New Rig for £500 ($773 US / $1216 Can)

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hdmk

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I'm looking to upgrade my current system, so I receive the parts at around Xmas time:

Current System:

AMD Athlon 750Mhz
256mb PC100
Gigabyte GIXE
AOpen TNT 2 Model 64 (32mb)
20gig hd
250W PSU

These are the parts that I want to replace, I want to keep the case, cd drives, sound card, etc.

What do you suggest for UNDER £500?

So far, I was thinking of the following (all prices inc VAT):
- I've searched dabs.com, scan.co.uk, ebuyer.com, crucial.com:

AMD *Retail* Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67 GHz) with AMD H/S/F 3 Yrs Warranty - £93.06 (Scan.co.uk)

512Mb PC2700 DDR Memory (Major) - £108.10 (Scan.co.uk)

DabsValue GeForce 4 Ti4600 - £176.25 / OR PNY GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB DDR AGP RP VO DVI - £105.75 (dabs.com)

As for mobo, hdd, and PSU could you recommened anything?

MOBO: PC2700, USB2
HDD: 80 Gig - as fast as I can get - ATA133, 8mb cache?
PSU: more than enough power, cheap, quiet.

What do you think? Should I go with a P4 instead? Should I wait for the XP 2400+, 2600+, 2800+ ?
 
As for the Hard Drive, what about Western Digital's Caviar Special Edition 80Gb, 8mb cache, 7,200rpm drive.. I've got one and its brill..
Its had a lot of good reviews, and others on here have the same, and say the same. I got mine for about £100 , but that was 2 - 3 months ago, it could of come down in price...

Have a butchers...
http://www.wdc.com/products/products.asp?DriveID=32

I myself want to upgrade at Xmas, and i also have a spec like yours except mines a Pentium 750, so i'll be intrested to see what others reccomend for the MOBO etc...
 
yeah, its still around £100, at least on scan.co.uk
that was the drive I was looking at before...it looks good (if only was a little cheaper ;))
 
Originally posted by RustyZip
As for the Hard Drive, what about Western Digital's Caviar Special Edition 80Gb, 8mb cache, 7,200rpm drive.. I've got one and its brill..
Click to expand...

I as well have the same HDD. Except it's 120GB :evil: It's gravy, perfectly fast, 3yr warranty, quiet, reliable! The most susceptible to failure component in a computer is the HDD, you really need a reliable one...ahh!

I would reccomend to you the A7V333. Very nice system board, everything you've ever wanted...ahh!

If you want to save even more money on your video card get an 8500...ahh!

$773 is an adequate amount of money to upgrade CPU/sysbo/RAM/HDD/GFX...ahh!

PSU: I'd say a 350-400W Antec or Enermax would suit you, especially for the Ti4600...ahh!
 
As for the Radeon 8500..no way. Its annihilated by the ti4200, plus it has driver issues.

A7V333? - ABIT? - EDIT - OK, by Asus - scan.co.uk - £81.89

Thanks.

What about the CPU? Should I go with a faster one? A P4?


EDIT: As concerns the PSU..will it support a second fan at the front of the case?

- and do I want 350 or 430W (Enermax)? - £49.84, £68.83
- or a 380W (Antec) - £61.09
 
-I'd say the 380W Antec.

-If you want ABiT than get the KX7333 or the AT7-Max. Check out both, and whichever you want...

-Your PSU will support alot more fans than that. My 400W is running with 5 :D
 
Ok, so:

Motherboard: Asus A7V-333 viaKT333 + USB2 + ATA133 Scan.co.uk £81.89

Hard Disk: 80Gb Western Digital (WD800JB) ATA-100 (7200rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.5ms) Quiet Drive Technology 3Yr dabs.com £96.34

CPU: AMD *Retail Box* Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67 GHz) with AMD Heat Sink Fan Scan.co.uk £93.06

PSU: 380W Antec (Dual Fan) dabs.com £61.09

Memory: 512mb PC2700 DDR (major brand) Scan.co.uk £105

Graphics Card: DabsValue GeForce 4 Ti4600 Dabs.com £188.00


Total: £625.38


That's way over £500. Can anyone help me to bring it down?
 
Originally posted by hdmk

Hard Disk: 80Gb Western Digital (WD800JB) ATA-100 (7200rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.5ms) Quiet Drive Technology 3Yr dabs.com £96.34
Click to expand...


ATA100? The A7V333 is ATA133.

Lose the Ti4600 if you want to go down in price. I say that because it's the most expensive component you have.
 
I know its ATA 100, but I figure the 8mb cache will outweigh the ATA133...I can't find a 8mb cache drive with ATA133.

I could go with a:

PNY GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB DDR AGP RP VO DVI - £105.75 (dabs.com)

instead of the Ti4600. Do you think that the ti4600 is worth the extra £70?
 
Originally posted by hdmk
I know its ATA 100, but I figure the 8mb cache will outweigh the ATA133...I can't find a 8mb cache drive with ATA133.

I could go with a:

PNY GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB DDR AGP RP VO DVI - £105.75 (dabs.com)

instead of the Ti4600. Do you think that the ti4600 is worth the extra £70?
Click to expand...

Nope.. check out the web for info regarding overclocking of Ti4200... most can give 4400 performance and some in well cooled systems can give Ti4600 performance.
 
And on the hard drive - even though it's not ATA133 its still rated among the fastest of IDE hard drives - and yes, it's because of the 8 meg cache. Believe me, it makes a huge difference.

LNCPapa
 
I recently put two Seagate Barracuda IV 40gb 7200rpm ATA100 drives in a RAID 0 configuration. Do you think this would be a faster configuration than one single WD 8mb Cache drive?
I really just wanted to play with the Raid controller that came on my motherboard but was wondering what were peoples thoughts on this. And I would go for the Ti4200 and just try to over clock a little. If your looking at £170 for a Ti4600, your only another £60 away from the price for a Crucial 9700 pro!!! Its really not worth it for the Ti4600... In fact I'll sell you my Asus v8200 Geforce 3 for £100 and upgrade to the 9700 pro myself! (j/k) ;)
 
Originally posted by hdmk
I know its ATA 100, but I figure the 8mb cache will outweigh the ATA133...I can't find a 8mb cache drive with ATA133.
Click to expand...

On second check, my 8MB WD isn't ATA133 either...
And yes, it definitely outweighs 133.

Originally posted by hdmk
instead of the Ti4600. Do you think that the ti4600 is worth the extra £70?
Click to expand...

As Arris said, no. Definitely no.
 
OK, that's it I think:

Motherboard: Asus A7V-333 viaKT333 + USB2 + ATA133 - Scan.co.uk - £81.89

Hard Disk: 80Gb Western Digital (WD800JB) ATA-100 (7200rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.5ms) Quiet Drive Technology 3Yr - dabs.com - £96.34

CPU: AMD *Retail Box* Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67 GHz) with AMD Heat Sink Fan - Scan.co.uk - £93.06

PSU: 380W Antec (Dual Fan) - dabs.com - £61.09

Memory: 512mb PC2700 DDR (major brand) - Scan.co.uk - £105

Graphics Card - AOpen/DabsValue/PNY GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB DDR AGP RP VO DVI - Dabs.com - £105.75 (depending on stock on Dabs)

Total: £543.13 (Plus delivery)

Close enough to £500 I think. :)
Thanks. If I do change anything it'll be the processor, to a faster Athlon, but I doubt I will, because I'll probably be ordering it at the end of November.

EDIT: Having said that, I've noticed that the 2400+ has just become available in stock on scan.co.uk..and the 2200+ has just become available with AMD heat sink and fan, for £50 more.
It might come down a bit in the next month, so I might consider it.
 
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