advice needed on upgrading PC

H

hampstead bandit

New Member
Hi

new to the forum, if you can offer some advice it would be most appreciated...:)

I'm a former PC technician for the Police, and have built plenty of PCs in the past so no problems doing upgrades, but have been out of touch with the technology for a while....and kinda got lost with what is worth looking into for a new build?

I've always liked to play PC games (especially FPS) and have noticed my PC is either on the minimum specifications... or now under the minimum specifications for a lot of the new games coming out (Call of Duty 4, Alan Wake, Crysis, etc.)

current setup runs the older games like Doom3, HL2, Far Cry and Quake 4 no problem at high settings, but I want to build a new PC that is somewhat "future proof" and will let me play the new games at good setting to enjoy the eye candy

I've got the following specification running Win XP

AMD Athlon XP2800+, ASUS A7N8X, 2GB of PC3200 DDR2, 40GB IBM Deskstar HD, XFT GF 6800XT AGP, Creative SB Audigy, Phillips DVD-R/W optical drive...all housed in Lian Li PC-60 case and powered off a Seasonic 550W PSU

I'm aware of PCI-Express for graphics and Serial-ATA for HDs, and have been told that Intel's Core 2 Duo offers better bang-for-the-buck than AMD...but don't know much else, although i've noticed that prices on HDs are way low compared to when I got my Deskstar with its 40GB (which i've never filled up)

budget is limited and I'm not needing to run all games at max settings, just high enough to enjoy the new game graphics / technology

would like to keep the case, PSU and Phillips DVD-R/W as those were only upgraded last year..but everything else is open to change

any help is most welcome
 
My "Standard" list:
E8400
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R
9600GT 512MB/ HD3870 512MB < 8800GT 512MB < 8800GTS 512MB Depends on budget.
2 x 1 GB RAM
 
daisymtc said:
My "Standard" list:
E8400
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R
9600GT 512MB/ HD3870 512MB < 8800GT 512MB < 8800GTS 512MB Depends on budget.
2 x 1 GB RAM
Click to expand...

Like Daisymtc said. but i dont think i would get a 9600gt for the price i guess they will be ok. but i would go with any of the 8800gts ( g92) crads.
depending on budget. but as a gamer you know you will always go above whatever budget you have set for yourself.

the 8800gt are good cards but they have crappy cooling and have a loud fan. if its going to be a bedroom system somepeople dont like it at all. i think MSI makes a 8800gt that is better and comes with a better cooling system and the card is Overclocked from factory.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=MSI+NX8800GT&x=0&y=0

but you look at the price of the 8800gt, then look at the price of the 8800gts (g92) only 50 dallors more? it becomes your choice. also with the new 9800 comming out next month expect the 8800's to be dropping alittle more. they have already dropped about 60-100 with in the last month.

I didnt catch it what Res is your monitor?? also tells what kind of vid card would be best
 
Last edited:
I didnt catch it what Res is your monitor?? also tells what kind of vid card would be best
Click to expand...

You don't want the resolution. You want the size. A HD3850 with 256MB of RAM doesn't work well with a 60" TV...
 
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