updating computer!

Joined: Jun 24, 2006 Posts: 261 Location: Holmfirth

Ok i may have a limmited amount of money to spend, due to wife having 2 hols a year but at the moment the graphics card I have is ....... get ready to laugh ..... a radeon 9600 se or pro (i forget)... thinking of updating it to a Sapphire radeon x1650pro( is this any good( looking to spend £100)) of my hard urned money. Also thinking of updading my chip to the next level think this will cost me £90.(do not ask me what it is I rape machines. Also thinking about getting 1gig of ram (them things that u slot into u motherboard.( £39)ish. the only other problem the is I hope the motherboard can handle it. Failing that any better ideas on a motherboard than a EVGA Nfore 1590 about (£150) and whould it run it all........Ok I am about 5 years in and need a rebuild on laughing ....... any help appreciated.....Do not need it to run vista, will still use XP pro.

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 10:45 pm

hi mate. i'm using the x1650 pro myself. seems a good card. not much of an expert myself, but it plays bf2 ok for me. the card i had before was an nvidea 4400 which wouldn't play bf2 at all. need an extra gig of ram myself,been told my system would def benifit from this as bf2 very ram intense. what sort of ram was it for 39 and where from??? is your graphics card agp? mine is, find it limits choice a bit, pci xpress ones much cheaper too.

Joined: Apr 24, 2006 Posts: 525 Location: Manchester UK

If you can scrape the cash together, the following setup is cheap and very powerful:

ASRock 4CoreDual VSTA motherboard (supports Intel Core Duo)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-011-AK

£46 at overclockers
£39 at Ebuyer!

Intel Core Duo E4300 1.8GHz
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-142-IN
£80 at overclockers

Geil Ultra DDR2-800 2GB RAM
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL
£68 at overclockers

In total:£187 for a dual core chip with 2GB RAM. Plus, Ive bought that same combo and easily overclocked the CPU to 2.4GHz on standard cooling.

As for graphics card, for £100 I just sold my 7800GTX on ebay! Do a search and you can find some awesome cards second hand for cheap.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ASUS-GeForce-7800GTX-256-MB-PCIE-Graphic-Card-EN7800GTX_W0QQitemZ250136373529QQihZ015QQcategoryZ3762QQtcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/7800-GTX-256Mb-PCI-Express-Graphics-Card-7800GTX-As-New_W0QQitemZ200123594861QQihZ010QQcategoryZ3762QQtcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

and

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Nvidia-Forsa-7900-gtx-7900gtx-512mb-graphics-card_W0QQitemZ190126935268QQihZ009QQcategoryZ3762QQtcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Good luck!!!

Joined: Dec 17, 2006 Posts: 201 Location: Scunthorpe UK

Hi,
If your getting a new grafix card , then dx10 is the way to go.. the Nvidia's 8500's and 8600's can be found for under £100. All depends on the mobo you got/get (not sure if you can get these cards in pci or agp).
The parts Woops has put together is perfect for those of us on a budget and the mobo will take a pci express 8600gt,
This one at dabs has got a silent heat pipe and you get supreme commander with it Very Happy

, but shop around! http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4JC4&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11137,43990000,48070000
Good Luck with it,
Thanx Gaz!

Joined: Mar 08, 2007 Posts: 254 Location: UK

If you dont want to go for DX10, which if it was me I would.

I currently have the XT1950 Pro 512. This card is £55 at the mo from Micro Direct. I run BF2 and 2142 Maxed out on full settings - runs like a dream.

Joined: Jun 24, 2006 Posts: 261 Location: Holmfirth

thanks for all your help