Computer upgrade suggestions

E

envy

Veteran X
I want to spend around $500 or so to upgrade my comp. What would you upgrade, or would you just wait longer. I still game a little bit - mostly CS:S which runs OK. I'm thinking maybe a graphics card upgrade would be best.

Computer

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+
CPU FAN: Thermaltake Volcano Silent Boost 21dba
MOBO: Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe (nForce2 Ultra 400, 400MHz FSB, etc.)
RAM: 1GB OCZ EL Dual Channel Optimized PC3200 DDR400
VIDEO: Sapphire Radeon X800 PRO AGP 8X 256MB DDR3
MONITOR: Sony Trinitron (CRT, 21 inch)
STORAGE: 80GB MAXTOR DIAMONDMAX 8MB CACHE 7200RPM ATA 133
CASE: Lian Li
POWER: Antec NeoPower 480 watt
COOLING: Vantec Spectrum Fan Card
MOUSE: Logitech MX518 Gaming Optical Mouse
PAD: Func Industries Surface 1030
KEYBOARD: Saitek Eclipse Keyboard

Software

OS: Windows XP SP2

Accessories

PRINTER: Canon PIXMA iP4000R Wireless Photo Printer
ROUTER: Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router
READER: Liteon CDR 48x12x48x

Services

INTERNET: Comcast Cable 7182 kbps / 353 kbps
 
My suggestion(s):

(1) Raptor Drive to run OS off of
(2) Dual montior

both are easily able to move into your system you will build after this one.

other then that. :shrug: looks like u got pretty tight shiot w/o getting a new cpu/mobo
 
I think the XP 3200 is last 32bit CPU by AMD. You can always change over to 64bit in that range but If I was going to put 500 into a upgrade I would go ahead and get a SLI board which would require you to change vid card. Evga has a deal right now were you can get the EVGA7800 GT PCI-E video card and a EVGA SLI MB for 360.00 then all you would need is a CPU. Later on add another 7800GT and run SLI. Check out zipzoomfly.com for your prices. Free
2nd day shipping.

You looking 660 shipped if you get the EVGA 7800 with SLI board and a AMD 64 X2 3800 cpu, the price on the X2 dropped about 20.00 today. You can always just get the AMD 64 3200 cpu and get out around 520 for board, vid card and cpu.

Also in the future look at changing to a SATAII HD. The memory should be ok for now.

AMD 64 3200
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80701-5

AMD 64 X2 3800
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80721-1

Vid card and SLI MB
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=322728
 
Lifes-Lowest said:
I think the XP 3200 is last 32bit CPU by AMD. You can always change over to 64bit in that range but If I was going to put 500 into a upgrade I would go ahead and get a SLI board which would require you to change vid card. Evga has a deal right now were you can get the EVGA7800 GT PCI-E video card and a EVGA SLI MB for 360.00 then all you would need is a CPU. Later on add another 7800GT and run SLI. Check out zipzoomfly.com for your prices. Free
2nd day shipping.

You looking 660 shipped if you get the EVGA 7800 with SLI board and a AMD 64 X2 3800 cpu, the price on the X2 dropped about 20.00 today. You can always just get the AMD 64 3200 cpu and get out around 520 for board, vid card and cpu.

Also in the future look at changing to a SATAII HD. The memory should be ok for now.

AMD 64 3200
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80701-5

AMD 64 X2 3800
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80721-1

Vid card and SLI MB
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=322728
Click to expand...
SLI is not necessary.


Get the Asrock S939 dual SATA mobo with the ULi chipset. It has both AGP and PCI-E slots, so you can keep this vid card for now and upgrade to PCI-E without changing mobos later. It's also a great OC'er board, so paired with a 3200+ you can probably get to 2.6 GHz. You also need 2 gigs of RAM, Samsung will do but you can get some more expensive Corsair, Kingston or OCZ Value if it makes you feel better.
 
I upgraded from a agp running a p4 3.2e about 2 weeks ago on a simular budget.

I got a evga 7800 gt / w free 939 sli motherboard ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130238
And I got a 3700+

Im still using my ide HDD
I have slightly better ram ( The EL gold )

Anyways Im VERY happy with the MOBO and card ..

I can run CS:S fully cranked 12x10 res ... I could go higher but dont noramlly for games.

Its a good solution for goin to pci-e

3dmark05- 8000
3dmark06- 3900
 
SniperOmega said:
My suggestion(s):

(1) Raptor Drive to run OS off of
(2) Dual montior

both are easily able to move into your system you will build after this one.

other then that. :shrug: looks like u got pretty tight shiot w/o getting a new cpu/mobo
Click to expand...
:signed:

Your system is nowhere near outdated. Get yourself something that will still work after you upgrade your CPU/Mobo/Memory/Vid card and wait for AMD Socket M2 940 w/ DDR2 to be avalaible before you do anything else.

You didn't list sound at all. Why not get:

Logitech Z-5500 5.1 system (10 inch sub, awsome sound)
Sound Blaster X-Fi FATAL1TY edition

Edit: if the power goes out a bunch where you live, you may consider an APC brand UPS for your system.
 
Last edited:
Well I just ordered all my stuff. Was planning on spending around $800 but ended up spending $950.

500w PSU
2gb of PC 4000 500 DDR ram
120 Seagate sata HD
sapphire x800gto2 VC
opteron 165 dual core with thermaltake cooling
DFI lanparty nf4 ultra

I made the mistake of asking for advice on here and got talked into spending more $$ :/
 
I think I may just wait before upgrading the cpu/mobo. I read yesterday that AMD is planning major price cuts for their chips in the near future here: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29195

Maybe I will get the separate raptor drive for the OS. I like the idea, but what's so special about the raptor drives and should I get SATA or reg. ATA?

Regarding sound I am just using onboard: APU NFORCE MCP-Ò and Realtek ALC650 codec
 
I'm not so sure about that article. Everything I have read pointed to the Opteron price remaining steady or rising. AMD doesn't want PC users buying up all Opterons instead of the FX chips. Makes sense since the Opty is supposed to be a server chip.

As far as ATA SATA...get SATA.
 
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