~£550 upgrade build

[mgt]

Hi all,

Little bit out of the loop when it comes to new builds, currently running a mildly overclocked c2d e6300 which has served me well for a couple of years.

Now looking to make the jump to windows 7 and considering throwing in a few new components at the same time.

Looking to use my current kb, mouse, coolermaster wavemaster case and enermax noisetaker 485w PSU and a couple of HDs. Not sure on whether to update the 7600gt or not.

But everything else is up for grabs so any assistance on getting maximum bang for buck would be appreciated.

Here is what I'm currently considering...

[Domestic_Ginger]

The chipset has a dual channel memory controller so multiples of 2 for the ram.

Depending on what you are using it for I'm not sure there is going to be a huge jump unless of course you are getting severe slowdown. Perhaps a snazzier monitor to go with your copy of W7 and some more ram? The i3 is a nice chip though.

I considered the monitor; was let down a bit by the lack of reviews.

[redddraggon]

Any reason why you are going for a 2.5" HDD?

[mgt]

Thanks for the responses, i'd heard good things about the 2.5" momentus XT in terms of a halfway house between standard HD and SSD.

Any recommendations for the monitor if the Hanns G isnt going to cut it?

If its not going to be much of a jump to the i3 is it worth keeping what i've got but upgrading from the 2x 1gb geil 800mhz i've got in at the moment?

[redddraggon]

Well a 2.5" is likely to be slower than a 3.5", I'd recommend something like a Samsung F3 or F4, it'll be faster, cheaper, and higher capacity.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Having recently gone through the pains of finding a monitor and going CRT to LCD (which is really tough for me) I can't be much help. I got a g2222hdl which is okay but I think I have really sensitive eyes and it doesn't refresh fast enough.

Whats your computer for? More memory will help for switching between programs as I understand it.

[nibbler]

I'd say get a new GPU if you want to game definitely.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBH,if the OP already has a decent enough socket 775 motherboard an upgrade to a Core2 Quad would be a good idea IMHO.

Alternatively,I would suggest going for the following components:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition ~ £109

http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/

4GB DDR3 and Samsung F3 1TB ~ £94

http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/

Asus M4A87TD EVO ~ £81

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-SATA-RAID-ATX

Has USB3.0 and SATA3.0!

This should give you around £250 to £270 for your monitor,wireless card and a new graphics card if you need one.

The OP should also be eligible for free Scan postage too:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...tup-guide.html

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...0-07-08-a.html

[Butuz]

To be honest if you want maximum bang for buck simply move to a solid state 200+mb/s read write boot drive and possibly a new GFX card if you want to game. If you spend £250 odd on the above two it'll be like a whole new PC!!

Butuz

[mgt]

Thanks for all suggestions so far.

I'm running the e6300 on an asus p5b deluxe board - can anyone tell me if this board is worth using with a core 2 quad or should I be thinking about biting the bullet and starting from scratch as suggested with an amd phenom?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Your motherboard supports both 45NM and 65NM Core2 Quad processors:

http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=YwIVDOTcvIMHZdTy

[scaryjim]

Well a 2.5" is likely to be slower than a 3.5"

The Momentus XT has a 4GB SLC NAND read cache with intelligent caching, so for opening frequently used programs, booting the OS etc. it is much quicker than just a mechanical hard drive. That said, for some read tasks and all write tasks it's as poor as any other 5.4krpm mechanical HDD. Anandtech's review basically said that it felt like a fast HDD rather than an SSD, but given the price it's not a bad compromise between storage space and performance increase.

However, since it's £100 anyway, I think in this case the OP would be better served with an SSD boot drive - that £100 will give you a choice of 60GB / 64GB SSDs at the minute. Stick with your existing drives as storage, and just put the OS and programs on the SSD.

CAT has made a good spot that the motherboard will support 45nm quads, so I'd definitely recommend you go for that. Scan currently have an OEM Q8200 @ £102 that strikes me as an absolute bargain - with a stock speed of 2.33GHz it's probably going to be faster than your E6300 before you think about overclocking

I don't think you *need* to upgrade from 2GB of RAM tbh, although it certainly wouldn't hurt to drop another 2GB in - you could buy another 2x1GB kit (~£35) (although running with 4 sticks can limit overclocks), or buy a 2x 2GB kit (~£65) and sell your existing RAM to cover some of the cost.

Definitely get a new GPU - something like a HD5770 or a 768MB GTX460 would be a good bet for around £120 - £140.

So, £100 on an SSD, £100 on a Core 2 Quad, £140ish on a graphics card, and optionally £35 / £65 on some new memory. Job done for somewhere between £340 and £400

[Pob255]

I'd only get a new gpu like that if he's planing on gaming otherwise a new gpu is going to do next to nothing for you.
Aero feature of win7 might benefit from a newer card though.
a 5670 maybe or 5570

[scaryjim]

I'd only get a new gpu like that if he's planing on gaming otherwise a new gpu is going to do next to nothing for you.

True enough, a 7600GT is a decent GPU if the OP isn't planning on gaming - I just tend to assume that people asking for advice in here are!

[kurosagi01]

This what i would do,treat yourself to a GTX460 and play some games lols

[Hawker1986]

IMO you should leave your core components be more or less go for something like this:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/60GB-...-Write-275MB-s - 60GB OCZ sandforce SSD

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(...edCAS-5-5-5-18 - 4GB RAM

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/768MB...2xDL-DVI-mHDMI - GTX460 GPU

Lastly get yourself a decent CPU cooler like a TRUE if you dont have one and give that CPU a good thrashing However, if your not happy with OCing your chip then do as the others have said and go for a cheapo Quad.

Leaves you plenty of money for a decent 24" monitor

Hawker