CPU Upgrade advice

B

bishman82

Geek Trainee
hi, just found this forum, need a little advice ;)

Basicly i got a pre made pc last year, got a celeron in it (2.2mhz) only to save cash.

Got a bit of money lying about now so i thought get a P4 to go in instead but i'm not sure what the motherboard will take or if it would be worth going for an AMD chip.
Last time i built a pc was in the 200mhz days so all the new standards in motherboards and processors are a little confusing lol..

I suppose my main problem is i don't have the pc with me now so i cant find out what mobo is in there but what i do know is that it isnt even an AGP motherboard :( so i might have to get a new chip and motherboard and start over!!

If someone could point me in the right direction that would be cool, trying to keep it fairly cheap !!
 
Depending on what the system is right now, I can't say much other than that you should be able to keep your drives without issue. The rest of the system is really up in the air without knowing the innards. It really depends on what you want out of the system for the upgrade. The CPU may or may not be the best upgrade for you.
 
For decent gaming performance, then I'd go for a new mobo with AGP/PCI-E and probably get an AMD CPU. But if you just want a little boost then a better CPU and/or more RAM will help.
 
No just changed my mind, going to build a complete new one i think :good:

what is going to be the cheapest way to do this considering i;m going to be using it for games/music production??? but i don't want something thats going to be useless in a year lol, i've just got to find a balance. got bills to pay you know !!

For starters i'm gonna need a case that looks good
 
well you can pick up absolutely awesome pc's for under a grand nowadays, and you'll end up with a 64 bit processor, a gig of ram, a 6600gt gfx card, 200gig hard disk and a nice case to match. (and a high quality psu of course).


How much cash do you have to burn?
 
Waffle said:
well you can pick up absolutely awesome pc's for under a grand nowadays, and you'll end up with a 64 bit processor, a gig of ram, a 6600gt gfx card, 200gig hard disk and a nice case to match. (and a high quality psu of course).


How much cash do you have to burn?
Click to expand...


not much, that's the problem :(

i was looking at getting the cheapest possible really

is a 'Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 nForce4 Socket 939 Motherboard'
worth getting or would i regret it?
 
damn! i thought i could go and get any old case that looked good and that will do, but now i'm told i have to be carefull what power supply it comes with nowadays because the new athalons eat lots of power!
 
That mobo is excellent, i've heard good things about the nForce4 chipset :)

Its Socket 939 meaning its great for future upgrades. It'll support an athlon 5000 so I'm told, and the 4000 is only just out.

If I were you, I would get that motherboard, or something similar, an amd 3500 64, if you have enough cash, or just the 3000 chip. Its an awesome overclocker, and I'm running it at 2.2Ghz on stock cooling.

512Mb of Value RAM is sufficient, such as Corsair or Kingston. A 6600GT will set you back around 150 - 200 quid depending on the manufacturer, but it is a fantastic card.

Don't bother with a fancy case yet, just get the hardware, and when you have more cash, pimp it up. You'd be better off getting a cheap case, a quality PSU, and enjoying an awesome system, rather than getting a nice case and a not so beasty pc.
 
you can get any cheap case you want, as long as you replace the PSU it comes with with a better one.
How much exaclty are you looking to spend. For Athlon64s they're quite expensive in comparison to the older K7 Athlon XP/Sempron CPUs.
 
Waffle said:
That mobo is excellent, i've heard good things about the nForce4 chipset :)

Its Socket 939 meaning its great for future upgrades. It'll support an athlon 5000 so I'm told, and the 4000 is only just out.
Click to expand...

The Athlon64 4000 is the last single core A64, after that it'll be dual core and they will be expensive.
The mobo is good, and so is the upgrade path for S939, but just depends on the amount available to spend on it.
 
ok then i'm going to go with that mobo then, i was looking at the gladiator case from a-top

http://www.xcase.co.uk/acatalog/A-Top_Gladiator_Gaming_Case.html

but i'm guessing the PSU isnt going to be that good at £57 the lot, if not, what is the cheapest psu i can get that is going to work well with the new athalons?

so far ive got down:

GA-K8NF-9 mobo with a
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Corsair XMS3200C2 Platinum 400Mhz 512Mb Module

and i suppose i'll get the most expensive graphics card i can get after that then.
 
http://www.xcase.co.uk/acatalog/Targan_Power_Supplies.html

The Seasonic might be okay, but if you're buying from XCase, the only ones I feel comfortable recommending would be the Tagan 480W or Enermax brands. Whatever you do, DO NOT skimp on the PSU. The newer stuff simply requires more grunt from the PSU than the previous generation. Additionally, getting a good PSU with enough breathing room will allow you to upgrade the CPU and video card without worrying about having enough juice.
 
yea 400 - 500W shud be plenty im using 500 x-connect for my sli rig, jus make sure to get it from antec,, ultra, or another good line, cuz otherwise they reli have like 350/400 max load and have 500W at below zero degrees which is absurd, if ur buying it at a store, check its weight, it may sound wrong but the heavier it is, the better. anyway, welcome to the amd revolution.

If that jus has a single pci express slot nd u want to get a 6800 ultra foresay, don't get it, rather u could get two 6600GTs for 340$ and in most cases have better or around the same scores, now compare 340 to 600 and tell me which is better. unless ud plan to get the ultra sli later which wud kick ass alot, but id slap some1 across the face for wasting that much money.
 
what's the psu that comes with the case then? all i can find is '450w psu'
I'll find out cos i've ordered this now, if it really is crap i can always get a better one
 
personally i wudn trust that its 450W because i havent heard much about the line, i would get a seperate PSU because there are no rules to testing a PSU therefore they can say its 450W but they don't mention at -50 degrees celsius haha get a good PSU by Antec, Enermax, or some other good line. if u want to upgrade later on you might as well buy an sli mobo and buy a good nvidia pci express system link interface compatible card and later on buy another, it boosts performance by 50-60% and saves you alot of money even though it has to be the same exact card in the second slot. like im running dual 6800GTs at system link interface.
 
i just went over my budget and ordered the lot now lol

Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 nForce4 mobo
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Maxtor 160gb hd
Asus GeForce 256
Thermaltake Xaser Silent Purepower 480W
Corsair ram
and some rediculous looking fan to sit on top of the processor lol
 
another thing...
just got the delivery of that gladiator case from x-case i just turned the case on and the fans that were built in don't turn on is there someting stupid i've not noticed or is the psu just shit and faulty ??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top