I've finally grown sick of my old xp2500+ system, and its getting to the point where upgrades are useless because every other old part bottlenecks any new components I might try to purchase. The x1650xt agp I just got has offered me almost no performance increase. Clearly this 5 year old workhorse has seen its final days. Plus its fucking loud, I'm tired of hearing a jet engine all the time.
So, I want to build a new one. Cheap. I've come up with a $500 plan that should produce a system capable of playing most of today's games at a decent clip. Maybe it's good enough that I won't have to keep watching slideshows all the time. Note: I have my sights set on playing oblivion at a steady frame rate without being forced to make it look like Tribes in software mode.
The list:
1
APEVIA X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply - Retail $59.99
1
GIGABYTE GA-M55SLI-S4 Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $87.99
1
XFX PVT73GU1D4 GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Fatal1ty Professional Series Video Card - Retail $159.99
1
Patriot 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model PSD21G8002 - Retail $73.99
1
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane 1.9GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO3600DDBOX - Retail $95.00
Subtotal: $476.96
Shipping: $24.90
Grand Total: $501.86
A few more things to take note of: I have a mouse, a keyboard, a monitor, hard drives and optical drives (big part of the reason for getting this mobo was the two PATA-IDE controllers, so I can run all my old stuff for a while yet), a floppy drive and every cable I could ever need plus a PCI wireless adapter and a decent set of speakers, so that's why the list is so short. I tried to keep an eye towards upgradability so I can keep this thing for a couple years and still be able to play newer games and run newer apps later on.
An extra note on the fagtality card. I could give a fuck less about that homo, but everything I've read said this card outperforms cards in the same price range (plus theres a $15 rebate, so that's nice), and the passive cooling is a huge selling point for me. I would like to have a decently quiet system if at all possible and reviews say the ridiculous heatsink actually does a good job of keeping temps down.
It has been quite a while since I got a whole new system, and I'm a bit concerned that I'm going to have some issues if I just try to throw my old HDs in there with all the old data still hanging around. Is it probably best for me to backup anything I want to keep and format the both of them for a fresh start, or can I simply just format the drive windows is going on and leave the other alone, or can I just try to throw em both in there and see if XP can recognize all the changes? Like I said, it's been a while since my last major upgrade, and back then I had new drives to work with. I could probably afford a new HD if I really need to get one, but I'd like to keep the old ones around if at all possible.
The last of my concerns are whether my old IDE drives are going to seriously bottleneck this system, and that I have read a bit about the Northbridge on this mobo getting crazy hot. Plus I'm thinking that my choice of case might be shitty, but its cheap and reviews on it are generally favorable.
I'd appreciate any sort of feedback on this, because if I'm going to actually purchase it, I need to do so fairly soon. Chances are probably good that I'm making a bunch of horrible mistakes here, so I look to TW to point out what isn't obvious to me.
So, I want to build a new one. Cheap. I've come up with a $500 plan that should produce a system capable of playing most of today's games at a decent clip. Maybe it's good enough that I won't have to keep watching slideshows all the time. Note: I have my sights set on playing oblivion at a steady frame rate without being forced to make it look like Tribes in software mode.
The list:
1
APEVIA X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply - Retail $59.99
1
GIGABYTE GA-M55SLI-S4 Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $87.99
1
XFX PVT73GU1D4 GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Fatal1ty Professional Series Video Card - Retail $159.99
1
Patriot 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model PSD21G8002 - Retail $73.99
1
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane 1.9GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO3600DDBOX - Retail $95.00
Subtotal: $476.96
Shipping: $24.90
Grand Total: $501.86
A few more things to take note of: I have a mouse, a keyboard, a monitor, hard drives and optical drives (big part of the reason for getting this mobo was the two PATA-IDE controllers, so I can run all my old stuff for a while yet), a floppy drive and every cable I could ever need plus a PCI wireless adapter and a decent set of speakers, so that's why the list is so short. I tried to keep an eye towards upgradability so I can keep this thing for a couple years and still be able to play newer games and run newer apps later on.
An extra note on the fagtality card. I could give a fuck less about that homo, but everything I've read said this card outperforms cards in the same price range (plus theres a $15 rebate, so that's nice), and the passive cooling is a huge selling point for me. I would like to have a decently quiet system if at all possible and reviews say the ridiculous heatsink actually does a good job of keeping temps down.
It has been quite a while since I got a whole new system, and I'm a bit concerned that I'm going to have some issues if I just try to throw my old HDs in there with all the old data still hanging around. Is it probably best for me to backup anything I want to keep and format the both of them for a fresh start, or can I simply just format the drive windows is going on and leave the other alone, or can I just try to throw em both in there and see if XP can recognize all the changes? Like I said, it's been a while since my last major upgrade, and back then I had new drives to work with. I could probably afford a new HD if I really need to get one, but I'd like to keep the old ones around if at all possible.
The last of my concerns are whether my old IDE drives are going to seriously bottleneck this system, and that I have read a bit about the Northbridge on this mobo getting crazy hot. Plus I'm thinking that my choice of case might be shitty, but its cheap and reviews on it are generally favorable.
I'd appreciate any sort of feedback on this, because if I'm going to actually purchase it, I need to do so fairly soon. Chances are probably good that I'm making a bunch of horrible mistakes here, so I look to TW to point out what isn't obvious to me.
