taydan04

Hey! guys, im puzzled at what to do for my bday as my athlon64 x2 5000 is bottlenecking my BFG 9800GTX+ OC so what should i do weather it be buy a new motherboard and buy a core 2 duo, one thing is my budget is probably around 200pound and i would also like to get a new HDD as mine is running slow and is only 160GB i would like to get something like a Western Digital Caviar 7200rpm 320GB HDD with 16MB Cache for a moderate 37 pound. il start the idias off and you can share your comments and let your idias flow, a posibility could be;
Keep current Asus M2N-SLI Motherboard
Upgrade cpu to a AMD Phenom 9950 Quad Core for 138 pound
Buy a Western Digital Caviar 320GB for 37 pound
Buy anouther 2GB of DDR2-800 Ram for 14 pound
total cost= 189Pound 11 pound to spare :) all sujestions will be apreciated

taydan04

anouther starting idia could be
Buy a Asus P5NESLI S775 Motherboard for 59 pound
Buy a Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz LGA775 Processor for 134 pound
Buy Another 2GB of DDR2-800 Ram for 14 pound
Hope i get some money in cards for a HDD

Grand Total: 207pound, ah iv gone over but still kind of exceptible if prices go down

linderman

forget SLI boards

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L or GA-EP35-DS3L or Asus P5K-E or P5Q-Deluxe or P5Q-E

linderman

I would be checking to see if your existing boards supports the AMD 6400 X2 ......... games dont make use of quads worth a darn .......... and wont for a couple more years ....... hell right now games are running on one core about 60-75% time

taydan04

HI! thankyou for your reply! the reason being for the bords being sli is that its the cheapest way to get one that isnt Micro-atx and both boards were under 60pound and both support all the processors for there socket, but yeh what do you think about the desision for either staying with AMD or switchig to Intel

taydan04

i cant find the 6400 in any shops in my area but another sujestion could be a
AMD Athlon64 6000 3.1GHZ Dual Core Processor

taydan04

DoublePost

linderman

the 6000 would certainly give you a nice boost


in your shoes I would look to stick with your AMD platform with a cpu upgrade for atleast another year ............. unless you dont mind the price tag for a complete overhaul and transition to Intel Core 2 ???? the Intel does offer alot more performance ?

decisions decisions ........... depends to what level you are willing to spend

linderman

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L or GA-EP45-UD3P or Asus P5Q-deluxe or Asus P5Q-E

Intel E8400 or often times the better bang for the buck E8500

get 2 x 2 gigs DDR2-800 / PC6400 with Cas 5-5-5-15 and rated at 2.1 volts

taydan04

thank you you are being an awsome help i am willing to spend roughly 200 odd pounds, to help others understand what im runing now heres my complete spec list
AeroEngine2 ATX case
Asus M2N-SLI Motherboard
2GB DDR2-800 Ram
AMD Athlon64 x2 5000+ CPU
512mb BFG 9800GTX+ OC GPU
OCZ StealthExtream 600w PSU
160GB SATA(1) Seagate HDD
LiteOn 16x SATA DVD Burner

taydan04

and yes if the intel upgrades mensioned above on post 2 would give me a nice performance boost, the price is fine for me but upgrading my old SATA1 HDD would have to wait

taydan04

although to develop on post 2 i would take your advise and go to a Gygabyte GA-EP45-DS3L as there are some nice features available on board like the nice Realtek HD Audio, i miss my old Realtek audio system in my P4 packard bell, the quality was awsum

taydan04

i meen the GA-EP43-DS3L as the EP45 is to expensive

linderman

I would rather have the GA-EP35-DS3L (outstanding overclocker)

taydan04

ah cant find it in my local shops and i cant sped money online so no Egg :(

wrench97

'Where are you shopping?

linderman

use prepaid credit cards to shop online = ZERO risk

taydan04

i shop anyware in the coventry or birmingham area in the UK in shops like Eclipse Computers and PC World

wrench97

Can't help in that area maybe Lindermans suggestion would help components are by far cheaper on line.