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Upgrade time - new mobo/proc/vid advice needed.

Ishcabittle

Ishcabittle

New member
So my wife and I are ready to spend the money to upgrade the PC. I figure I'll just get a new mobo and the parts to go with in and slam it in my present shitty, shitty case.

So what would you kids recommend? I don't want to spend over $200.00US and I guess I'll need a mobo, a processor, a stick of RAM (all my shit is ancient) and a good vid card if I don't have badass on-board video. That's probably not the route I want to take, the on-board video. Siphoning RAM from the system = teh ghey.

I'll go get some ebay links, tell me if they're shite if you have a second.
 
I could probably scrounge a gig for a little less than a hundred...

Is it possible to get a mobo that will be cheap now, get a cheap processor now, but still be able to up the processor to something wicked in the future? I'm sure that's possible, there are just so many frickin' different pin configs to look at I'm not quite sure what to look fer.
 
I watched Terminator last night, OMG CRAZY COINCIDENCE.

That's my PC right now, nothing but salvage. Crazy old PIII just ain't cuttin' it anymore.
 
Rrrrr. I wish I knew as much about individual internal components as I do about how they contribute to a whole system. I have heard good things about ASUS mobos, but if I were building a rig from the ground up, I'd use an nForce 4 at least. Spendy? Yes. Worth it? From all reports, hell yes.
 
ASUS motherboards are good. Out of the 4 I've used in self built computers, I've never had a problem with any of them.

Ish, If your going to upgrade your computer, then I'll give you some advice on what you should upgrade

A new case - for airflow
Power supply - the standard PS given for computers is too weak for most things. I'd go with a 400 watt.
Motherboard - ASUS is very good
Processor - You can get a low end socket 478 P4 if you want.
Video Card - stick with AGP for now. PCI-E is good, but unless you plan to dual vid... Everything is more expensive.
Memory - A gig is always good

Sites like Directron.com and Newegg.com are good places to find decent parts that are reviewed by people who buy them.
 
Ishcabittle said:
So my wife and I are ready to spend the money to upgrade the PC. I figure I'll just get a new mobo and the parts to go with in and slam it in my present shitty, shitty case.

So what would you kids recommend? I don't want to spend over $200.00US and I guess I'll need a mobo, a processor, a stick of RAM (all my shit is ancient) and a good vid card if I don't have badass on-board video. That's probably not the route I want to take, the on-board video. Siphoning RAM from the system = teh ghey.

I'll go get some ebay links, tell me if they're shite if you have a second.
Click to expand...
I'd highly recommend waiting and saving some more money. For a tad more you can get a nice system that will kick the shit out of what you will get for $200.


My mid range - but still snazzy - suggestions would be:

Mobo:

ASUS AMD A8N-E
$63.99 - Open box

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131530R

Processor:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice
$135.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535


Video Card:

ASUS EN6600/TD/128 Geforce 6600 128MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card
$84.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121180

RAM:

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200)
$82.85

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141307
=

[SIZE=+1]$364

[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]I've tried to balance price and performance as well as possible here. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]I know it's higher than you want to go but these are some decent mid range pieces that will get the job done with ease. This is a very nice system for the price and I would suggest holding off until you can muster some more cash and go for stuff like this.

These are my personal recomendations but then again I have been building systems for a long time and I am pretty damn savvy in computer thingymajigs so I do know what I'm talking about.

Mull it over.
[/SIZE]
 
^^^ There ya go. Follow that guide and you won't go wrong.

You won't be able to do much for under $200 at all, particularly if you want a decent video card to go along with it. Menty's suggestions will get you a good system that'll be usable for a few years at least. The only other thing I might throw in would be a new case with better airflow and a hotter power supply. Those can be had on the cheap, too (< $40).

By the way, what sort of specs are you upgrading from? Planning on doing any gaming, etc?
 
Thanks everyone for your suggestions, I totally respect and appreciate your advice.

I'm coming from:

Dell shitbox - Dell mobo w/Intel Pentium 3
Integrated video - 16MB onboard
ATA133 HD bus w/ 30GB + 13GB drives
DVD+RW & CD-RW optical drives
768MB RAM in three PC133 DIMMs

It's basically my uTorrent machine, it keeps the processor load off of my G4 533MHz Powermac so it's free to run server services. I want to upgrade simply to try things out, I'd like a gigabit LAN, I want to try the x86 OS X project (it currently kernel panics right out of the gate) I'd love to try some streaming video across the LAN, blah blah blah. Oh, yeah, gaming is in there too, but I'm so far behind on PC games that two year old system requirements are pretty much all I need.

If all I can spend this month is $200, I'm probably better off buying the components recommended and waiting until next month to finish it off. A new case is a must, my shit is falling apart. Plus the esoteric lights and whistles will be fun too.
 
So here's my worksheet, the numbers under the items are eBay prices, price + shipping:

Case
18.45 + 34.95

Mobo:

ASUS AMD A8N-E
64 + 12

Processor:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice
129 + 13

Video Card:

ASUS EN6600/TD/128 Geforce 6600 128MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card
65.99 + 15.00

RAM:

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200)
84.95 + $9.50

446.84 Ebay total
451.73 NewEgg total (menty's list plus a $56.00 case)

NewEgg charges you a little more for each item, but you end up saving on combined shipping. The fact that you're dealing with five different sellers on eBay makes that "deal" seem a little less attractive.

Hmm... maybe I'll just start with the case. ;) Funny thing tho, the only things I'm going to save from the PIII is the optical and hard drives, and the hard drives kinda suck, I'd want to get a RAIDed SATA array. Gawd, this upgrade madness will never end, will it?
 
Too lazy at the moment to do it myself, but look those same items up at ZipZoomFly.com. If I recall, shipping is mostly free there (as it used to be at NewEgg).
 
I bought my case today and migrated all of the old junk into the new case. I almost whent with a flashy case... something with a lava lamp built right in, but I decided against it at the last minute.

I'll prolly end up gettin' the pieces bit by bit... money money money, you know.
 
MINOR INSIGNIFICANT UPDATE

Money ended up being tighter than I first thought, so I'm looking around to sell some of the stuff I got to help it along.

I'm sticking to Menty's parts layout... looking around Newegg and eBay the list he suggested really is the best bang for the buck. Not only that, but the mobo won't be out of date for a while, as I can eventually put a nice dual core 2.2GHz proc in there when I get the $300.00US. So far I have the case (I did end up with the flashy one, it's got lights OMG!) and the mobo. All that's left it proc, vid, and ram. $300.00 all told.

I'm super excited, but it's going to be a while before I posts my specs and gloat at the speed I have over the crappy Macs in my house. Haha.
 
My case just arrived today... with nothing to go in it. Ha. Mobo should be on the way, and when my spare parts auctions sell I'm going for the gusto.
 
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