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Thread: £200 to spend for upgrade

  1. #1
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    Question £200 to spend for upgrade

    Hi,

    This is my first post and I'm hoping for some good recommendations to upgrade my system. I only have £200 to spend (my laptop is my main PC), but will only be using the upgraded machine for Internet / Office and probably CM07/08.

    I've read some of the posts about budget systems already on here, but I last upgraded my machine about 3 or 4 years ago and have lost touch with the various paths to follow.

    My current system which was a self build consists of:

    Motherboard - ASUS A7N8X 2.0
    Processor - AMD Athlon XP @1800MHz
    Memory - 2 X 512MB OCZ DDR-SDRAM PC3200 OCZ400512EL
    Graphics Card Radeon 9600 XT (V350)

    The power supply came with the case: Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet Case - 380W TruePower Silent PSU.

    I'm interested in a reliable system and am unlikely to overclock. I would be looking to upgrade the MB/CPU/Graphics and imagine this means that I would also need to get compatible memory / power supply.

    You help would be greatly appreciated.

    mcc28x

  2. #2
    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    • staffsMike's system
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    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    £200 is seriously tight for the grpahics card as well.

    Intel Pentium core 2 duo 1.6 OEM - £30 (i would get the motherboard below and overclock this to the board native FSB which will give around 2.6Ghz)

    Abit IP-35E - £60 (there will be cheaper boards if you don't want to overclock but none i can recommend as I dont have any experience with them)

    2gb DDR2 ( PC6400 RAM ~£40 for a lot of good brands)

    Leaves £70 for the graphics card.

    DX9
    Ati X1950pro or nvidia geforce 7900gs

    DX10
    Geforce 8600GT

  3. #3
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      • Memory:
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      • Storage:
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    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    I would probably go for something like this,

    Motherboard - Abit AN-M2
    CPU - AMD AM2 Athlon 64 4200+ Dual Core 2.2GHz
    Memory - 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800)
    Graphics - 256MB MSI 8600GT Overclocked or 256MB Gigabyte HD 2600 XT

    Comes in at ~£200

    and should easily run everything you mentioned

    Hope this helps

  4. #4
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    • Bleek's system
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      • Memory:
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      • Storage:
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      • PSU:
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      • Internet:
      • 2Mbit (max in my village)

    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    In that price range definately stick with AMD, a little overclocking and you'll see a good gain out of any of the AM2 chips.
    The situation's looking...

  5. #5
    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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      • Motherboard:
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      • CPU:
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      • Memory:
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      • Storage:
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      • PSU:
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    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    tbh i'd probably go AMD to (and am for a budget system next week) but if you think you'll want to upgrade again in the near future you have a lot more upgrade potential with intel at this time.

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    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    I would go AMD AM2 also.

  7. #7
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    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    AMD Phenom's will work on AM2 socket mobo's
    Quote Originally Posted by Ephesians
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  8. #8
    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    • staffsMike's system
      • Motherboard:
      • evga 680i
      • CPU:
      • e6600
      • Memory:
      • geil ultra pc6400
      • Storage:
      • WD 320gb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • leadtek 8800 GTS 640mb
      • PSU:
      • ocz gameXstream 700w
      • Case:
      • akasa eclipse
      • Monitor(s):
      • dell 2007wfp and Lg L194WT
      • Internet:
      • pipex homecall

    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    Indeed, Thats the way I see it by going AMD, but I do have that nagging feeling of safety with Intel lol

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    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    Quote Originally Posted by Webby View Post
    I would probably go for something like this,

    Motherboard - Abit AN-M2
    CPU - AMD AM2 Athlon 64 4200+ Dual Core 2.2GHz
    Memory - 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800)
    Graphics - 256MB MSI 8600GT Overclocked or 256MB Gigabyte HD 2600 XT

    Comes in at ~£200

    and should easily run everything you mentioned

    Hope this helps
    Hi,

    This spec looks interesting. Will I need to change my power supply? I'm currently using Antec 380W TruePower and if so what do you recommend as a reasonable choice?

    cheers

  10. #10
    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    • staffsMike's system
      • Motherboard:
      • evga 680i
      • CPU:
      • e6600
      • Memory:
      • geil ultra pc6400
      • Storage:
      • WD 320gb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • leadtek 8800 GTS 640mb
      • PSU:
      • ocz gameXstream 700w
      • Case:
      • akasa eclipse
      • Monitor(s):
      • dell 2007wfp and Lg L194WT
      • Internet:
      • pipex homecall

    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    It's a solid Powersupply, i'd imagine it will do just fine. the graphics card would be the main concern but I believe it doesn't use a dedicated PCIe power cable so it shouldn't draw very much power.

  11. #11
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      • Motherboard:
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      • CPU:
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      • Memory:
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      • Storage:
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      • Graphics card(s):
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      • PSU:
      • Corsair TX750w
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      • Operating System:
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      • Monitor(s):
      • Samsung SJ55W, DELL S2409W
      • Internet:
      • Plusnet 80

    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    if you really are only using it for champ/internet/office then:

    Foxconn MCP61SM2MA-ERS2H Socket AM2 NF430 onboard VGA DDR2 mATX
    Kingston 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory
    Innovision GeForce 7300GT 256MB DDR2 128Bit PCI-E
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (2.8GHz) Socket AM2 2MB L2 Cache (2x1MB) Retail Boxed Processor

    comes to 198.05 from ebuyer
    Quote Originally Posted by Ephesians
    Do not be drunk with wine, which will ruin you, but be filled with the Spirit
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  12. #12
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      • CPU:
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      • Memory:
      • 2GB OCZ Flex DDR2 PC2-9200 5-5-5-15 @ 1000MHz 4-4-4-12
      • Storage:
      • 2x 250GB WD SataII
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Sapphire HD4870 512MB, Cooling Swiftech MCW60
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX520w
      • Case:
      • Silverstone Tremjin TJ06 - Modded for Water Cooling Goodness
      • Operating System:
      • Windows XP Pro SP3
      • Monitor(s):
      • 22" Widescreen Cibox C2201 (with DVI input)
      • Internet:
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    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    Personally I wouldnt go for that Foxconn board, it has a max of 4GB of ram (1GB per slot) so while not important now limits later upgrades, the PCIe slot is only 8x not 16x, also a single IDE and 2 SATA doesn't leave much upgrade in terms of hard drives and cd/dvd.

    In addition to that I know that the 4200+ is an energy efficient model requiring 65W while the 5600+ is going to be 90 or 120w with only a 380w PSU the lower clocked processor would make more sense. In fact you can go up to a 4800+ at 65w or Athlon X2 BE-2350 (2.1GHz) is only 45w if slightly slower and more expensive.

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    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    yea, tight budget upgrades dont last very long and leave small further upgradeability.

  14. #14
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    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    if the slot was only 8x you wouldnt be able to plug a x16 card into it... thats not actually correct then is it?
    Quote Originally Posted by Ephesians
    Do not be drunk with wine, which will ruin you, but be filled with the Spirit
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  15. #15
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      • CPU:
      • Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 @ 3.5GHz, Cooling D-Tek Fuzion V2
      • Memory:
      • 2GB OCZ Flex DDR2 PC2-9200 5-5-5-15 @ 1000MHz 4-4-4-12
      • Storage:
      • 2x 250GB WD SataII
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Sapphire HD4870 512MB, Cooling Swiftech MCW60
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX520w
      • Case:
      • Silverstone Tremjin TJ06 - Modded for Water Cooling Goodness
      • Operating System:
      • Windows XP Pro SP3
      • Monitor(s):
      • 22" Widescreen Cibox C2201 (with DVI input)
      • Internet:
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    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    Quote Originally Posted by MadduckUK View Post
    if the slot was only 8x you wouldnt be able to plug a x16 card into it... thats not actually correct then is it?
    Well actually yes it is!

    If you check Foxconns specs page for this mother board here you will see that while its a PCIe x16 slot it only signals at x8 so while you can plug a PCIe x16 card into it you will not achieve its full potential.

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    Re: £200 to spend for upgrade

    Will I have any problems fitting the micro ATX form factor into my ATX Sonata case?

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