pc upgrade for £250

[gilljoy]

ok im new to hexus soo hello.

im thinking of upgrading my pc's processor but since i've got a rubish hp pc motherboard atm i also need to change the motherboard and therfore the ram my budget for the motherboard processor and 4gb ram is around £220-240. the psu i've decided on is a coolermaster 600w at £50 and a new tower at £25. so the grand budget is £295-320ish

i was thinking getting the q6600 as i plan on doing alot of gaming and mayb the odd dvd encode on nero. i wana be able to play crisis on high /very high. so im gona wait and get the 9800gt when they come down in price / my savings build up again. also the motherboard has to have ide slots as my dvd drives are ide.

im not sure wither i should get the q6600 the e8200 or a cheaper dual core as i want the pc to last me atleast 2 years but by the time quad cores are being used by games the q6600 may be too slow.

so my question is whats a good mobo and processor with thats in my budget.

[BUFF]

http://forums.hexus.net/current-barg...-pro-78-a.html

Possibly better than you need though, in which case the IP35 Dark Raider regularly comes around on Today Only at under £60.

& don't forget that you probably need a new OS licence when you change mobo.

[staffsMike]

I'd probably shoot that bit lower and go with the Dark Raider, it's a very nice board for the money.

I wouldn't get the coolermaster PSU, as far as I have seen and heard they aren't that great. Try the corsair 450 or 550VX they are £5 cheaper and more expensive respectively and more than enough to power any single GPU system right now.

If you are willing to overclock then the best dual cores to me are the pentium dual cores, easily overclocking to 2.8-3.0GHz which will last you a good while. The Q6600 will also easily overclock to 3.0GHz but obviously you get the 2 extra cores.

There are reasons to go for both, if you can justify using the extra cores now, for mulittasking, quick video encodes, gaming while encoding etc.. then the Q6600 is a truely fantastic chip, if your needs are mainly just gaming and the off bit of encoding here and there then save the money and get the dual core. They range from 1.6 - 2.4GHz stock and then all have an upper limit around 3.0GHz it seems.

With the dark raider overclocking these chips won't be hard on anything, other than the chips but they take it very well.

So I would get 4GB PC6400 for around £60 doesn't really matter who makes it.

Pentium dual cores around around £40 - £50.

and the dark raider for around £60. £170 for all that. If you want a really nice modular PSU then I would get the corsair 520W HX (£65)

[gilljoy]

cool gona get the dark raider,

im considering overclocking but mayb not alot as i dont wana kill my system unientintenloy.

im not sure which core 2 duo to get.. as i've said i wana be able to play crysis on high

[staffsMike]

that will be most down to your GPU rather than CPU. Anything running 2.4 - 3.0GHz will give the performance you need as long as it's got the GPU power.

[gilljoy]

ok heres the final build

e2200 £43
dark raider at £65
Corsair PSU 550W at £50
corsair 4gb ram at £47

total plus shipping = £225

gona get the coolermaster elite 340 but itts £5 more expensive in my local store so i'll pick it up there to save on postage.

means i've got £150 to spend on my gfx card

[staffsMike]

Well if you don't want to wait the 8800GTS 512mb is a fantastic card and can certainly do a very good job with crysis.

[gilljoy]

im waiting untill i get paid to get the gfx card soo i think i'll get the 8800gts

quick question is the Asus Motherboard P5N-E better than the dark reaper?

[BUFF]

No, imo (& I've got 1) it's definitely not.

[gilljoy]

dark raider it is then.. not sure wither i should get the corsair 550w or the coolermaster 600w as there the same price