Newbie needing advice

I currently have a 5 year old packard bell imedia pc.
2 x 200gb IDE hard drives
1 gb memory
nvidia 6600GT graphics card
500w PSU

I am looking to upgrade my machine and use some of the old parts i.e the hard drives and Graphics Card.

My machine will be mainly used for at home gaming.

Can anyone advise of some components ie motherboard, processor and memory, case etc. I am looking for a machine that will run FEAR on decent settings is my 6600gt capable ? I don't need a top end machine as I am on a budget. Do they still make IDE Motherboards or is everything SATA now ?

Thanks for any help and sorry for being such a newbie

Gav

 

I think all boards have IDE as well as SATA support, you'll be able to run the IDE drives in RAID0 to speed things up.
Is the memory in 2 identical modules? if so you'll be able to run in dual channel mode.
The main problem will be the board would need AGP support, and you are limiting yourself to a smaller number of newer/better boards.
The 6600GT card is a far entry level card, but I personally would change it for a newer PCI-E card, selling it should raise £30-40 towards a new one, otherwise you'l be stuck in medium quality when playing.
Best bang for buck card at the moment is the 7900GT which is almost as good as the 7800GTX at a far lower cost.
I've just bought the XFX 7900GT for £199 including postage, as I want to use the SLi, and the 7800GTX is too expensive to have 2 of them.
You really need to think about the CPU as well if playing newer games, are you inclined towards AMD or Intel, as AMD are better for gaming rigs in all tests.

 

Thanks for the advice.
So if I bite the bullet and say I am going to buy a new machine.
What do I need to look for
What motherboard ?
AMD or Intel and what speed ?
What PSU ?
What Case ?
If I am going to buy a new machine I want it to be able to play the latest games on full res but not cost the earth, is this possible?

What would you recommend ? and roughly how much would it cost ?

 

For gaming you need to look at AMD, they beat Intel hands down for gaming, you should get a 939 pin board at least, or wait until June and get an AM2, but they will cost more.
Either way, it would be best to wait until then as the new CPUs will bring the 939s down in price (hopefully)
You should also look at either Crossfire or SLi as an upgrade path.
Personally I would recommend SLi as you just add a second identical SLi capable card at a later date to almost double the graphc performance.
Next look at the memory, you need 1GB and better still 2GB will become more essential.
The HDDs need to be as quick as possible, if you can afford Raptors, you won't be dissapointed in the access speeds.
Otherwise look at SATA 2 drives with at least 8MB cache and look to get at least 2 of the same drive to run in RAID0.
If you don't need dual core capability, then look at the Opterons, they are very high quality processors which overclock very well on the right board.
I would look at either DFI or ASUS, they have good reputations for a reason (they make very good boards).
To start with you should be able to use your HDDs, RAM and PSU, you'll be able to sell the 6600GT to help pay for the new GPU.
It really depends on just how much you are able to spend to start with, and what sort of upgrades/overclocking you want.

 

Execellent !
another stupid question...
If I buy a socket 939 motherboard would it support AGP or do they only run PCI Express ?
As I have a budget and a really crappy machine at the moment. I would rather buy the board, processor and memory and then look to change the GPU. Is this possible ?
What is SLi and crossfire...sorry I really am new to this.
What AMD processor and board would you suggest and where would you buy them ?
Plus what Case would you suggest, some are mega expensive. I have see watercooling as well is this necessary or can the right case and fans still meet the cooling requirements..

 

You don't need watercooling at all.
SLi and Crossfire ae methods of running two GPUs together to almost double the graphics power of a system.
SLi is the Nvidia solution and Crossfire is the ATI solution.
If you go down the AGP route, you can't use either of the above, as it is only supported on PCI-E.
Asus A8V-MX has an AGP slot, and I'm sure that there are models from most manufacturers.
I would look at an Opteron 146 or above, but that will overclock to 2.5ghz which makes it a very cheap cpu for what you get.
As for case, then just get something which has the capability to mount fans where you need them.
I prefer the 12CM fans as they normally run slower and quieter.

 

Thanks for all your help.
I have been looking at some of the components you have, Your machine is as good as it gets.It must eat games like FEAR and DOOM3
I have a motheboard from an old HP XW6000 (there is a picture on another forum thread under my name if you want to have a look.
It has dual xeon processors and 2gb of RAM, but I can't find a case that will fit it Its not ATX. would this be any good for gaming or would I be better selling it. if so roughly how much would it be worth. The Xeons are 2.6 ghz it is perfect with massive heatsinks and all the memory installed.

 

I am probably looking to spend between £500 - £600
I have a 19" HP TFT Monitor and all other peripherals.
Just need a Sys board
Processor
memory
graphics card
case
PSU
Can it be done ?
I see your board is around £120 but your processor is off the scale. how much do I need to spend on an AMD do I need socket 939. If I am going to upgrade It would be best to be as future proof as possible.
The 7800GT is around £200...

 

ASUS A8N-SLI/PREMIUM NF4 SLI, S939 £105
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=225008


AMD Opteron 64 146 Socket939 , Venus Core, 2.0GHz , 1MB Cache, OEM £118
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=311094

Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro (SKT 754/939/940) CPU Cooler £19
http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=605126


1GB (2X512MB) Corsair TwinX DDR, PC3200 (400), 184 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 2-3-3-6 £72
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=71473


XFX Geforce 7900GT 256MB GDDR-3 PCI-E £199
http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/DisplayInfoMain.asp?e=F22A9260-E89C-4453-AB77-77D609A60BE4


580W HiperPower Type-R Modular Blue PSU Quiet Dbl Fan aPFC ATX2.2 20/24 Pin £59
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=228615


Coolermaster Centurion RC-532 Black+Silver Trim Case w/o PSU £43
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=359344


Scan will be one delivery charge normally about £7 (maybe more with the case).
The video card is free delivery, and the cooler will be another delivery charge, or you can go for the retail version from Scan and get the fan included (I would go for the Arctic one though)

 

you are a star,

I have already ordered some of the parts from SCAN.
Will this setup be able to run FEAR ?

 

What is the difference between SATA and SATA2 ?
Do they use the same connectors ? and can they run on any motherboard ?

 

That system should run it without any problem.
The SATA 2 drives have the same power connections and data lead connections.
SATA 1 drives will work without any problems on a SATA 2 capable motherboard.
Sometimes SATA 2 drives need tweaking before they work on SATA 1 only boards.
The main difference is the speed at which they transfer data; SATA2 is twice as fast as the original SATA.
You'll be hard pushed to find too many SATA 1 drives for sale new now, and the prices have are no different for either.
You'll end up with a very good system there, which will have plenty of scope for upgrading in the future.
The Asus boards are nice and easy to set up as well.
If you need any help when loading etc... Then just ask.
P.S. the one thing that caught me on the NVIDIA raid driver setup when loading was the need to use both drivers that are listed after pressing F6.
Even though it clearly stated they are both required, I was too much of a hurry to bother reading correctly.
I think that little quirk has caught a few people out.

 

Does the motherboard you suggested support SATA2 ?
I notice from your setup that you only run one Graphics Card although you could use two, is this purely for cost reasons or simply that you don't need two at the moment to run any games.

 

It does support SATA2, the Raptors are only SATA1 and the Seagates are SATA2.
The Video card was expensive, and still beats most cards on performance even on its own, it about another £130 on top of the 7900 price.
I've just ordered an XFX 7900GT listed in my build list to you, so will probably run a couple of them in SLi eventually, but it isn't being shipped until tomorrow.
It helped that I've already sold the 7800GTX for more than the 7900GT is costing me.
Personally I think that the 7900GTs are the best value for money high performance card about, and if you use the coolbits registry edit you can wind them up to near GT Extreme performance.

 

Cool,
I have been reading about overclocking PSU's and GPU's and benchmarking. How do you know when to stop as these components aren't cheap. Do you know of any good overclocking tools and benchmarking utilities, as my kit will be brand new I don't want to damage it..

 

Best thing would be to leave it for a few weeks at least to bed in.
The Nvidia chipset has a tool called ntune with it, by using the coolbits reg hack it just unlocks extra overclocking of the GPU.
The easiest way to do it, is just to copy what other people have already done with the same setup.

http://www.digital-daily.com/motherboard/asus-a8n-sli/index05.htm

When I've finished tweaking my motherboard I tend to run super pi to check that the system is stable doing basic calcualtions, then I run memtest86 for about 10 passes to check the memory is still running within its limits.
A few tools and guides are here, it worth reading as much as you can before starting to OC the system.
There is also a system tweak guide specifically for playing FEAR listed below.
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=68915
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=65314
http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?http://www.ocinside.de/html/links/ocsoft_links.html
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=13
http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_1.html
http://www.tweakguides.com/FEAR_1.html

 

Fantastic, thanks again, sorry for all the questions.

 

A friend of mine has an XFX geforce 6600GT which 1 in 4 times will crash when trying to run a game. It boots to windows every time but every now and again it will start the game then the monitor will go to sleep. Then a blue screen saying there is a problem with NV4_dsp.dll any ideas

 

He can look at this and se if the fix is relevant
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=10593

looks like a fairly common problem
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2002mar/bch20020305010574.htm

Maybe he'll need to remove the drivers and load the latest ones direct from Nvidia.

 

Excellent I will tell him,
Back to our original discussion, before I order the ASUS board, you suggested 1gb memory, I see the board has 4 slots can I add another 2 512s later on. I also noticed when I went to the memory section on Scan all the different numbers I presume they relate to the speed of the chips. Are they all compatible with the Asus board and if so which the best, and is it better to have 1x 1gb chip or 2x512 etc i also notice they all vary in price. This is quite confusing.