Upgrading/rebuilding my PC - advise wanted :)

[Roalith]

Current setup is:

Geforce 3 64mb
Abit KT-7A Raid mobo
Athlon Thunderbird 1200 mhz
2 x 256 mb PC100 SDR Ram

Obviously, it's a few years old and is barely keeping up with modern games. Finally figured it's time I upgraded, so I've been having a play around on www.scan.co.uk. I am an experienced home-system builder so I know what I'm doing, that side isn't a problem. However, price and upgradeability is, and I obviously want to get the best system possible out of my budget. I would also like the system to be relatively quiet - my current box isn't much quieter than a hoover.

I am planning to move my old GF3 across the systems, and upgrade it for a new GFX card at a later date (IE: when I have more money). Especially the way the GFX card market is currently - may possibly even wait for the 'next big thing' to come along, then nab a cheap GF FX 5900 or something as the price comes down. Likewise, HDDs aren't a problem - I have a 80gb 7200rpm Maxtor and a 40gb 5200rpm Western Digital.

I would like to upgrade my soundcard too, as I'm currently using some generic cheapo 16bit thing. However, this is a low priority as I tend to listen to lots of house/trance music, and my hearing isn't too hot due to a couple of years spent dancing next to obscenely powerful speakers at clubs and festivals. Believe it or not.

Anyway, this is what I've come up with. Processor will also be something to upgrade fairly easily about 6 months down the line, the motherboard can take the latest 800 FSB P4s - possibly higher with later BIOS versions down the line.

From www.scan.co.uk:

Gigabyte GA-8IK1100 i875P P4 DDDR Canterwood £113.39
2.4GHz (PG-800FSB) HT Intel Pentium® 4 CPU 512k Cache £134.23
Corsair TwinX 512MB 3700 Low Lantency ( 2 x 256MB 3700) £146.88
Chieftec Scorpio Silver TX-10 SLD 340W PFC Midi Case £67.27
Coolermaster Aero 4 (ISB-V73) Socket 478 P4 7 inc 3.5" Fan Adjuster Low Noise £21.15
2 x Coolermaster Internal Case Fan 80mm FAS-B83 £5.85
Coolermaster Premium Heat Sink Compound & app' Kit £3.70

TOTAL £504.22 Incl Carriage & VAT

 

[Roalith]

From Overclockers.co.uk:

Coolermaster Aero 4 (Socket 478) (HS-008-CM) £27.90
TwinMOS 1GB (2x512MB) DDR PC3200 Dual Channel Kit (MY-007-TM) £119.95
Abit IC7 "Canterwood" (Socket 478) Motherboard (MB-031-AB) £86.50
Total: £275.36 incl VAT

And from Scan.co.uk:

2.4GHz (PG-800FSB) HT Intel Pentium® 4 CPU 512k Cache £134.23
Chieftec Scorpio Silver TX-10 SLD 340W PFC Midi Case £67.27
2 x Coolermaster Internal Case Fan 80mm FAS-B83 £5.85
Coolermaster Premium Heat Sink Compound & app' Kit £3.70
Total: £222.80 incl VAT

Overall total: £498.16 incl VAT

Gets me twice as much ram running at the same speed, a better motherboard, and a copper heatsink instead of aluminimum (IE: runs cooler)

tbh.

 

[Rubric]

Try Ebuyer those scan prices seem a little bit over the top there.

I got :
-A7N8X Deluxe SKT A NForce2 Chipset Motherboard VER: 2.0

-AMD XP2800+ Retail Boxed 333 FSb Barton 512kb L2 Cache Inc

-2 X Samsung 256mb PC3200 400Mhz Original DDR 184pin

-Leadtek Winfast Fx 5600 AGP X8 MyVIVO 256MB DDR DVI Dual Monitor Out

-Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 120Gb 7200rpm UDMA133 Hard Drive

-Samsung 52x24x52x16x Internal Ide Combo CDR & DVD

-Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Plus a nice case with neon bubble lights on the front with window on the side & also fans with LEDs on them.

All that for about £910 including delivery which was very prompt.

I recon you could be able to shave some money off your spec or come up with a new spec altogether there. Also recomend the mobo highly and the integrated sound on it is good. Dont recomend the GFX card thuogh. Well not yet atleast. Maybe when DX9 becomes more readily used it will rock. Fingetrs crossed.

Edit oh and that including a 17" monitor & speaker & Keyboard.

 

[Roalith]

Ebuyer working out more expensive without a case for the components.

 

[Rubric]

oh fair enough. apologies.

 

[PadreMM]

Hiya Roa

Check out www.Novatech.co.uk as wel. They have pretty cheap alternatives. Buildt a second PC and upgraded my current one with parts from them. Maybe this would suit you if cheap matters...

AMD instead of Pentium though, but will give you 2.0Gb CPU, 333MHz FSB motherboard with 1Gb 400DDR RAM, decent soundcard and a nifty case (advise you get separate case fans that are quiter though). Ti4800SE GFX seems OK for DAoC, and is thus good value... but haven't used it much so far.

Links at the bottom as well

Novatech Athlon / Pentium4 Black MidiATX Tower Case 350W PSU With Side Window & Neon Light

Asus A7N8X Socket A NFORCE2 AGPx8 400DDR Audio USB 2.0 Firewire & ATA Serial Motherboard

AMD Athlon XP 2800 Barton Socket A CPU 333 FSB 640K Operational Frequency 2.083GHz

2* 400MHz 184Pin 512MB PC3200 DDR RAM DIMM 2.5V 3.2Gb/Sec

Novatech GeForce4 Ti4800 128Mb DDR AGP Graphics Card TV Out (OBS!!! This is a Ti4800SE - NOT Ti4800

Creative Soundblaster Live! Player 5.1 Sound Card OEM Card & Driver Only

All for £395 (£464 inc VAT)


http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-CFBCNL

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ASU-A7N8XD

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?AMD-XB2800

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?RAM-40/512

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-GF48TI

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?CRE-PLY51O

 

[Rubric]

The onboard sound on the Asus board you quote there is good enough. It is 5.1. Si no need for the additional soundcard.

 

[PadreMM]

Rubric,

That's true and I was actually chuffed when I bought it and kicked myself for getting the Soundcard when I buildt my machine.

Gave the soundcard to my wife when I buildt her machine... she listens to music more than me and likes to be able to tweak the sounds a bit more. And I only use my PC to play games anyway, so the onboard sound is good for me..