munky Posted January 18, 2006 Share Posted January 18, 2006 (edited) Alright, I need your help guys. I have around £300 to spend on new hardware, and I dont know what to go for. My current setup is as follows: -Chaintech Apogee 9EJL2 (i845E chipset, 533FSB, DDR333, AGPx4, CMI8738, onboard LAN - all fully working under 10.4.1, 10.4.3 1099 and 10.4.3 1111G) -P4 Northwood 2.4Ghz (Socket 478, SSE2 only, so need Maxxuss emulation/patches) -Leadtek GeForce 6800NU 128Mb AGPx8 (running at x4 cos the board only does x4 - no CI/QE/OpenGL under OSX) -2x 512Mb DDR333 RAM (one branded one generic) -PrismGT-based wirless PCI card (not functional under OSX) So in other words, I have OSX working native, but dependant on Maxxuss SSE3 patches, and VESA3 graphics. I want MORE dammit! I would like accellerated graphics, first and foremost, and SSE3 to get proper compatability. So i'm thinking the following: 1) I could buy a mid to high-end AGP Radeon card (X800GTO, X1600 XT), and a Celeron D (to get SSE3 at 533FSB socket 478) 2) I could get all new bits. i'm currently thinking an i945 based board, the cheapest socket 775 P4 i can get, and an ATI X1600 XT PCI-E. I'd need new RAM too I guess. Oh balls, and I dont have SATA drives. Gnngh. Basically, the limits i'm fighting here are lack of PCI-E, lack of FSB800, lack of Socket 775. I'd like to stick with intel-based board (ie either stick with what i've got or get a new Intel-based mobo). But if I upgrade, I need new CPU, new RAM, new hard disks etc... its a major thing. As I said, I have £300 to spend, and obviously could ebay things lke the 6800NU and the CPU if I get new ones, to raise some more. HELP! Any and all recommendations, opinions etc would be greatly appreciated. Cheers and big ups to all. Edited January 18, 2006 by munky Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7113-spending-advice/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
munky Posted January 19, 2006 Author Share Posted January 19, 2006 nobody? oh well Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7113-spending-advice/#findComment-44794 Share on other sites More sharing options...
miranda363 Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 I know you only have 300 quid but reconsider Celeron although it will work it lacks oomph I have on and I rue the day I got it and spent all my cash Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7113-spending-advice/#findComment-44796 Share on other sites More sharing options...
munky Posted January 19, 2006 Author Share Posted January 19, 2006 (edited) handily enough, turns out my bro is looking for a new machine to play windows games on (he doesnt care about Mac OS), so i'm going to sell practically my whole machine to him now the question is... how much should i charge? specs in original post... i'm thinking £250-300 ? EDIT: in case anyone cares, i've pretty much made up my mind i'm going to go for a Pentium D 920, which has intel's virtualisation stuff built in, as well as 2Mb of cache for each core, which runs at 2.8Ghz. should kick the arse off an iMac Core Duo Edited January 19, 2006 by munky Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7113-spending-advice/#findComment-44808 Share on other sites More sharing options...
miranda363 Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 the Pentium is a far better choice for Mac OS x86 and I've seen a few good reviews of the D 920. 200 to 300 is a good price for your old gear too Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7113-spending-advice/#findComment-44852 Share on other sites More sharing options...
urig-herb Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 (edited) the Pentium is a far better choice for Mac OS x86 and I've seen a few good reviews of the D 920. 200 to 300 is a good price for your old gear too what about waiting for the new intel based Mac Mini. Should be a better value than a self built system. BTW I'm quite happy with my system. My cpu is running at 2.86 MHz. Edited January 19, 2006 by urig-herb Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7113-spending-advice/#findComment-44854 Share on other sites More sharing options...
miranda363 Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 exactly it's all about personal preference at the end of the day my own Celeron D is clocked at 2.80 and is a reasonable performer but thats just the way I see it try running iMovie and do some rendering I think that will illustrate better what I mean Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7113-spending-advice/#findComment-44858 Share on other sites More sharing options...
munky Posted January 19, 2006 Author Share Posted January 19, 2006 thanks for the input guys. for anyone who cares, i think i'm gonna go for ABit LG-81 (Intel 945G-based) mobo and Pentium D 920, and a Sapphire X1600 XT 256Mb PCI-E Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7113-spending-advice/#findComment-44880 Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtraa Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 perhaps you should say, that 300 Pound (cant find the sign) is about 800 $/€, isnt it? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7113-spending-advice/#findComment-44885 Share on other sites More sharing options...
munky Posted January 19, 2006 Author Share Posted January 19, 2006 according to xe.com/ucc £300 == $528.15 (US), or €436.25 i plan to sell my kit for approx £250-£300, and i have raised £300 already, giving me approx £600 ($1,056.21 US, or €872.62) for that price I can get a Pentium D 920 (2.8Ghz, 800FSB, 2Mb L2 per core), ABit i945 Mobo w/ GMA950 and ATI X1600 XT 256Mb PCI-E, plus 1Gb Corsair DDR-2 RAM, 160Gb SATA drive. Should kick the arse off the iMac Core Duo Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7113-spending-advice/#findComment-44913 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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