I'm looking to upgrade my pc, i'm currently running an amd athlon 800mhz (stop lauging). Basically I'm after some guidance as what to go for in respect to processors and motherboards what can people recommend? i'm not looking for the latest model out there, just a descent speed of say over 2gigs but i dont know which motherboard is best for what chips. anyone got any recommendations and places to buy from? i'm not looking to replace my whole pc, just the mother board and chip, which ram should i go for is another question.

 

thanks in advance

http://www.scan.co.uk

 

They have a section called today only where they sell a few items at an even lower price.

 

 

Motherboards are motherboards unless you get the top memory and or you over clock.

 

I have always liked AMD because £ for Mhz you get more however lately its not been so true.

 

On http://www.scan.co.uk a Pentium4 2.4gig is around £125 and I think that is with a heatsink and fan. Motherboards are less than £100 now.

 

However you many need new memory now as new Motherboards run DDR memory which is a lot faster. That is about £50 for 512.

 

Scan is in Bolton, a little treck but they do deliver for £10.

 

Stuart

I'd recommend an AMD chip too. Better value than Intel and I've yet to encounter a downside to using them.

 

I've built quite a few machines over the years both inside and outside of work, and have always found Asus hardware to be the business; motherboards and video cards in particular. Quite good value, considering the quality is always top notch.

 

I usually use Aria as the supplier. Don't know how they compare to Scan though.

Originally posted by Raz

I'd recommend an AMD chip too. Better value than Intel and I've yet to encounter a downside to using them.

 

I've built quite a few machines over the years both inside and outside of work, and have always found Asus hardware to be the business; motherboards and video cards in particular. Quite good value, considering the quality is always top notch.

 

I usually use Aria as the supplier. Don't know how they compare to Scan though.

 

I know a disadvantage why not to use a AMD.

 

I have always had AMD's but you can get a P4 2.4 for £121.

A 2.2 gig AMD will cost you £330

 

 

But they do work in a different way to Intel.

 

Also AMD over heat. I have an AMD 1.6gig and it regulary goes over 70ºC when playing games and I have a large aluminium case with 4 extracting fans.

 

Stuart

Originally posted by SRRAE

But they do work in a different way to Intel.

Yep, that's the key point. Compared to a P4 2.4, the equivalent AMD chip will only cost you about £70.

Also AMD over heat. I have an AMD 1.6gig and it regulary goes over 70ºC when playing games and I have a large aluminium case with 4 extracting fans.

I could be wrong (PC building isn't really my field (yet I always seem to find myself doing it for people :rolleyes: ) but that's probably not a bad temperature for something like that. I've seen P3's hit 70º just loading Win2000 :D

Originally posted by SRRAE

I know a disadvantage why not to use a AMD.

 

I have always had AMD's but you can get a P4 2.4 for £121.

A 2.2 gig AMD will cost you £330

 

 

But they do work in a different way to Intel.

 

Also AMD over heat. I have an AMD 1.6gig and it regulary goes over 70ºC when playing games and I have a large aluminium case with 4 extracting fans.

 

Stuart

 

Fine a 2.2ghz is £330 but thats a completely different kettle of fish to a 2.4 p4. Th Athlon 2400 (2ghz) is there equivilant and is only £65! Also and most importantly, athlon's are outperforming p4's on games!!!:) :)

 

 

Yours is getting a little warm? What heatsink are you using and did you thermal paste it? I think it's still within the boundaries though.

I have had my PC turn itself off because of the heat. The most it got to once was 85ºC :eek:

 

 

If you read http://www.tomshardware.com the last lot of AMD have not been up to the power of the Intels it is meant to be competing with and £ per performance the Intels are not better value.

 

This was a few weeks a go now, but things may have changed since then.

 

Stuart

stuart you need a zalman flower for that cpu, it should not be getting that hot, are you sure the heatsink has good contact?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk are very good, built mine from bits from them :)

AMD ATHLON 2000 XP CPU

MSI ULTRA DDR 333 MAINBOARD

QTEC COPPER COOLER (70'C - NOPE)

256MB DDR PC2700 333MHZ RAM

 

£134.50 + a little bit for delivery from good old me.

 

No Athlons dont get too hot, the coolers dont cool.

70'C wont kill it, the mobo will be turning it off due to bios settings, they are rated to 90'C but dont go there.

Intel CPU's are great but you are paying towards a multi billion dollar marketing budget with every P4. AMD sponsor Blackburn Rovers - it's cheaper - they still have the same mega-billion dollar manufacturing plants as Intel but they dont shove it down your throat during the commercial break on corrie.

 

Peace on earth and goodwill to all men,

 

Glen

sounds good to me glen, where do you live i might pick it up

is this new or second hand?

Originally posted by SRRAE

Also AMD over heat. I have an AMD 1.6gig and it regulary goes over 70ºC when playing games and I have a large aluminium case with 4 extracting fans.

 

Blimey Stuart! I've got an AMD Athlon 3000+ (Barton core, so running at 2.1Ghz with 166Mhz FSB) and it's only ever hit about 55C core temp after running several 3DMark 2003's in a row..

 

That's using a Coolermaster Aero 7+ with Arctic Silver III paste (applied the way the instructions say - made a huge difference to temp.. The first time I did it I used wayyy too much paste, and the core temp was 60C sitting in the BIOS..).

 

I've had the CPU beyond 3200+ speeds (200Mhz FSB and 11.5x core speed I think was the fastest I ran reliably), and I've got a better cooler to go on yet.. (Thermalright SLK800 - the 900 won't fit my mobo without major capacitor bending) Oh - and that was running the fans at close to minimum speed :)

 

This is the first AMD I've owned btw - I've always had Intel's before now.

SSRAE you need better cooling then lol.

I have 2.08 gig athlon jobbi running 52 degrees :D:D hasent gone higher lol

Originally posted by Robtor

Fine a 2.2ghz is £330 but thats a completely different kettle of fish to a 2.4 p4. Th Athlon 2400 (2ghz) is there equivilant and is only £65! Also and most importantly, athlon's are outperforming p4's on games!!!:) :)

 

 

Yours is getting a little warm? What heatsink are you using and did you thermal paste it? I think it's still within the boundaries though.

 

 

I used some coolermaster silver paste, and I have a coolermaster big heatsink and fan. Its one with the radiator pipes that come out of the side.

 

Stuart

Not much in it really, just get the fastest of either type for the money.

 

I prefer AMD now as Intel have been pissing me off for years with that Intel "tune" that they obviously insist is put in every TV advert to ruin the continuity of speech or background music.

I cringe every time I hear it. :O

Originally posted by 300z

SSRAE you need better cooling then lol.

I have 2.08 gig athlon jobbi running 52 degrees :D:D hasent gone higher lol

 

 

I have quite good cooling. As I said I have the coolermaster top heatsink and fan for the AMD and the expensive paste. I also bought a aluminium case with 4 fans in it.

 

Stuart

amd all the way, i got a xp 1800 @ 2800 2.25 gig cost me 60 notes, with a slk 800 max temps is 52 degs in this heat, look out for the dlt3c steppings they over clock v well.

I got AMD XP 2100, 512 ram,never gets above 50 degrees.