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That 400 watt PSU should be good for quite a while. It has 29 amps on the 12v rail, and the newer GPUs and CPUs will burn less power than their predecessors as the chip fab sizes get smaller. Since this is a budget build, SLi and a power hungry CPU does not enter into it. That is a whole other system for a whole other thread.

Although not Newegg, NCIX.com is pretty good. I believe even Buy.com has a Canadian offshoot, or at least ships there.
 
yeah I use NCIX.com some times and just price match canadacomputers.com but canadacomputers don't always have the best selection
 
I only say it's a little weak for some future proofing... because if he puts SLI in there with a power hungry CPU it might still run but as stated earlier running your PSU at max load is not a wise idea not to mention full load for a long period heat/voltages/way shortend life span.
Click to expand...
Hence the 450w PSU. This is a budget build and if you want to have alot of high powered upgrades later, than this wouldn't be a budget build. Yes running the PSU at 100% load isn't good, but with this build you won't even get close to that. I wouldn't recommend a 450w Corsair PSU, if the OP had said that he wanted to leave LOTS of room for upgrades later. If that was the case I'd recommend the 750w PC&C Quad, which would end that debate there. Of coarse a $150 PSU doesn't work into a budget build, so there ya go.
 
okay guys i'm back and i have a problem... AGP slot is 4x!!! i can come up with the money if i need to build the new system. i'll spring for the new system if this one i just too outdated, and i'm am seeing that now. is the AGP slot being 4x a problem, i see that the 7600gt is 8x/4x though 4x is slow i think. any suggestions? what about the new technology coming out in the processor department?? worth spending the 300 or so on this system and waiting for that or build a nice one now?
 
The 7600GT will work in an AGP 4x slot, just not as well as it could.

You have 4 choices I can think of:

1. Spend more money on this system - bad idea.
2. Wait for the new Penryn processors. Play Diablo 2 or similar games on the current PC until January.
3. Build now with a cheap CPU (E2160 or E2180), overclock it, replace it later with a $316 Q9450 quad.
4. Build now with a E6750 or Q6600, be happy for 3 years or so.

I went with #4 myself. #2 is the best if you're not in a hurry or need to save more money.
 

Take your old system out behind the barn and put it out of it's misery.

Whenever you build a new system, there will be something better, faster, cheaper tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.....

Post your budget$$$ for a new system. I am sure you will get more suggestions than you already have.
 

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UB Black /Blue Aluminum Mid Tower Computer Case - Item #: N82E16811119047
$49.99 - $10 MIR = $39.99

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Item #: N82E16813128059
$90.99

XFX PVT88PYDF4 GeForce 8800GT 512MB - Item #: N82E16814150252
$269.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX ATX12V V2.2 550W Power Supply - Item #: N82E16817139004
$99.99 - $15 MIR = $84.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6850 - Item #: N82E16819115028
$279.99

CORSAIR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 - Item #: N82E16820145098
$49.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Item #: N82E16822148261
$64.99

Sony NEC Optiarc 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model AD-7190A - Item #: N82E16827118003
$29.99

Subtotal: $935.92 = $910.32 after MIR's

This system will be plenty fast w/o overclock. The video cards are out of stock just about everywhere, but it is what you need if you can find it. Cases are a personal choice, so I just picked a very good basic one. Excellent airflow, and relatively dust free. I would be very surprised if this build did not post on the first try.
 
what do you mean post on the first try? i hear there is new technology in processors coming out, will these be compatible to this build?
 


Yeah, no worries, CPUs released in the next 6 months will work on your P35 mobo. Besides, if you get an E6850, you won't need a CPU upgrade for years anyway.
Read some of the threads like "E6850 vs Q6600". The E6850 is better than the Q6600 for some people, but not for all.
 

Build looks pretty good. There would be a few things I'd change, but overall a solid build. I'd wait for later in the month to buy the GPU, since the 8800gt's in HIGH demand right now and is going for too much, IMHO. Either get the 8800gt around $200 or wait and see what AMD has to offer on the 38xx series later this month. Other things I'd consider would be:
1) Get the Corsair 520HX series (modular cables) if you want that option. It has 1 amp less (40A) than the 550vx (41A and don't forget the $8 shipping onto the cost above = $108 shipped - $15 MIR = $93), so not much difference amperage wise and it is ~$25 cheaper w/out the MIR's here:
PSU - $78.50 shipped $68.50 w/Google checkout! Good solid PSU for the $, hard to beat.
Corsair 520W SLI Certified Modular ATX Power Supply - CMPSU-520HX
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-520w-sli-certified-modular-atx-power-supply/q/loc/101/203270716.html

2) If you want Quad core, get the q6600, if you like. The e6850 is nice too, so you can decide what ya want.

These are just my suggestions and should be taken as my opinion. Tlmck has a good setup above and shouldn't have any issues whatsoever.
 
A new system build is the best bet. But you can patch your current system and if you do so I would spend as little as possible.

As others have stated you will have to spend money on the power supply, video card and I recommend 1G of memory for that level of a system. Unless you find a really good deal on DDR, you will over pay. DDR is much more expensive than DDR2.

I recommend you get another 512mb of memory to give yourself 1gig (1024mb) of memory. You will rarely go beyond that unless you do decoding or video editing or some type of memory intensive programs.

I bought my son an Nvidia 7800GS video card and it was to replace his 9600XT card. He has a 754 socket 3200 Athlon and I ran futuremark06 and he scored 394 with the 9600XT. I replaced the card and got the lastest driver from EVGA's website and ran futuremark06 again and scored 3000.

That is not bad for that level of a system and it played the Crysis demo on lower settings just fine. I spent 129.99 for the video card and 40.00 for 512mb of memory. He already had a 480 watt power supply so that was taken care of.

You should get away with spending around 250.00 and have a system that can do fine for another year or so. As I said, don't waste your money on 2Gigs of DDR. Once you build a new system and go with a 64bit operating system then you can go crazy and get 4gigs + of memory since that operating system can utilize it.

I just made the similar upgrade for my son so I can speak from experience as what is good enough for upgrading your current system.

Hopefully this will clear any confusion for you...

EDIT: I was working on this post and came back to see that you said the AGP is 4x. This could still be doable but I would recommend that you take your 1200.00 and build a new system or hold out a little longer and get your budget closer to 2000.00 and make the move and get the good stuff! 😉
 
When you refer to low budget, both AMD and Intel are up for grabs not just Intel.

The same goes for ATI and Nvidia. I know that depending on what area of the sweet spot of the market you want to settle with will decide which brand is better.
 

And don't forget that if your OC'ing that can change things quite a bit. If you don't want to OC, AMD can be cheaper and just as fast. If you OC than the Intel build can make more sense.
 
I would get a new computer, your's is pretty outdated and won't run many games period or perform too well. I built my AM2 computer for under 430, the list is similar with the ones posted in this thread.

x2 3800
2 gig ddr2 800
tforce 6100 (board is decent, better is out there for under 70 bucks)
25 dollar case
no gpu yet, working on it now....

That's gonna be much better than upgrading your computer, dual cores cpus perform much better than single cores.... I would really give your old pc away to someone who needs it for basic usage....

For games that won't work at all.... don't even bother with it.

 
first question??
what i would like to do on a new system build is more like this. get a good motherboard that is highly upgradeable and good PSU. enough ram to get by on no problem and a decent GPU and CPUthat are on the lower end cost wise and upgrade to killer Ram, processor and GPU on down the road. is that doable or unwise?
second question??
Also, is it possible for me to upgrade my current system with this mobo PC CHIPS M848A (V5.0) A (462) SiS 746FX ATX AMD Motherboard at newegg,this will get me AGP 8X and the ability to overclock my 2600+ and do the PSU and GPU(maybe a X1950Pro) and 2gb ram, is this worth it or no? this would cost $450...a new lowend system costs that right? prob. not a good idea
 
The low end system I posted on page 2 will still outperform your upgrade. You could sub in the X1950Pro PCIe model into my proposed rig for about the same total money.
 


A $70 motherboard with the AM2 Chipset is more than upgradable for the future, since it will support Am2+ as well.

Build a AMD system and ditch yours. Don't bother overclocking your cpu and just start over fresh, you can get something decent for $500 shipped from newegg.com.

My computer cost under $500 but I'm not much of a computer gamer so it's more for basic usage.

Spend the majority of your money on the PSU, RAM, a regular AMD dual core can be had for around $60 bucks....
 
personally i would never upgrade a athlon xp system myself. i went from a XP2800+ to a X2 3800+. my system cost around $1500 when i built it so i'm not telling you to go that route, but i really think that upgrading a athlon XP is a waste of money.

if it were a pentium 4, maybe. but i was never able to OC my 2800+ past its stock 2.06GHz. it just refused. i would agree, put the money into buying parts for a cheap AMD socket AM2 system. i don't have the time to make any more suggestions right now, but i really think trying to improve your current system is a waste of time.
 
Its simple...

Decide what you want to do with the PC.

You seem to be a gamer. If you want to barely get by on lower settings you can spend the 250.00 I suggested in my previous post and then build a new system later.


If you want to put your money into something upgradeable then get a good motherboard, power supply and build around it.

Not to be rude because I know how confusing it can be when trying to make a decision but we seem to be going in circles and end back where we started with a little more than educated confusion.

Answer the question of how you want to use your machine and that will help you decide.

Let us know your final answer and then we can give you better suggestions on what parts are good to get...
 
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