I need to upgrade to a decent mid-range system, need help

[SonOfCrusader76]

I don't want to spend above £300 (and even that is pushing it), so can anyone suggest an upgrade package for RAM, mobo, CPU and GPU within this budget? The main part I don't want to skimp on is the 8800GTS, so everything else needs to fit around that. If that's not possible, then can anyone suggest a decent budget range Nvidia 8 range, or maybe upper level 7 range?

From PC Gamer: Core 2 Duo E4300 £77

"1.8GHz and only 2mb of onboard cache, but it's a great performer for the price and a good starting point for overclockers". (Budget choice CPU) Scrap the bit about overclocking, I have no wish to leave myself open to the risk of frying my PC complete with £300 of upgrades!

1.8GHz? My AMD Athlon 64 3000+ runs at more than that (single-core). Would this be a true upgrade, does Dual Core mean the overall system speed will effectively be faster than my current CPU? If not, there's no point and PC Gamer's mid range chip, Core 2 Duo E6600 £152 is a bit out of my budget.

PC Gamer: Conroe XFIRE-ESATA2 £59 Asrock "There aren't many Core 2 capable budget boards, but this cheapo mobo muddles through and supports ATI's Crossfire too."

Conroe mobo: £59
Core 2 Duo E4300 £77
8800GTS £193
RAM: approx £30 comes to around £359, which is quite a bit more than I want to spend. I'm generally happy with a mid-range system and don't mind turning off some GFX effects in order to make a newer game run smoothly. Is there any way I can squeeze a decent mid-range upgrade package into around £300?

What if I was to stick with my current processor and mobo, would that bottleneck the 8800GTS too much? If so, can anyone suggest a GPU for around £100 that will do the job for a couple of years (remember, I don't mind turning down effects or even resolution as long as the game runs smoothly.)

God, it is so annoying that I have to get a new mobo! I've only had this one for about 2 years, surely you shouldn't have to upgrade your mobo that soon? Also, when I got it, it was top of the class in PC Gamer: ASUS A8N-SLI deluxe. Surely, the way GFX are going, we'll soon reach a plateau where the upgrade speed will slow down? Obviously, photo-realistc GFX are as high as it can go, but I don't think certain types of games should ever go photo-realistic, such as GTA or wargames. Can you imagine anyone slightly unhinged playing photo-realistic GTA then goes outside and - wow - everything looks the same as it does in game!

Dangerous, if you ask me.

Anyway, I reckon £300 is quite enough to spend on an upgrade, even that's pushing it a bit, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Dick]

1.8GHz? My AMD Athlon 64 3000+ runs at more than that (single-core). Would this be a true upgrade, does Dual Core mean the overall system speed will effectively be faster than my current CPU? If not, there's no point and PC Gamer's mid range chip, Core 2 Duo E6600 £152 is a bit out of my budget.

Better architecture ultimately means the core 2 duo outperform the AMD comtemporaries, even at a lower clock speed, meaning it is an upgrade.

PC Gamer: Conroe XFIRE-ESATA2 £59 Asrock "There aren't many Core 2 capable budget boards, but this cheapo mobo muddles through and supports ATI's Crossfire too."

There is probably cheaper motherboards around, especially as you aren't interested in overclocking. Try sites like ebuyer, microdirect, dabs and some others people will hopefully recommend.

RAM: approx £30 comes to around £359, which is quite a bit more than I want to spend. I'm generally happy with a mid-range system and don't mind turning off some GFX effects in order to make a newer game run smoothly. Is there any way I can squeeze a decent mid-range upgrade package into around £300?

£30 worth of RAM? How much is that? Your AMD chip is not AM2, so you would need your RAM to be completely DDR2 (your old stuff isn't), and with anything less than 1GB you'd be bottlenecking your system, and that's pushing it.

What if I was to stick with my current processor and mobo, would that bottleneck the 8800GTS too much? If so, can anyone suggest a GPU for around £100 that will do the job for a couple of years (remember, I don't mind turning down effects or even resolution as long as the game runs smoothly.)

I'd say yes, you'd have a top of the range GPU and a mid to low range processor. For £100 you could get a 7900GS, but that would still probably be bottlenecked by you current system.

I've only had this one for about 2 years, surely you shouldn't have to upgrade your mobo that soon? Also, when I got it, it was top of the class in PC Gamer: ASUS A8N-SLI deluxe.

Trouble is you're going from AMD to Intel, meaning different sockets. You could look into upgrading to a faster AMD processor. How much RAM have you got? It would probably be best to upgrade your current system, depending on what you can get. Processor may be a problem as you'll still be working with socket 939, and old one.

Anyway, I reckon £300 is quite enough to spend on an upgrade, even that's pushing it a bit, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Trouble is, your edging more towards revamp than a simple upgrade. Give us your current specs and we'll see what we can do.

[SonOfCrusader76]

Better architecture ultimately means the core 2 duo outperform the AMD comtemporaries, even at a lower clock speed, meaning it is an upgrade.



There is probably cheaper motherboards around, especially as you aren't interested in overclocking. Try sites like ebuyer, microdirect, dabs and some others people will hopefully recommend.



£30 worth of RAM? How much is that? Your AMD chip is not AM2, so you would need your RAM to be completely DDR2 (your old stuff isn't), and with anything less than 1GB you'd be bottlenecking your system, and that's pushing it.



I'd say yes, you'd have a top of the range GPU and a mid to low range processor. For £100 you could get a 7900GS, but that would still probably be bottlenecked by you current system.



Trouble is you're going from AMD to Intel, meaning different sockets. You could look into upgrading to a faster AMD processor. How much RAM have you got? It would probably be best to upgrade your current system, depending on what you can get. Processor may be a problem as you'll still be working with socket 939, and old one.



Trouble is, your edging more towards revamp than a simple upgrade. Give us your current specs and we'll see what we can do.

Thanks for your help. My current specs are in my signature together with an ASUS A8N-SLI deluxe mobo.
What would be the fastest available processor for this mobo? I'm sure there are a couple of slower dual core AMDs available for it.
Also, I say £30 of RAM as my local computer shop are doing some great deals on RAM at the moment and I'm sure the guy said that my memory is DDR2, but it was a while back, I could be wrong.

Would an 8800GTS be bottlenecked by a faster single-core AMD 64?

[Dick]

Also, I say £30 of RAM as my local computer shop are doing some great deals on RAM at the moment and I'm sure the guy said that my memory is DDR2, but it was a while back, I could be wrong.

Your motherboard is socket 939, meaning it's DDR, so completely new RAM would be needed. Personally I'd go for an upgrade of processor and another GB of RAM, and then spend the rest of your budget on a graphics card.

Any idea what your PSU is? It could be a problem if you go for a 8000 series card.

So presuming you don't need anymore parts, I'd go for:

Processor: AMD Athlon X2 4200 - £64.95

RAM - Dependant on your current RAM, google CPU-Z and naviagte to your RAM, it should tell you a speed, hopefully 400mhz. Also, I'm pretty sure you have free slots, but it might be worth just checking. Another GB of like this would be about £35.

Graphics card: 8800GTS 320mb - Link snatched from Freddie, may just be able to afford it providing your RAM is up to scratch and you don't need a new PSU. Otherwise the ATI Radeon x1950xt Freddie linked would be more than accurate to play games.

[Freddie]

I suggest you start washing cars or get a part time job because £300 is really pushing it..........but I love a challenge. A 8800 GTS and dual core for £300. lets see. BBL, I think I'll start by building it around a Pentium E2060.

BTW I hope you realise that If this can be done you will have a more powerful computer/games machine then a PS3 which is sold at a LOSS!

BBL

-------------------

Ok start of with one of these

Pentium E2140£42.00 bargin

Asrock p945 Spcket 775 £51.00

8800 GTS 320Mb £170

Case with 400 Watt PSU£30.00 (I feel bad about giving you this crappy PSU but needs must)

Lg 16x DVD-Rom (no burning but at £9 don't complain)

80Gb SATA Hard Drive £25.00

Total £327.00 - £27.00 over budget hmmm

ATi Radeon x1950 xt £118.00 It's not DX10 but this is a great card for that price and it puts you £40 under budget.

You can afford to buy a Keyboard and mouse!

[SonOfCrusader76]

I suggest you start washing cars or get a part time job because £300 is really pushing it..........but I love a challenge. A 8800 GTS and dual core for £300. lets see. BBL, I think I'll start by building it around a Pentium E2060.

BTW I hope you realise that If this can be done you will have a more powerful computer/games machine then a PS3 which is sold at a LOSS!

BBL

-------------------

Ok start of with one of these

Pentium E2140£42.00 bargin

Asrock p945 Spcket 775 £51.00

8800 GTS 320Mb £170

Case with 400 Watt PSU£30.00 (I feel bad about giving you this crappy PSU but needs must)

Lg 16x DVD-Rom (no burning but at £9 don't complain)

80Gb SATA Hard Drive £25.00

Total £327.00 - £27.00 over budget hmmm

ATi Radeon x1950 xt £118.00 It's not DX10 but this is a great card for that price and it puts you £40 under budget.

You can afford to buy a Keyboard and mouse!

Thanks for the help. I'm not broke, or anything, I'm merely of the opinion that splashing £300 all in one go at upgrading a PC is a touch...extravagant. By the way, I don't need a new case/monitor/keyboard/mouse or anything like that, so I don't need to consider them in my budget.

Once again, thanks for the help and I appreciate you posting those links as well!

Edit: Can you clear something up for me? Is it really worth bothering with SLI/Crossfire if you're only ever going to buy one GPU at a time?
Also, the CPU you mentioned runs at 1.60Ghz. As it's dual core, is that like a CPU running at twice that speed? Sorry, but I'm a noob when it comes to this sort of thing (in case you haven't already figured that! )

[Shaun]

Freddie, I believe you forgot to add in RAM.

[Freddie]

Freddie, I believe you forgot to add in RAM.

That could be a potential issue.........

I see £300 more as a system refresh i.e. new video card and more ram, for when your computer is still fine but you can no longer play games at full detail.

[SonOfCrusader76]

What would be the ATI equivalent of 8800GTS and how much would it cost in £s? I've heard that AMD boards work better with ATI cards.

[Shaun]

Well, he will need RAM as his current RAM will not be compatible with the new motherboard.

[SonOfCrusader76]

Well, he will need RAM as his current RAM will not be compatible with the new motherboard.

I'm leaning towards keeping my mobo and getting the fastest processor it can handle, along with an 8800GTS.

[Freddie]

The ram was a genuine mistake I simply forgot about it.


The only problem you might have is your motherboard might not have the PCI-Express slot needed for the 8800 GTS.

[Dick]

The only problem you might have is your motherboard might not have the PCI-Express slot needed for the 8800 GTS.

It does, I checked. The specs of his motherboard are annoyingly hard to find, but it has SLI. I'm more worried about the PSU holding up.

[Doono]

No duel core is exactly what it sounds like, a cpu with 2 cores. It allows a system to do two things symaltaniously. Though it may not seem like it a core can only process one thing at a time, it just dosen't seem that way because of how fast cpu's are. However if your running something that demands alot of cpu time for example an antivirus scan everything else grinds to a halt.
Thats why it's near impossible to play a game while an anti virus is running on a low end single core cpu. A duel core can shift the load between both the cores, so say your running your game on the first core and the anti virus on the other meaning you don't get performance issues.

Regarding your system, i would not bother tryign to upgrade on such a low budget, get yourself £400 and it might be doable £300 is simply not worth it, even if you got any sort of system put together the power of that 8800gts will not be utalised because you would have had to skimp on another component like the cpu or RAM.

[SonOfCrusader76]

I'm considering a mid-range mobo, CPU coupled with a 7900GS. Comments?

[spartan_phalanx]

CPU:
E4300

MB:
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R

GPU:
X1950XT

Total = Less than £300 (~274 inc VAT)

Note: Overclock it to 2.4/2.7 on stock and your set.

[Dick]

CPU:
E4300

MB:
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R

GPU:
X1950XT

Total = Less than £300 (~274 inc VAT)

Note: Overclock it to 2.4/2.7 on stock and your set.

He still needs RAM, puts him overbudget.

7900GS - £87.77 - A good card.

X1950GT - £83.78 - Better and cheaper. - The one I'd go with.

[spartan_phalanx]

OK I was going off his last post, even so he should be able to pick 2GB for £70 or better and that puts him at ~£350. A bit more than originally planned but he would be getting the newer motherboard which supports 1333 FSB and that should last him for 2-4 years or so.

[Shaun]

Remember, he will need DDR2 RAM, which is more expensive than you think... he might have to settle with only 1GB.

[SonOfCrusader76]

Kingston 1.GB 240pin DDR2 PC667Mhz PC5300 for PC £26.00 (ex. Vat)

Would a stick of this do?

Ok, how does this sound?

Mobo: Conroe XFIRE-ESATA2 £59 Asrock/Gigabyte S775 Intel P35C Express ATX Audio Lan £70
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.80ghz Socket 775 £78
Kingston 1.Gb 240pin DDR2 PC667Mhz PC5300 £30
GPU: Asus EN7900GS 256Mb DDR3 PCI Express £99
or
Asus EN7600GS Silent 512Mb DDR2 £57

Total: £276/£234

How long would that system be likely to last for (don't mind turning down settings a lot) and what are your opinions on the value for money?
Would the 7600GS be able to match the 7900 due to its increased memory? And what do these GS/GT/GTX suffixes actually mean?

Edit: How would the X1950 XT sit with an Intel mobo?
The main reason my mobo is now outdated is the arrival of dual core, isn't it? So if I go for a good mobo now with dual core support, will that be it for a few years, or is there another processor type just around the corner?

God, upgrading PCs is so damn frustrating!!