Quote from: sdp

Quote512Mb Sapphire 1950Pro
Cheap and has plenty of poke for what you need. You might want to consider something else, but if you only need Dx9 compatability then this will do fine.

Another £15 would get a 3850. Or if you hold on a month or so the 256mb 8800gt is gonna sell for the same price afaik.

 

that was my 1st choice, but i was put off by the "As near to £300 as possible" line.  Though to be fair i would put the extra £15 as well.  it was only a quick spec i threw together
also when anyone actually gets the 8800Gt in they MAY sell for that price, if low stock levels dont mean the retailers rack the prices up.

Quote from: FuMaNOK this is really weird. Ive just tried to do a repair with the new kit and after it copied the setup files it restarted as usual. Then not long after that it switched itself off. Now when I turn it on it switches itself off again after a bit. I think it might be the PSU!! Fortunately I dont mind that Ive had to upgrade but this definitely sounds like a PSU issue right?

could also be an issue with heat to be fair.  if you bought the Retail package at it was already gunked then check that the motherboard settings have the heat protection set to a sensible level.  I had an MSI thing a few weks back that had the cutoff temp set to 30C!

I dont even get anything on my monitor now

The then turns itself off after 10s or so. It must be a temperature related issue!

Quote from: FuMaNI dont even get anything on my monitor now

The then turns itself off after 10s or so. It must be a temperature related issue!

check your clips, make sure they are tight.  Check that the CPU didnt have a stupid clear pad over the compound, and make sure the HSF is spinning up.

It probably is that, it turned on for 1 minute this time and now its turned off again!

OK clips are tight and everything else is fine! HSF is spinning too, Im baffled.

I had it running in the bios this evening for 5 mins but the idle temp of the CPU was 62c! Is it quite possible the heatsink isnt screwed down tight enough then? Ive just pushed it down at the moment and screwed it anti-clockwise. That seems right to me.

Quote from: FuMaNI had it running in the bios this evening for 5 mins but the idle temp of the CPU was 62c! Is it quite possible the heatsink isnt screwed down tight enough then? Ive just pushed it down at the moment and screwed it anti-clockwise. That seems right to me.

isnt it on clips?  That temp is WAY too high.  Even my 6000+ doesnt run at that temp!

It sounds to me like the HSF isnt tight enough for certain.  

Quote from: FuMaNWell my budget is probably £150 ish for board, cpu and memory. I definitely want to get 2GB considering the prices.

Any Asus board recommendations then?

2 Gig of ram comes as cheap as £30 these days for modern DDR2.

Its old DDR PC133 ram that comes in at £50 for a stick of 512.

YOu can easily build a decent core 2 duo system on that budhet.

Cypher could you point out a decent mobo/cpu combination for myself then please?

I really have no clue about all of these new chipsets and all that.

Im stuck in the olden days of Athlon 2500+

Is C2D really that much better than Athlon now?

Thanks for that beaker. I took the motherboard out of the case and one of the clips had been bent back but its now fine. To save having to take it out again I just rested it on some cardboard and booted it up. Temps are normal now running at 30c idle. I just need to put the board back in the case when I get home tonight.

The weekend just hasnt been long enough!

Quote from: AdrockIs C2D really that much better than Athlon now?

its now purely dependant on your budget, or if you decide to overclock or not.  Personally ive yet to find anything that troubles my 6000+/2Gb/X1950XT at all.  Also when i was buying the rig an E6600 which was the equivelent Intel chip was about £40 more for the CPU, and about £50 more for a board with the same features I have on the AM2 board.

"Buy Core 2 Duo or nothing" gets on my nerves when it gets repeated as a mentra.  They are good CPUs, but most people dont overclock, so most often the C2D and CD stuff isnt going to make a difference.  

Quote from: AdrockCypher could you point out a decent mobo/cpu combination for myself then please?

I really have no clue about all of these new chipsets and all that.

Im stuck in the olden days of Athlon 2500+

Is C2D really that much better than Athlon now?

I recently bought 2 sets of the following for a custom job.

Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz E6750 (£120)
Gigabyte GA-945PL-S3P (£40)

http://techreport.com/articles.x/12737

Although one of the boards was DOA after 1 day of use.  They really are no thrill motherboards, if it wasnt for the failure I was quite pleased with them.  The only reason I chose that board was for compatability with some digital camera capture cards.

There is plenty of choice about mind.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search/?strSearch=&bolShowAll=true&intStoreID=2&intCatID=14&intSubcatUID=658&intMfrID=148&bolShowAll=true

These were idling at something like 23C after a few minutes.

Ive decided to go with a dual core Athlon. The AM2 variety of course. Looking at the mobo, would it be worth getting one that will support Phenom cpus in the future? Or will it be a matter of early revisions will be limited to earlier Phenoms and therefore not worth the bother?

Now onto gpus and all that. Nvidia 8800GT looks nice but is quite expensive. Is there anything comparable around for cheaper? Or will they really be cheaper in a couple of weeks?

Im struggling to bide my time here, g/f just got a nice £1000 tax rebate >_<

Heh Im awaiting my tax rebate! I am looking for in the 1200 quid range!