Project suggestions?

I was thinking about upgrading my rig... for about a year now... I will try to shoot out what I have below.

Atheon XP 1700+ OCed to a 2400+s speed
A7N8X Deluxe MB
Corsair memory, 1 Gb
ATI 9600 vid card
a trashy el-cheapo case
80 mm Tornado fans (x2), 92 mm Tornado HS fan, Thermaltake fan in the window, generic 80 mm exaust
trashy RAID card (SMART is NOT supported)
Four hard drives, DVD drive, CDRW, and Zip 100

So... my thoughts went from "I need to upgrade!!" to "A64s... eh... why?" to my current situation. This upgrade idea for me is less of a "My computer should be L33T!!" and more of a "ENOUGH ALREADY!!".

My computer is loud... really really darn loud... Yes, I have a fan controller, but having a dull roar isn't my cup of tea. In addition, the heat generated isn't exactly great either (but this isn't a huge issue... I suppose...)

So, my current plans...
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Lian-Li PC-60 case, shown here
http://www.crazypc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=8130S

The 120 mm fan in the front will be quieter than 80 mm screamers in the front. However, I don't know what 120 mm fan I will want/need. The duct is interesting, and the top blowhole will also be a nice addition... once again, I don't know what 80 mm fans to use in my case.

Plus, I'm not sure if this is the case for me! At $125, it isn't cheap by any means. I just loved how the case had great ventalation in the front, had nice features overall, had the blowhole (which I want), and seemed to just be neat. Then again, I am taking all suggestions, so throw them out if you have them!

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For my motherboard... I want a quiet setup... and the A64 chips push out less heat and also I will really have no need/desire to overclock one of those chips. However, there is some issues here.

First off, I have no clue what motherboard to go with. There is only one AGP motherboard out there that is anywhere near decent, yet from what I heard, it has a high amount of problems. The PCI-E boards require me to buy a pricey new video card... I don't know if I want to do that...

I hear that an A64 board can have issues playing video games (ATI cards and the only A64 board that can support AGP video cards leads to constant in game crashing on Windows XP SP2 boxes, so I hear). From hearing of a major issue such as that, I am very worried that any A64 board that I'll get will have major stability issues not to mention backwards compatibility woes... please tell me that my fears are wrong here!

Final choices are that I can go with a Barton core (wonder if they make mobile versions of that)... Yet, I don't know if I will regret staying with a slower processor or not...

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Video card is out of date... ATI 9800 Pros looking tempting in classifides... but this choice would be outright dumb if I went to PCI-E. hmmm... Plus, I'm not too sure if I want to upgrade my vid card yet... A forced upgrade would be a pain...

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Once I get just the basics down, I still have more questions, so don't think that this is all that is rattling my brain...

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Also, this computer will be ordered when I can decide on what I want to do, and if I want to upgrade (*ROAAAAAR of the fans in the background*). Also, that is time permitting, money permitting... So, if anybody wants updates on this project, you'll have to wait some time...

Besides, other than being a stock case and alike, that is all it will be. I'm not a dremel expert or alike.

Any suggestions or comments on my project, or alike, is welcome!

let me see if i can help you out with a few of your questions

1. yes there are barton core mobile cpus. i'm running one right now, the 2600+ AQHYA is considered to be the best overclocker. the faster ones are (mostly) desktop-replacement (DTR) chips.

2. video card, while the 9800 pro is good the 6600GT agp is better and if you go A64 with an Nvidea chipset you wont ave the same problems as if it were an ATI card.

3. lian li cases are well made however the price-tag needs to be taken into account, i have seen knock-off cases based on lian li cases, or you could get a 2nd hand one (classifieds or Ebay, etc)

4. fans, if your having problems with temps and your using tornados you're either putting a lot of voltage innto you components or your case has horrible airflow...

Here is my suggestion gt24:

I suggest going with an A64 platform because you will get your optimal performance per dollar. The older cores are still nice, but they are not just not as fast and will be out-dated sooner.

The "game-crashing" woes you've heard about with A64 is not exactly the truth or a lie, but probably a misconception. The A64 chip wasn't the cause of instability, the nforce3 chipset was; especially with the MSI boards (like I still have). Then...came the nforce4 chipset, which has proven itself to be far more superior than nf3, and also it also introduced pcix and sli.

So, based on this, you will probably be happy with an A64/nf4 setup, which you can get into for a reasonable price.


As for the video card, 6600's are a great bang for the buck as suggested, and you will have the opportunity to upgrade by adding another one in SLI.

As far as exactly what to get, these are great products that I suggest, and I think many others would agree too:

-Gigabyte nf4 sli mobo for socket 939
-6600gt pcix
-A64 winchester, or better yet, wait until the venice comes out for retail.

---Venice is the son of the Winchester core, carrying on the 90nm design. It is expected to whoop the Winchester in overclocking capablabilities, and still maintain the reasonable price of the Winchester.

If your gonna spend the cash for a new video card there really isn't an excuse to not go PCI-E. You don't have to go with the X850 or the 6800...the 6600 is a great price/performance card and will cost pretty much the same as a 9800p AGP.

For the case....I wouldn't drop that much for a case...just not worth it IMHO. for 50 bucks you can get a case with just as good if not better airflow....just search neweggs pictures and look for a case with either 2 80mm rear exausts or 1 120mm (1 120mm is the best choice I think), and look for side inlets...or no inlets and start modding the case! Your more likely to mod a 50 dollar case than a 125.

In relation to subtotal, m ycase has horrible airflow. Hence why I wanted a better case... I know that this case is choking.

Moving on, I'm leaning towards an A64, yet I am still considering the mobile barton if price becomes an issue (so, in other words, a fallback plan). The vid card... once again, need to think about it.

Question... Venice core... when is that expected to hit the market?

Last question, about cases... I haven't found any cheap cases that had good airflow... all of them screamed that they needed modifications, and I haven't ever modified a case... True, it would be nice to save money, but I don't want stuck with a bad case either...

Thanks for your suggestions, keep them comming!

^I think Venice is supposed to be out sometime in the next 30 days.

rob 119 said:

^I think Venice is supposed to be out sometime in the next 30 days.

Click to expand...

oooo... that could work out nicely...