Time To Upgrade

OK I've really lost touch with PC's and upgrading as it was something I used to do all the time but the cost became too much. My current PC's spec is in my sig and it's about 2 or 3 years old now so things have really moved on.

So it's definately about time I started to upgrade but with the introduction of Dual Cores, PCI-e, massive RAM improvements, SATA optical drives I don't know where to start. I can't afford to change everything all at once so I'd like to buy some bits that are up to date but will still work with my current PC.

So what can I buy? I think I'm going down the dual core route so would 1066mhz RAM work on my machine till I can afford to change the MB, GFX and CPU? Should I change my IDE drives for SATA ones? (I have 2 SATA ports 1 currently in use with WD 320gb HD)
I also intend RAIDing two Raptors but if i bought these first I wouldn't have any ports left on my MB for my 320 storage drive. Also should I be looking to buy the 150gig Raptors considering Vista is 11gig?
I could buy a new power supply thats meaty enough for the gear I'm going to buy but this is going to be a gaming machine/HTPC so the supply needs to be good and also QUIET.

Thanks for any guidance

Simple place to start is..What is your budget realistically?

You're going to want to do the big upgrade first in my opnion rather than changing the drives etc..

A cheap core 2 duo upgrade might look like this.

CPU: E4300 - £75
Mobo: Asus P5b or abit AB9 - £80
RAM: crucial Ballistix is about £100 for 2GB of pc6400 (800mhz)

So you're talking £250 and you have a setup which will overclock (if thats what you're planning to do) to around 3GHz and beyond without any real problems.

If you have around £50 - £75 more to add to the cpu you could get an E6600 (2.4Ghz) for around £140 or a E6420 (2.13Ghz) for £125.

If you are still gaming then currently the best graphics cards are the 8800 series from nvidia. the 320mb GTS is around £170. Obviously £100 will get you a graphics card which is decent enough
for new games just at lower resolutions.

I really would like the 6600 and a decent motherboard and an 8800 so I realise i'm going to have to do these all at once. What I'd like to try and do is get the other parts of the PC upgraded first so that they are ready for when I change the above three parts

Anyone?

You will have to upgrade it all at once.

Would 1066 RAM not work on my board. I realise it would only be running at 400 but it would be one less thing to buy in one lump sum

Hi there, looking at the parts you have, a upgrade would not really be possible.
techonogly has moved forward, this means that:
if you buy a new motherrboard, a new processor is required, which in turn requires new memory (boards now use DDR2).
As you have a new motherboard you are going to need a new graphics card (boards use PCI-E not AGP)
aslo the power supply may need to be looked at, because all board are now ATX v2 standard (24pins + 4pins instead of 20pins +4pins)
Also if you are going for 8800 range you are going to need good Power supply 500W +

MAIN UPGRADE PARTS

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 S775, 2.40Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache CPU - Retail
YOYO Code - 5142 £145.21
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 800Mhz PC6400 Gold Memory
YOYO Code - 74232 £99.79
Abit AB9 QuadGT Intel 965 Socket 775 Dual DDR2 800 PCI-E 7.1 Channel Motherboard
YOYO Code - 6730 £107.18
Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M PCI-E RX1950PRO Graphics Card
YOYO Code - 89817 £106.31
Coolermaster iGreen 600W ATX Active PFS Powersupply
YOYO Code - 31833 £60.81

Sub-Total: £519.30
Handling/Shipping Charge :£9.99
Total :£529.29

*POINTS
gone for E6600 cpu as was the one you are interested in, also have gone for a Crossfire motherboard (2 ATI graphics cards), to start with have gone for the 1950pro, which is probably one of the best graphics card for it price..

OPTIONAL UPGRADES
Western Digital 74GB SATA RAPTOR Hard Disk Drive
YOYO Code - 538 £99.98
Western Digital 74GB SATA RAPTOR Hard Disk Drive
YOYO Code - 538 £99.98
Pioneer DVR-112DBK Black 18X DVD +/-R/RW DL - oem
YOYO Code - 8375 £20.20
Zalman CNPS9700 LED CPU Cooler
YOYO Code - 31718 £34.76
Sub-Total: £254.90

POINTS
would go for 74gb raptos - will save you some money - 2 74gb raptors in raid 0 - will give you 150gb as a "c" drive, then use 320gb as storage
added a quiet cpu cooler, to cut down on noise.

hope all this helps , and doesn't confuse you more ....
mark
www.yoyotech.co.uk
:juggle:

Looks like I need to get some major saving done then. I've been reading about that motherboard a bit. Since I primarily want to use this as a HTPC I definately want it to have HD outputs for a large HD tv.
Abit say that MB has the audio pins to connect to the GFX card so that the HDMI connection is true as the audio will be carried from the GFX card as well. Can anyone elxplain this a bit better for me? Also GFX cards (eg 8800) have two DVI connections. Why 2? and how do I make these HDMI connections

For an HTPC you may want to consider the 8600GTS which natively supports HDCP..it's the only card that does at this point.

The next batch of nvidia's most like will to though (8900) and the up and coming ATI's do to I think so waiting and saving seems your best option.

HDMI coverts to DVI with a hdmi-dvi cable.

Two DVI's for two monitors.

ATi's cards are going to carry audio I believe.

The only gradual upgrade path I know of is to use the Asrock Dual VSTA motherboard along with a new Core2 cpu.

This costs under 40 quid, will take 2 sticks of your existing RAM and your AGP graphics card. At some point in the future you can swap the RAM for DDR2, swap the graphics card for PCIe, all at your own pace.

Downsides: PCIe takes a few % performance hit as it is only actually 4x slot not 16x and at some point you will probably outgrow it and have to replace it possibly discarding your 38 quid investment :)

Upside: You may be able to buy this now and avoid a long wait before getting started.

I wouldn't bother faffing with hard drives & optical drives until the rest of the box is sorted. As for RAM speed, very few applications are that bothered and it will only get you a few percent for your additional money. In fact, the chipset used on the motherboard has more effect. This is partly why I say you would eventially outgrow that cheap motherboard.