Hi all. Sorry about hitting you Hardware Gurus with yet another upgrade Post.

Current Specs >>

Mobo - Asus K8V-X rev 2.00

Processor - Athlon 64 3400+ @ 2403 MHz

Memory - 2 x 512 DDR-SDRAM

Graphics - Radeo 9800 Pro

2 Hard Drives

1 DVD Writer

500w Power

Standard Case

Not Much Cooling


OK then - So I just downloaded the Bioshock demo, only to discover after much anticipation that my 9800Pro doesnt support some new fangled Sharder3 thingys. Imagine my dissapointment .

So It looks like Upgrade City for me. Budget as close to £300 squidleys as possible.

With only that kind of funds to work with I reakon I need to concentrate on Mobo, Processor, Graphics & Memory.

I have no Idea at all about the new Graphics Cards & Processors & stuff so any info/advice will be greatly appreciated.

Theres alot of new games comming soon, and they will all need quite a good spec setup I believe. So I just need something to play these, though i dont expect high resolution & super high quality graphics but I would like to run them OK.

Peace & Thanks in advance.


UPDATE - OK here is the LIST (feel free to critique) I got prices from Dabs but realise i can prolly get em cheaper.
Jakg, where ur prices from m8?


Gigabyte GeForce 8800GTS 320MB PCIE DVI - £185 inc vat
Question - Is it worth saving for 640mb version?

Crucial 2x1GB 240-Pin DIMM PC2-6400 Unbuffered Non-ECC CL4 - £83 inc vat


Total £268 - that leaves 32 for a quadcore & mobo )) think im gonna have to look at lower spec Graphics card & maybe Value Ram - doh!

Is this £300 with or without selling your old stuff? Would you be up for overclocking it? Whats your PSU (ie Brand).

EDIT - Prelimary:
E2160 - £56
Asus P5B - ~55
Crucial Ballistix - £72
8800GTS 320 - ~£180

Should about do

Hi Jakg. The Power is a Q-Tec 500w Bigfan, !!!?

Im not really into overclocking being somewhat of a n00b.

If I could get a average (play the latest wave of games - Bioshock, Crysis, UT2007, COD4 etc) Internal setup (mobo processor graphics & memory) for around £300 - £350max. Then i would prolly save up abit for a case, power, drives later on. I heard that a big price drop is on the way soon for processors though i could be wrong.

There may be a way to do it on the cheap with one of those 3 series radion cards (the ones afteer the 9800 pro) as I know that will run Bioshock. then id just need another gig of ram BUT my processor sucks really - doh!

Im not sure how much i could get second hand for my current hardware as its preety old now BUT i could prolly get enough for the externals, so id end up with a better spec pc overall. soz 4 the rambling, i dont get out much )))

Q-Tec?

TBH thats a pretty crappy PSU

I edited my post above with some ideas of hardware, but i spent all your budget, and you really want a better power supply - with the games you want to play you WILL want a DX10 card (AND Vista) - If you can't find the extra cash for a PSU (which would be about £40-£50), then i'd recommend swapping the 8800GTS for an 8600GTS which is roughly £60 cheaper, but half the performance, which in a DX10 game you might not be able to loose

hehheheheh - Thanks Jakg for all your help m8. I really really dont wanna embark on the DX10 Vista path yet. I know ill have to upgrade to those eventually but I think most of the games i want work ok on dx9 & xp (though im prolly wrong).

Ill go and read-up & find best prices on those items. Cheers.
Also - I wont be able to do this upgrade straight away so I have afew months. Just wonder what popular processor/graphics cards combos people r running. Then theres the whole ati - nvidia thing. Ill update my first post as i settle on hardware. Peace & thx again Jakq - u r an asset indeed - oh yes!

Personally? i run a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Based Xeon with a 7950GT and that thing can own LFS with 8xAA etc. An 8800GTS is roughly DOUBLE the speed of my card - you will not be dissapointed.

I must confess that the games your looking at are DX10, and i'd consider the DX10 route.

Thx again Jakg for all the advice. I might just buy a couple of good components first - then add more later, untill i have a full system. Then i should be set for a year or 2 of the latest games. I spose i just wanted to avoid the whole Vista thing as ive heard nothing but bad about it.

I was looking for prices of the 8800gts and saw this on ebay >>

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/X-VISION ... ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

for £158 - is it best to avoid cheap makes & go for a more well known brand at a slighly higher price?

ALSO - ive just seen this bundle (mobo, processor & 2g memory >>

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/INTEL-77 ... geNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

for £144 - that sound good but is that processor quite slow?

sorry for all the questions - i just dont know when to stop when i get rolling

Peace!

Doesn't say waht the CPU is, i'd REALLY avoid it, go for a decent CPU memory ram, GFX is fine.

Quote from neilmichaelcasey :

thx again Jakq - u r an asset indeed - oh yes!

Please dont encourage him. His ego is already bigger than me and you put together, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty big...