Thinking of upgrading

seamus.carey

Hi everyone,

I've recently made the plunge to broadband and love the new found speed of it all. Though somehow I think it'll wear off. But not if I reach my download limit first but that's a different story altogether.

I currently have an ancient Gateway PC. It was top of the range in 1999 but a little dated now and I was thinking of upgrading or replacing it. It's a P3 500Mhz, 128MB Ram, 2xCR-RW and 8xDVD with Creative Soundblaster Live card and a NVidia Riva TNT2 Model 64 graphics card plus a nice Boston Accoustics 2 speaker and subwoogfer kit. I think upgrading is out of the question as I'd probably need to replace everything so I thought about buying a new Dell OC but too expensive so thought maybe I'd build one myself but don't feel confident enough so thought I'd ask for help.

Basically, I was wondering if someone might help me with choosing items and giving me some advice. I'll try and actual building myself but want to make sure I have everything I need. I'll be able to pick the things like DVD, CD-RW, keyboards, mouse but might need advice on graphics and sound cards and would need a lot of help with motherboard and whether everything will work together.

Basically, I want a nice new, fast, not type of the range but very good system for the cheapest possible price. I spent £1600 on my last PC and now I want cheap. I don't play games really but would like a decent graphics card and a good soundcard for doly surround and dvd use.

Can anyone help or suggest?

Thanks,
Seamus

silverside

Look at http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=152842

mods is it possible to put a sticky on this forum linking to that thread?

BadCharlie

I had almost the same spec pc in 1999 also. Got it from gateway on the 20th of november that year. Did me good for 3 years then gave it to my sister. I cant belive you have made that machine last you for 5 years. You most not play alot of games ?

Azza

First thing you probably want to do is check out Col-Loki post in the tweaking modding section "pc a little help" I think its called. He's got some good advice there.

Personally I would recommend the Creative Sounblaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 sound card its the best there is (quailty is quite good). Its about €120-140 I belive.

For a graphics card I would recommend a ATI 9800 Pro 128MB from sapphire (256 bit edtion) its going for around € 210-220. If you want to save money a 9600xt will probably save you the bones of €50 but I'm not a huge fan of this card.

Depending how much you want to spend on your cpu and motherboard. I would recommend the Athlon XP for a buget option as you can build a reasonable set up for around €200 euro. For that you could get a could Abit motherboard and Athlon 2500xp which is around 2.3ghz P4 speed (1.9ghz amd clock). Very easy to overclock get another 200mhz out of it.

My personal recommendation would be a AMD 64 2800 or 3000 which go from around €200-235 with heatskins included . Those CPU would be as fast as 3.0ghz p4 a motherboard would cost you another €130 . I would recommend the MSI K8N Neo Platinum.

BloodBath

What's your budget?

Personally I would recommend the Creative Sounblaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 sound card its the best there is (quailty is quite good). Its about €120-140 I belive.

Only if you make use of 7.1 sound. If your using 5.1 get the audigy 2 LS. The sound quality is just as good and it's less than half the price but only supports 5.1 sound instead of 7.1.


BloodBath

Col_Loki

I'll be able to pick the things like DVD, CD-RW,

A DVD writer would be a far better choice, it writes CD's and DVD's aswell as plays them. There isint much of a price difference either.

I don't play games really but would like a decent graphics card and a good soundcard for doly surround and dvd use.

9800pro would be overkill. A 9200 would be fine for what you want..........

An AMD XP system is definetly the best option for a budget system. Xp2500+ , Asus A7N8X / Abit NF7 motherboard, Pc3200 Ram would be a nice system and pretty cheap.