£800 Budget For CPU / MOBO / GPU / RAM

[mrchu]

I currently own an AMD 64 3200, 1 gig PC3200 Corsair Val memory and a K8NS mobo, all of which, plus a GPU, I am looking to upgrade.

Hard drives, monitor, case, PSU, optical drives etc.. are taken care of so the £800 is exclusively for the real meal and potatoes of the system so to speak. I'm basically looking for any suggestion on what to get, perhaps a killer combo, or a particularly great offer someone is aware of at the moment.

The primary use of the system will be gaming;

I have been looking at the prospect of an AMD 64 4000, 2 gig of twinX and a 7800gtx with suitable SLI motherboard (For a second 7800gtx abit later in the year)...should I perhaps look into an X2 configuration? or pentium D?

any recommendations / suggestion are greatly appreciated, and will be taken onboard seriously as I trust the hexus community!

[GFiSH]

I would say go for an X2, corsair mem, xfx 7800gtx and asus sli premium mobo.

[mrchu]

for around a similar price of the lowest X2 I can get one of the better 64's (4000) which seems to be far better for gaming, am I wrong?

[GFiSH]

It all depends on what you want to do with your PC, if it's just for games then a 4000 would do the job with no problems, the 3200 you got now would probably still hold it's own.

[chrestomanci]

Why replace your memory? PC3200 will be compatible with any AMD system you might buy, and the performace difference you might get from buying faster memory and overclocking it will be small compared with keeping it and using the money saved to buy a faster CPU or a second GPU for SLI.

[GFiSH]

Wouldn't there be a considerable difference between 2gig of twinx over value select memory? Can you push value select as hard as you can push twinx?

[project187]

as far as the cpu goes just buy the 3700 and slightly tweak it to 400 speeds saves you lots of dosh

[project187]

defo not pentium d btw if any pentium go for m otherwise amd all the way

[Trippledence]

Go for 2gb of memory seen as its a new build. In 2 1gb sticks. You can get memory like the Geil value range for about £160-80 for 2X1gb at good speeds. And lots of overhead for overclocking.

Genreall opinyon is more memory > faster memory.

[herulach]

Opteron 165~230 quid
Good ocing mobo for around a hundred (dfi/epox)
2gb of decent ram
Leaves you 300 quid for your graphics card, With which you can get whatever you like, id personally be tempted by the 7800GT as it seems to be in the price/performance sweet spot.

[kalniel]

I have been looking at the prospect of an AMD 64 4000, 2 gig of twinX and a 7800gtx with suitable SLI motherboard (For a second 7800gtx abit later in the year)...should I perhaps look into an X2 configuration? or pentium D?

For that money, yup, I agree with you - your selection would be the best for gaming. X2's are nice, but for the money you won't see any noticable improvement over the 3200.