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New CPU/Mobo
BuMnAcHaIr
Member Posts: 77
crud...i had this all written out then i pressed backspace and bam, all gone...oh well.
Anyone give me some advice on whats the best bang for my buck?
Should I go with athlon xp or pentium4? What kind of mobo is best for either?
Im looking to spend around $$200-300
Currently I have a athlon xp 2100 with a soyo kt dragon ultra or something like that, cant really remember its exact name, got it a while back.
thanks for any info/help
One kick in the face is better then two.
One kick in the face is better then two.
Comments
You can buy a motherboard and a CPU for $200, that's it.
Do you want a new videocard, RAM, etc? Or just a new CPU/Motherboard?
I would go with AMD. You can buy a 2500+ and overclock it to a 3200+ for only $90 from www.newegg.com. It's also tons cheaper then the P4 3.2Ghz.
My whole system cost me $1050 USD.
What will he do next?
i got a geforce ti 4400 right now, 512 pc2700ram, so i might be upgrading to 1gig of ram if cashflow permits it. What do you think of my graphics card? Its been doing fairly well in most games ive played so far so im not really in a rush to upgrade it.
the xp2500 o/c to 3200 sounds great, thanks, il prolly be doing that, but is there a certain mobo that works really well with it? or just get whatever its comboed with?
One kick in the face is better then two.
One kick in the face is better then two.
I bought the Giga-Byte GA-7N400 Pro 2 motherboard and I'm very happy with my purchase. When you're looking to get a new AMD motherboard, there's really three that come to mind.
Giga-Byte GA-7N400 Pro2
ASUS A7N8X / A7N8X Deluxe / A7N8X-E Deluxe
ABIT NF7-S
I perfer the Giga-Byte because of easy use, very thought out layout and other bonuses I tend to look for in a motherboard.
Your videocard isn't going to make it for very long in today's games. I would highly suggest [if you can afford it] getting at least an ATI 9700 or a Nvidia GeForce FX 5900. You can get them for under $200. If you can't afford getting one of those I know the ATI 9600 and the GeForce FX 5700s are pretty good for price/performace ratio.
Your RAM is okay, but if you're going to do anything, I would suggest getting PC3200 RAM or something higher. If you can't, just get another stick of PC2700 so you can utilize "DualDDR" support. This is an option that makes your RAM bandwith double to a 6.4Gb transfer speed.
If you still have any issues, just ask Murt
I'm very good at this sort of thing. So I'll help you out if you need it. 
What will he do next?
Could i say, get a xp 2800+ and then o/c it past 3200?
ooh, and what about cooling? i know right now i got some 25 dollar piece of s*** fan that barley keeps my cpu temp at like 60c
One kick in the face is better then two.
One kick in the face is better then two.
You want the 2500+ since this is the best CPU to overclock with. Just because you buy a 2800+ doesn't mean it will reach 3200+ easier.
I got lucky with my 2500+. My stepping is AQEXA, this is the "gold mine" of CPUs. They finally stopped making this version of the CPU since it was so easy to overclock to 3200+ and beyond. As for cooling, I have a 92mm Tornado CPU fan I bought for $9. It pushes more then 110cfm of air but it's at a price... 56dBA!
I'm use to loud PCs so this isn't an issue. If you don't mind the noise, grab this fan.
I have the fan, a SLK-900a heatsink and Arctic Silver 5, my temps are mid 40ºC right now and no higher then 52º with full load.
What will he do next?
nice, heh my pc is extremely loud right now, I forgot how loud it was since its under mydesk and i normally have a fan on(for me) but when i took it into the living room for a bit of work and turned it on...my god....it drowned out the tv. I really dont understand why i paid so much for it, oh well, everyone gets ripped off sometime.
Im about to check frys out for the parts so i dont have to wait for a week or however long it takes, check their vid card prices too. With graduation three days away, I'll be getting a little pocket change, or pc change as it were
ahhh i love upgrading my pc, its like....working on the car I never work on.
(oooh, and my avatar rocks, does it not?)
One kick in the face is better then two.
One kick in the face is better then two.
Is that you?
lol
I took my PC out from under my desk and put it on top of my desk, my temps lowered about 8-10ºC! Crazy eh!? And with my new CPU fan, Heatsink and thermal paste... I dropped it another 15ºC!
What type/kind/brand of videocard do you want?
If you're going to upgrade I would also suggest waiting since PCI-Express is coming out, the new 6800 and the x800 are around the corner too!
What will he do next?
I'm back and bitcher then even!
It's true, my motherboard ran me $120 and my CPU was $91.
I can run UT2004 at 1600x1200 with x8 filters and it's fast as greese lighting.
I'm a lucky dog... I love my PC. I even flashed my videocard to make it act like a 128MB 5950 Ultra then I overclocked my card to 500/1000
What will he do next?
lol, yar thats me, i happened across a box of work goggles from the 70's and found they make me look 1337
So i added them to my everyday garb~
mmm maybe i should pull my pc out from under the desk full time if its temps will drop that much, as it is i dont even have a side casing on my comp.
Whats that new stuff you mentioned? pci-express? pci-express a new feature on motherboards? mmm were the other things new vid card models orrrrrr? i havent been keeping up with anythign lately...I normally try to learn whats changed when im ready to upgrade tho, so i dont bung it all up.
One kick in the face is better then two.
One kick in the face is better then two.
PCI Express is a new Intel PC bus architecture that doubles the bandwidth of the AGP 8X bus, delivering over 4GB per second in both upstream and downstream data transfers. The graphics processing unit (GPU) has the largest bandwidth appetite of all PC subsystems, and from the start NVIDIA has been a key contributor to the PCI Express architecture, as a developer, a supporter, and as a provider of PCI Express graphics solutions.
PCI Express will slowly replace AGP and PCI.
NVIDIA is working hand-in-hand with Intel's workstation, desktop, and mobile engineering teams to help define, develop, and deploy PCI Express solutions.
NVIDIA has developed a high-speed x16 graphics interconnect designed to evolve current PCI technology and address the increasing bandwidth demands of emerging graphics applications for multiple markets, including desktop PCs, mobile solutions, workstations, servers, and embedded communications systems.
NVIDIA is excited to help shape this next-generation specification to ensure that NVIDIA GPUs get the necessary throughput required to push the visual envelope for a seamless multimedia experience with cinematic-quality graphics at its core.
What will he do next?
Not all will need BTX. SATA-2 etc...
There's a lot of new hardware and new technology coming out... if you want to be all hardcore into it the new videocards will have DDR3 RAM!
Neat eh? I'm think of dropping $500 on the new 6800... but then again I want a new 64bit CPU and a new motherboard... *sigh*
More money...
I'll sell someone my PC for $1300!
*EDIT*
I out do myself all the time...
What will he do next?
This is what I see from the two new videocards coming out.
Nvidia 6800 might be an extra $100 [for the ultra], but you're getting PS 3.0 and DDR3 RAM. The ATI x800 might be faster by 1% [if that] in some games and benchmarks, but you're only getting PS 2.0.
I would go with Nvidia just because their videocard is heading in to the future... ATI is known to make what's "today" fast as hell. They are only taking DX9 and PS2.0 as far as they can go... Nvidia is taking it to a whole new level.
What will he do next?
damn, you guys make me feel lost, heh. Welp, i guess after this next upgrade to my system, il start saving my pennys and dimes for all this new technology thats sure to destroy many a wallet.
Now if only i had the money for my current upgrade.....
One kick in the face is better then two.
One kick in the face is better then two.
Are you lost yet?
What do you want to currently upgrade?
What will he do next?
just a buncha stuff i didnt know, like i had no idea about any of the new hardware coming out~ but hey, thats what happens when I waste my time going to concerts and gig and the other time in EQ, or rather having EQ crash and me punc the wall. If either of you have links to informative sites it would be much appreciated.
One kick in the face is better then two.
One kick in the face is better then two.
www.guru3d.com
www.tomshardware.com
There's a few others that are good. . . I tend to go to www.nvidia.com a lot since they are always in the forefront of making new crap.
It's fun to post all over.
What will he do next?
ha, i think my dentist gave me the guru3d link a longgggg time ago, but i only went once for some drivers, didnt check anything out. Thanks, il be doing some reading and hopefully not be so much in the dark.
One kick in the face is better then two.
One kick in the face is better then two.
What will he do next?