So heres what i plan...

[Mozzer]

Within four weeks i will have about £300 to spend on upgrading my system (I'm a hobo with no job)...

I already have the Monitor, Hard Drive and an Asus A7N8X-X, everything else will be bought.

I plan on getting:
£44 : Neon Bubble ATX Midi Tower 350watt PSU with Front USB & Audio in Silver
£75 : AMD XP2500+ 333FSB Barton Inc Heatsink & Fan
£68 : Crucial PC3200 512mb DDR CL=3 Unbuffered ECC
£29 : Leadtek Mx440 4x Agp 64MB SDR TV-Out Videocard Oem
£14 : Chic Wireless Intelligent Keyboard And Mouse Combo
£02 : LED 8cm Case Fan Blue LEDs (x2)
£01 : Swirl Stainless Steel 8cm Laser Cut Fan Guard (x2)
£03 : High Quality Round IDE Cable ATA100 60cm in Blue

At the time i made that list i was only expecting to have £200 - £250 So i can get a few different / better things, i mwill probably get a better graphics card.

So what do you think? HGow would the system run? Overclocking potential?

[Knoxville]

better ram would be a good idea, get some twin mos 3200 cl2 instead of the crucial cl3.

better graphics card is probably a good idea aswell if you intend to play recent games.

[Zaphan58]

The Crucial will be just fine, theres no point wasting your money on anythign more expensive, ist rated to 200Mhz Cas3 but will probably do 200MHz at Cas2 and tighter timings. Especially as the Chip you will be running is rated at 166Mhz bus speed so unless you overclock running the memory over 166Mhz has next to no advantages. Witch that ram you could maybe run the chip at 200Mhz in sync with your ram and still run CAS2, if you run the ram and chip at 166Mhz bus speed then the RAm will do CAS2 and the tightest possible timmings. If i were you i would just spend the extra money on a better Graphics card, the MX isnt really up to todays games now vener minf when the likes of Doom3 and Half-Life2 come out, you want to be looking at the likes of a Radeon9500 or a GeforceFX5600 bot of witch will cost you just a little over £100. If your lucky you may find a 9500 soft moddable to a 9700 but ther getting kind of rare now unless you can track down a second hand one cheap enough. Only other thing i would consider changing there is the PSU for a good quality one, the one that comes with that case will more than likely do the job alright but a good quality PSU is the backbone to a good reliable and stable system in my opinion.

[Stoo]

depending how the prices run you might be better off with the nf7-s and one of those wizzy 1700's if you can get them, then spend a bit more on something with more guts than the mx440 - It'll run out of steam *really* quickly in most games..

[Zaphan58]

Originally posted by Stoo
depending how the prices run you might be better off with the nf7-s and one of those wizzy 1700's if you can get them, then spend a bit more on something with more guts than the mx440 - It'll run out of steam *really* quickly in most games..

he already has a A7N8X-X

[Stoo]

Originally posted by PotNood|e
he already has a A7N8X-X

Oops, that'll be the wine then

anyway, if he can find a 1700+ J-wassit he should save some cash to throw at the gfx card

Oh and ECC ram is a bit over-kill isn't it?

[fondie]

Does the Asus even support ECC Ram ? In any case, you want non-ECC, and i'd suggest you try and stretch to slight better graphics card too, a radeon 9200 or an fx5200?

[Knoxville]

fx5200 isn't hugely better is it?

[steve threlfall]

Originally posted by Stoo
depending how the prices run you might be better off with the nf7-s and one of those wizzy 1700's if you can get them, then spend a bit more on something with more guts than the mx440 - It'll run out of steam *really* quickly in most games..

yep

how about a ti4200 should be beefy enough as long as you dont want ansitrophic filtering on or something and fsaa

[Mozzer]

Ok, well keeping a £300 budget in mind im going to go over to ebuyer.co.uk (I'm getting it all from there, less hassle) and browse around...

[Stoo]

Just that's as good an idea as anything

Have a look and see if there are any deals about.. might be worth having a look at the bargain hunt forum too

[Mozzer]

which ram is better.. Samsung 512mb Pc2700 333mhz Original OR Crucial PC3200 512mb DDR CL=3 Unbuffered ECC??

I dont really understand this ECC, CL=xx stuff...

[Stoo]

you really don't need ECC and you'll pay more for it..

cl2.5 2700 or 3200 will be fine, look for twinmos, samsung or crucial, anything else will bust your budget

[Mozzer]

Corsair 512MB DDR XMS2700 64mx64 Non-ecc 184 DIMM Unbuffered CAS2 DRAM silver Heat Spreader...
£10 more than my original RAM though?

[Mozzer]

On another note from RAM, should i get the OEM barton and a better HSF or just get the retail.

[fondie]

Originally posted by Knoxville
fx5200 isn't hugely better is it?

i dunno, it got a bigger number! *shrugs*