Hi all,

I have a Pentium 4 2Ghz Intel m/board (D845HV).

I also have an ATI Pro9800
80GB H/D
CD-RW

I have not got  lot of money so I have decided to upgrade rather than buy a new system. I recently upgarded the memory to 1 Gig and purchased the ATI card, but its only just holding and now with some of the new aircraft for flight sim around my system is struggling.

I would like to upgrade the motherboard first. I believe the ATI Card is more than adiquate. (well it had better be!).

What would be the advice? Will I just need a new motherboard or m/board/cpu and lots. I have no idea myself.

What is a good m/b and CPU for the flight sim and what sort of price am I looking at?

Sorry I am very negligent where the actual internals are concerned, I can just about install software and hardware but do not know what to get or what I need.

Regards

Pitt

Hang it all.

Just got a little bit of money spared/saved, so I am upgrading.

I am looking at this CPU
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?IL-P434800
What do you think? For the price (roughly what I want to spend on a CPU £300, can I do better? at this price?

What is the best M board for this CPU at around £170ish

and then what Ram? Is it DDR I need.

Sorry for all the questions, I am actually frightened of commiting myself to something now. So I am looking for some advice, I have been to a couple of shops but all they want to do is flog me their gear

Pitt

I agree with Orenda,

That seems WAY too Pricy......    Although your on the right track.

It depends on how much you want to spend really, the new technology is only just out recently, so you will pay a premium for the latest gear. (ie. 64 bit technology)

To be honest, you'll find the ATIpro9800 is already outdated, A 9800XT would have been a better choice, because it will support future upgrades better. (the video card is going to be the limiting factor in graphic rendering).


If I was buying now, I'd still opt for the AMD/nVidia-nForce2 route, because I would not want to spend too much at the moment, technology is changing. You will notice a big difference even with the following option:

AMD 3200+ cpu's haved dropped dramatically in price, ( about half the P4 price!) but a cheaper 2800+ should do the trick.

An nForce2 chipset mainboard shouldn't set you back much either. Get your hands on one without the onboard video option, a full size board with the extras you need, if any.

You'll need new RAM unfortunately, a matched (as identical as possible - because new m/boards use dual channel RAM) pair of 512mb sticks, and ram just went up a bit in price. Match the RAM speed to your CPU and Front side bus speed if you go the AMD route. The RAM you are after is PC3200 DDR, get good stuff, not generic junk, preferably CAS 2.0 latency ram. (my kingston CAS 2.5 "value ram" runs happily at CAS 2.0 timings). Look for Corsair, Geil, Samsung, Kingston, etc. (I believe Corsair ram is available at reasonable prices in the UK.)

You don't need the expensive overclocker's ram. But try to get something that will run at CAS 2.0, (ask the dealer)

Also, you might have to upgrade your Power Supply Unit, which is no big deal. (the latest video cards require a 450 watt PSU minimum)

nVidia and Radeon have just brought out new video cards that make everything else look sick by comparison.

Maybe you can save enough money if you shop around for the mainboard/cpu/ram, to buy one of those flash new video cards! Remember...The video card is the limiting factor on the newer systems, Which have plenty of grunt.

I really recommend you fully research everything you propose to buy, you will get varying advice here, (we all have our favourites).

If you understand the what's and why's, you'll be able to make your own informed decision.

There are just a few places where you can actually buy gear at discount prices, these stores sell large volumes of hardware and keep the price low. Service and customer care is a major consideration. A local supplier will cost more, but you can go to them personally with your problems if any.

When you figure out what you want, go to this site ( www.pricewatch.com ) and get the bottom line prices; they are US prices but convert them to pounds, and see what you should be paying. (Typically, you will pay a bit more in the UK)

Beware the trap of paying double the obtainable price. It's quite common.

cheers