Just registered this morning after reading through some posts as I am sure some of u lot will be able to help me. This will be longwinded - i hope someone bears with me! My PC badly needs upgrading - i am embarrassed to say i have an Athlon 850, GF Ti4600, 384MB PC133 - i think my case is ok and I have a 120 and a 30 gb hard drive (both 7200rpm),as well as a dvd drive and dvd rewriter,I have Soundblaster Live 5.1 and Sirocco Crossfire speakers, I also have a 17 inch Hansol 710P monitor which works fine but I will hopefully get a TFT in the new year. I am thinking of cpu,mobo,memory,video card + i know i will need a power supply for the new spec. At present I am considering the following but as u all know there are soooooooooo many options it is bewildering: - all prices in UK sterling - i am on about a £500 budget- the more i have left over the quicker i get my new monitor! Athlon 64 3000 939 socket approx £105 Asus A8N-E mobo approx £70 2 x 512mb PC3200 Approx £70 X800GT 256MB approx £120 At least 400W power supply First up does it really matter whether I get Venice core or one of the others like Winchester? Also i can get a 3000 oem for £85 or retail for £105 - which would u recommend? Should i go oem and get my own fan etc? ( if so what heatsink & fan do u recommend?) I can get a 3200 oem for £95 but I think the 3000 will be enough for me. I know nothing about overclocking. I have read great things about the X800GT and have been lead to believe that the Powercolor version is the best one to get. Anyone know if I would be as well off with the Sapphire one or should I go for only the Powercolor card? Other posts i read state that memory quality is very important if u intend to overclock but I doubt if i will go that route due to total ignorance on the subject so does it matter whether i go for corsair or kingston or crucial or even generic memory from the supplier? Also what does CL3 or CL2.5 mean? Do i need to make sure i get 1 or the other? Lastly what size power supply do u recommend? Is 400W enough? I have seen generic ones for less then £20 - would they be ok? In the unlikely event that anyone has made it down this far I would appreciate your help greatly. The more I read the more I get confused as it just opens up new options.
The Venice core is worth it. Power consumption is even lower than that of Winchester, which translates to lower temperatures. As for the graphics card, it doesn't really matter much who you buy form as most of the time they're close to reference design, as long as you go for a respected brand yo should be ok. Powercolor and Sapphire are both good, however you should look at the accessories you get with it. For memory, i recommend that you go with Corsair, Kingston, OCZ, Patriot etc. You don't want cheap RAM as it will be a strained part of you system and you will probably benefit from added performance and stability. The CL2.5 and CL3 are one of the timing latencies of the RAM. Lower latencies mean slightly better performance, although they're not critical. I suggest RAM with CL2.5. As for your power supply, everyone here will tell you not to go for a cheap brand PSU, one of the most common system killers. Check this thread: http://www.hardwareforums.com/power-supplies-you-why-you-dont-want-cheap-psu-updated-9-2-05-a-5218/
Good system for around £500 there, I read in a magazine that the X800GT's are made with the X800 and X850 cores that didn't quite make the grade (didn't have full pipelines, couldn't handle the bigger clockspeeds etc) so one of these may turn out to be a dream and you may be able to get a good overclock out of it (i know you're not big into that but a bit more performance for no real extra money is a good thing right?!) if it's got one of the better cores, if not then the card may probably be set at it's limit then, but even if you don't want to overclock that card is a good card. Go for something along the lines of a 450W+ Unit from a trusted brand, slightly more power will give you a bit more upgrade room and better stability with decent amps on the different rails.
Appreciate both of you taking the time to reply - u have helped clear some things up for me - pretty much think i will go with the specs i suggested and make sure i get good memory and power supply like u recommended. I think i will just go with the retail cpu - at least i will be sure it is adequately cooled.
Yeah OEM's are good if you're looking for another cooler anyway, you can save money on the retail stock HSF, but if you're not into overclocking etc then stock should be fine.
Ordered a Sapphire X800GTO for £114 from ebuyer.co.uk and got a retail Venice 3000+ for £95 from them too - pretty good prices i think.Treated myself to a saitek eclipse keyboard and logitech mx518 mouse when i was at it. Never built a system before and i am not someone particularly at home with a screwdriver in my hand so this could be some adventure! lol Thanks for taking time to reply to my query!
Here are some sites to help with the build steps http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/ http://www.buildyourowncomputer.net/learntobuild.html http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/ And we are of course here as well if you get stuck with anything... :good:
