Steve Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 Am looking in to upgrading my PC. New Processor, motherboard, hard drive. Have got an AMD at the moment so will probably go for the same again. Looked at the 64bit processors - are they any good? Which motherboard would you go for with one of these chips? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter richards Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 mines been fooked for ages , dont realy know what to go for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pulse Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 The 64 bit CPUs are a little pointless today, because everything is still running in 32 bit. With that said, more and more drivers etc are being written for 64 bit every day, and the next major Windows release will run much better on it (if you get the 64 bit version), so it's a good way to do a little future proofing of your PC. That said, it's hard to get a non-64 bit CPU these days If you have a little bit extra cash, a dual core (or "x2") AMD chip is money well spent for the future too, but even for current systems it's a good idea. Although applications need to be written to take advantage of the dual cores, your operating system can already, and if nothing else it means the OS and all your background tasks can run on one core, your game or whatever you're doing gets the whole other core to itself, meaning no overheads and true multitasking. Again in the future applications will be written to take proper advantage of dual core, and your PC will be so much faster for it. As for HD and motherboard, my best recommendation is a Seagate drive (get a SATA motherboard, and a SATA drive, it's much faster than normal IDE). If you're buying a new motherboard, you might wish to consider new RAM also, as the new board will undoubtedly support much faster RAM than you have if you're looking at upgrading, and it really does make a world of difference. I've had a LOT of trouble with Gigabyte motherboards, however ASUS, Abit and MSI come reasonably highly recommended. Go for one with a PCI-E(xpress) slot if you plan on buying a new graphics card to do any gaming. And lastly, the 19" Samsung 913B LCD screen is an awesome monitor if you need a new one of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted October 9, 2005 Author Share Posted October 9, 2005 Thanks for the info. Will look into these bits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeordieSteve Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 I say go 64. It'll not make any difference at the mo but soon it will. Spend a little extra now and benefit from it in the future Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daston Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 Go for 64bit it will run 32 bit app (ie game) like a dream its really the only way to go, and if you really want to push the boat out go for a AMD X2 plus soket 939 will be hear for another year or so, meaning you wont need a new motherboard for a while Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted October 9, 2005 Author Share Posted October 9, 2005 Anyone recommend place to buy this all from. Have looked on overclockers.co.uk who seem very reasonable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRX Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 I have just upgraded to 64bit and to be honest I dont really notice the difference at the moment (apart from a lot of my software is not compatible). But as said by previous posts it is the way of the future and no doubt new software versions will make use of this new technology and it will be noticeable. I purchased all my new hardware from ebuyer.com, alot of online retailers seem to be around the same prices and I have found this site to be fast and reliable.. Bits I ordered: Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI Skt939 nForce4 SLI Chipset DDR400 PCI-E USB2.0 LAN SATA Retail Box AMD (Venice) Athlon 64Bit 3000+ Socket 939pin 512k L2cache 90nm Retail Boxed Processor XFX GeForce 6800 GT PCI-E 256MB DDR3 TV + DUAL DVI Corsair (VS1GBKIT400C3) 1024MB (2 x 512MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL3, Memory Modules With Lifetime Warranty Seagate ST380011A Barracuda 80GB 7200RPM ATA/100 2MB Cache - OEM Gigabyte (GH-PCU31-VH) 3D Cooler-Ultra Also needed a new power supply as the SLI graphics cards use there own power source, so i popped to PC World and got a 600 watt one.. Let us know what you get mate... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeordieSteve Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 I swear by aria.co.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MONKEYmark Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 my pc just blown up too keeps powering off on its own. just got another base unit off sister thats doing ok for now. i want to build a new system too. feel like im out of touch with all specs as they change so many times. i used to go to the big computer fair at manchester bowlers exebition center. they were good prices. CCL COMPUTERS in leeds do some good prices. http://www.cclonline.com/location.asp does anyone have a ultra 160 scsi card and cable for sale? i have a couple of 10,000 rpm drives that would be ok to boot from. is a sata drive faster than a scsi 10,000 rpm drive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted October 9, 2005 Author Share Posted October 9, 2005 Just found a site that is cheaper for Processors than any of the above. http://www.lowestonweb.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeordieSteve Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 my pc just blown up too keeps powering off on its own Have you turned off wake on LAN? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonball Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 Any bits and pieces that you might need / advice etc - you might try this reprobate - who is not a bad chap at all (ex Supra owner too...!) Lewis Cameron cid:[email protected] He looks after all my stuff - and great help Lewis Cameron Managing Director Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifty Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 Funny you should say this; Im just gonna build this for £730! I want to return to online flying and need to kick pixels lol May use an XFX 7800GT card instead of the Saphire; which is highly clockable incidentally and is equiv to X85O range. Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 GTO² 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - AMD Athlon 64 3500 Retail / Asus A8N-SLi nForce4 SLi / 1GB GeIL Value PC3200 Dual Channel Kit GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) Asus A8N-SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard Antec Performance TX640B-EC Black MiniTower Case - 400 Watt SmartPower PSU Sony DWQ28AB2 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer Western Digital Secure Connect Serial ATA Cable Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 160GB 1600JS SATA-II 8MB Cache Some good deals (seemingly) at www.gladiatorcomputers.com; worth a look! 52 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MONKEYmark Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 Have you turned off wake on LAN?hi computer is on 24/7 so dont know if it was powerpack over heating. but saying that took a memory out of comp and put in new base unit and would not boot just beeping. took memory out and put 3 dimms in and its loading ok in new base unit. the memory i took out was a 512meg will have a mess later.getting to many spares now. think i want a new computer to move with times the lan in bios has not been touched as its online 24/7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dash Rendar Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 I'm replacing my ageing Athlon 2800+ next week with a nice new Athlon 3800 X2 system next week. I got a pretty good quote from PCSpecialist.co.uk. This will be the first PC in about 10 years that I haven't built myself from component parts. There's just no financial reason to do it yourself these days as the margin is so small. Get it pre-built from somewhere like PCspecialist, and you can be sure of getting a fully tested solution. (They also allow you to upgrade yourself without voiding the warranty.) Also (think this might have already been said), with the price of systems at the mo, there's often little point in upgrading select components. You might as well just buy a new box and sell off your old one. That's what I've done. (P.S. If you go for a dual core like an X2, and if you run Windows, make sure you've got XP Pro, not XP Home. Home doesn't support multiple processors. Also, avoid the XP 64 bit edition as the driver support is poor. Stick with good old 32 bit edition until the 64 bit platform is better supported. Or go dual boot, which is what I'm going to do. Well, actually, it'll be quad-boot...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted October 9, 2005 Author Share Posted October 9, 2005 I'm replacing my ageing Athlon 2800+ next week with a nice new Athlon 3800 X2 system next week. I got a pretty good quote from PCSpecialist.co.uk. This will be the first PC in about 10 years that I haven't built myself from component parts. There's just no financial reason to do it yourself these days as the margin is so small. Get it pre-built from somewhere like PCspecialist, and you can be sure of getting a fully tested solution. (They also allow you to upgrade yourself without voiding the warranty.) Also (think this might have already been said), with the price of systems at the mo, there's often little point in upgrading select components. You might as well just buy a new box and sell off your old one. That's what I've done. (P.S. If you go for a dual core like an X2, and if you run Windows, make sure you've got XP Pro, not XP Home. Home doesn't support multiple processors. Also, avoid the XP 64 bit edition as the driver support is poor. Stick with good old 32 bit edition until the 64 bit platform is better supported. Or go dual boot, which is what I'm going to do. Well, actually, it'll be quad-boot...) Thats the same processor mine has in it at the moment. Just found my motherboard has a fault so its slowly giving up! Faulty PCI slot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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