PSX5Central
Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: Cerberus on January 21, 2003, 01:24:31 PM
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I\'m thinking of upgrading my pc, and since I have never done it before, I think it would be wise to ask for assistance.
Can you lot recommend to me graphics cards, processors, soundcards......... in fact, what ever I might need.
What would you recommend, it would be helpful if you could tell me both top of the line, and good quality, but cost effective (for the budget concious), so I can try to decide what\'s best. I\'m also thining of getting a cd re-writer, what price range am I looking at for a decent one?
Remember, I have never done this before, so I am at your mercy.
Thanks.
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PS. prices in £sterling.
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Tell us what pc u have first.. so we can tell u what to update (if u can)
You may just have to buy a whole new pc.
All in United Kingdom Pounds
For a Case
Get a nice Antec, Chieftec, Lian Li or Thermaltake case.
"research them yourself"
Also get a good PSU over 400Watt.
For cpus u could get a
AMD Athlon XP 2700+ $241.736 GBP
Intel Pentium 4 2.67G (533Mhz FSB) $227.843 GBP
Motherboards
Gigabyte GA-7VAXP for AMD Processor $80.4074 GBP
Gigabyte GA-8GE667 Pro for P4 $80.1592 GBP
Other good brands are, Abit, Asus, MSI etc.
Memory
512M DDR PC2700 333Mhz Kingston (CL 2.5) $105.209 GBP
512M DDR PC2700 333Mhz Samsung $105.500 GBP
512M DDR PC3200 400Mhz Kingston (CL 2.5) $144.059 GBP
Graphics Card
Leadtek Winfast 128M GeForce4 Ti4600 $200.112 GBP
for GF series
ATI RADEON 9700 PRO 128MB AGP PAL $351.456 GBP for Radeon series
Sound Cards
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Digital Entertainment 6.1 $96.4069 GBP
Creative Sound Blaster Live! Digital Entertainment 5.1 $25.4660 GBP
speakers
Get Cambridge or Creative
"research yourself"
Burners
Plextor 48x24x48 would be my buy, can\'t get price though
LiteOn 48x 24x 48x $36.0177 GBP
Harddrive
Seagate
Seagate 80G 7200RPM ATA-100 $71.4754 GBP
Seagate 120G 7200RPM ATA-100 $133.244 GBP
Seagate 120G 7200RPM ATA-100 8M Cache $141.186 GBP
Western Digital
Western Digital 80G 7200RPM ATA-100 $88.4496 GBP
Western Digital 80G 7200RPM ATA-100 (8Mb buffer) $96.8734 GBP
Western Digital 120G 7200RPM ATA-100 $128.464 GBP
Western Digital 120G 7200RPM ATA-100 (8Mb buffer) $138.583 GBP
monitors
19" Viewmaster MF908 Real Flat 0.26dp $160.105 GBP
17" LG 700P Flatron $145.517 GBP
17" Sony E230 $213.352 GBP
Mouse & Keyboard
Get a MS keyboard and Logitech Mouse.
"research yourself"
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Why doesn\'t the UK use Euros?
As for sound cards you might be able to save yourself the cash and just get a mobo with onboard sound. Modern motherboards don\'t take a hit on performance with this feature. I use the regular audio plug for headphones and the S/PDIF out to my receiver.
btw- Nice picks! Personally I\'d choose Asus over Gigabit because of good experiences. And is Crucial ram available in Europe?
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Depending on the motherboard. AC97 based boards do take somewhat a performance hit on the cpu. I prefer Gigabyte myself as i\'ve only ever had 1 board give me trouble. The first board i ever got from Asus was a A7A266-E and that board had HUGE problems. Everything went wrong, although asus is still a good brand. :)
Not sure if Crucial Ram is available in Europe....
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Originally posted by THX
Why doesn\'t the UK use Euros?
coz the pound is worth more than the euro
1pound = 1.5$
1euro = 1$
sorry to get all off topic ;).
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Samsung RAM is just about the best out there... get that. :p
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Get the latest NFORCE 2 mobo if u wanna upgrade to AMD platform.
The sound chip in NFORCE 2 is almost as good as an Audigy 2 and
better than the Audigy...none of that AC97 crap.
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Wow, nice post Souly. I saved it for future references ;)
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Well you my want to delete it in 3-6 months. ;) Another recommendation for the nForce2. The only motherboard that does onboard DD 5.1 encoding, very useful for gaming. The Audigys and Intel chipsets don\'t even do that.
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i recommend an average and cheap burner ,ex lite-on 24x12x40
Writing at higher speeds (>32x) causes multiple write errors and shortens the life of the created CDs (some CD written on 48x only survived for 2 days!!).
Opinions vary :)