Upgrade advice wanted.

[Spikyalex]

Hello
I have been thinking of upgrading for a while, but i have always thought "wait just a bit more" But i think it's time to bite the bullet as it were.

My current system is average by any standards...
AMD Sempron 2100+ (socket A)
Abit NF7 series motherboard (Nforce 2 chipset)
512mb DDR 400 Memory
Nvidia Geforce 6200 (AGP)

I'm looking to buy a new processor, new mobo, new graphics card and more memory.... or different memory if i opt for a DDR2 system. Now my problems begin...

I'm on a faily tight budget, so i am drawn to a new AMD AM2 system because of the recent price drops. I am not looking for bleeding edge performance, and because of my budget im reluctant to go for a brand spanking new Intel Core 2 Duo.

My current thoughts are this:
CPU: AMD AM2 Athlon 64 3800 + Windsor Core (£101.39)
Mobo: ASUS M2N-E, NF570 (£63.09)
Memory: 1GB (2X512MB) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5400 (£65.24)
Graphics Card: 256Mb XFX 7600GT (£129.83)

Grand total of £359.55... under my budget... just...

Your thoughts, opinions and suggestions would be much appriciated.
Thanks

 

[KingCody]

hi spikyalex,

looks good to me. it will be a decent performer

I assume that you'll be reusing your case, monitor, keyboard, etc...

my only suggestion would be your PSU. your new system will use more power than your old system did so you will probably need a new power supply (especially if your old one is generic).

cheers :wave:

 

[Spikyalex]

Thanks for the quick response

Yes my current case, monitor, keyboard etc are sufficiant... i am a bit worried about my power supply though.
It is a generic 400W
I don't know much about power supply requirements, but i dare say i'd need a new one?.... wouldnt want to risk using this one, so i guess i'll add that to the shopping basket.

Got any suggestions for a good make/model?

Thanks a lot

 

[KingCody]

good PSU brands inlcude PCP&C, SeaSonic, Antec, Enermax, Fortron to name a few.

i can personally recommend the Antec TruePower series PSUs. i use a TruePowerII 380 and I have no complaints about it it has plenty of stable power for most systems and it runs almost completely silent. the 380 is the baby of that model line, but is still a pretty powerful PSU (two 16A +12v rails with a combined max load of 28amps) I bought it for about $60USD which would be about £32

:wave:

 

[Spikyalex]

You think that would do the trick and is a good buy at £38.69?

http://www.enermax.com.tw/english/product_Display1.asp?PrID=18

 

[KingCody]

looks good to me

i haven't heard of that model line, but enermax is a trusted name so it should be good. the specs are very close to my PSU and I have a similar system: Athlon64 3000+ (overclocked to ~3800+) and a Gigabyte 256MB GDDR3 7600GT

it handles my system with no problem at all. if you are planning to get a high end video card or a MULTI CORE CPU in the future, then you may want to go with a more powerful model. otherwise you should be fine.

cheers :wave:

 

[Spikyalex]

Okie

Thanks a lot for all the advice, i'll keep you posted on what i decide, and if it all works

:wave: