need upgrade advice

[ztec]

My specs are: __________________
System Specs

3700+ SD KAB2E
Asus A8N Sli premium
2x XFX 6800gs xxx edtion
TT BT/vf-900 + 4case fans
1gb ocz premier (2x512mb)
250gb western digital
580w hiper type-r
Audigy2 zs platinum
Compaq 19in crt MV920
Lian Li pc-61
Xp Pro Sp2
Mx1000 / Saitek Eclipse


,and i've been waiting to get some cash to upgrade with from stuff selling on ebay ,finally sold the bulk of it now so i've got in the region of £300-£400 gbp (give or take,some stuff is still to sell ).

Problem is when i looked at the amount i've spent on my pc in total, i don't know if i can justify pumping another £400 into it.

i wanted to upgrade: ram,case, and hdd's mainly, along with couple of extras
(lcd is another £150, and i keep putting off getting one)

i've worked out around a total of £365 at the lowest and £405 including everything but an lcd

case: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=137809
panel: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=326071
soundproofing:
http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...?code=HF-NOISE x2
http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...code=HFP-MAT12 x3
fans: http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...cat=283&page=1 x2
hdd1: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/94403

the 2gb ram and second hdd i'm unsure of at moment, as i don't if sellers still have them (don't like to put in offer i can't make good on and there from another forum i use ).

The dilemma is this, when i worked out how much a "basic" conroe setup would cost its near what i'd be spenting on just the above. i know that comparing what i spent on my current system doesn't really work out to what it would have bought in today standards but still

the main parts i need were ram (in prep for et:qw release) and hard drives as i'm pressed for space, the rest is more wanted not exactly needed, just really need some thoughts on what others would do

thanks , any thoughts much appreciated

does anyone know how loud are western digital raptor hdd's? i looked at the specs on there site 32db idle-36db seeking , but on a scale of 1-10 how noticeable are they?
(1 being not noticeable, 10 being a freight train)

(also forgive the layout/list of specs i posted this on another forum and got little to no advice,so i've come back to hexus once more for help )

[acrobat]

Those links don't work by the way So I'm not sure what you where looking at.

Your PC looks pretty decent already. Do you just want to upgrade it to Core2Duo if possible? And generally tweak it as cheap as possible to be faster?

Also, is this a gaming PC?

Assuming both of those are true, I would recommend getting the C2D if you can afford it. Even the E6300 is worth having and overclocks very well too. Alot of games are becoming very RAM dependant. So I personally would suggest getting up to 2gig of RAM.

The only problem is that I think your current RAM is DDR right? And if you went to a Core2Duo, you would want DDR-2 RAM. So you would be scrapping your current gig and buying another gig or two gig.

The other stuff looks like it could be used in a new PC. The only other concern is that an LCD/TFT good enough for gaming isn't cheap If you get a cheap one, you will likely end up with ghosting/blurring. Although that doesn't bother some people. To avoid that though, its going to cost fair bit. But the one you where thinking about for £150 odd might be ok.

I'll have a go at pricing some stuff though, and tell me if you think I'm on the right track? Ok here goes:

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Retail
£117.37 Inc VAT

RAM:
2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5300 (667), 5-5-5-15
£140.99 Inc VAT

MOTHERBOARD:
Asus P5NSLI NF570 SLI, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
£73.07 Inc VAT

HARD DISK:
320 Gb Seagate ST3320620AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ
£66.08 Inc VAT

TOTAL:
£397.51 including VAT.

How does that look? All that stuff is great, but the only thing I'm not sure about is that motherboard. I just picked the first, cheapest, SLI & C2D capable motherboard I could find, so it might not be very good. We would have to check that before you bought anything.

But thats just under £400 quid and I think the rest of your stuff could work with that.

The only thing missing is your new case and fans, but if you don't mind one thats not silent, you can find one pretty cheap. And then theres your monitor. Let me know if thats on the right track though, and it can be tweaked a bit if you want to save some money for a monitor or whatever.

----------edit----------

Actually, this hard disk might be better.

200 Gb Seagate:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=469116

That could save you almost £20 to go towards a case and whatever else.

Also, the Raptor disk's I personally have heard not so good things about. They are good.. and they aren't THAT loud. And they are pretty fast. But from what I've read... they actually aren't a whole lot better for gaming. When you are actually playing it makes little difference at all evidently. Where it helps, is with loading the games to begin with, and if you load a new area in the game or something, it likely knocks a second (or two) off your loading time. But is a couple of seconds really worth the extra cost and the smaller size? It might be to you if you do other things on your computer besides gaming. But personally, as a gamer, I wouldn't bother with a Raptor. Especially considering the current SATA disks are so good nowdays anyway.


P.S.

If you skip the Conroe (Core2Duo) idea, you could get an upgrade for a fraction of that price. You could get just another gig of ram, new hard disk, and new case and it would only cost about a couple of hundred. But personally, if I was you, I would just keep saving until I could get Core2Duo (C2D). Its not only faster but it would give you much more choice to upgrade in the future. And if you bought any more RAM it would go to waste in the future. If you bought ram for the C2D, that could last you for years and years.

[ztec]

thanks for heads up on the links *fixed*

first off thanks for one of the most informative replies i've ever received

your last part about saving up for a "complete new setup" to be honest it seems the right way to go about things, it would mean i could save £130 if i choose to buy what i listed and it would be re-usable if i did upgrade core2duo too.

£275 for a case,soundproofing,fans, raptor hdd and secondary hdd - all of which can be reused and with nearly enough left over for this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=MO-017-OK
reviews are quite good, response time is good and i know a few people with it and seems very good for the price, feel free to recommend one though

lastly your advice on the raptor hard drives is appericated greatly,although you do have a strong arguement on whether it's worth its cost just for loading times,i'll have to look into them more and deicide

[acrobat]

You're very welcome I've been in a similar situation for the past few years. Theres about a dozen games I want to play but can't, and the games I do play I have to play at very low settings. So I've been looking into upgrades for a couple of years and been waiting and waiting.... for new better stuff to come out and prices to go down and for me to save some more cash.

I think if you can upgrade your current PC that would be good. Your processor is decent and your graphics cards surely work pretty well too. Luckily the main thing you seem to want the most is hard drives and they are such a bargain nowdays. If that could keep you going for a while, then that would be well worth doing.

The only thing I would suggest is to not spend too much (or anything) on RAM because if you upgrade to Conroe Core2Duo in the future, it will need DDR2-RAM, so your current stuff won't work.

But the rest of your stuff (hard drives, case, fans, graphics cards etc) could all be transferred to a new PC in the future if you do that.

That monitor looks great by the way. I did a quick search and it gets really good reviews You can read about it here if you wanted to know more.

As for the Raptors, they are really good. Nice and fast and not too loud from what I've read. But like I said, if you are mainly a gamer, it won't make a huge difference. Some things are meant to be much better on it. Windows boots up faster, and copying large files and doing virus checks etc.. is all meant to be significantly faster. But from what I've heard, games only really read in small trickles and its never much of a strain on even a slower hard drive. When a game loads for the first time, or if you load a new level or something, the Raptor will help there and shave off a few seconds or so. So its up to you If you aren't desperate for space, then its probably worth getting. If you need alot of space though, skip it. I personally would do without Raptors because I have a lot of data I need to store, so I would rather have a much bigger disk for the same price. And from what I've read, the new SATA disks are great for gaming anyway.

If you want any more help with anything, come back here and ask

Good luck.