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Geek Culture / Best CPU & graphics card for 200 pounds

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Michael P
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Location: London (UK)
Posted: 15th Jul 2008 23:09
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It is coming up to that time of the year again (my birthday) and so I'm going to request computer parts from my family; specifically a new CPU and a new graphics card. I reckon I can get about 200 quid worth of stuff out of them and so I want to know what the best CPU and graphics card is (in terms of performance) that I can get for a total of 200 pounds (between both of them).
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 15th Jul 2008 23:16
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What socket does your motherboard have?

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ionstream
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Posted: 15th Jul 2008 23:23 Edited at: 15th Jul 2008 23:50
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I think this is a bit above 200 pounds, but if you can, get an Nvidia 9800 GX2, they're almost the top of the line.

edit - crud I misread the "and CPU" part :/

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Michael P
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Posted: 16th Jul 2008 00:30
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Quote: "What socket does your motherboard have?"


Motherboard info:
Gigabyte motherboard GA-G31M-S2L Intel G31 Express LGA775 1333 FSB Quad-Core / Core2 Extreme / Core2 Duo micro ATX
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Chenak
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Posted: 16th Jul 2008 00:42 Edited at: 16th Jul 2008 00:46
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What is your current cpu and your power supply?

I would say screw the cpu and just get this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146415

Intels are kinda expensive, but if you really wanted a CPU and GPU I would recommend these which will come up to under £200:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139967
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145605

The graphics card is not top of the line but it will do the job
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Michael P
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Posted: 16th Jul 2008 01:05 Edited at: 16th Jul 2008 09:21
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Quote: "What is your current cpu and your power supply?"


CPU: INTEL PENTIUM 4 540 3.2 1MB L2 CACHE 800MHZ FSB LGA775. It is hyper threaded single physical core.

Don't worry about the power supply, I'll probably be getting a more powerful one soon anyway. I think the current one is something like 300watts.

[edit] Yes.. Watts
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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 16th Jul 2008 01:06
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Surely Watts?


I fail at life. No, really.
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Raven
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Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 16th Jul 2008 05:05 Edited at: 16th Jul 2008 05:08
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What I'd suggest would be:

Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 256MB - £73.70

Gigabyte AM2 AMD 740G Motherboard - £42.10

AMD Athlon (2-Core) 4850 2.5GHz 1MB Cache - £54.73

Crucial 1GB Ballixtix Tracer DDR2 800MHZ (PC2-6400) - £22.30

That will do extremely well for gaming, and will cost you £192.83 (although probably be an extra £5 post and packing)

Somthing I'd like to say is if you can save up just a little more for a AMD Phenom (3-Core) 8450 2.1GHz 3.5MB Cache for £89.51 (performance in games is slightly better than the Core 2 Extreme)

Also keep in mind 2GB memory will also be quite useful, if that's combined with a second ATI Crossfire capable graphics card (doesn't matter what one with that motherboard ) or just an upgrade to the new HD 4K-Series then you'll have a fairly powerful system for some time to come.

Another thing to keep in mind is for the cost of a game, you could also have this AMD Phenom (4-Core) 9550 2.2GHZ 4MB Cache for £120.14; which frankly ridiculously powerful.

Don't expect the AMD processors to give you amazing Vista Desktop performance or be great for work applications (like Video Encoding and alike) as next to their Intel rivals they're just not quite as good. Gaming wise though, they're just freaking amazing. It's probably more due to the design of AMD as it requires software enhancement to take advantage as well as a more limited memory bandwidth; but it's great for things that pre-load and offload more directly to video hardware (like games using DirectX)

Still the first setup I recommended will just just about every current game totally maxed out. Even if you might want to turn off AA on resolutions higher than 1280x720. Much better value for money than the competitors imo.

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Keo C
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Posted: 16th Jul 2008 05:08
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Quote: "I think the current one is something like 300volts."

So would it be coal or nuclear powered?


Image made by the overworked Biggadd.
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Mr Makealotofsmoke
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Posted: 16th Jul 2008 05:17
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e8400 for gaming. Overclock to 4.0GHz
q6600 for compiling. Overclock to 3.0GHz

idk how much stuff costs for pounds but either a 4750, 9800 or if funds are low 8800GT


Free Webhosting = http://unlhosting.info --Send support ticket to get ad free
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Anonymous User
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Posted: 17th Jul 2008 11:43
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Quote: "e8400"


Hell yeah, I bought one with a new motherboard to replace my athlon 3800+ and my FPS on crysis was nearly doubled. Well worth it, even with stock speeds.

Graphics card wise the 3870 is very cheap at the minute, a great buy with the potential to run UT3 on max and crysis on high, when paired with a good cpu.

???
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