PC Upgrade

[BorisTheSpider]

Hi

Can anyone give me some advice on what parts to go for to upgrade my PC? My budget is around £500-£600, I'll mainly be using it for basic(at the moment anyway) music recording and gaming. I'm keeping my current monitor, 5.1 speakers, mouse/keyboard and possibly the case depending how much everything else costs, I might end up buying a new one. Also I have a 480W Thermaltake Silent PurePower PSU, will it be enough?

So basically what I'm after is a new mobo, CPU, GFX card, RAM and probably a new HDD. I'm thinking about going for the new Core Duo CPUs since they're likely to last longer. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[NightshadowUK]

What resolution can your current monitor go up to and would you be overclocking?

[BorisTheSpider]

Probably won't be overclocking, not anytime soon anyway. The monitor can reach "1920 x 1440 / max. 86 Hz", it's an Iiyama VM Pro 454, not a great monitor but I'd rather keep it just now than go for something better which might cost too much just now.

I'm probably going to spend another £300 on a pro audio soundcard and monitor speakers for recording music as well, so I have to watch my budget. I'm not sure how they'd sound for gaming though, unless I there's another alternative? I basically need a soundcard which allows me to plug my bass into and speakers good enough for music recording. It'll be basic recording at the moment but it might come to more later(maybe in a years time).

[NightshadowUK]

Righty-ho then, as Core Duo is pretty new I'm not that well up on it, so please feel free to alter anything:

- Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 S775 ~ £151.52
- Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3 ~ £98.69
- 2GB Corsair TwinX XMS2 DDR2 PC5400 ~ £122.83
- 512MB Connect 3D RADEON X1800XT ~ £184.48
- 250 Gb Samsung Spinpoint P SP2504C ~ £49.63

Total ~ £607.15

[NOTE: If I were you, I'd leave it for a few weeks to see what people make of the different motherboards - they're all new so some are bound to be flawed and that's not something you want to be gambling £100+ on.]

[BorisTheSpider]

Looks good, if I can get a year or two out of it before I need to upgrade again then it should be ok.
Btw, what's the difference between P956 and 975x chipset? Is one more futureproof than the other?

Thanks.

[MantisCSS]

if ur on a budget then the samsung spinpoints are a gd choice of hard drive. if ur not on a tiny budget and dont mine a little bit of noise then maybe the western digital raptors.

[BorisTheSpider]

Forget this post.

[BorisTheSpider]

Ok, what case should I go for? I've upped my budget to £700 max, I've been looking at the Akasa Eclipse, though at £82 it's a bit on the expensive side, any good cheaper alternatives?

I'm probably gonna wait till the end of August before I buy any parts, so I'll see how prices go.

[teachmech]

I just built a new rig aroud this case
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=352344
it keeps everything nice and cool and supports two 120 fans as well.

[BorisTheSpider]

It's a bit too flashy(though nice if you like those kind of cases) for me, I'm looking for something that's plain but still looks quite good. Of course I want it to cool quite well. I was looking at this one: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=450661

Anyone know what Gigabyte are like at making caes? I quite like it, looks quite nice but if it doesn't cool that well and doesn't have good build quality then I won't bother with it.

Also does anyone know much about this motherboard: http://www.msi.com.tw/program/produc...il.php?UID=744

I've seen it for £80 Inc. VAT.