Upgrades help

[JesterFX]

Hi all,

I am thinking about upgrading my graphics card, cpu etc. Basically i want to be able to run Half Life2, Fear, Far cry etc with as high a settings as possible.

I have a budget of around £300 but can go a bit more if necessary.

I have got my eye on Crucial Radeon X1900 GT 256MB PCI Express graphics card, and would like to know what motherboard, power, cpu etc i would need.(im thinking pentium)

Ant advice is appreciated

[cHiNgY1788]

pentium
hells no
no one should buy that

Intel has a new CPU and it's name is Core, Core 2

supposedly 40% faster than Pentium 4/D/EE and emits 40% less heat

and indeed looks true through benchmarks and tests

if Core 2 is out of your price range
Intel will release a lower end cpu (or so ive heard) to be like a celeron replacement...

If you cant wait, then AMD is your man, Athlon 64/X2/FX is better than Intel's Pentium 4/D/EE, though not as good as Intel's Core 2 Series

Motherboard depends on which CPU you get...

RAM DDR2 is in, so you will be getting that...

Power supply, dont go for budget brands like omni, they usually die early or are very loud
Get PSUs from companies like Thermal Take, Antec, Evermax (there are more name brands)

HDD - Keep your old one or get a new one, go for sata 2 since new boards, as ive seen, have 1 IDE port, and have many SATA ports (most ive seen is 8), 250GB and 320GB are of best value (after looking at prices at a computer fair), and a few shops over the internet

DVD Burner - Many brands, fairly cheap, There is a light scribe technology, thats just printing an image onto the disc, using the Burner's Laser, pictures are monochrome and you need special CDs, so dont bother with light scribe, better to get a CD/DVD Printer

FDD - useful for all those old boot disks...

sound card - get a high quality sound card if you are a hardcore gamer, (audigy series, X-Fi series) these cards can play more sounds simutaeneously than the onboard, and use slightly less CPU power, but the quality of sound for onboard and the high end sound card are around the same (according to Atomic Magazine)

network cards - most motherboards have onboard Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet

[JesterFX]

Thanks for that.

I have had a look around. and come up with these for the budget, could you have a look and let me know your thoughts?

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...1&GroupID=1087

http://www.pctechonline.co.uk/home/p...d=778&catid=15

[Colmaca]

Intel Dual-Core Technology is different to Intel Core 2 Duo, Core Duo is what you want it will kick the dual core

this is something like what you would like

http://www.pctechonline.co.uk/home/p...d=820&catid=15

Here some benchmarks to look at to see where to Core Duo come tha Cpu listed above is at bottom, or below it not on the chart

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=2795&p=14

[JesterFX]

Does the core duo 1.86GHZ equate 2 372GHZ?

I know very little about all this.

[Colmaca]

Benchmarks show all core duo 1.86GHZ equates to about 4 ghz in the old terms

All I can go on is benchmarks and what beats what



http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=2795&p=14

[cHiNgY1788]

Core 2 duo is, how you say, too good