Upgrade List

[Wyoming]

That time of year has come, the time when I actually have money
As such I plan to upgrade my processor, motherboard and graphics card. Here is the plan:

Athlon 64 3500+ Venice
256MB ATi X800GT

and any motherboard that is fairly reliable, cheap and compatible with the aformentioned components and with the following features:

SATA & some form of Raid compatibilty
At least 4 USB 2.0
(preferably blue and/or black)

I wont be spending anymore than the cost of those components (with the motherboard limit at £65). This system will not be connected to the internet but will be used for singleplayer games (Dawn of War, Total War and various FPS campaigns). Any comments on components in similar price bands? Oh, and where can I get these most cheaply? All to be bought next weekend. Thanks in advance.

[Xaneden]

Go for an Opteron 146. You'd hardly need to do bugger all to get it up to 3500+ level, and its about 50 pounds cheaper.

[ifyouknowme]

stick with 939 3500 but get a nvidia gfx
asus a8n deluxe is gd and cheap ish
has more stuff than u will prob ever need

[Wyoming]

but get a nvidia gfx

What would you recommend with a maximum of £120, and would that compare to the ATi X800GT in standard gaming benchmarks?

[Xaneden]

stick with 939 3500 but get a nvidia gfx
asus a8n deluxe is gd and cheap ish
has more stuff than u will prob ever need

Whats the point of going for a 3500+ when the 146 offers much more performance wise, for a 50% smaller price?!?!

[ifyouknowme]

i dont think the opteron will be faster in games and stuff might be for photoshop and stuff though

a 6600gt for about 120 or ebay a 6800gt for about 90 quid

[Wyoming]

I have looked into the Opteron possibility, and it appears very good for its cost, does anyone direct me to any benchmarks (preferably in gaming) that compare the socket 939 Opterons to the socket 939 Athlon 64 range? I will be running a stock system so non-overclocked comments please

I would rather not go for ebay for my components, as I need them fairly quickly and when using ebay I use it for items I wil wait a long time for watching prices for the perfect item. I also tend to use it for smaller purchases and I prefer things new anyway

[Wyoming]

Ok, how are these as an upgrade list?

Abit AX8 - £63.26
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=182650

Athlon 64 3500+ Venice Retail - £147.29
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=152503

X800GTO 256MB - £125.22
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=270105

That takes me to £335.77, a little over budget, but I think I can cope

[dave87]

Can I just say the Opteron shares the same core as the FX-57s? So therefore once tweaked a little is likely to be sooo much better. Easy overclockers aswell.

Dave

[BUFF]

"and any motherboard that is fairly reliable, cheap and compatible with the aformentioned components and with the following features:

SATA & some form of Raid compatibilty
At least 4 USB 2.0
(preferably blue and/or black)

I wont be spending anymore than the cost of those components (with the motherboard limit at £65)"

Asrock 939 DualSATA ~£46? http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=291356

Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=161701

If you go for the AX8 ask if it's a V1 or V2.0 - the V1 can't handle AMD64 X2 CPUs if you ever wanted to upgrade to 1.
Imho the AN8 Ultra for £75 is better but that's over your budget.

[ed^chigliak]

Asrock ULi Dual 939 - £46 (scan / microdirect)
6800GS - £149 (lowestonweb)
CPU - £105 Opteron 146 or A64 3200+ (cpucity / scan)
£300

For games the graphics card is the most important hence the most money and the newly released 6800gs is the new 6800gt but way cheaper. Saved a bit on the motherboard which is no slouch and has many more features than you would expect at this price and if that's not enough has a passively cooled chipset makes it silent. CPU always a notch down from what you want performance wise cos they always overclock atleast one step higher and if for some wierd reason it doesn't it's hardly a show stopper in terms of game performance you'd hardly notice.

[Xaneden]

i dont think the opteron will be faster in games and stuff might be for photoshop and stuff though

I don't know which hallucinogenic mushroom you are on, but seriously, how can you say that?

Also, I'd be interested to see what 'games and stuff' entails. Is this the same 'stuff' that goes with 'photoshop and stuff'?

[fredered]

For games the graphics card is the most important hence the most money and the newly released 6800gs is the new 6800gt but way cheaper.

Thats not really true as it has less pipelines, as It is priced about the same as a GTO i would find some benchmarks that compare them, also if you look hard at the moment there seem to be some brilliant deals on x800xls and x850pros although unfortunately they would probably just push your budget to far. For graphics your best bet is probably to find a review site and compare benchmarks, but do not cross compare between sites.

[Wyoming]

Ok, I have been looking around and have found some fairly decent deals on graphics cards. £150 for an X800XL and £125 for an X800GTO. I will be doing some research on these but does anyone have general advice concerning these cards?

[Hans Voralberg]

Owned a X800XL, pretty decent card, u can run the next to the best setting in most game nowaday.

[Smokey21]

Ok, I have been looking around and have found some fairly decent deals on graphics cards. £150 for an X800XL and £125 for an X800GTO. I will be doing some research on these but does anyone have general advice concerning these cards?

Go for the XL, worth it, great price that is, 16 pipes of goodness.