Computer Upgrade on a strict budget

[Bugz]

Suggestions/improvements/criticisms?


Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache (2x4MB (4MB per core pair) Retail Boxed Processor - £133

Asus P5N-E SLI 650i Socket 775 PCI-E Onboard Audio ATX Motherboard - £56

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800Mhz/PC2-6400 Memory GOLD DUAL CHANNEL Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) - £55

BFG 9600GT OC2 512MB Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - £102

Coolermaster Centurion 5 All Black Case + 550W eXtreme Power Plus PSU - £75

Sony CRX320E 52x32x52x16 CD-RW/DVD-ROM Internal IDE (Beige) - OEM - £11


I already have a 250 gb harddrive and for the moment, that will do me nicely.

The total for the above items is £432 quid via. ebuyer.

I was looking at c2d but thought I might as well pay the extra and get a quad. I went for the expensive case and psu for reliability really.

Anywho - yeh - criticism as you like

[Kryten]

Change motherboard for a non nVidia chipset one for performance and reliability reasons, gigabyte P35-DS3 for the same price.

Change video card for an ATI HD4850 for far better performance for the same price as that otherwise poor 9600GT.


That processor is silly high priced, I'd not pay more than £105 inc vat for it. Do you really need quad core? Otherwise go for the E8400 dual core, better all round performance for games.

Case & PSU is a good choice, I think I've commented on it's value before.

And you've an IDE burner - get rid of it for a SATA one, you've only one IDE connector on modern motherboards and ideally you want to avoid using it for *anything*. Sata drives will also be cheaper. For a fiver more you'll get a SATA DVD/RW drive.

[Bugz]

Thanks for the advice - greatly appreciated.

How does this look? (changed ram to fit a bundle offer):

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed

MSI P35 Neo-F Socket 775 FSB1333 onboard 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 HyperX Memory Non-ECC CL5

Sapphire HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI Dual slot cooler HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card

Sony DRU-190S 20X DVD±RW DL & DVD-RAM Serial ATA - Retail Multi Bezel & Nero

total: £420

[Kryten]

All good but MSI are the devils work. Asus or Gigabyte.

[BloodOmen]

Not bad for £420 also good advice Kryten Should give me some advice on picking some new bits and bobs out for my box currently got an AMD 6000+ in my pc, alot of games seem fine although I do have the odd jerky patch.. might be down to my card tho as its an 8800GT (single card no sli atm) 3072DDR2 800mhz ram aswell (can't remember what make exactly i'm quite sure its OCZ tho) - CPU currently clocks in at 3.2ghz or 3.0ghz (can't remember which i'll check later when i've finished formatting it on laptop atm)

I'm told the processor is fine for a good while yet but the graphics could could use an upgrade and I should get rid of my shitty MSI mobo (fast replacement and cheap piece of crap I bought when my main gigabyte one died on its arse)

[Cemeterygates]

Originally Posted by BloodOmen

Not bad for £420 also good advice Kryten Should give me some advice on picking some new bits and bobs out for my box currently got an AMD 6000+ in my pc, alot of games seem fine although I do have the odd jerky patch.. might be down to my card tho as its an 8800GT (single card no sli atm) 3072DDR2 800mhz ram aswell (can't remember what make exactly i'm quite sure its OCZ tho) - CPU currently clocks in at 3.2ghz or 3.0ghz (can't remember which i'll check later when i've finished formatting it on laptop atm)

I'm told the processor is fine for a good while yet but the graphics could could use an upgrade and I should get rid of my shitty MSI mobo (fast replacement and cheap piece of crap I bought when my main gigabyte one died on its arse)

I can't really see how an 8800GT would be a problem, run one in my system with 3GB RAM and a standard clocked Q6600 and I am yet to run a game it seems to struggle with.
Granted there are better cards out there but it isn't a shabby card.

[Kryten]

Indeed, nothing wrong with my 8800GT either There are quicker cards but I'm afraid in this case it's not going to be the bottleneck you're looking for.
Processor should be fine, it's not as quick as a modern Core2Duo kit but it's not far off, certainly not enough to make an issue in game.

[Bugz]

I will be ordering this tomorrow. How is this for the motherboard?

Gigabyte GA-P35-S3G iP35 Socket 775 6 channel audio ATX Motherboard

+ all the stuff above.

[Kryten]

Aye, not a bad board. Doesn't have some of the features for overclocking that the DS3 has but still a decent budget board.

[Bugz]

What about paying that tiny bit extra for a Gigabyte motherboard that supports pci 2.0?

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 P45 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard for example?

That is only £10 more than the p35 range?

[inactionman]

P45 will run cooler and probably faster, so I'd say it's worth the tenner.

[Kryten]

Aye, didn't realise that's the price gap of them - certainly go for the P45 in that instance. Futureproofs yourself that little bit more too.

[Bugz]

Hello all,

just thought I'd lend some feedback and say thank you for the help I received (esp. to Kryten). Myself and my brother put together the computer last night; and at the moment I am nothing short of damn right impressed by the performance of it.

I haven't bothered to overclock yet; but everything is cool; ventilation is very good; albeit there is a bit of noise but one can not complain.

Just a heads up for anyone looking to purchase a similar-spec computer; do so as you will not regret it

Delivery from ebuyer was also top notch!

[Kryten]

Good news, cheers for letting us know It goes to show how much power can be had for so very little money. To get something of this comparative performance even as little as 3 years ago you'd be spending nearly twice as much money - and what people perceive now as a "small budget" you can get a ruddy good system!

I've had my problems with eBuyer in the past and probably will continue to do so, but generally their aftersales people aren't too shabby so I can put up with the odd issue considering their prices. I've often paid for (well, not paid) free 5 day delivery and it's turned up the following morning.