I won the Readers Drive of issue 37 of CustomPC and I got some nice gadgets for that. At the moment they have been left unused (except the RAM that ended up in my exisiting computer), but I now want to play with my new toys. The motherboard was an Abit AN8 32X Socket 939 and the graphicscard was an XFX Geforce 6800GT. So what I need is a CPU, HD and DVD drive. Easy peasy I though. But I find it very hard to find socket 939 CPU's, seing how they are now outdated by the AM2. And I also don't know how to compare the AMD CPU's to the Intel's one in terms of performance.
The system I have now is a Dell 8300 from October 2003. Old on omputer years, but still works very well. The specs are 2.8GHz HT, 2GB RAM, ATI RADEON 9800 128MB with two 17" monitors, one 120GB IDE HD and one 300GB IDE HD. Vista gives it experience grading 4.2 and I can still play new games reasonably. That's the system that I'm using as a reference when looking for new components.
I play alot of games, work alot with graphics (Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, 3DStudioMax, Rhino, Sketchup) and develop websites. I often use several of these programs at the same time making sure my computer got enough work.
I was thinking of getting SATA drive for my HD as they are faster and my use often require the computer to access data. And since I'm running alot of heavy programs I thought I'd go for Dual Core. And it's looking for Dual Core 939 CPU's that I find difficult. Will I notice a big difference with a Dual Core for my use compared to my exisiting system? And what CPU should I be looking for? Can you recommend a good supplier, preferaqbly online or London based, for 929 Dual Core? (I was looking at Eclipse Computers, but I've read alot of bad reviews of them, including my housemate's negative experience.)
I don't want to spend too much on it. Preferably the CPU would be under £150, but I could possibly stretch to £200 if there'd be great benefit from it. To invest in the final component to complete this computer I'd want to gain a significant difference from my existing system.
