PC Upgrading Discussion

[Simon Trendell]

Nice, wood floor has to be tricky

 

[Oliver Amos]

Also do you drive off centre to your new monitor? That would make me go crazy

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

Nice, wood floor has to be tricky

I place the chair on top of some clothes when I'm driving It works OK so far

Also do you drive off centre to your new monitor? That would make me go crazy

LOL, no. That would make me go crazy too. My desk is not in race-mode in that picture:beer:

 

[Hayden Walker]

in my experience you are cheaper off buying a computer off dell.the xps laptops arent really for gaming nor is any laptop as they just arent up to spec yet

i would say a dell dimension or xps 430 is amazing

i have dell 9200
it's got following spec

2.40 core 2 duo
nvidia 6800gts
500gb sata hardrive
4gb 667mhz ram

and it runs every game at high except fsx what a surprise tho eh even microsoft cant play that on max yet

i used to get my brother to build my computer as he is a it technician but u end up cheaper just buying a computer


http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/p...spx/desktop-xps-430?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

hope this helped only a suggestion goodluck

 

[Dave Stephenson]

With the 2 sets of ram if you want to use all of them set the timings to the slower of the 2 if they are not the same and you should be fine. might be ebtter just using the 2x2 tho so you can run dual channel.

 

[Abdul Al-Amry]

First post updated with pictures of the PC. Minor cable management left to finish.

Its a pleasure switching it on.

 

[Mike Hill]

system builders - I need some advice on an upgrade!

Hi guys!

I'm hoping that you guys will be able to help me out. I am about to get my bonus from work on 20th March, and I am looking to do a bit of an upgrade to my PC, so that I can better enjoy the GTR evo experience that I am having.

I have got some experience in putting PC's together, but dont have any idea as to what would be the best way to upgrade my current setup. I do have FIXED budget of £350.00 sterling to play with and I am hoping that you guys will be able to point me in the right direction of the components that I will need to purchase to bring my baby up to a decent spec.

This is the breakdown of the current setup:

ASRock 939S56-M Motherboard
AMD Athlon Dual 64 +4200 processor
4GB ram
Windows XP 32bit (Media Center Edition) fully service packed up
Creative Audigy4 Pro
Nvidia Gforce 8600GT PCI-E card
1 x 120GB IDE HD (set as drive C)
1 x 200GB Sata HD (set as drive D)
1 x 400GB SATA HD (Set as Drive E)

I do run 2 monitors from the computer on occasion - The second is switchable between the PC and my Xbox 360 by way of a switch box.

I have a copy of Vista 64 bit ultimate on the way (upgrade version) so that doesnt have to come out of the budget, and I realise that I may not have the drives configured in the best way, but that was just in the order in which they were added to the system!

If any of you could offer some advice on the best way to update this to maximise performance and "future proof" as best as possible (i was thinking of going cpu/mobo route - is this the best way to go, if so what should I get?)

After seeing the wealth of advice you guys were able to provide Knut on another thread, your opinions would be very much valued!

Thanks in advance

 

[Christopher Aponte]

Hi Mike
first of all
what is the motherboard that you have right now? An AM2 socket motherboard?
and the RAM card. Is it a DDR2 or DDR?
right now I say the graphics card & IDE hard drive needs to go, as for me are not really something future proof :wink:

btw I think most of all also need to know what kind of Power supply you have in your case right now

 

[Mike Hill]

oops, forgot to put in the PSU details!

The PSU is a xilence XP 480watt.

As for the motherboard, here are the summary specs:
939S56-M

• Socket 939 for AMD Athlon™ 64FX / 64X2 / 64 processors
• SiS756 chipset

• For advanced Socket 939 AMD Athlon™64X2, Athlon 64FX, Athlon 64 processors
• FSB 1000 MHz (2.0GT/s), Hyper-Transport Technology, Cool'n'Quiet Technology
• Dual Channel DDR400/333/266 memory, 4 DIMM slots
• PCI Express x16 slot for VGA interface
• PCI Express x1 slot
• Hybrid Booster - ASRock Safe Overclocking Technology
• SerialATA 1.5Gb/s, RAID 0,1,JBOD, SATA HDD Hotplug
• 7.1 channel Audio, 10/100 Ethernet LAN
• ASRock 8CH I/O: 4 ready-to-use USB2.0 ports, 7.1channel audio jack

 

[Christopher Aponte]

hhmmm
4 things needs upgrade then
Motherboard
Processor
Ram card
graphics card

seeing your budget I would go with the recently released AMD phenom 2 processor (quad core if you can) and with an AM2 motherboard
but I'm not really familiar with the AMD processor

besided that go with an ATI card just to keep it under the budget

 

[Mike Hill]

hhmmm
4 things needs upgrade then
Motherboard
Processor
Ram card
graphics card

seeing your budget I would go with the recently released AMD phenom 2 processor (quad core if you can) and with an AM2 motherboard
but I'm not really familiar with the AMD processor

besided that go with an ATI card just to keep it under the budget

yeh, i've been looking into those Phenom II processors, and the mobo's that go with them, but really cant tell which would be the best combination. I'm guessing that I would probably have to upgrade the PSU to be able to run it all too?

 

[Damian Henderson]

I can do you 2 builds.

I will put them together.

Give me 10 mintues.

 

[Christopher Aponte]

trying here
but it is hard with a uk online store, as I am really not familiar...I think here Damian can help you better

 

[Mike Hill]

trying here
but it is hard with a uk online store, as I am really not familiar...I think here Damian can help you better

no problem Christopher, thanks for trying!

 

[Damian Henderson]

Intel / ATi Build:

Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G iP31 Socket 775

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151053

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8GHz

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152177

ASUS HD 4870 512MB GDDR5

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152939

OCZ 4GB DDR2 800Mhz/PC2-6400 GOLD XTC Lifetime Warranty

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146049

= £358
_____________________________________

AMD / ATI Build:

ASUS M3N78 SE nForce720D Socket AM2+

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152578

AMD Phenom X3 Triple Core 8650

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144635


ASUS HD 4870 512MB GDDR5

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152939


OCZ 4GB DDR2 800Mhz/PC2-6400 GOLD XTC Lifetime Warranty

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146049

= £356

( Free postage from ebuyer to )

 

[Damian Henderson]

Both a little over, but your 939 motherboard, cpu ram will sell for around £100 +, as 939 stuff goes for quite a bit of money these days so you could sell those parts and go a little over budget.

Infact what I would do is get a GTX260 core 216 over the 4870 ( As it's faster / uses less power ) with the money you get for 939 parts. Up to you anyways.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/155581

The Intel CPU / Mobo is quite a bit faster and uses less power btw.

 

[Mike Hill]

Damian,

thanks for the advice mate, appreciated! I'll look into those components now. As for selling the old processor and mobo, I hadnt thought that they would be worth that much really. Was considering using them for a "first pc" for my son, which would mean that I wouldnt be able to sell them, but the options that you have pointed out may be possible if I do sell.

 

[Damian Henderson]

Well, you could sell your 939 parts and build another AM2 rig with a x2 for less then what you sold the 939 parts ( cause am2 stuff goes for like twice as less! ) and probably have some money left over to add to your upgrade.

Take this for example, it will probably go for like £70-£80 :S

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AMD-ATHLON-64-X2-4200-2-2GHZ-1MB-CACHE-Socket-939_W0QQitemZ260369741334QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Motherboards_CPUs?hash=item260369741334&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1690|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

You can buy am2 version of that CPU for like £40-£50 new.

939 is highly wanted and valued these days.

Do whatever is easier for you.

 

[Mike Hill]

why is 939 so highly prized at the moment?

 

[Damian Henderson]

It's a strange one.

Guess it's because the socket is discontinued / old and cant buy new and very rare now.