Looking for advice on upgrade.

[Insight]

My computer is really starting to feel it's age barely scraping by at the minimum specs for games nowadays, currently running an Athlon 64 3200, GeForce 7600gt.

Yeah, it's pretty old but I've decided to treat myself and buy a new computer, primarily using it for gaming: TF2; COD and such. But I really don't know what I am looking for, reading some of the other threads around here people are recommending E7200, Q6600. I'm not really fussed about it being future proof for the next 5 years or whatever (looking at my computer now will tell you that ). Is it really worth going for a quad core?

Looking to spend about £250-£500 (although ideally as little as possible) so I am hoping to get the best bang for my buck as it were. I'm not against overclocking (although having never overclocked anything before don't want anything that requires tremendous amounts of skill), but if it helps I'd happily give it a shot.

Right now I mainly want to get a new case, motherboard, memory, psu and cpu (cooler too probably). I've seen that the new generation of graphics card's are coming out in july so I might just put my 7600gt in the new computer as a temporary measure.

[Rosaline]

Regarding future-proofing and the value of quads, see my essay on their long-term importance - in short, go quad if you do any serious media production work, or if you want your system to last more than a couple of years. Although I would generally recommend quads, all things being equal, the additional cost has to be justified when working to a small budget.

Given you're a gamer, you're not against the idea of overclocking, you might be happy replacing within a few years, and that money is a real factor in your costs, then a mid-range dual core could be a good gamble Remember folks - that possible saving of nearly £40 between a Q6600 and an E8200 is significant, it's 10% of the total system cost!

You're also right to not replace your graphics card yet, you'll get much better value for money in terms of the increase in power in a few months.

I'll let others like StaffsMike roll out their generic £500 system details for the full component list now, since they have got a system designed perfectly We probably should get a "£500 gaming computer" thread stickied, tbh

[rej156]

Regarding future-proofing and the value of quads, - in short, go quad if you do any serious media production work, or if you want your system to last more than a couple of years. Although I would generally recommend quads, all things being equal, the additional cost has to be justified when working to a small budget.

Given you're a gamer, you're not against the idea of overclocking, you might be happy replacing within a few years, and that money is a real factor in your costs, then a mid-range dual core could be a good gamble Remember folks - that possible saving of nearly £40 between a Q6600 and an E8200 is significant, it's 10% of the total system cost!

You're also right to not replace your graphics card yet, you'll get much better value for money in terms of the increase in power in a few months.

I'll let others like StaffsMike roll out their generic £500 system details for the full component list now, since they have got a system designed perfectly We probably should get a "£500 gaming computer" thread stickied, tbh

I agree we need that sticky
What's wrong with using an E8400?
It's perfect to clock from 3.5-4.0GHZ, if you search a video of one opening Photoshop CS3.
You'll be amazed haha xD
I'd say you could get a HD 3870 XT Off OcUK right now, that's pretty amazing for £112 inc vat.
But 7600 GT is fine as a temp filler

[Rosaline]

The suggestion of the E8200 was based off the cost (it made my numbers nice ), and the fact that, if you are willing to overclock, generally there is little reason to spend more if your FSB will support higher speeds (since the higher graded processors within the same range are exactly the same chip, just with different multipliers and more kind voltage demands and heat output levels)

[staffsMike]

Welllll why not?

This is what I would build at £500 ... i'll do lower budget suggestions too.

Case and PSU:
Coolermaster CM690 ~£50
Corsair 520W HX ~£60

You can go with a very worthy Antec Case and PSU combo for £60 which will suit but the above is a better long term solution.

Motherboard:
Abit IP-35 Dark Raider ~£65

There are plenty of P35's worth a look i'm sure, MSI make a nice one around £65 as do gigabyte but the Abit is what I would and have chosen.

RAM:
2GB PC6400 ~£30 Brand is your choice. I like geil, but corsair, crucial, ocz, g-skill.. they are all good

Hard Drive:
500GB Samsung spinpoint F1 is popular at ~£45, personally I would go with western digitals AAKS but the samsung does make good sense.

Optical Drive:
Again samusng make some very nice drives at around £15

So that comes in around £295 leaving £235 ish for the CPU and graphics card.

As it's a gaming PC it makes sense to get the E8200 or E7200 and an 8800GT or a little extra going on an 8800GTS which is what I would buy.

This also makes the Q6600 and 8800GT/HD3870 viable but I would want an aftermarket HSF adding £25. Scythe mine would do nicely.

Tough one, but for once I think I might recommend the E7200 instead. Get an nice HSF on it.. and then think about either the GT or the GTS (or waiting till next month for either the price of those two to drop or the new cards )

If you want to lower the costs a little the pentium dual cores here overclock to about 3.0GHz and obviously as £40 that is a friggin bargain!

[Rosaline]

I agree we need that sticky

As it's not just me then who thinks this could be useful, take a look at The HEXUS.hardware £500-or-less computer building thread!