New Build

[ZeroG]

---Current System---

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ (2.41 GHz)
A8N32-SLI Deluxe Gaming Edition
nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX (768mb)
Creative X-FI Xtreme Soundcard
2x1GB Crucial Ballistix PC4000
120GB IDE Hard Drive with XP Pro installed
320GB Sata Internal Hard Drive
Hiper Type-R Modular 580W PSU
19" WS Hanns-G TFT

---Proposed New Hardware---

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo, E8400 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=736334)
Processor Cooling - (This I am not sure about - could someone suggest a good cooler that is also as quiet as possible)
Motherboard - Asus P5K-E (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=615971)
Memory - 2GB Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator, PC2-8500 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=462617)

I would keep my existing graphics card, soundcard, monitor and power supply. I would replace the IDE hard drive Windows is installed on with a fast Sata drive, something like http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=708681 which would give me a lot more space and could use my current Sata drive as additional storage.

I did originally plan on using my current case but having seen http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126946 I think I may go for this instead.

What do you think ? Any improvements that can be made ? I'm giving myself quite a high budget for this to get me something decent that will leave room for improvement later on.

 

[ZeroG]

After the wealth of posts ¬_¬ I've decided to go with the following build which I have already ordered and will be building this weekend.

The following has been ordered from SCAN.

Asus P5K-E/WIFI-AP Motherboard
Samsung SH-S203P/BEBN DVD Writer
Antec P182 Advanced PERFORMANCE ONE SERIES Case
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator RAM
750 GB Samsung HD753LJ Spinpoint Hard Drive

The following has been ordered from Overclockers.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

The rest of the bits will be filled in with stuff I already have i.e. PSU/Graphics/Sounds Card

The processor is retail because I couldn't find anywhere that just sells the CPU.

 

[Castiana]

Hey Zero,

Sorry i havent replyed sooner, been a bit nuts around here.

That's one hell of a system you'r building, the components look good. Should run wow at about 70+ fps ^^

Let me know how it goes, cause i'm planning an upgrade for my rig sometime soon!!

 

[ZeroG]

Old Setup

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ (2.41 GHz)
A8N32-SLI Deluxe Gaming Edition
nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX (768mb)
Creative X-FI Xtreme Soundcard
2x1GB Crucial Ballistix PC4000
120GB IDE Hard Drive with XP Pro installed
320GB Sata Internal Hard Drive
Hiper Type-R Modular 580W PSU
19" WS Hanns-G TFT

New Setup

Intel E8400 Dual Core Processor
Asus P5K-E Wifi Edition Motherboard
Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 7
nVidia GeForce 8800GTX (768mb)
Creative X-FI Xtreme Soundcard
2x1GB Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 (1066MHz)
750GB Samsung Sata2 HD753L HDD
320GB Sata Internal HDD
19" WS Hanns-G TFT
Antec P182 Case
Hiper Type-R Modular 580W PSU

Following is the benchmarks with the latest nvidia drivers

3D Marks 2001 SE
(Old) - 35,715
(New) - 53,860

3D Marks 2006
(Old) - 9107 SM2.0 3877 HDR/SM3.0 4909 CPU Score 1851
(New) - 12,371 SM2.0 5626 HDR/SM3.0 5835 CPU Score 2791

Super PI - 1M
(Old) - 36.406s
(New) - 15.469s

That's the few benchmarks I have done and it's quite a nice improvement. That's just running everything at stock speeds. Playing TF2 I can get a nice 100-120fps when in battle and 160+ just running around.