Upgrade on a budget - Updated - Order Placed !!

Greetings!!

Been a while since I posted here on AD. Hello to all who know me!!

So ... I got a bonus at work. Not a big one, but enough to make a few changes to my system and maybe even play a few of the latest games. Problem is cost (isn't it always) so I am trying to retain as many parts from my current system as possible.

So what do I have at the moment ...

Abit SG80-DC motherboard
Intel P4 650 @3.4Ghz
1024MBytes memory
Ati X1600pro 512Mb Graphics card
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty Soundcard (including tower front interface)
3 x IDE Drives totalling approx 500Gb total
Pioneer 109 DVD drive (RW)
550W PSU

And what would I like to end up with ....

A Machine that can run the likes of Age of Conan, GRID, Mass Effect etc. without choking. Oh ... and I'd kind of like Raid 0 for max disk performance (removing texture loading lag in MMORPGs)

You mission, should you choose to accept it, is to come up with an upgrade that costs no more than £400 (including VAT)

This is what I have come up with so far ...

CPU - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(30941)Intel-CPU-Core-2-Duo-E840030GHz-1333FSB-LGA775.aspx - £111.61
MoBO - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(31802)Asus-motherboard-P5ND-nForce750i-SLI-LGA775.aspx - £79.90
GPU - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(26258)BFG-8800GT-OC-512MBGraphics-Card-DDR3-PCIE.aspx - £116.54
HD 2x - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(13888)Seagate-320GB-Barracuda-SATA-II--300-Hard.aspx - £48.54 (each)
Memory 2Gb - http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=P5N-D - £28.19

£433.32 total

What are your thoughts?

 

I really suggest you do not go RAID 0. You can find a nice fast HDD like the F1 ( http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(27074)Samsung-750GB-Spinpoint-F1-SATA-II-300-7200rpm.aspx ) for cheaper and wind up with a lot less crash-prone setup. Think about it, if one drive crashes you are lose all of the data that you had. You choice I guess, but I never understood the need for that. The 12.5% increase in games is just not justifiable to me.

http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/archive/topic/31802-1.html

 

I agree with proxy about the raid 0

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(37972)XFX-GeForce-9800-GT-512MBDDR3-PCIE-DVI.aspx

Thats essentially the same card as the 8800 but a bit cheaper.


Looking at your mobo, do you plan on going SLI later? If not get a P45 board as nvidias chipsets only plus are that they can enable SLI. An Asus P5Q or a Gigabyte EP45 should be more than sufficient. Something like this. If you want an onboard raid controller, find one that has "ICH10R" as the southbridge, or in the Gigabyte models, something like "EP45-DS3R".

For RAM, Mabye up it DDR2 800mhz? That seems to be the standard though 667mhz may be fine for you.

Thats my Opinion.

 

I remember you, Mr Taz, hello again!
I'm agreed on the RAID0.

Your components are fine, but you can do better on the GPU, by buying this:
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(37500)Asus-Radeon-4850-HD-512MBPCIE-DVI.aspx

 

well here is my attempt

 

A site other than OcUK? :O

 

i knew that would shock..LOL, but when i facotred in a better mobo vs shipping, ebuyer won

 

Thanks all, order has been placed

Should arrive tomorrow

I went with Nvidia because ATI just dont seem to have been the same since AMD bought them (my opinion) I have always bought ATI in the past but figured it was time for a change. Dont worry tho, the x1600pro 512 will not go to the silicon scrap heap. I have a world of warcraft fan screaming for it ;o)

I have changed the HDs and decided to try first without raid 0

I know the memory is not the best available but need to stay as close to my original buget as possible. Maybe I can swap it for something better in a couple of months. Although to be honest, if I'm not going to overclock, then it shouldn't be an issue. I know there are many overclocking fans here, but for me I have to balance risk and reward knowing that should I fry anything I cant afford to replace it.

Thanks for your feedback. I'll let you know how I get on

T

 

Your call mate, but the HD4850 is twice as fast as the 8800GT and £120 versus the £100 you paid for the 8800GT. Given the vastly better software they've had since even the last generation, the single cards actually seem even more reliable than the geforces.

 

Well the motherboard choice was a deciding factor too. Putting an Nvidia card on to a Mobo with an Nvidia chipset just seemed like the right thing to do.

If I was to go for an ATI card then I should probably also change the board to something like the ASUS P5KC.

Anyway ... it's ordered now so well see if i'm happy with it when it lands tomorrow

Thanks again for your feedback.

T

 

Don't mean to sound harsh, but buying a motherboard with an nforce chipset in the first place was the wrong thing to do.

Oh, also, you don't need any specific chipset to run any one video card, they all work with each other unless you use SLI or Crossfire.

 

Each to their own.

but consider this...

Why would I buy an SLI capable motherboard if I didnt want the option of making full use of it in the future?

Why would I then put and ATI card onto a board that is not crossfire capable?

chips sets do matter, motherboards are built to accomodate different technology solutions from the major players such as ATI and Nvidia.

These are MY choices, your advice was welcome. Please dont take offence when your advice is not taken.

 

1. because nforce chipsets are typically unreliable at best.
2. Because you could stil use a single card - one 4870 can run every game out there maxed out at 1920x1200 maxed, Crysis included, and the 4850 isn't far off.

I don't take offence to my advice not being followed, but you are going against the vast majority here by using an nforce board. The 8800GT is still a decent GPU and you choosing that over the 4850 isn't a huge deal, especially if you use 1680x1050 or lower, but the nforce board is. I strongly suggest you reconsider.

 

Yea...the nforce chipset was a bad decision.

 

Hello,

As you can see from this website. Amtrak went into administration the same day as they collected my order from Micro Direct.

I spoke to Micro Direct about this late yesterday evening and they were great. They have guaranteed devliery by another courier today before 12. Unfortunatley I am back in work today and so wont be able to do anything with it until tonight.

I will feedback as soon as I can.

 

Wow, unlucky man. I always avoided microDirect due to rude customer service in the past, but that was many years ago now. I also had isues with Amtrak when using them with another site, so avoided any site that used them too, though I never expected that!
Hope it goes alright for the rest of your build.

 

Well it all arrived yesterday (at 12:20)

I have to say Microdirect have been great. The problems with the courrier are not there fault and they have bent over backwards to make sure I still got my kit in a reasonable amount of time.

The stuff that Amtrak picked up must have still been in the Amtrak warehouse when they re-picked and sent out my stuff again. I even got a CPU upgrade suprise at no extra cost to me (E8400 ordered, E8500 arrived)

Put it all together yesterday and got the drivers etc installed. That has to be the fastest XP Pro install I have ever seen.

Not had much time to play with it yet but have to say that compared to my old system this thing flies! Mass Effect looked stunning!

Will feed back with some more details soon

 

That's a point, I need to grab the PC version of Mass Effect...

 

...so I managed to tear myself away from FlatOut Ultimate Carnage, to give you a little more feedback.

I ran Prime95 torture test over a period of 30 mins. I only ran a short test to reach max temp, extended test not really required as no overclocking stability test required (running stock speeds using stock coolers)

I had the fan control set to silent (minimum cooling, minimum noise) The ambient temperature was 25c. IF I had not set the fans to silent then the temps would be lower. I just wanted to see how far the temp would increase whilst in so called 'silent mode'

Here are the results



Not bad for stock cooling, but I may invest in a Zalman

T

 

65ºC CPU temp... wow, pretty toasty. If you can fit a Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme in your case, I'd strongly recommend you do so, especially if you want to overclock.