Looking to upgrade (£800-1200)

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ok.... im a gamer, i currently have a decent PC, but now im working i want to treat myself to a decent upgrade. i have between £800 to £1200(at a stretch)

heres what i was looking at (any parts not listed arnt needed)

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ (£469.94)
M/BOARD: DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-D (£117.44)
RAM: Mushkin 2GB DDR HP3200 HP (£187.94)
GFX: BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC (£234.94)
WATER COOLING: £100-£150 (kit prefered)
CASE: Enermax CS-527 Case Black No PSU (£35.19)
HDD: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 200GB (£62.22)
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM/RW (SATA PREFERED)

TOTAL £1200ish

any comments or help in putting toghether the perfect spec would be greatly appreciated
 
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Soldato
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Hi welcome to the forums

I would change the 4800+ for a 4400+, there is only 200mhz difference between these and it can be clocked easily past 4800+ speeds.

Do you need water cooling?
I would use air cooling and get a PowerColor ATI Radeon X1900 XT. This is a lot faster than the 7800GT.
 
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thanx, what air-cooling would you recomend, and a total price if poss

that would make it
'CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (£334.82)
M/BOARD: DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-D (£117.44)
RAM: Mushkin 2GB DDR HP3200 HP (£187.94)
GFX: PowerColor ATI 1900XT (£375.94)
CASE: Enermax CS-527 Case Black No PSU (£35.19)
HDD: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 200GB (£62.22)
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM

TOTAL £1050ish'
 
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air cooling;

Zalman CNPS9500, Zalman CNPS7700-CU or Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro

I would go for a 3700 single core AMD and save the money for a new CPU when games come out that make use multicore processors.
 
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i have an old 17" 10ms LCD (not really bothered about changin yet
i have a Razer Diamondback Mouse
and Saitek Eclipse Keyboard

as for the 3700, im tranna future proof it. thats why i though dual core was the way to go
 
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Larok said:
air cooling;

Zalman CNPS9500, Zalman CNPS7700-CU or Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro

I would go for a 3700 single core AMD and save the money for a new CPU when games come out that make use multicore processors.
dont get a snigle core cpu, its not an upgrade without a dual core one. games are slowly coming around to the change and in 6 months it will be used a lot.
 
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as with above post, i have no intention of staying with single core, its old tech, i made that mistake with getting a XP 3200+ (a month after i got it, it disapeared)
 
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I agree that is a possibility.

Although the difference in price for the same 'percievable' retun for a gaming machine is £175 against the 4400 and £300 against the 4800. You could get a really nice monitor for that.

I would be interested to know how much a 2.2 to 2.6ghz duel or perhaps even quad core on 939 pin would cost in say 12 months or perhaps 24 months when it is worth having one to enhance gameplay or choice.

Which games are using duel core benifits and what are they? For a gamer its a big cost for an future unknown advantage.
 
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Soldato
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Larok said:
Which games are using duel core benifits and what are they? For a gamer its a big cost for an future unknown advantage.
Call of Duty 2 has a dual core patch, it's been said it speeds up the game by 60% over a single core cpu.
Quake 4 also benefits from dual core. A lot of games will be made to work better with a dual core cpu soon.

If you wanted to save money i'd go for a X2 3800+ and overclock it, they clock quite well and can reach the same speed as a 4800+.
 
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im quite happy with my monitor, and am sticking with a 4400 (4800 seams a lil expensive when as u say i could clock it to that_

i understand u all recomended air cooling, but i am a fan of water cooling (my current pc is water cooled) do anyone know if the new ThermalTake Tai Chi is any good
 
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perhaps;

CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
£135.95 £135.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£84.95 £84.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£109.95 £109.95
GX-032-OK OcUK GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) & Call of Duty 2 Bundle - Retail (GX-032-OK)
£179.95 £179.95
HD-017-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2004C 200GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-017-SA)
£57.95 £57.95
CD-024-NE NEC ND4550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-024-NE)
£25.50 £25.50
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.95 £14.95
CA-025-EN Enermax Liberty 500W ELT500AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-025-EN)
£63.95 £63.95
CA-018-EN Enermax CS-527 Case Black No PSU (CA-018-EN)
£29.95 £29.95
Subtotal £703.10
VAT £123.05
Total £826.15
 
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or duel core

MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£84.95 £84.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£109.95 £109.95
GX-032-OK OcUK GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) & Call of Duty 2 Bundle - Retail (GX-032-OK)
£179.95 £179.95
HD-017-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2004C 200GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-017-SA)
£57.95 £57.95
CD-024-NE NEC ND4550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-024-NE)
£25.50 £25.50
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.95 £14.95
CA-025-EN Enermax Liberty 500W ELT500AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-025-EN)
£63.95 £63.95
CA-018-EN Enermax CS-527 Case Black No PSU (CA-018-EN)
£29.95 £29.95
CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£284.95 £284.95
Subtotal £852.10
VAT £149.12
Total £1,001.22
 
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'CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (£334.82)
M/BOARD: DFI LanParty ULTRA-D (£117.44)
RAM: Mushkin 2GB DDR HP3200 HP (£187.94)
GFX: PowerColor ATI 1900XT (£375.94)
CASE: Enermax CS-527 Case Black No PSU (£35.19)
HDD: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 200GB (£62.22)
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM

TOTAL £1050ish'
 
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Soldato
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Looks good, I would change the motherboard to a DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (£99). This is the same as the one you chose except it doesn't have SLI which is only for nvidia graphics cards.

edit: what psu do you have as it may not be able to power the X1900XT
 
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