Christmas Upgrade

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

LOL OWNED :)

[=98=]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

I'll sort something later after lunch :)

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

I should probs mention i prefer buying from scan because i get free delivery. I dont mind going to Microdirect as its round the corner. Ebuyer is ok when items are over £49.99, although its a bit of a pain as they refuse to deliver to anywhere except my billing address :/

[=98=]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

[Flt. Sgt. Powderhound]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

Keep your existing RAM; 4GB OCZ Platinum 800MHz is easily adequate.
TBH, I'm not sure why you're calling your rig a piece of crap; a few strategic upgrades will make it easily OK for at least a year. The Intel quads are fairly cheap (Although I've just seen that my Q9450 has jumped up by £50!), so look at getting a Q6600, Antec 300, ATI HD4870 / 4850. and stick with the existing motherboard. :)

[invicta ging3r]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

Ok, i got 2 options for you.

1st is including monitor, with the 260GTX as you said, and also with an SLi capabale mobo.


The second, is without the monitor, and a much better GFX, which will kick butt for alot longer, also with a P45 mobo


The monitor can wait IMO :p

*EDit* forgot to add in the WD HDD

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

Viewsonic monitors FAIL i have one now and its the biggest waste of money i have ever spent, NEVER again!
I do video editing and such and accuracy of colour is something which is pretty important for me...
I may just get one further down the line to be honest but well see.

Whilst i would liek to get an ATI card, their linux drivers are poo/non-existant and i quite like ubuntu so at the moment, its not an option.

The thing about my motherboard is its the IP35-E so its very basic, it doesnt have any RAID features, control over the fans (except cpu), crossfire and the overclocking is pretty limited as the voltage intervals are in massive jumps.

As for keeping my ram, i did think about it but if im gunna sell the PC it makes sense to sell it as a whole thing rather than in pieces. That way i got get 2 x 2GB rather than the 4 x 1 i have at the moment.
Its much more straight forward for whoever i sell it too that way plus i have a few ppl who are interested.

If i did keep the motherboard and/or ram it would be another temp machine until mainstream i7 parts are released but that could be another 8-9 months and as i said im getting really sick of waiting! I am keeping it in mind as an option though.

Im not gunna go for the Antec 300 case, whilst its really quite a nice case for the money, the finish on it is poo! It, doesnt have any anti vibration system for hard drive mounting and after seeing how nice Alex's new case looked, i was thinking of something a little more classy tbh.

Alex - Whilst i know you where just giving me more of an example of what i could get for the money with C2Q, i know i would want to upgrade within the year. So if im going to do it then i would have to go for the very bottom end basic C2Q stuff which brings me back to my temp machine issue which is the fact that i have been using one for nearly a year now and i want a new propely long lasting machine :dead:
On the other hand I guess the real advantage for me if i did do this is that i probably could fit a new monitor and a much nicer case into the budget.

What my thoughts are so far

Cases

This is mostly stuff im all considering, there is a lot here but always struggle to decide for myself :hmm:

Coolermaster RC590 - 61.09
Coolermaster RC690 - 63.81
Hiper HTC Osiris - 83.41
Silverstone Fortress - 152.69
And the cosmos off Alex if i can decide quick enough

Open to suggestions of any others but id like to keep it minimalist and anti vibration hard drive mounts are pretty essential.

Power supply
I like modular BUT if i can save a few quid by getting non-modular than i may well not bother (doubt it tho). I will probably go corsair although im not gunna tie myself into it, apparently once the current cheap stock has run out (due to being bought when the exchange rate was a lot better) the cost of them may go up so i may look into another brand. There are plenty out that i think i could trust that dont cost nearly as much as the Corsair ones do for example:
Coolermaster 620 and 700
Zalman
Silverstone

Graphics card
As i have explained this isnt really negotiable. If i find a release date for the 55nm revisions i may stick with my current card for a little bit while i wait for them.
XFX GTX260 - 218.86

Fans
This will all depend on my decision about the case really but i usually buy
Sharkoon Golfball - 6.90
but am tempted by
Noctua 120mm - 12.33

Hard Drive
Western Digital 250GB - 35.00

Monitor
Would have to be 22" or 24" with excelent contrast ratio, response time and zero latency. PVA panels are commonly regarded as highly although i have heard the cheaper TFTs such as TN have come a long way recently.

i7 Stuff
OCZ Platinum 6GB 1333Mhz - 176.25 (i may get this from the US via my housemate)
Intel i7 920 - 238.24
Asus P6T - WS Pro - 251.67
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 227.48
Bolt kit for my cooler - 7.04

Total - 980.02 using the coolermaster 620 PSU, gigabyte mobo - not including case and fans or monitor.

Which is a lot of money but i can deal with my monitor for a while longer and get one of the cheaper suggested cases. I guess this way i wouldnt be changing the internals down the line but i may still end up spending a couple hundred on a new monitor.

C2 Stuff
DDR2 1066MHz RAM - 65-90

Q6600/Q8200 - 140-160ish
Q9400 - 210 (no way would i spend more than that on a C2!)

P43 mobo - 60-80
P45 mobo - 80-100

Total - 434.32 using the coolermaster 620 PSU, Q6600, Asus P5Q iP45, 4GB Corsair TwinX PC-8500 - not including case and fans or monitor.

I could easily get myself the Fortress case and a nice 350 quid monitor if i went for this side of things :hmm: Only thing is, as i mentioned earlier, i can see myself spending another 4-5 hundred at least on changing all the internals 8-9 months down the line.

p.s. yeah i forgot to add DVD drive into the suggestions but its only 15-20 quid :p

Edit: i left my comp for ages then came back and ginger had replied before i finished typin the post.

Cheers for the suggestions but there is no way im going to pay more for a processor than the amount of an i7 chip... its just stupid.

I did think about sacking off ubuntu and getting the 4870X2 but i really want to get o know linux as much as possible as its (and OSX which use similar terminal code) used quite a lot in the broadcast industry.

I quite like the look of the lian li cases but they dont have the bottom mounted PSU, im guessing it wouldnt make that much difference in the long run though

[=98=]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

I suggest the Cosmos :p

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

How insane do you think it would be to get a DDR3 C2D mobo so i wont have to replace the ram when it came to upgrade down the line? Then when i moved to i7 mainstream parts (which i will remind you is rumored to go back to dual channel) it would only be a mobo and CPU upgrade not the ram too?

Im very tempted by this case too. Seems to tick all my boxes the only thing im wondering is where i can get a replacement 140mm fan with higher speed that wont get too noisey. Closest thing they have on scan is this but i have no idea about sharkoons products other than the golfballs (Il probs use a 2000 for the extractor), any ideas? i will run it at a lower speed using the mobo fan controllers so it should drop it down to 600-800RPM during normal usage i reckon. Anyone know where i can find better 140mm fans?

[Flt. Sgt. Powderhound]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

How insane do you think it would be to get a DDR3 C2D mobo so i wont have to replace the ram when it came to upgrade down the line? Then when i moved to i7 mainstream parts (which i will remind you is rumored to go back to dual channel) it would only be a mobo and CPU upgrade not the ram too?

Im very tempted by this case too. Seems to tick all my boxes the only thing im wondering is where i can get a replacement 140mm fan with higher speed that wont get too noisey. Closest thing they have on scan is this but i have no idea about sharkoons products other than the golfballs (Il probs use a 2000 for the extractor), any ideas? i will run it at a lower speed using the mobo fan controllers so it should drop it down to 600-800RPM during normal usage i reckon. Anyone know where i can find better 140mm fans?

You will have to get new RAM as i7 uses triple channel and C2Q uses dual channel. Why the obsession with 1066MHz RAM? Even though I have it, I now feel that I wasted my money on it, especially as you already have very good stuff.

[=98=]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

PC-6400 is a bit low if you want to achieve a high FSB (450+)

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

You will have to get new RAM as i7 uses triple channel and C2Q uses dual channel. Why the obsession with 1066MHz RAM? Even though I have it, I now feel that I wasted my money on it, especially as you already have very good stuff.

The socket which will be cheaper and more mainstream is called 1160 (or poss 1156) and is rumored to go back to dual channel. Socket 1366 chips will only be for X58 motherboards and the two will not be interchangable.

Even so, would i not be able to buy another 2GB ramstick of the same brand or do they really have to be matched for it to run dual/tri channel?

Regardless, what do people think of my DDR3 C2Q plan?

[Flt. Sgt. Powderhound]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

PC-6400 is a bit low if you want to achieve a high FSB (450+)

But that will still reach 3.4GHz on tat CPU, which should be good for now; if he wants a higher overclock he could always buy later. As it is, with UK exchange rates as they are, now isn't the time to stock up on PC stuff.

[=98=]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

But that will still reach 3.4GHz on tat CPU, which should be good for now;

But... but.... but.... 3.4ghz is low ghz (ohno)

if he wants a higher overclock he could always buy later. As it is, with UK exchange rates as they are, now isn't the time to stock up on PC stuff.

Awesome time to pick up watercooling goods!

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Christmas Upgrade

But that will still reach 3.4GHz on tat CPU, which should be good for now; if he wants a higher overclock he could always buy later. As it is, with UK exchange rates as they are, now isn't the time to stock up on PC stuff.

IF i bought DDR2 ram i would maybes buy 800MHz stuff, at the moment that isnt my plan though, i want to make it so that i have to replace as little as possible down the line and if buying 4GB DDR3 1600/1333 or whatever makes sense then il do that, doesnt matter how balanced to the current CPU it is, all it will be is a temp machine.

What i was thinking about today was picking up a second hand Q6600 when everyone else jumps on the i7 bandwagon. Il put money on a lot of them appearing fairly cheap on the hexus sell your stuff section.