Curse

T1Cybernetic · Apr 24, 2009, 01:38 PM // 13:38

Hey guys, i am going to upgrade from a current P4 & Athlon XP (single core systems) in the coming weeks. Can someone advise on some current best buy's please?

The total budget is a staggering £200 Maximum for the main 4 components!

CPU -
Mobo -
Memory -
Graphics -

Or if there are any combo/bundle deals that have a little spice i would consider.

Bundle -

Basically the pc has to do every day browsing/email and instant messenger stuff and some light games (Guild wars /Unreal tournament/ ut2k4) nothing spectacular

but i would like to have a good motherboard that will over clock a little and with a little room for a future cpu upgrade

spamslayer · Apr 24, 2009, 06:07 PM // 18:07

It's tough, but possible. Is there a major website/store you would buy from?
I live in the US and use newegg most of the time. For the uk I use overclockers.co.uk

Their selection isn't as big as newegg's so if you have a friend/family in the US then I'd suggest having them buy the parts and ship to you (yes, it will probably take longer, but should be cheaper - not always the case though.)

Anyway, overclockers.co.uk has a limited selection but heres what I'd pick up:
Processor:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750+ Black Edition 2.70GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-M720-US3 (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Memory:
GeIL Black Dragon Evo One 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz DDR2 Dual Channel

Video card:
Asus ATI Radeon 3450 Vcool Silent 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

You said that you want to be able to upgrade the CPU at a later time, well the motherboard will support AMD's Phenom X4 Processor (quad core)...I went with AMD because they seem to have motherboards that are compatible with a lot of their processors.

Note, the total is below what you asked for so you have a bit of wiggle room. Total: 157.21
That so shipping, etc. may push it up to 200, but if you were accounting for shipping costs already then I'd suggest getting a better video card for what I have above. (The one above should handle Guild Wars and UT just fine though)

T1Cybernetic · Apr 25, 2009, 08:31 PM // 20:31

Yeah it is proving tough, the pc idea came originally from a friend who was after an upgrade but i figured what the heck i might as well check one out for myself too

The problem i am having is not finding the parts that are good/fast enough but finding parts i am happy with (i can be fussy at the best of times) and building a pc is a process of elimination and researching price/performance when it comes to parts i suppose

cheers for the help...

Elder III · Apr 28, 2009, 03:56 PM // 15:56

the 3450 will not give you a satisfactory gaming experience, even for those games listed. You will want to take that wiggle room that you have there and get the best graphics that your budget can afford.
The 4670 is a great card for the budget gamer and offers performance that rivals and often surpasses the 9600GSO (even the GT in some games) which is at least 20pounds higher in price. That will only raise your budget to about 188 pounds and is worth it for sure.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...tid=56&subcat=

BTW - if running Vista you will want 3-4 GB of RAM --- on XP 2 GB is fine.