£350-450 Upgrade

[grizac]

Hi guys!

What I am currently thinking to get

Motherboard: ???? (something around £65)
Graphics: HD 4850 around £110
CPU: Q6600 or E8400 (110-120)
Memory: 4GB around £50 (prolly 800MHz)
HD: I was thinking a Samsung 500GB (quite happy with performance of my current samsung 160GB) but there seems to be consensus on WD 650GB so I 'll go with that, around £50.

Things to consider:
-Noise is a concern
-Current PSU Jeantec (=crappy?) 430W
-Crappy Case
-I don't need the processing power but I tend to multitask and more importantly I currently have an Athlon 2200+ which shows that I keep my CPU's for long... That's why I won't go for the E5200 which would be the best value for me. I want to get the PC which can last the longer. It will be ages before the new intel technology will meet my budget and I really don't want to wait anyway for price cuts. Not with the dollar on the rise.

Why quadcore: 1 core heavy downloading, 1 core for background processes-OS and 2 cores for peaky applications.

SO:
-Any advice on motherboard?
-Is my PSU enough? (it has 2 12V rails at 14 and 15V if that says something to you)
-is the advance in technology of e8400 enough to justify getting half the cores? I don't care for the extra 600MHz per core.
-Which 4850 is relatively quiet without having to spend more (dual slot sapphire?)?

I know that some of my choices are not reasonable, but it's alittle bit like being in love! It makes me happy just thinking myself having these!

Thanks in advance!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This thread maybe of use to you:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ce-please.html

I would go for a Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L motherboard.It is a decent overclocker and has all solid capacitors.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/575

I would spend money on a good power supply.A Corsair VX450W or simiiar Seasonic unit will be a good place to start. Gaming cards require a decent PSU so do NOT skimp on this!!

[DaveVader]

I would say get the Q6600, for one thing they OC well (if you do that) and they're invaluable for multi tasking.
As stated, get the VX450, can't go wrong, unless of course you want modular but I suppose the budget doesn't really help with that.
You can pick up Gigabyte boards quite cheap, P35 or P45 (or derivatives) I would recommend, overclock well and have pretty good features.
Hard drive, My Western Digital is great, not had a Samsung but I don't hear bad things about them.

[MSIC]

Motherboard: ???? (something around £65)
Graphics: HD 4850 around £110
CPU: Q6600 or E8400 (110-120)
Memory: 4GB around £50 (prolly 800MHz)
HD: I was thinking a Samsung 500GB (quite happy with performance of my current samsung 160GB) but there seems to be consensus on WD 650GB so I 'll go with that, around £50.

Things to consider:
-Noise is a concern
-Current PSU Jeantec (=crappy?) 430W
-Crappy Case

Hi there. Let's try and get your core stuff for £350, and then get you a new case and PSU.
Motherboard: Abit IP43 £46.
CPU: Intel Q6600 £120.
RAM: 2 x 1GB Corsair TwinX £26 (you only need more if you know you need more).
Graphics: Palit 4850 (with an upgraded HSF) £102.80
Hard Drive: Western Dig 640GB AAKS Caviar Blue £48 (and can often find on 'Today Only' cheaper).
This comes to £352, which includes about £8 postage (which we at Hexus dont have to pay!).

So let's have fun with the rest
Case: Antec NSK4000 MiniTower £31.
PSU: Enermax Noisetaker 485W £50. I must admit to being less than 100% certain about this PSU, but it's something other than the oh-so-obvious Corsair recommendation!
Xigmatek HDT-S1283 for the CPU £18.

Grand total = £450

[staffsMike]

Well there is a reason for the corsair recomendation.. It's probably the best bang for buck out there.

The case is fine but 80mm fan's are going to be annoying if you they are spinning fast enough to push decent amounts of air. I suppose given there is two of them you might get away with slow spinners though. I would get an Antec 300 with the Corsair 450W VX though.

If the Palit is as noisey as they say it is.. I wouldn't bother, money is better spent on a different model, even the stock cooler ones.

Not sure the reasons for a Quad are justified, what is heavy downloading in your opinion? I mean deffinatly get the Q6600 over the E8400 but you might consider the E5200 instead of the E8400 as it will clock to 3.5Ghz anyway and save £45 - £50.

[PeterStoba]

Well there is a reason for the corsair recomendation.. It's probably the best bang for buck out there.

The case is fine but 80mm fan's are going to be annoying if you they are spinning fast enough to push decent amounts of air. I suppose given there is two of them you might get away with slow spinners though. I would get an Antec 300 with the Corsair 450W VX though.

If the Palit is as noisey as they say it is.. I wouldn't bother, money is better spent on a different model, even the stock cooler ones.

Not sure the reasons for a Quad are justified, what is heavy downloading in your opinion? I mean deffinatly get the Q6600 over the E8400 but you might consider the E5200 instead of the E8400 as it will clock to 3.5Ghz anyway and save £45 - £50.

I've used the palit card running 100% and it's loud, yeah, but I'm running it on 0% and it's cooler than most on the stock coolers, so if you get the antec 300 it'll be find running "passive"

[staffsMike]

0%.. what are the temps like?

[PeterStoba]

34*c idle with the processor idling at 37-40 degrees, runs warm despite the 1.25 VID
not sure on load temps, nothing to test them with

[Webby]

Furmark

http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

Run in stability mode it will report the current temp on screen.

Oh and at 0% is the fan still running or is it actually passive?

[PeterStoba]

I dunno if it is still spinning, not visually checked.

Loads at 57*c down to 49*c on 100%

[staffsMike]

That's amazing if they are correct

[Webby]

The fan must be still spinning or the temp sensor is not reporting correctly the is no way that heatsink could operate passively and achieve those temps especially as the temp drop when moving to 100% fan speed is small (compared to what you would expect moving from passive to forced air)

[PeterStoba]

they were both left for about 20 minutes too so i'm assuming it's correct, either way it's pretty cool, just need some quiet case fans

EDIT: just realised, i've got the fan on my mugen sucking from the top of the card out the roof, as i had to rotate it to get the reaper X's in, that could be something to do with it.

[grizac]

Hi there. Let's try and get your core stuff for £350, and then get you a new case and PSU.
Motherboard: Abit IP43 £46.
CPU: Intel Q6600 £120.
RAM: 2 x 1GB Corsair TwinX £26 (you only need more if you know you need more).
Graphics: Palit 4850 (with an upgraded HSF) £102.80
Hard Drive: Western Dig 640GB AAKS Caviar Blue £48 (and can often find on 'Today Only' cheaper).
This comes to £352, which includes about £8 postage (which we at Hexus dont have to pay!).

So let's have fun with the rest
Case: Antec NSK4000 MiniTower £31.
PSU: Enermax Noisetaker 485W £50. I must admit to being less than 100% certain about this PSU, but it's something other than the oh-so-obvious Corsair recommendation!
Xigmatek HDT-S1283 for the CPU £18.

Grand total = £450

I am inclined towards this recommendation, but I am not sure about the uATX. Won't cable management be a nightmare? And what about those huge heatsinks, is there enough room? Won't the air get too hot? Last time I had a mini tower it was with a Pentium MMX 11 years ago... StaffsMike's Antec 300 seems good for full ATX, in which case we need a motherboard for around £50. I don't intend to overclock. Is the stock cooler a viable option in terms of noise/temp?

[Webby]

That is all ATX stuff not micro-ATX

As to cable management and cooling in μATX see if you can find a thread where Mike shows off his TJ08 until then mine will have to do

[MSIC]

If you want to see what the Antec NSK series is like, check out this review of the NSK3300.
It's obviously not the same as the NSK4000, but should give you a good flavour.