Advice please with build

[kazz0817]

I am looking to upgrade my PC myself, I currently have:

MSI K8N NEO2 PLATINUM Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
1GB Geil Value Memory
Antec 480w PSU
6800GT 256MB GFX Card
Audigy 2 Platinum Pro sound
250GB SATA Maxtor

=====================

I plan on keeping the Sound card, and SATA drive, but want to upgrade the rest. I know I will need a higher PSU, and will more than likely stick to antec, but I want some advice on what to get.

I want to stay with AMD System, and NVIDIA GFX. but I dont want top of the range (I cant afford it) However I want a significant performance boost to what I have. I was thinking of something like......

AMD X2 CPU
NVIDIA 7800 or Higher PCI Express
MSI or ASUS Motherboard.

What I would like to know is this......

Which AMD CPU are better? Socket 939 or AM2?
What MSI and Asus Motherboard models are great performers right now with new Tech?

Basically this is my allowance:

CPU - £170
GFX - £250
Mobo - £150
RAM - £200

What would you get? please provide info for AMD and NVIDIA system only, and please tell me models and which RAM you would use. any help appreciated.

I did build my own PC.......but was 3 years ago and a little out of it all at minute so need guidance.

[glc]

Save your quid - just toss another 1gb of ram into what you have - and maybe a dual core 939 if you can find one. I can't recommend any AMD/Nvidia combo that would give you a *significant* performance increase that wouldn't be essentially building a new computer.

[freakitchen]

My suggestion to you is 'wait', if at all possible. The video card world is in a transition period to Direct X 10, and very soon a whole new range of video cards will be on the market. We're advising people who must build now to buy only a low-range video card to tide them over - your 6800GT is probably as powerful as what we'd recommend at the moment!

I'm not going to say to you 'don't build AMD' - I'm traditionally an AMD system builder. But I'd advise you to do some research into the relative abilities of the AMD X2s and the Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The latter has a price drop scheduled for April - which will make their processors even more inviting.

FK

EDIT: Beaten to it!

With regard to GLC's suggestion, overclockers.co.uk have some 939 X2s in stock at the moment. If you decide to get one, do so now before they disappear for good!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/produc...id=6&subid=567