Upgrading on a Budget

[staffsMike]

Didn't read the whole thread before I was tired lol

If you aren't overclocking you could get the AMD X2 6000+
That's 3.0Ghz and can be had for about £90 or less sometimes.

If you can be tempted with the some seriously easy overclocking then the 5000+ black edition has an unlicked multiplier. This means that overclocking is all on the chip and nothing to do with the motherboard. It also means that all you have to do is change 1 number in the bios and it's done. You will be running 3.0Ghz easily and it stays as cool as a cucumber. That black edition only costs £78ish

RAM wise I would go with the geil personally even with the extra cost of delivery (i live near so pick it up myself) but either is fine.

I actually have a 5000+ black edition and I use it with an £34 uATX asus board (and overclock the chip) so it really can be done with pretty much any AM2 board you like (as cheap as you like)

The palit cards I mention actually come with a different cooler to stock by the looks of things but either will be fine as long as you don't overclock it.

[Pob255]

Ahh as the damage was cuased by a faulty PSU there's also a chance that the graphics card got zapped as well

No way to test it without chucking it in another pc.
While a X800XL is a little old now and will probably have probelms with the latest crop of games it's still a good card and should last you for a little while yet. (at least long enough to get a new card)

As for the 8800gt and it's stock cooler, I agree with silentvoice on this the stock temps are a little bit high for confort, while you can increase the fan speed to reduce these it's not the quiteest of fans.
However there's very little in the way of non-stock cooler cards atm and while any aftermarket cooler that works on a gf 7900 will fit on the 8800gt there is the whole issue of invalidating the warranty on a new card just to get sane temps.

You could consider the ATi HD3870 512mb for around £150, yes more expensive than the 8800gt 256mb but cheaper than the 8800gt 512mb and with a better stock cooler. (although it's very hard to find one in stock)

[Wyoming]

I can test the X800XL actually, just remembered that the PC I built my sister has a PCI-E slot. I'll do that when I get home. What parts can be damaged or are likely to be damaged by a bad PSU?

I'm hoping just the motherboard...