Need to upgrade cpu and m/b...Suggestions?

[zc3]

I don't have that much to spend, but I need a new motherboard and processor. I'd say I only have $200 to spend, $250 if you can find me a good case. Do you guys have any suggestions?

Thx for any help you can offer.

 

[Flinx]

That's not enough information.
What do you have now?
Can some of the memory you have be used?
Or do you need memory in your budget too?
What are you upgrading from?

What do you want this upgrade for? (I mean to do what?)

The loving are the daring!

 

[Cloaked]

a good case??
I thought you wanted a mobo/proc?

 

[HardWareBoss]

What do you have now?

 

[zc3]

Well right now all I have is some pre-built HP comp that really bites. Celeron 766mhz 192 sdram. I was thinking of maybe using the cd-rom and rw drives and just get a new mobo and processor. I already have the hard drive. I was thinking maybe I can use the sdram for now and upgrade that later...

EDIT: And I'll probably use this pc for some gaming, internet, and to write up some papers. I know sdram isn't that good, but I was looking at this mobo(ECS k7s5apro) and was thinking of maybe using the sdram until I get enough to buy more decent memory.



<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by zc3 on 08/23/03 09:00 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[endyen]

If you plan on using that ecs board (47$ at newegg), the fastest chip you can use is the xp2400 ($85 at newegg) I believe. You should have enough change to pick up some ram as well. On the other hand, you could go with an Asus A7N8X-X some DDR and the xp2400, for around $210. Problem is, cant see any mention of a video card.

 

[ufo_warviper]

Yeah, for gaming I would suggest a the <i> very minimun </i> a Radeon 9000 because it has DirectX 8.1 and you are on a budget. Yes you can definitely get by on a DX7 card, Heck I get decent framerates on the Radeon 7500C on my laptop. I doubt you will be able to fit in those motherboards into a Compaq case, lunchbox system companies manufacture cases that way so you will practically forced to remove what components you can from the old one. The only Chipset I know of on Athlons that supports DDR and SDRAM is the ALi Magik 1, and that chipset really sucks in performance. That is probably the chipset on the board that your looking at. What I suggest for you is an NForce board like the above mentioned one. On your motherboard, You can get by with the intregrated IGP 440 chip from NVidia for your video for a little while until you get some spare cash to upgrade to a faster video card.

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!

 

[endyen]

Hi ufo.
Just so you know, the K7S5A boards use the SIS 735 chipset. When it first came out, it was quiet good, but that was 2 years ago. They had, and may still have a bit of a cult following.

 

[Flinx]

The ECS K7S5A Pro takes up to a XP2600+ but only the 266Mhz type. The Bartons won't run on this board.

You have to check your DIMMS to see if they are 133Mhz if you want to try and use them. If they are 100Mhz you are out of luck.

<A HREF="http://www.hardwaresite.net/d221299.html" target="_new"> dimm id </A>


The loving are the daring!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Flinx on 08/24/03 08:17 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Spitfire_x86]

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