Another upgrade thread! Mid range. £300-£400. Advice appreciated

[furiousfoggy]

Hi guys, I've been reading this forum for a while for ideas on how best to upgrade my system. I need to replace all the main components. Ideally I want to spend close to £300, but it looks like its going to be nearer £400. Defo not over £400. Used for lots of graphics (Photoshop etc), a bit of gaming, a bit of video editing but mainly just using the net, watching movies and playing music. I have some ideas on what to get, please tell me where I am right or wrong...

MoBo
Asus P5B (Which one? I've head the deluxe is good, but £125 is a bit steep for me)
or Gigabye DS3 (Again, which one?)

Processor
E4300 ~ £90(I haven't OC'd before, but it seems like it would be a good idea with this chip)

Memory
Not too sure, 2Gb might cost too much, can I get away with 1Gb for now?

Graphics
7600GT ~ Apparently £70 (Again, which one, they all look the same other than the price!)

Cooling
No idea

DVD writer
No idea

I already have a wireless card, so don't need that built in. I have an old SB Audigy card, will that be better than on-board sound these days? Will keep my old HDs for a bit, and upgrade when I have more money

Your thoughts are much appreciated. I'm sure all the other people who read these threads, but never post, would like to thank you too. Ian

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This system is well specified for the price:

QTY Price (ea) Ex VAT Total Inc VAT Remove
256MB Palit 7600GS Sonic PCI-E(x16) Mem 1000MHz GPU 450MHz 12Pipes D-Sub/Dual Link DVI/S-Video Fan £47.50 £55.81
1 LN16629 256MB Palit 7600GS Sonic PCI-E(x16) Mem 1000MHz GPU 450MHz 12Pipes D-Sub/Dual Link DVI/S-Video Fan
LN7593
2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC4300 (533), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £73.18 £85.99
LN17304
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, Socket 775, 1.80 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail £95.99 £112.79
LN13548
Samsung SH-S183A/BEBN Black SATA 18x18 ±R Dual Layer DVDRW Writer OEM UK inc Nero 6.x £17.79 £20.90
LN11608
400w Silverpower SP-400P1B thermal controlled cooling fans £20.79 £24.43
LN13080
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core / Core2Duo Ready £13.99 £16.44
LN15258
Gigabyte GA 965P-S3 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £56.19 £66.02
If you change any quantities, please re-calculate your basket
Scan Finance - Buy Now Pay Dec 2007
Pay £39.62 deposit and then NO payments for 9 months, then settle the balance and pay NO interest.

Scan Finance - More Sense Than Money


Net Total £325.43

Carriage £11.74

V.A.T. £59.00

TOTAL £396.17

The Silverpower is a decent 400w PSU and the 7600GS sonic is also very good for the money.

I would look on Ebuyer too as their 5 day delivery is free but their site is undergong maintenance at the moment!!

You should be able to get to 2.4ghz with few major problems theoretically!!

[tigerboyce]

This is just a quick system i put together and its just under £390

It has 2gb RAM but if you wanted to lower the cost you could probably go for 1gb but if you have vista youl probably want 2gb. Overclock the E4300, pretty good Mobo, DVD's are all reletavly cheap now, and a good fan to cool your overclock. The card can be changed around a little, and where you were confused about the prices, it wont make alot of difference, its still the same card.

LN17304
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, Socket 775, 1.80 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail £95.99 £112.79

LN13080
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core / Core2Duo Ready £13.99 £16.44

LN15258
Gigabyte GA 965P-S3 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £56.19 £66.02

LN15713
NEC AD-5170A Black x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK £15.59 £18.32

LN14797
256Mb XFX 7600GS, PCI-E (x16), Mem 700MHz, GPU 400MHz, 12 Pipes, Dual DVI-I/HDTV £52.99 £62.26

LN12200
2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £96.54 £113.43

If you change any quantities, please re-calculate your basket
Scan Finance - Buy Now Pay Dec 2007
Pay £40.31 deposit and then NO payments for 9 months, then settle the balance and pay NO interest.

Scan Finance - More Sense Than Money


Net Total £331.29

Carriage £0.00 (get 25 posts from this forum)

V.A.T. £60.03

TOTAL £389.27

if you wanted change the mobo to which is slightly better:

LN15070
Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £60.73 £71.36

[tigerboyce]

Oh yeah, it will cost more if your PSU isnt up to it, but those two systems are pretty equally matched

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would buy a new PSU IMHO unless you have a good one already.The Palit 7600GS is faster than the XFX one.

[tigerboyce]

very loud from what i heard though

[furiousfoggy]

Cheers, I'll have a look into those set-ups now

One other thing that would be useful, I would like my computer to be as quite as possible when not doing much (so I can leave it downloading over night in my bedroom). I'd go for a quite component over a loud one

EDIT - I have an Antec 380W PSU. Will that do for now?

[tigerboyce]

probably, but yes as cat said it would be a wiser choice to spend the extra little bit of cash, youl have a longer warranty, more power, and it wouldnt have degraded slightly

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

After looking at Ebuyer I came up with this system too:

Ebuyer 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 667MHz PC2-5400 240pin Extra Value Ram 116260 13 in stock £76.58 £76.58

Xpertvision nVidia 7600GT 256MB TV DVI PCI-E 125163 65 in stock £56.89 £56.89

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.86ghz Socket 775 FSB800 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 121407 628 in stock £96.36 £96.36

Asus P5N-E SLI 650i Socket 775 Onboard Audio ATX 125082 76 in stock £66.00 £66.00

Hiper 435W Silver Mesh Body - 120mm Fan ATX2.2 20+4pin 114104 42 in stock £29.99 £29.99

LITEON DVD8900/DW1670 16x DVD±RW/RAM Bare Black - OEM 119566 248 in stock £14.49 £14.49

Cart Total: £340.31

Approx Cart Weight: 6.22Kg


*FREE SHIPPING ON THIS ORDER» Shipping Band:
Shipping Surcharge:
Subtotal:
VAT:
Total: £0.00
£0.00
£340.31
£59.58
£399.89

The free shipping is 5 day supersaver delivery though!

[furiousfoggy]

Cheers, just in time, I was just in the process of filling up my scan shopping basket! I will have a look at the set-up now

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Being a total Moose I forgot to add the price of a decent cooler too!!

Here is the revised system:

Ebuyer 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 667MHz PC2-5400 240pin Extra Value Ram 116260 13 in stock £76.58 £76.58

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.86ghz Socket 775 FSB800 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 121407 628 in stock £96.36 £96.36

Asus P5N-E SLI 650i Socket 775 Onboard Audio ATX 125082 76 in stock £66.00 £66.00

LITEON DVD8900/DW1670 16x DVD±RW/RAM Bare Black - OEM 119566 247 in stock £14.49 £14.49

Innovision GeForce 7600GS 256MB DDR2 128Bit PCI-E 119697 4 in stock £45.95 £45.95

Coolermaster Hyper TX INTEL AM2/939/940/754 CPU Cooler 125164 2 in stock £15.73 £15.73

Antec EarthWatts 380W 80%+ Efficiency PSU - 80mm Fan 4x SATA PCI-E 120375 30 in stock £25.08 £25.08

Cart Total: £340.19

What is this? Deliver my Order:
Approx Cart Weight: 6.66Kg

*FREE SHIPPING ON THIS ORDER» Shipping Band:
Shipping Surcharge:
Subtotal:
VAT:
Total: £0.00
£0.00
£340.19
£59.57
£399.76