Hey guys, I'm now after a cheap upgrade. With the announcement of the release dates for Black and White 2, I need to save! So, help me out! hehe. I'll tell you what I want.

I know that I want a P4 3.2gig processor. No arguing with me on that, I don't care if you prefer AMD or what lol. Anyway I found a link for one thats about £150 here

So this means I need a motherboard with a 478 socket. I have no clue on motherboards so if someone can tell me a good one to search for please.
I also want 1gig of RAM to fit the new motherboard (hence I need to know which mobo i want lol)
And I'll probably need a soundcard too, as my current one is integrated, although if the recommended mobo has integrated, thats ok by me.
And *possibly* I want a new GeForce, but not sure on that. Right now I have an nVidia GeForce 4 440mx 64mb. If I can get away with keeping that for a little while, I will, but I'd still like your recommendations for when I do choose to upgrade. Titanium maybe? FX?

For a P4 478 motherboard I recommend this
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_sp ... um_Edition)&class=mb

That is the board I have and it runs like a champ.

Other vendors I suggest

MSI, ABIT, Chaintech, Intel,Soyo. Go with the first 2 if you can. Intel mothboards are rock soild.

And with a 478 motherboard your going to want some PC3200 DDR. Corsair makes really good value ram called "ValueSelect".

Video card total depends on how much money you want to spend. Top of the line cost around $400 US. You goal should be a video card with at least 128mb ram on it. To get a idea of performance.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphi ... ie-02.html

and some PCI Express benchmarks

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphi ... ts-02.html

Best bet is to jsut go down the list and get the best one you can for your price range.

I'll acquiesce to 11b on the intel stuff...not my area of expertise.

As far as the vid card...personally, I'd say wait. Wait until the last possible moment, when you pop in the game and realize you're getting 2fps. Then go buy the best card you can afford.

IMO, that card you have sucks. But if it does what you need, then good for you. No point in replacing it until you have to. But when you do, you'll want to do a major upgrade. Going to a TI isn't a major upgrade...not worth the investment, imo. Definetely go FX, and probably got 6000+ series fx. I know nvidia is releasing SLI capable geforce fx 6600 LEs for pretty cheap. But, who knows, it might be more cost effective to buy a 6800.

In fact, if you wait, by the time B&W2 actually comes out, you might be able to buy something in the 7000 series for a decent amount of cash.

well thanks for the tips guys, keep them coming. It's about 12 weeks til the game comes out.

Basically what I was hoping was I could find out the mobo I'll upgrade to, so that if it takes the same type of RAM as my current one, I can just buy the gig of that and see how BnW2 runs. Because I'd much rather wait if I can to be honest, for saving purposes (and of course to get the best possible for cheap )

yeah i know my card sucks lol, but if i can get away with it for a lil while then thats all good. I'll keep this topic updated, I won't actually make any purchases til the game is nearly out so I have the time to sort things out and save.

Thanks again

For your memory your going to want PC3200. If you dont have it your going to need to buy it. I doubt you have PC3200 in your old machine.

but how expensive is that? I need cheap. I think 1gig DDR seems to be averaging at about £70 which isn't that fun lol. If this Pc3200 will fit in whatever mobo I get and is cheap though, then yay

pc3200 isn't all that expensive. Looks like around $100 for a gig.
Fry's

Does your current motherboard support DDR RAM? If it does, you can use this in your current computer.

Afaik, Pc3200 ram is actually way cheaper than most older models Pev...so you're better off getting that: faster and cheaper. I don't think there are a lot of things in life that work out this nice.

ooh lol well thats good to know! I'll find out what my mobo is again and let you know, but I think its DDR it supports.

90% of todays motherboards support DDR but that doesnt mean your memory will run in your new motherboard. It has to be the right type.

DDR 400 is what your looking for although they do have DDR266 motherboards for 478 chip set. The only thing is, if you use that, you not going to be using the ful potental of the 478 p4 chip.

DDR 400 = PC 3200
DDR 266 = PC 2100 (I think)

if her current mobo supports ddr (at any speed) she should be able to run pc3200 in it, even if hte mobo ends up dropping the FSB to 100mhz (or 133 or whatever). I think she just wants to start buying parts now but doesn't want to waste em by having em just sit around collecting dust. I can dig it.

What's the processor speed of your current box? If it's over 1.6ghz, I'd say it almost certainly supports DDR. My 1.2ghz athlon was one of the last mobos that only supported SDR, I swear. heh.

current processor is P4 2.5gig. I'll find what my mobo is and post all my current specs for you guys to rip to shreds, might help you tell me what to get

Processor
Mobo
RAM

Ok guys, whaddya think? Apart from Graphics card, what else do I need? Excuse my blondeness but does the mobo have sound and network cards already in it? And double check its all compatible for me Also if any of those makes are horribly crap, tell me! I just kelkoo'ed for the stuff you mentioned and clicked some cheap ones.

oh also is this a good card d'ya think? If so, would you recommend the cheaper or more expensive version? Far as I can see they're the same, just one is a better known brand, but I'm prepared to buy the more expensive one if you think thats best
expensive
cheap

just one thing to add; need to be sure this system would run HL2 comfortably, as thats the benchmark for being able to run BnW2 til the specs are released.

those two cards are basically the same. Get the cheaper one imo.

As for the rest of it, looks good to me. You should be able to scream along in HL2. Your biggest bottleneck imo would be the graphics card, and at this point that's really not much of a bottleneck (very decent card).

So, I'd say you're set. I'll let 11b chime in on the mobo/processor if he so chooses.

btw, the motherboard you linked to includes network and sound controllers onboard.

great, thanks satis. I'm thinking I'll save up, then sorta 3 weeks before BnW comes out, I'll buy the mobo/cpu/ram, then see how much money i have left, and if i have more than i thought, better graphics card will be on the table. I'll see if 11b has any more to say on it, then it's pretty much decided.

thanks guys.