Componant Advice

Wiredchild

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Hello everyone, tis a while since i've been around these parts but it's nice to be back, once again seeking the advice of those wiser than myself!

Simply, at the moment i have an ASUS A8N-E motherboard, a AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (skt 939), and a Gainward 6600GT. The plan is this...

I intend to put all these into my Dad's new computer and the money i gain from him buying the componants from me (and a little extra of my own) i want to buy a new motherboard, CPU, and graphics card.

Naturally the whole plan is for me to get a more powerful machine, capable of playing the newest games reasonably well, something the componants i currently have are not always able to do.

So, i was firstly wondering how much you think the componants i have mentioned are worth, considering they are in perfect condition and have 1 or 2 years left on their warranty? Also, i would appreciate any suggestions for new componants. I'll metion that i intend to go for AMD and nVidia this time round again.

Thanks
 
Wiredchild said:
Hello everyone, tis a while since i've been around these parts but it's nice to be back, once again seeking the advice of those wiser than myself!

Simply, at the moment i have an ASUS A8N-E motherboard, a AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (skt 939), and a Gainward 6600GT. The plan is this...

I intend to put all these into my Dad's new computer and the money i gain from him buying the componants from me (and a little extra of my own) i want to buy a new motherboard, CPU, and graphics card.

Naturally the whole plan is for me to get a more powerful machine, capable of playing the newest games reasonably well, something the componants i currently have are not always able to do.

So, i was firstly wondering how much you think the componants i have mentioned are worth, considering they are in perfect condition and have 1 or 2 years left on their warranty? Also, i would appreciate any suggestions for new componants. I'll metion that i intend to go for AMD and nVidia this time round again.

Thanks

In my opinion, your hardware really isnt worth its actual price. (Retail) your motherboard does not even support sli, so i say atleast 100 on it only because its stocked with PCI-e

Your processor isn't pricey either, its no dual core, the cache on it is somewhat low. For a high-end gaming PC L1 Cache: 64KB+64KB
L2 Cache: 512KB isnt good enough. So i say about 90$ for your CPU.

And finally your last product, the video card. Honestly out of everything you mentioned for its price, and its value. That video card is decent. Only because you have 1, and it happens to be PCI-e matching your mother board. Only because video cards can be pretty expensive ill give you that. So yea,

you want good gaming? get a dual core cpu, socket AM2. Either or SLI ready motherboard with 2 video cards. Either or 1 pci-e x16 video card for your motherboard. SATA 3gb compatible... and things like that.

sorry i dont mean to sound rude -.-
 
Hey, cheers for the replies people...

I do understand the componants are definately not worth their retail price Ichaidez, they're in perfect condition, so, how much is normally knocked off second hand? Would it be fair to ask for £150 for them all or something around that?

Also, it really doesn't matter about the motherboard not being SLi and things like that, the pc won't be used for any tough gaming, mostly office use. After all, the componants in it at the moment are like Athlon 2600+ and a GeForce 5200 so it'll be a nice little upgrade!

Can anyone recommend any specific componants that'd be good for my upgrade. I really like my ASUS A8N-E motherboard, do ASUS do a similar style but better sort of board (non SLi), with an AM2 socket? Do people think a AMD X2 3800+ will be sufficient?

I was intending on getting an nVidia 6800 before i started looking, but it seems they no longer exist and all the cards have changed model numbers? What sort of model should i be looking at in the nVidia range? It needs to be better than a 6600GT, but i can't be looking at ridiculous prices here.

All together i can't really afford to put much more than £100 to the price i get for the componants i have at the moment, so, assuming £150 is good, i have about £250 for CPU, motherboard, and graphics card.

Thanks again,
What do you all think?
 
Here's what i think is a bargain for you.

Motherboard: ASUS M2N-E $93.99 (USD)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+ (Good Choice, Good Bang for your money) $169.99 (USD)
GPU: BFG Tech 7300GT (256mb PCI-e x16) $79.99 (USD)

Now its hard for me to tell ya that this is the cheapest it can get. But from what i know in price ranges. This is as good as it gets. Now i dont know how convert my currency into yours, but from what i know hardware wise... This is a pretty good deal compared to those preconfigured HP's, Compaqs, and Gateways on the shelf.

Cheers
Luis
 
I'm glad you agree on the 3500+ lchaidez, it looks like a great CPU for the price. Also, that was the motherboard i had been looking at, the performance is good right?

Only thing, how good is the 7300GT? It doesn't seem greatly more powerful than the old 6600GT, what i have at the moment. Am i going to notice any significant gaming performance with that card? What are the 7600's like?

Cheers again,
Any other suggestions welcome too!
 
Wiredchild said:
Only thing, how good is the 7300GT? It doesn't seem greatly more powerful than the old 6600GT, what i have at the moment. Am i going to notice any significant gaming performance with that card? What are the 7600's like?

I'd stick with the 6600GT; if it has the same amount of memory as the 7300GT you're deciding on getting, it's a better card. If it has 128MB and the 7300GT you're looking at has 256MB, I'd say they're about equal. But the 6600GT has GDDR3, and most 7300GT's have DDR2. So, if you're looking to upgrade, at least get a 7600GT. 7600GS might be a bit better, but not by much. A 7600GT would produce the most noticable difference, unless you've got the money to go higher. For about USD $260, you can get a 7900GTO, which is a very good card that has close performance to the 7900GTX. Both are better than NVIDIA's 7950GT.

But right now, I'd not go any higher than the 7600GT, because DX10 cards are coming out soon. There's no need to get incredible performance now; save your money for those beasts.
 
Ok, so that's the card sorted, cheers THEpiGUY. Just out of interest, what are the DX10 cards? Are they nVidia or ATI, will be they be ridiculously expensive yeah?

What's the motherboard like, does anyone have any opinions on the ASUS M2N-E? Will it be fine with an Athlon X2 3800+ and 1GB of Corsair Dual Channel PC3200 RAM (I think that's the RAM i have at the moment anyway!)?

Just a prediction, how well would this set up do with games like HL2, BF2, DOOM3, etc etc?
 
Wiredchild said:
Ok, so that's the card sorted, cheers THEpiGUY. Just out of interest, what are the DX10 cards? Are they nVidia or ATI, will be they be ridiculously expensive

As far as im aware DX10 is only available with Vista OS
 
I just realised we're talking about DirectX10! I thought it was a new range of cards of something...God how stupid am I.

What's the advantage of Dx10? I don't really know or understand what DirectX is but i heard Dx10 is going to be the new 'thing' with Windows Vista, but, that's not coming out in Europe for ages is it? Is it really worth holding on so long?
 
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