ok i nkow i'm supposed to be a techie... but its been so long since i bought any new hardware (or even read up about it!) that i'm not sure what to buy now that i wanna upgrade me PC

i'm looking at a new motherboard, chip, memory, GFX card, and HDD

now, i fancy a SATA150 harddrive, so obviously motherboard gotta support that, want one with onboard sound+lan too. as far as motherboard go, ive lways just bought the cheapest one out there, never bought a "decent" motherboard before! so anyone got any reccomendations?

graphics cards, i fancy a Geforce 6800 but dunno if its worth the extra money going for a GT version or not... what ya recon? i'd like to not spend TOO much money, but if the GT is worth the money then it'll be bought (the Ultra is well out of my pricerange!!!)

memory i'll just 2x 512mb sticks of a branded name thats compatible with the mobo/chip so thats not a problem.

now... chips (and obviously a mobo thats compatible) what the fook is a good one to get? i got a choice between a 3200+ XP and a 3400+ 64 (which only runs at 2.2ghz?) now since all my bloody applications are only 32bit anyway, is there any point going for the 64 and would i be better off with the 32bit XP which has a higher clockrate anyway the system will primarily be used for playing games and encoding/decoding video files for DVD Rips etc. Or ofcourse there's the good old Intel P4... is it worth going down this route? are the P4s worth the extra expense on a games machine? If so what's the crack with P4, P4 Extreme, P4M etc. etc. why is the bloody namig structure so complicated

i tried to look at a few reviews etc. via goodle, but not really clarified anything! lol

so guys, any ideas on what to go for?

as a comparison my current spec is:

2400+ Athlon XP (2.0ghz)
Cheap Shitty motherboard with USB2.0 ATA133 Sound Lan 266FSB
2x 256mb DDR266 Ram
160GB ATA133 HDD
Geforce FX5200

 

Jim, I am also a techie too, but why do you ask such complicated questions on a Friday afternoon. Your supposed to be winding down for the weekend.

Hows the new job btw

 

new job is sweet, just kickin back for a bit on a lunch break got some technical stuff to sort out later (a business critical clustered SQL server's gone tits up and now i gotta fix it... i only been here a fookin week and they're giving me jobs like this )

 

Go for a well named Board

Mine is Gigabyte, and has everything you've said.

No real point of going 64BIT CPU IMO do to 99% of programs not even using or needing it.

Would go for an ATI card personally, tried a few Geforce cards and thought they had poor 3D skills and also didnt like some of the moden games.

Get some nice 400DDR aswell

 

Wouldn't bother with 64 bit yet IMO....
I have one of these with a 3.4GHz P4, 160Gb SATA, 128Mb ATI graphics card (don't play that many games) and 1Gb RAM. Excellent quality, just add CPU, RAM, HDD and CD drives

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=78668

Make sure you buy the SATA version as well
Worth a look

 

Well the memory you have bought is gonna largely play a part in the speed of your new system, tell me it aint pc3200 ram please.

What about Athlon 64 3200 inchester £140 skt 939 chip
Mobo with sli, sata, nforce 4 skt 939
2 x 160gb western d 7200rpm 8mb sata drive £60 each
2 x geforce 6600 gt`s running in sli £135 each can be added 1 at a time

for benchmarks of hardware check out www.tomshardware.com and the cpu reviews.

 

definately dont get a gigabyte board there shit

i to recomend getting the 775 Pentium 4 with hyperthreading they are now faster than the athlons i have built

get a mobo based onthe intel 925 chipset using a lga 775 cpu

533mhz ram DDR2 and you will be laughing.

beware SATA hard disks can be awqward to install windows on as you need a floppy disk to install the drivers before windows install will recognise.

Most new motherboard use a 24 pin power connector AND a 4 pin on the board NOT a 20 pin + a 4 pin

you will need a new power supply these are not cheap expect to pay £50 + for one

i still would not go for the geforce but that is a matter of opinion i would get the best you can afford in the graphics department.

but a P4 with hyperthreading is defo the option atm

 

oh and the new motherboards usually only now have 1 IDE channel

so that means only 2 ide devices

my mobo came with an adaptor to fit an ide hard disk on a sata cable tho

bare this in mind !

 

I just put together my new pc this week (anyone else got Colin McRae 2005?)

AMD64 3200
Asus A8N-Sli Motherboard
Asus N6600GT GFX Card
1GB Dual Chan PC3200
And a posh aluminium case
2x 160gb sata drives

Runs all games sweet as!! and cost less than £700. I really recommend the mobo i got, you can run two gfx cards so nice cheap upgrade in the future and it has so many features.

 

Righto Jimbob, I'm currently upgrading my Athlon 3000xp cpu and motherboard due to a fatality

So, the new spec is as follows

Amd Athlon Xp 64 bit cpu
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=62704

Asus K8V-SE Deluxe S754 VIA k8t800 ATX Sound Gig lAN Firewire USB 2.0 FSB 800 Retail Box

Due to the recent gigabyte board being DOA

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=59993

I currently have a 5600XT 256meg nvidia card in it which runs at 1280 x 1024 resolution on both 17" monitors

Memory is just 3 x 1 gig Ebuyer extra value ram, which will be upgraded when more companies do 1 gig sticks.

SATA is the way to go for drives imo pal, I have 6 ide drives in mine, runs alright, data transfer ain't too shabby

I can run Command And Conquer Generals Online in 1024 x 768 resolution with everything max'd and no problem what so ever

 

re: graphics cards, i'd rather stick to nvidia cards, as it's what i know and i'm stuck in my ways (bit like how people stillbuy nokia phones even tho 99% of them are shit ) ive been put off of the 6600 card as i keep reading everywhere about compatibility issues and bugs etc. etc. so dont wanna buy something thats complete pants :P

also should i stick with AGP or is it worth going for this new fangled super-dooper 12x PCI stuff? i assume i will be fine with 8x AGP anyhow?

re, the CPU i think i'll forget about athlon 64, so it comes down to a match up between an Athlon 3200+ or a similar spec P4... what we recon is the route to go down?

as for IDE devices, i only run 1x CD/DVD drive, so i may aswell keep that and the 160gb HDD and use that 160GB hdd for movie storage or something, using the new sata drive (probably a 200gb 7200rpm 8mb jobby) for the important stuff that needs fast access times etc.

as for installing XP with a sata device, i dont see it being a problem, as i'm pretty competent with that kinda stuff

ps thanks for your help guys!

 

Jim, if a 6600 dont work cause of bugs, a 6800 wouldnt work either, the reason is nvidia cards use the same unified drivers. Im sure you will find setup problems or cheap components are to blame for the probs. The 6600gt is the best value for money card at the minute and a simple upgrade is to add the second one at some point.

I currently run the spec below and play doom3 and half life 2 fine as 1280x768 no probs (widescreen monitor) Im gonna wait for the newxt generation of intel chip before upgrading.

abit ic7 max 3 mobo £42 new lol ah Pcworld
pentium 4 2.8 533fsb cpu running at 3.2ghz
512mb ddr 400 ram
abit siluro 128mb geforce 5900 ultra (running at 5950ultra speed) £19.99 pc world
2 x 120 gb seagate sata drives and a 120 gb maxtor

 

jim ive jsut upgraded from a xp 3200 _ and a abit NF7-S

if you wanna buy it off me lol

 

Craig, that's what I have sitting on top of my tower unit m8













It's fucked tho

 

my first nf7_s blew the ago bus

then the athlon went tits up

replaced it all but ive upgraded ive gone p4 now partly due to the reliability hardware issues i had with my athlon setup

 

craig, what money you want for it all and what exactly have you got?

like i said i'm looking at upgrading more or less the whole lot, mobo, chip, ram, hdd, GFX etc.

i can make about 100quid back on my currentsetup from my mate who wants to update his 1.3ghz/Geforce4/128mb/20gb setup


also, just to BTTT this a bit more... what processor should i go for does anyone actually know the difference in a real world scenario? (AMD XP vs P4... ive given up on the AMD64 idea)

 

IMO you cant beat a P4 (more reliable than these cheap AMD crap huh Dan )

The graphics card to buy at the moment is the Nvidia 6800 (NOT THE ULTRA OR GT). The ultra and GT are quite alot more ££ than the non ultra and they only perform a small amount better than the NU.

Mobo either Abit, MSI or Gigabyte

 

WTF??

Yeah i got all that and more

 

M8, you got Command And Conquer Generals yet ? I want to see if your shonky P4 handles it as badly as tony's does

 

Doom 3 son, generals is ooooold now

 

AFPMSL

me too

wtf

as long as my computer lets me play the internet then thats cool

 

I'd go for a Athlon XP 3200+ which runs on a 400mhz bus,
and is quite cheap comparing to slower p4's.
For the videocard, I wouldn't spend too much money for a Geforce 6800GT, since I think you don't need it, there aren't very much "normal" apps yet which need that kind of performance in combination with a Athlon XP 3200+.

Good luck..

 

ok i think im pretty much decided on the 3200+ then, so obviously i want the usual 400DDR memory etc. etc.

now mobo wise, i read on a few places that very few 400 rated motherboards are actually stable when running a 400FSB!!! read on tomshardware that the only one that works properly is the revision2 of the nforce2 chipset powered mobos... i think this was an old review tho... anyone shed anymore light on the subject, dont wana buy a shonky mobo that isn't a "prope" 400FSB one

rudey, ive only ever owned nvidia cards, and the last time i actually knew much about the new technologies was back in the days when the geforce1 was 1st released and ATI were always well behind the times back then.

so if we say 400fsb 3200+ XP, 2x 512mb DDR400 (pc3700 aint it?) then obviously a grf card to match, and wha youre saying there is that a 6800 will be overkill on that spec...

ok so i want a DX9 compatible card that will work well with the above spec any recomendations?

 

the 6800 gfx card not the GT or ultra tho

 

andy, yes but the 6800 will be overkill on a 3200+ system, it would be a waste of money...

 

not a waste of money it would be a future proof graphics card

way i see it you buy a cheap gfx card for £100 and in 8 months time you need to buy another one at £100 cos the last one wont play a game or run a new version of media player etc.

So buy a decent one now and you wont need another for over a 18 months or maybe longer (but just dont blow the expensive gfx card up like i did and then have to go and buy another one )

 

i just check checked the price on the normal 6800 and its not as pricey as i though might get that anyway

craig, got any more detail on your unwanted kit?

 

Go for the 6800 without GT or ultra or whatever

I use an Albatron mainboard (KX600-pro) with 400fsb, and with the Nforce chipset, works really good.