (A high-efficiency, very solid PSU)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-071-MS
MSI K9N Neo-f (nForce 550 chipset, stable, good board, not sli or crossfire capable though)


Total for all these parts is £465.24 after VAT.

 

[petevsdrm]

It's getting late over here, if you have any questions just post them here and I will answer them in the morning(or someone else will beat me to it)

Good luck

 

[paki]

hi thank you for the reply

60 for a psu kinda high . is it possible to get something cheaper? arent all psus the same

cheers

 

[pchoi04]

hi..

i finally decided to get a dell 2407 lcd monitor butt, my current system as follows may not handle it.

amd athlon 2.4
512 ram
geforce 3 ti 500

hmm i dunno, the monitor is coming tommorow so i cant know if it will work or not until then. its worked ok for most games with setting turned down*

i dont think it will handle the new monitor though so want some recommendations. nothing expensive please * i just wanna upgrade what i currently have.

its a nforce 2 motherboard, with agp so i think the old style graphic cards will work.

anyone know of a good card? radeon maybe or something

cheers in advance

I was kind of in the same situation as you were in. Basically exact same specs as your current desktop but I had a Geforce 4 Ti 4600. I ended up just trashing it and building a new system in November. I was going to hold out until about now but since my computer was breaking down it just wasnt worth it for me to fix.

Now I've noticed some pretty big price drops since then. The Core 2 Duo E6320-6420 now have 4M of Cache and under $200 and the E6600 now at $235 is a killer deal. Video cards are also coming down little by little along with everything else. I only wished I could of waited until now.

But the Dell 24 if freaken sweet and I dunno if your current system will do it justice.

 

[petevsdrm]

hi thank you for the reply

60 for a psu kinda high . is it possible to get something cheaper? arent all psus the same

cheers

We can choose something cheaper, but you should read this first.
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/PSU-101-PSU-102-ftopict198276.html

It's kind of lengthy, but all good information. The PSU is often the most overlooked component of the pc. Unstable power can cause all sorts of problems from simple under performance to actual component damage.

I chose for you a PSU that has a bit more wattage than you need right now - so in the future you would be able to upgrade without having to buy another PSU. Also the higher wattage PSU's will last a lot longer when not run at near maximum capacity.

You could probably go with a lower wattage supply for your build, but I wouldn't recommend going to a lower quality.

O.K. seriously I am going to bed now. I'll catch you up tommorow.

 

[petevsdrm]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-061-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=103
There is this one, which is £18 less than the other, but you will lose over 100 watts of power.

I used this wattage calculaor this morning http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine
and it says that your system will pull about 300 watts. Keep in mind that the last thing you want is to use 100% of your power supply's rated watts, or even close, as this will dramatically shorten the life of your PSU.

Good luck
let me know what you decide

 

[paki]

thank you everyone for the update, since our last discussion i went out and purchased the following.

antec 900 gaming case
my ram has arrived

its corsair xms2 6400 800 5-5-5-15 ram
i was able to get this from the same guy that i bought ram from for £20
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/114945

will this be ok for my needs?

at the moment i need a new motherboard, graphic card, harddrive and cpu

i have read these forums a bit i have read that the new geforce 8800 card has a feature that i like a lot.

the moving video thing to gpu so i can do something else at the same time. at the moment my cpu cant do anything whilst watching movies so this feature is kinda cool.

problem is, there are cheap 8800 320 ones and there are expensive ones.

is there a difference? or are they all the same just different brands

also what is a good motherboard for this card and what kinda cpu do i need
for it.

i appreciate any reply, thanks

 

[paki]

i also have lots of different wires, some came with psu and some came with the case.

is there a guide that helps build a computer with pictures?

 

[petevsdrm]

Yes that PSU will do nicely. 8)

The 8800 gts 320mb is probably the best performance value for your money that you can buy today. It may put you a few dollars over your budget, but I think its worthwhile.

http://www.buildeasypc.com/hw/howto/assemblepc.htm
I did a quick search on Google and came up with this, but really your motherboard will come with a handbook detailing where everything should plug in.

I'll search around and recommend a couple of 8800's if you like, and tell you the difference between them.

 

[petevsdrm]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133193
Here is your basic 320mb 8800gts. No overclock, stock cooler, everything just plain vanilla, but extremely inexpensive with the outstanding performance you would expect from a geforce 8 series.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130038
This is an overclocked version, with the core clock set at GTX speed. (core clock 576 mhz, a GTX is 575 mhz) It's a bit more expensive, but you get a pretty good bump in speed for that cost.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130040
This is the highest overclocked version of the GTS , although the difference between this and the slightly less overclocked one is only 12mhz, which is hardly noticeable, although you would pay $30 more for it.

All of these are from newegg, you'll have to shop around for a UK vendor.

 

[paki]

hi thank you for the list. i have researched that card list from some uk sites but theyre called something else.

is the following a good evga 8800 320?

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125117

also i want a cheap mother board and a friends recommend me this one

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125082

can it do 16X pci express? i just want to use one graphic card and i wont be upgrading in 3 years. having 2+ graphic cards is pointless, i wont ever need any.

also how is the in built audio on that graphic card? i have a sound blaster 32 from my old pc, do you think i should use it?

cheers

 

[paki]

is this a good cpu also? its the cheapest core 2 duo i can find butt...

is it a poor choice cuz its cheapest? i have heard a lot of good things about th4e core 2 line from forums all over the internet. but is it ok if i get the slowest one?

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126904