Thanks Hexus, and new parts installed :)

[MurphmanL]

Thanks to hexus for their happy birthday email message, i also just posted to inform you all i have upgraded with the following parts:
400 W Silent PSU (£27)
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro With VGA Artic Cooler (ATI Manufactured)
it was a pleasent surprise to see the 9700 pro had dropped from £170> £95 so i was pleased as punch, and also to find it was ATI's own brand.
I have installed the 4.4 cats, and, after running some tests, 3d mark03, and playing with the drivers, i can firmly say ATI is a better brand than nvidia nowadays, i was a nvidia man, but they have converted me in one swoop

Finally, with the remaining dosh i got an ngage, brand new, £99 with tmobile pay as ya go, Fifa 2004 game, 32mb mmc and floboarding, as well as the usual accessories like headset, line out cable etc...
So if anyone on hexus has this wonderful phone (in my opinion) and has either:
1. Personal Tips for encoding video on it
2. Free Java Games or software they can direct me to, or send me
3. User tips and stuff
please contact me via msn, aol or pm or even email, i'd be happy to hear from you

Thanks again hexus, murphmanl.

[steve threlfall]

£95 for the 9700pro- excellent, you have a great buy there mate

[mike_w]

£95 - Certainly a much better deal than £170.

What did you get in 3DMark03?

[MurphmanL]

cant quite remember, summit like 4830 3dmarks, but that was after running generals and far cry on full steam for a long time so my result may be slightly reduced... ill retest in a while.

[Korky]

gd stuff murph, thats a nice solid score. happy gaming :->

[Shogun]

where did you get that 9700 from? i can't find them anywhere

[CrapshoT]

ahh!! £95 for the 9700 pro good deal dude and the wise choice it had a vga cooler as well didn't it? well worth £95 of anyone's money
got yourself a nice set-up now m8
just need the 2500xp barton or mobile now lol
and it just so happens that i'm expecting delivery of a 2500xp-m so i may have a un-locked barton going lol pimp

[MurphmanL]

lol a 2500+ is barely any better than what i have, ive just added another fan, i would like to know... if i had a bluetooth usb dongle, does the pc have to be on to access mobile gprs via my cable modem?

[CrapshoT]

lol a 2500+ is barely any better than what i have,

that extra 256kb cache helps out quite a bit

[MurphmanL]

Ah i never realised it had extra 256kb cache, i may pick meself one of those up...
I did spot a 3200+ barton for £129 in the same shop as the 9700 pro so im midly tempted...

[CrapshoT]

I did spot a 3200+ barton for £129 in the same shop as the 9700 pro so im midly tempted...

get a xp2500 and just raise the fsb to 200 and you got yourself a 3200xp for say £50-£60 cheaper

[MurphmanL]

Overclocking isn't my game i have previously attempted and failed, i bbq'd my system

[mike_w]

In my opinion, there's no point in getting a 3200+ when you can just get a 2500+ and overclock it fairly easily and safely, and save yourself a fair bit in the process. If you get the Mobile Barton 2500+ (1.45V), you can overclock it to plain crazy speeds!

I assume that the Barton 2500+ is only a bit faster than the 2400+ MurphmanL has (since it's all supposed to be in relation to P4s), but, due to more cache and (I think) faster FSB, the Barton is at a lower clock speed. Either way, Bartons should have oodles more overclocking potential, especially with a nice heatsink and fan.

[mike_w]

Overclocking isn't my game i have previously attempted and failed, i bbq'd my system

I'd be willing to help, although it really is quite difficult to damage your system through overclocking as long as you're sensible and do it bit by bit, checking temperatures and stability carefully every step of the way. You'd need a decent heatsink and fan to match as well. And the motherboard. ;¬)

Might be an idea to wait for the new CPUs (e.g. Athlon 64s) to be more affordable.