Upgrading for 2005

[Cask]

I know these new PC threads are annoying for people with low-spec PCs like me, but I'm looking to buy a new box before the end of January to see me through 2005 and hopefully 2006.

I'm aiming for the most bang for my buck, but am not bothered about going top of the range on a few bits if it's really worth the extra cash. So far I've come up with:

CPU - [highlight]AMD64 3500 Newcastle[/highlight] (socket 939) ~ £174
Motherboard - [highlight]MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4[/highlight] (expected next month) ~ £120
RAM - 2 x [highlight]512MB Crucial PC3200[/highlight] ~ £100
Hard Disk - [highlight]Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 80GB[/highlight] SATA ~ £45
Graphics - [highlight]MSI GeForce 6600 GT 128MB[/highlight] PCI-E ~ £128
Case - [highlight]Thermaltake Tsunami[/highlight] ~ £63
PSU - [highlight]Antec 430W[/highlight] ~ £65

Will be importing bits from my current PC like extra hard drives, monitor and things, but still all that comes to just under £700 which is a fair bit over what I'd like to spend. Any suggestions on what parts I can change to save money and keep decent performance?

 

[Tom]

Get more RAM, and don't bother with all that 'matched ram' crucial bollocks. I've always bought the cheapest RAM around, and it works fine, all the time. You could get more than a Gig for what you're proposing there

The HD is a bit small, unless you'll be using an existing one. I'd also change the Antec PSU for a Zalman PSU, might be quieter, and certainly cheaper.

 

[Jupitus]

Tom, he's already saying 1Gb RAM - did you miss the '2x' or are you saying get more than a Gig? If so I'd love to know what games you plan on playing that need more ....

 

[Ch3tan]

And I would say get the best memory you can afford for the money, nice low latency RAM.

 

[Cask]

I'm alright for hard disk space as I'm going to import an 80GB and 120GB from this PC. Good call on the zalman though, apparently that tsunami case is a noisy bastard so could do with a quiet PSU.

Ch3tan can you recommend any RAM for that mobo/cpu? I don't really understand the system other than you should try to match 400MHz DDR with 400MHz FSB processor.

 

[Lumox]

Dual Channel Corsair

It's great stuff.

You're making the jump to 64bit and PCI-E, the only real saving I can see is if you get a slower cpu. If you really want to save money you could stick with socket A, get a 2500+ barton and clocking it to a 3200+. This should save you ~£150, including the cheaper motherboard.

The system you're speccing is futureproof and far more cost effective overall, it will easily last you for 1-2 years.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Hi Cask,

I am hoping, finances allowing, to build a new PC early in tyhe new year, and the spec I am thinking of is very similar to teh one you have here.

IN terms of the CPU I wanted a 3500 but am now considering a 3000 or 3200, Winchester. They run much cooler than the Newcastle and are very over clockable.

I have never really over clocked before, and to be honest it does make me a bit nervous, but articles such as this and this are making me wonder.

I'm not sure that'll have helped much, but it'll give you a bit more to read and think about

RB

 

[Tom]

ahh sorry I didn't see the 2x bit. Thats the evil of coloured highlighting! I got 3200 ram for mine, but the cheapest ones from Scan. I don't see Gordon forgetting how to fire his gun.....

 

[Gray]

I didnt even relise i was upgrading my whole PC until yesterday, i accidentally went overboard so i thought fuckit, might as well get a new case as well, which im gonna be ordering tomorrow

AMD Athlon Socket A 3200+ - £85
CPU Fan (Undecided atm)
2* 512mb Kingston Memory - £90
Chieftec ATX Tower - About £80

I almost cried when i relised how much i spent in very little time , but i'll be selling on the stuff i have now so i'll probably make up about £80 i hope, dont know

 

[Cask]

Looks like it'd be a piece of cake overclocking a winchester 3200 to 3500 so think I'll go for that. One thing I'm wondering will I need 533MHz RAM for that. I notice on the article where they overclocked the 3000 to 3800 they used 533MHz RAM but not sure if I'd need it taking a 3200 to 3500. Should save a few £££'s there anyway, thanks RB.

 

[Clown]

The multipliers are locked and I know nothing about overclocking RAM. Aww.

 

[Cask]

Oh so the only way to overclock is to increase the FSB? Sounds like too much hassle as I don't know how good that mobo will be or which RAM to get.

 

[Ch3tan]

I've got Giel value ddr 400 stuff, and it overclocks fine a little. If you get the faster RAM, it will be able to handle the FSB overclocking you throw at it up to its stated speed.

 

[smurkin]

I think the athlon 64s are a bit different....its not the fsb that overclocks the RAM...in fact, there isnt a fsb iirc (although its often called that) - the system bus (hence RAM speed) is controlled by the actual cpu itself.

So the RAM speed (on my gigabyte nforce 3) is a function of the "on cpu" system bus.

The cpu runs with the system bus x the mulitplier => MHz

The RAM also has its own control in the bios ranging from 166 default, to 200 (this is a multiplier for the RAM speed along with the system bus). This is independant of the system bus. So you can drop this if you want to use a system bus that causes the RAM to be unstable in order to further o/c the cpu.

More complex still, you can alter the timings of the ram and the cas latency - I suppose technically this is also an overclock.

Confused ? Well I am

My Gigabyte board is ok...but I wouldn't recommend as its infamous for being incompatable with some 3200 RAM (although Geil seems to be ok) - also, it seems Gigabyte might go bust financially.

One other thing is to get a board that can override the AGP lock - without this, the AGP bus is linked the system bus - which limits the range of system bus as your graphics card bus will only be able to go so high :touch: I think the lock override was only a problem in nforce 2 boards - so it prolly wont affect your choice.

 

[Ch3tan]

That sounds exactly like FSB overclocking smurkin.

 

[smurkin]

yup, I was just being picky

 

[old.Osy]

There is quite some haggle about NF3 mobos and 6xxx nvidia card. Might be that NF4 solves those inconsistencies, but you never know.


http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=32759&page=1&pp=15

 

[Cask]

It's all getting too complicated. Thanks for the info Osy.

 

[Cask]

Tinkered around a bit more. Gonna risk the nForce/geforce 6600 problems. I'd still like to knock more money off but not sure I can without compromising something. Gotta say a £15 PSU from Q-Tec is temping but not sure I'd trust a £15 PSU.

 

[SawTooTH]

I wouldnt trust a £15 psu. Get a decent PSU, you won't regret it.

 

[Clown]

Q-Tec are meant to be really bad, exploding and shorting motherboards and stuff.

 

[smurkin]

just a thought...you can get a tagan combined ATX/BTX psu for about that price (50 quidish)...a bit more future proof

QTec...are infamous for blowing

 

[Danya]

I love my tagan, it's sweet.