My emphasis is storage and silence.
MSI K8N Diamond SLI
2gb ADATA Ram
Some HDDs - Can be replaced. Noisey buggers
6600GT
4200 AMD X2 Athlon
Antec Sonata II case
Vista 64bit.
Would like to use HDMI to my TV without a dvi - HDMI converter. The overscaling annoys me.
Maybe about £500?
I would be inclined to upgrade the CPU to one of the 4800+ 65nm Brisbane cores, and put some Samsung drives in the machine. if you are really looking to spend £500 then get a Blu-Ray writer for ~£200, or get a Blu-Ray combo for under £100. You may also want to upgrade the graphics to something a bit sweeter. I would usggest a 3850 AGP if you are stuck on AGP. They seem to be fairly quiet, and saves you spending a massive amount of cash. maybe add in an extra 2Gb of RAM. Your actual machines isnt really too bad as it is.
do you game much ?
if not, Id spoend most of it on the CPU and the rest on the HDs ;)
you got a network going ? could always setup an oly system with your old HDs in and use those for storage ;)
Cpu is 939, memory is standard ddr 3200. Hdds are SATA1.1. Gfx is pci-e.
Dont game as I have the 360.
Just playing ut3 to practice for the 360 version. That plays fast enough.
Current system scores 4.6 in vista.
Its hot and noisy though.
its a pitty its a socket 939 and not an am2....only had a quick google... but the fastest 939 cpu i can find is only a 4000+ (slower than yours lol!)
if I were you... Id stick with what you have and watercool it.... tho i guess watercooling is like marmite, you either love it or hate it...
otherwise, its new m/b, new cpu and new ram :-o
(which is a lot to spend when it wont really make that much difference...)
or what about.... new heat sink, a few new fans and then just new HDs ? ...probably as good as anything... tho ddr1 is cheap right now... so could always get an extra 2 gig if you have some free slots for it...
Tempted to go:
Case
H20 - Xspc
Hdds - Couple of TB Samsungs
Gfx. 8800gt?
the memory is 4x512mbs
My gfx card has ceashed out my pc a few times.
dont know how much that watercooling kit is... but its gash compaired to any custom kit.... if you want quiet, then you need (minimum) 3 x 120mil fans on the rad, plus, all that cools is youre cpu... (unless you were planning on adding to it for the gfx?)
cpu block, gfx block, pump, res, rad, 3 x fans = way way way better than that off the shelf stuff ;)
plus.... if you w/c the HD/s (£30 for a block that will do both of them) then it makes them much quieter too ;)
My Suggestion ::
6000+ Energy efficient (65nm Version)
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX
2x250 GB Samsung Spinpoint HDD
Asrock ALiveN570SLI
1GB Asus 8800GT
£460.78 inv VAT and P&P.
Thought being you already have an nForce Board and graphics, with an AMD chip. The AM2+ is going to be compatible right up to AM3 as well. might want to boost the RAM to 4Gb, but thats only knocking the pice up to £495.60. Also Im assuming you can keep the existing case and your PSU is a decent one. Mix of decent power and actual real guaranteed futureproofing.
Or go for a moderate Intel job and custom water cooling. You would also need a low noise PSU if that is the main item.
Go for samsung drives too.
Still tempted to do it in phases, Build a system based on Phenom, and slam a 1kW psu in it.