Upgrading PC

[Raj Mahal]

hey all...i've been doing small little upgrades over the past year or so and my power supply just shorted so i decided to do a bigger upgrade. I took out the parts I want to use in my new PC and checked that they are still in working condition. What i'm taking from my old PC is my ATI Radeon 9600 Pro video card and my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound card. I'm also taking my DiamondMax 80GB HD and another 20 GB HD that came with my old PC. Lastly, I'm taking my DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. My new pc will be mostly for playing games, watching dvds, p2p, burning cds....regular college things (although I just graduated college this past May, woo hoo!).



I bought a Powmax case with a 450W power supply. I also purchased an ASUS AV8 Deluxe MOBO. Lastly, I purchased some Coolermaster fans. Basically I have a couple questions. I'm looking at AMD Athlon 64 chips and haven't been able to make a decision. The AMD Athlon 64 3000+ looks like it offers really good performance, great value and awesome overclocking potential. Does anyone have any suggestions on this? I'm looking to stay in the $200 price range for the CPU. Also, does anyone have any DDR400 RAM suggestions, how much and what kind? Next, I was thinking of consolidating all my files onto a huge HD, so any suggestions for a bigger HD would be nice too. Lastly is my RAdeon 9600 Pro (128 MB) out of date with the rest of my system or is it still capable of holding up it's end of the boat. Any other suggestions and advice (is power enough, should i look into d) would be appreciated. Oops, one last thing..I'd like to keep the CPU+RAM to about $300. THANKS!

 

[noktekniq]

get a venice and some ocz platinum revision.. those would help a lot for potential overclock. 400 dollars roughly. i think

 

[OCdragon]

Hi,

"My new pc will be mostly for playing games, watching dvds, p2p, burning cds...."

Your 9600 Pro is out-dated for playing latest games because its frame rates are NOT fantastic for playing the latest games! I am not even sure whether it is Dx 9.0C compatible either. If your focus is playing latest games then you should think of upgrading your Video Card as well. I would tend to lean on Nvdia 6800 ** a little more as the ATI X8*0 Series only support MS Shader 2.0, but Nvidia 6800 ** Shader 3.0 and its SLI technology is already available and proven. Besides Nvdia 6800 ** Series should reduce in prices as their latest 7800 Series Video Cards are hitting the market right now!
It will be equally important in choosing the "SIZE" and "BRAND" of your RAMs as well, but I would recommend 1GB RAMs if I were you. Choosing your PSU is also important too, most potential OCers tend to choose a 500W "branded" PSU with strong +12V rails at least as the latest CPUs, either from Intel or AMD are more and more power hungrey, will be powering from +12V rail instead!

 

[Jcollins82]

You are absolutely going to want to look into another PSU. Not that you need a wallet breaking one, but an good power supply is indispensble when it comes to overclocking. And a cheap one, can at best, affect stability through inconsistent voltage output, and at worst, blow up your system.

As far as your choice in CPU goes, a 3000 or 3200 venice will be more than sufficient. Most people recommend the 3200, the choice is yours.

I'm a pretty big fan of OCZ RAM, as well. We've got a couple representatives on the forums here, and they have unparralleled customer service. Seriously, it's freakin' stuff of legends. You can get a good deal on it at Newegg if you act quick enough, it's like $145 after MIR for 1GB of the good stuff.

Have fun.

 

[rseven]

Yes, I agree with the others on the need for a better PSU. You can get a a pretty good 500w Fortron at Actbuy.com for $78 shipped. (Note: Don't be deceived by big wattatge claims on junk like Powmax. It's the amps that count and the cheap PSU's have very low amerage.)
Next , since you are on a tight budget, stick with the 3000 Venice. You can get one for $120. There is no better bang for your buck.
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=A64-3000BP
The AGP mobo's for 939's are a mixed bag of tricks. The NF3's overclock the best but are quirky and troublesome. They were not designed with the Venice in mind. The Via's do not overclock nearly as well, but are pretty stable. The best Venice board's are NF4 based, (DFI, Asus or Epox) but then you need to go PCI-E. You might do well by going in this direction as an AGP board will box you into an AGP card in the futuire and they are on the way out.
I agree the OCZ ram is first rate. Your budget, however, is going to limit your choices. While I like getting better performing ram, you get good performance from value ram as long as you get a major brand like OCZ, Corsair or Kingston.
Well, there is my two cents. Good luck to you with whatever you pick.

 

[Raj Mahal]

So....about my budget lol. I bought the Fortron AX500-A power supply, 3000+ venice CPU, 1 GB of OCZ Platinum Revision 2 DDR400 Ram, and a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA Hard Drive. It's all good, I put in over 90 hours in the past two weeks and get paid this thursday ($13.50/hr), and I finished my girlfriend birthday two weeks ago (so she won't be expecting anything soon lol). I guess my weak link now is my old school Radeon 9600Pro. Any suggestions? Since my A8V Deluxe is not PCI-E compatible I was thinking about just waiting until the PCI-E cards drop in price and then getting a new mobo and pci-e video card. I'm pretty sure I can make due with my video card until at least the end of the year.

Also, I have a Coolermaster Dual Storm (41 CFM) and two other 80mm fans (27 CFM). Should I think about more cooling? I'm not looking to blow my machine up, but a I'd like to over clock my venice to around 2.2 Ghz. Thanks everyone for all the advice and spending my money .

 

[Flip-Mode]

Raj, why are you double posting?

 

[Raj Mahal]

because i'm a douche bag lol, sorry about that. I started the thread in two categories because i wasn't sure which one it went under and i didn't know if the right people would see it. I'll start posting to the other thread. Sorry again!

 

[surfasb]

Whether or not you need more fans depends on your case. Personally I'd go with any 120 mm fan for the rear exhaust(77 cfm).

You didn't mention a heatsink in your post. Probably want to consider that although I've hear good speeds from the 3000 Venice under the stock HS.