Upgrading my PC

[CanyonMan]

I am going to be upgrading my system in the next few months and am asking for the best bang for the buck. I use my PC almost exclusively for gaming. The only things that will not upgrade soon is the video card and MOBO. I am waiting for PCI express to become mainstream then I will build a new system from scratch around it. My budget will be between $400-$600 USD. I want to replace the following items:
CPU: Looking at a AMD 2800+
HDD: Looking at a 120 GB 8MB 7200 drive
RAM: Name brand DDR PC32000 400
DVD RW: Not sure on + or - with CD-RW capability
Mouse & Keyboard
Already have a good monitor
Cooling solution?

Anything else is extra and can be put into budget (such as groovy mods)

Thanks for your input!


AMD XP 1500
512 MB DDR PC2100
MSI KT4VL
20GB HDD
Sapphire 9600 Pro 128MB
Windows XP HE
Lian-Li PC-60

 

[scottchen]

Well you'll need a motherboard for the Athlon64(K8N Neo Platinum or FISR)
DVDRW both burns + and - and burns CDs great.
Stock cooling solutions are great.

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[Spitfire_x86]

CPU: Get AXP 2700+. It's faster and cheaper than 2800+
HDD: Maxtor Diamond Max 9
RAM: Kingston ValueRAM PC3200 CL2.5
DVD Burner: LiteOn SOHW-812S (burns both + and -)

Cooling solution: If you're not interested in overclocking (you shouldn't, because your mobo is not very overclocking friendly and both 2700+ and 2800+ doesn't overclock well), then bundled cooler of retail CPU is enough.

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[CanyonMan]

AXP 2700+?? Which processor is that? Is that just a mistype or just an abbreviation for AMD XP 2700+? I have also heard people say the mobile processors are better. A post on here says a XP-M 2500+ can clock to 3200 specs. Wonder if I can put one in my MOBO. Any ideas?

AMD XP 1500
512 MB DDR PC2100
MSI KT4VL
20GB HDD
Sapphire 9600 Pro 128MB
Windows XP HE
Lian-Li PC-60<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by CanyonMan on 07/01/04 03:40 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Coyote]

Yeah, axp is athlon xp abbreviated.

I have both the desktop and mobile versions of the barton cpu and the mobile is a much better OCer. Mobile easily reaches 3200 speeds and better, while the desktop does not

Your mobo appears to only support (up to) FSB 333/I66. Since the mobile has an unlocked multi, you could use it at I66 x I3.5 or I4 (if ur mobo allows for adj to multi) to reach 3200 speeds. Lately, I've seen the abit nf7-s for sale $85, and purchased recently a shuttle an35n-ultra (an nforce chipset mobo that handles FSB of 400/200) for $55. Maybe you can fit a new mobo in ur budget too.

Mobile XP 2600+ (11X200)
Abit NF7-S v 2.0
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB Corsair Twinx 3200LL
BBA 9800 Pro
Enermax Noisetaker 420 watts
Win98SE

 

[scottchen]

What the hell am i talking about, i meant to say at first, get an Athlon64 2800+.

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[Spitfire_x86]

He will need a new mobo to use A64 2800+

------------
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<A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86/myrig.html" target="_new">My Rig</A> & <A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86/benchmark.html" target="_new">3DMark score</A>

 

[CanyonMan]

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately budget is very limited right now so I will probably go with the processor only (along with the other peripherals). I think I will wait and see how PCI Express does before I do a major upgrade to include SATA drives Athlon 64 (possibly FX series) latest ATI or NVidia card, High end memory, etc. For now I just want to be able to play most new games with good graphics and decent frame reates.

AMD XP 1500
512 MB DDR PC2100
MSI KT4VL
20GB HDD
Sapphire 9600 Pro 128MB
Windows XP HE
Lian-Li PC-60

 

[SidVicious]

What you heard about the Mobile Barton 2500+ is true, got mine at 2.5GHz on air cooling using an obsolescent A7V333 Rev 1.01, 16 x 156MHz yeild the best benchmark scores, the early KT333 chipset on my motherboard won't run stable on a FSB over 160MHz.

There are a lot of good things about this processor, it natively run on a 133MHz front side bus, is factory unlocked, have low voltage requirement and will tolerate higher temperature.

If you cut the last L3 Bridge (like I did) it will grant you access to all multipliers over 13.0x, making it possible to hit an extremely high frequency using your current motherboard and PC2100 memory.

Of course, you'll get marginally higher performances out of a Mobile Barton with a new motherboard and PC3200 memory and won't have to cut any bridges to hit 2.5GHz but you may want to keep that money to buy a bleeding edge video card instead.

A good heat sink is essential if you choose to overclock, I'm using a Thermaltake Silent Boost and I love it, it's cheap, I barely can hear it and it keep my CPU cool enough for me to not be worried about it, even under full Prime95 load.

That kind of upgrade should keep you satisfied until Socket 939 Athlon 64 are cheap and widely available.




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