Hello all, I'm new to these Boards and looking for some advice regarding a core rebuild of my aging (steam driven ) gaming rig that will hopefully do another 4 years service without too much tweaking.
Current core components are :
Athlon 3000+(Thunderbird) 2Gb DDR2 and an Asus A8N Premium Mobo..
Case, PSU (650w Hiper) & HDDs are all to be kept for now. I also intend to keep the Nvidia 8800GT graphics card and replace it when funds become available in New Year. One slight limitation is I have XP PRO & run drives in RAID, so will need a Mobo that supports an FDD..at least initially. Upgrade to Win 7 64bit may also happen at same time, funds allowing.
I'm looking to replace these with either:
i5 760 + P55 Mobo capable of symetrical Crossfire + 4Gb PC1600 Ram
or
i7 930 + X58 Mobo + 6 Gb PC1600 Ram
I Would consider Phenom II path, but a little unsure regarding longeivity of the AM3 platform..
Saw these on Scan's Today Only deals:
Intel Core i7 930 D0
6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.65V Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Rev 2 - £411.24
Intel Core i7 950 Bloomfield
6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.65V
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Rev 2 - £433. 55
I hope to have ~£150 - 200 for the Graphics card in January, so an HD6850 or GT460 1Gb look pretty likely to round things off..
So, thoughts on the above or any suggestions gratefully received, after scanning the Boards here I'm sure the kowledgeable & freindly folks here can give me a nudge in the right direction
Thanks