Quick and Dirty £200 upgrade - worth it?

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Hi folks, I don't have the cash to go to a PCI-E mobo solution at the moment, but I do have £200 to spare on upgrading some components - my system is struggling with games like Neverwinter Nights2 and Elder Scrolls-Oblivion and I want to give it an immediate boost, with a view to builsing a new PCI-E, Core2Duo system in the autumn.

I currently have an MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum board which I don't want to replace, but currently there's only a skt 939 A64 3000+ Winnie in there at the moment, along with a Nvidia 6800 (non-GT) graphics card with 128mb of memory. I do have 2GB of Geil memory in the system however.

If I was to upgrade using the following, do you think I would see an appreciable improvement in the system performance? Any advice gratefully received - my budget *really* is £200 max though...

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego (Socket 939) - OEM £58.74
Leadtek GeForce 7800 GS 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail £117.49
 
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but that would also mean a socket AM2 cpu and DDR2 memory as well as mobo and gfx card wouldn't it? I'm not going to be able to do that for £200 :(

I like the look of the Sapphire X1950 Pro though - had a look at a few reviews which drool over it :p
 
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No I mean a S939 PCI-E mobo, even a decent one can be had for cheap in MM, then you have about £150 for a X1900XTX / X1950XT, also in MM.

Try and get an overclockable mobo so you can try and oc that winne.
 
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ok - had it in my head that you couldn't get skt939 PCI-E mobos... I'll look into that solution, thx :) ah well, thought I was just going to get away with swapping out the gfx card and keeping the mobo where it was in the case lol
 
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Majority of s939 mobos are PCI-E ;)

An AGP 1950pro is just as good but you can get a 2nd hand PCI-E mobo and a new PCI-E 1950pro for the same price, plus you get to keep the GFX for future upgrades as well. Then the decision becomes very easy really. :)
 
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E4300 ~£100 from OCuk
ASROCK 4CORE VSTA can be had for £32 online
Takes DDR, AGP, PCI-E and DDR II

Quick and Dirty upgrade for £130. Massive C2D power, utilises your current high end components (your pricey 2 gigs of RAM). Leaves you nearly enough for a decent upgrade GPU wise. It is what I shall do when the Intel price drops filter down.. for the ultimate budget upgrade.
 
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artaxerxes said:
E4300 ~£100 from OCuk
ASROCK 4CORE VSTA can be had for £32 online
Takes DDR, AGP, PCI-E and DDR II

Quick and Dirty upgrade for £130. Massive C2D power, utilises your current high end components (your pricey 2 gigs of RAM). Leaves you nearly enough for a decent upgrade GPU wise. It is what I shall do when the Intel price drops filter down.. for the ultimate budget upgrade.

id say that was the best option.. if you want a gpu get that board and a pentium 4d to go in it with a pci-e gpu...
 
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Thanks for this - shame that board is only SATA, not SATA2 :( Can't have everything for that price though I guess - also tips me over my £200 budget, which is absolutely cast in stone unfortunately - interesting suggestion though :)
 
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I think a better GPU on its own would give me a good gaming performance boost right now tbh, and that's what I'm looking for - replacing the CPU and mobo but leaving the gfx leaves me in the same boat I'm already in

I will have a decent amount of cash to spend on a completely new system in the autumn (mobo, cpu, memory, gfx card and case etc for £600-£700 or so) so I'm inclined to go for the 1950 Pro AGP mentioned above as a quick fix, and stick it on the MM when I build the new system later in the year...

Thanks for all the advice everyone - very much appreciated, it's nice to have options :)
 
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Hey, I'm in a similar situation to you, just brought this item earlier on today:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-012-DF&groupid=595&catid=596&subcat=689
(I'm going to upgrade my GPU once the R600 comes out.)

That motherboard plus a PCI-e x1950 Pro wouldn't cost much, possibly something like this one:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-134-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=404

You could also upgrade to an AMD64 s939 4000 San Diego core and keep within £200:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-175-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=263

Plus I've read reviews of that mobo in CustomPC and it came 2nd in their total labs test of s939 mobo's last year, supposedly the best laid out s939 motherboard.

That totals at £193.08

Hope that was of some use ;_;

Banjo
 
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i would do the option in the post above, because you wont get much for an AGP card when it comes round to upgrading as not many people will be wanting it, and most people who do still have it wont be the type that upgrade.
If you get a PCI-e card, when you come to upgrade you could use it if you have to wait for something to be released, and have more chance of selling it on to someone.
 
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puppy said:
Thanks for this - shame that board is only SATA, not SATA2 :( Can't have everything for that price though I guess - also tips me over my £200 budget, which is absolutely cast in stone unfortunately - interesting suggestion though :)

I would hesitate to dismiss the board on SATA/2 grounds. There is very little difference currently between the standards. Basically the HDD hardware is still the bottleneck, not the interface. Though reports are not clearcut. Burst Speeds definitely favour SATA2, but real world count for *snap*.
 
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Hmmph, no cheap B-Grade s939 PCI-E boards at the moment - you got the last good one :( No suitable boards available in the MM either :( Arghhh
 
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puppy said:
Hmmph, no cheap B-Grade s939 PCI-E boards at the moment - you got the last good one :( No suitable boards available in the MM either :( Arghhh

*Confused*
That link works, 1 left in stock, DFI LanParty UT RDX200CF-DR:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-012-DF&groupid=595&catid=596&subcat=689

I couldn't find it at first when i was told about it either, there are no cheap PCI-e s939 motherboards in the Sale sections, but in the B-Grade section there are a few.

Not sure what this particular board has done to be put in the B-Grade section, but I'm getting one delivered tomorrow so if you're interested in the three upgrades I posted, I'll post in this thread what I get as this is "B-Grade"? ;_;

Banjo
 
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Oh right - I thought that link was to the one you managed to nab :) thought you were just gloating about your soon-to-come UV goodness :p In that case I might take the plunge - although old that DFI board gets some good reviews - enough cash left for a nice PCI-E x1950 and maybe a processor upgrade too - thx :)
 
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