Advise on upgrading.

[watforddude]

The two most important things are RAM and PSU but becuase im not happy with whats running on the PSU at the minute worrying its going to go any time

also a PSU that will have room for upgrading

[scaryjim]

+1 to the OCZ Gold that CAT suggested.

If you get your new PSU from ebuyer too and spend more than £30 you'll get free supersaver shipping too! I'd make a suggestion but then everyone else would laugh at me for being an Antec fanboy...

p.s. Also, that PSU is less than £30 so you'd still have to pay for postage. I'm off my game today...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Looking at the budget again you could go for a more powerful PSU if you want to go with more powerful components down the line.

I would go then for the following from Ebuyer:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114728

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135159

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124735

You could change the hard disk to a Samsung F1 which is faster:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/320-G...MB-Cache-89-ms

However I think that the WD hard drive will have better reality then the F1 as I know a few of the 500gb F1 drives had some issues.

The total comes to just under £105. Upgrading to a newer hard drive is recommended as it will improve performance. A slow hard drive wil become a bottleneck in the system. You can clone the existing install using the software I linked too.

[watforddude]

The RAM and the PSU are defo's

but i see on here people dont really like the OCZ make becuase its unrealiable.

the hard drive isnt a nessesity depending on the preformance increase i would get from it?

[watforddude]

Or possibly just go for these two and save the RAM till later.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148715...roduct_reviews

and

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114928

what kind of preformance increase can i expect from that?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Or possibly just go for these two and save the RAM till later.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148715...roduct_reviews

and

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114928

what kind of preformance increase can i expect from that?

Again whether you can use an E5200 is dependent on your motherboard. The RAM will give you a bigger improvement in performance TBH. I would not go for that PSU TBH and the Silverpower 400w is what I would go for.

This Enermax 350w is the minimum PSU I would go for:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/350W-...ATA-80plus-Eff

OCZ do not make rubbish PSUs as PC Power and Cooling are owned by them and they are one of the best PSU companies out there.

Upgrading the hard disk makes sense as it can be a major bottleneck. Your system will keep accessing the hard disk when you are playing any games so a slower hard disk will slow your system down.

[watforddude]

Sorry took so long for the motherboard specs it is a

Manufacturer: MSI
Model: MS-7267
Chipset: Intel i945G/GZ
Southbridge: Intel 82801GB

what kind of CPU would i want to upgrade with that motherboard?

cheers

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I had a look at the support page:

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p...odel=945GZM3-L

1066mhz processors are only supported by overclocking and this is not recommended by the manufacturer.

As a result you are stuck with 800mhz FSB Core2 processors. It also looks like 45nm processors are not supported due to the chipset used.
Hence the maximum processor upgrade you can have is the 2.6ghz E4700. Basically the only Core2 processors you can use are the E1*** series Celeron processors and the E4*** series Core2 processors.

Also only 2gb of RAM is supported too!! It also has to DDR2 RAM running at either 400mhz or 533mhz!!

I would get this RAM instead then:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/63623



Also the PCI-E slot seems to only run at 4x electrically so this means anything over an HD4670 is going to affected.

[Pob255]

Actually it may be this motherboard.
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p...ZM6-F&class=mb
See what the Version number after the MS-7267

Which model it is will change you options.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I still see both boards having the 800mhz FSB limit,the 2gb of RAM limit, the compatibility with only 400mhz and 533mhz DDR2 and the fact that the PCI-E slot is only 4x electrically.

[watforddude]

The first one is my one, i know becuase it has the same amount of audio ports at the back of PC, am i better of just buying a new motherboard and going from there?

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p...odel=945GZM3-L

[Zadock]

Scan were doing a bundled deal the other day for an E5200 and motherboard, it was something like £80 in total... maybe keep and eye out for somthing like that?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would probably go for the following motherboard as a minimum:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148802...ctype=extended

It is known to be a very good overclocker although the chipset prefers the use of two RAM sticks over 4.

Here is a review:

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

You should get this RAM:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114728

Also there are some great PSUs still left on Scan Today Only!!

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

There is an FSP 400w for £28(instead of the usual £40) and a Silverstone 350w for £23(instead of the usual £31).

I would get the FSP as for the price it is excellent value for money as it has 85% efficiency.

However the offers will be changed at midday today so you only have an hour or so left - perhaps you could add it to the basket before then??

You can also make use of the free Scan postage too!!

This should keep you to your £100 budget!

[watforddude]

Thank you very much, you have been more than helpful, im going to go for the new mobo ram and psu you have just advised,

i assume the cpu and gfx card will still work on it?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Quick thing! The new motherboard is full sized though so check that your case is big enough as the previous MSI one was a micro-atx.

Basically the Gigabyte motherboard is 30.5cm x 21.0cm in size.

The PSU has got a good review too!!

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16073/8

Edit!! The review says that the cables are a tad short which can be a good or a bad thing. If your case is huge it is not so good but if it is smaller it means less mess. Also it seems to be a bit noisy too.

Here are the lengths:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16073/2

The graphics card and the CPU should be fine!

[watforddude]

Its quite a small case, i might have to hold off on the RAM and invest in a case, but my budget went to 150, which i shall be recieving in the easter holidays so maybe il be able to buy a "OK" case with 30/50 pounds. or il win that Antec one in the competetion