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Upgrading a PC on a modest budget

LaCabraLaCabra MelbourneRegistered User regular
edited March 2007 in Games and Technology
I never do know whether to post these in G&T or H/A.

I've got $300 Australian with which to do this thing. That's apparantly $240.703 US, but also prices differ, so if anyone feels like suggesting things they may want to check the price on http://www.techbuy.com.au/ some such Australian site.

I'm using this machine for gaming and mapping on Source quite a lot, but want to upgrade it if there's anything worthwhile to be had for my $300. My current specs are

CPU: AMD Sempron 3000+
Mainboard: Asus K8V-MX
1GB PC3200 DDR RAM (Two 512mb sticks, and I've only got two DDR slots)
Geforce 6800GS 128mb (AGP)
A Whole Bunch Of IDE Hard Drives
400W PSU that says "Usicase" on it

So, yeah. Anything to tremendously speed this bitch up. $300 really is my limit for now, regrettably, so I don't know if you can get much with that. I leave my computer in the experienced hands of G&T. Thanks in advance.

LaCabra on

Posts

  • RaslinRaslin Registered User regular
    edited March 2007
    It hurts to say, but you need a new motherboard. Better cards are going to pretty much be PCI, better processors atm would be intel's 775 or AMD's AM2, and the ram would be DDR2 500/667/800.

    If you want to set yourself up for the future, I suppose you could get an AM2 motherboard with an AGP and PCI slot, an Athlon X2 3800+, and a gig of ram compatible with your processor. You wouldn't notice a large difference now, but you could pop in another gig of ram when you had the money, and then a decent PCI card(Mid-end DX10 card, perhaps).

    People are going to tell you AMD dual cores aren't really good. I agree. However, to use newegg as an example, you can get a dual core 3800+ for $102 USD. There isn't an Intel comparable at that price.

    Edit: $99.99 USD for the 3800+, free shipping, and a free t-shirt :P

    Raslin on
    I cant url good so add me on steam anyways steamcommunity.com/id/Raslin

    3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
  • ViscountalphaViscountalpha The pen is mightier than the sword http://youtu.be/G_sBOsh-vyIRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    LaCabra wrote: »
    I never do know whether to post these in G&T or H/A.

    I've got $300 Australian with which to do this thing. That's apparantly $240.703 US, but also prices differ, so if anyone feels like suggesting things they may want to check the price on http://www.techbuy.com.au/ some such Australian site.

    I'm using this machine for gaming and mapping on Source quite a lot, but want to upgrade it if there's anything worthwhile to be had for my $300. My current specs are

    CPU: AMD Sempron 3000+
    Mainboard: Asus K8V-MX
    1GB PC3200 DDR RAM (Two 512mb sticks, and I've only got two DDR slots)
    Geforce 6800GS 128mb (AGP)
    A Whole Bunch Of IDE Hard Drives
    400W PSU that says "Usicase" on it

    So, yeah. Anything to tremendously speed this bitch up. $300 really is my limit for now, regrettably, so I don't know if you can get much with that. I leave my computer in the experienced hands of G&T. Thanks in advance.


    Its difficult to upgrade to a PCI-E videocard with such a limited budget :/ You will have to get a new cpu, new ram and a new motherboard if you wanna shift up to core2duo. Save more up and wait for some price drops coming.

    Viscountalpha on
  • LaCabraLaCabra MelbourneRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Actually, I really should have been more specific. This is $300 of school budget, which means it's mine, but I have to spend it within the next couple months. So, uh, what would you guys do?

    Raslin, could you link one of them mainboards you mentioned and a CPU to go in it?

    LaCabra on
  • RaslinRaslin Registered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Well, shoot. I can't find any cards with AGP and PCI Express X16. I found a couple with PCI and AGP slots, but afaik, you need a PCI Express X16 slot for newer video cards. Below is what I was going to recommend, but then I remembered you had an AGP slot. This makes it more difficult...

    (Athlon X2 3800+ - $99.99 w/ free shipping)
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103729

    (ABIT KN9 Socket AM2 Motherboard - $74.99 w/ free shipping)
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813127010

    The prices might be different where you are, but at least here, that would net you $175 USD(plus tax, if you lived in california or one of the other states Newegg is in). You can pick up a gig of ram for about $60, so you would be able to get the above for just about $240.

    Raslin on
    I cant url good so add me on steam anyways steamcommunity.com/id/Raslin

    3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
  • sponospono Mining for Nose Diamonds Booger CoveRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    If you follow Raslin's suggestions, you might also be able to sell your old mobo, processor, ram and video card. That, plus a little extra, and you just might be able to get yourself a pci-e video card.

    spono on
    640qocnq4ske.gif
  • RaslinRaslin Registered User regular
    edited March 2007
    spono wrote: »
    If you follow Raslin's suggestions, you might also be able to sell your old mobo, processor, ram and video card. That, plus a little extra, and you just might be able to get yourself a pci-e video card.

    I hadn't thought about that, but very true. Your card seems to be going for $100 OEM on Newegg, which means you could probably get enough for a decent card after selling that alone, especially after ram, processor, mobo. This is the cheapest card I could find that you would really want to get, as that, plus the things in my last post, would let you play games pretty well for at least a number of months, if not on highest settings/resolutions. You would want to update the video card first probably, then grab another gig of ram after that.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814153031

    Raslin on
    I cant url good so add me on steam anyways steamcommunity.com/id/Raslin

    3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
  • LaCabraLaCabra MelbourneRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Newegg doesn't ship internationally, so I'm looking up the parts you mentioned on Australian sites. D'you reckon you could find those parts on IT Estate or Techbuy? Since neither of them seem to have the exact products I don't really know what I should be looking for.

    I don't really like my chances here.

    LaCabra on
  • RaslinRaslin Registered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Here's the best I could manage for you... Hopefully, the prices on IT Estate are in AUD, otherwise... ouch.

    http://www.itestate.com.au/products_detail.asp?code=PD00003999
    http://www.itestate.com.au/products_detail.asp?code=PD00003866
    http://www.itestate.com.au/products_detail.asp?code=PD00004229
    http://www.itestate.com.au/products_detail.asp?code=PD00003687

    Raslin on
    I cant url good so add me on steam anyways steamcommunity.com/id/Raslin

    3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
  • LaCabraLaCabra MelbourneRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    They are, yeah, that's why I linked them. Well shit, that comes to a grand total of $104 more than I have. Presumably you had in mind me selling something - not out of the question, but I wouldn't be too keen on selling current hardware before I had what I was buying. Thanks, though, man, I might do it anyway.

    What's roughly the Nvidia equivalent of an X1600 Pro, out of interest?

    LaCabra on
  • SpaecarKowSpaecarKow Registered User new member
    edited March 2007
    IT Estate is dodgy as fuck, remember that mate. You can buy from them, and it will be cheap, but unless its the the most common components, don't even think about it. For example they were selling 4mb L2 cache 6300 "OEMs". Those do exist, but if they have it, it's something someone stole, lol. Same goes for those Taiwanese markets up on North Rocks. So basically the rule of thumb for North Rocks in Sydney is "if it looks too good to be true, it's too good to be true."

    There's a nice store (again in the Sydney area) called PACStar computers, yes its a small outfit, but I've been buying from them for years so I know they're on the level. ARC computers is also around and they are pretty well known so you will have no trouble returning bullshit parts that don't work or having your computer serviced, but the ticket price is higher then most of those shops.

    You can get a Seagate SATAII hard drive (100), an ASUS P5B-E/Deluxe (200), and a E4300 (200) all for some 500 bucks. From there the price is determined by the graphics card and RAM you chose, which can bring it to anything from 800/900 to 2000 dollars.

    Good luck.
    LaCabra wrote: »
    What's roughly the Nvidia equivalent of an X1600 Pro, out of interest?
    ATI's 1600 R500 Radeon's are positioned against their GeForce 7 series 7600 equivalents.

    SpaecarKow on
  • LaCabraLaCabra MelbourneRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Ah, shit. I wasn't aware of IT Estate's dodginess, although the website does kind of hint at it.

    Would these be your guys? Hopefully they've got something close to what Raslin's recommending.

    LaCabra on
  • SpaecarKowSpaecarKow Registered User new member
    edited March 2007
    LaCabra wrote: »
    Ah, shit. I wasn't aware of IT Estate's dodginess, although the website does kind of hint at it.

    Would these be your guys? Hopefully they've got something close to what Raslin's recommending.
    That's ma boys! Don't forget to check out ARC as well, they're more expensive, but not on everything, and if you can buy from them, any problems will be less painfull.

    SpaecarKow on
  • LaCabraLaCabra MelbourneRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    Alright, thanks. Now I've just got to find out if they've got anything worthwhile for my budget. :(

    LaCabra on
  • LaCabraLaCabra MelbourneRegistered User regular
    edited March 2007
    So, guys, tell me if this will fit together, and how good/terrible it would be, particularly compared to my current system.

    Abit KN8 Ultra Motherboard S939 DDR400 PCI EX
    AMD ATHLON 64 939 3700+ CPU / SAN DIEGO CORE / 2.2GHZ / 1MB L2 CACHE
    Gigabyte RX16P256DE-RH 256MB X1600 Pro Silent

    Looks like my current RAM will fit in there, so I can upgrade that later on.

    LaCabra on
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