$500 upgrade

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FalconSS

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 2, 2004
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a friend wants me to upgrade his system and after looking at it... it will probably be better to do a full system build...

old system- around a 3-4 year old compaq

new system...(from newegg) will swap hard drives

APEX PC-166-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ATX12V 300W Power Supply - $30.00

Foxconn NF4K8MC-ERS Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail - $73.50

MSI RX1300Pro-TD256E Radeon X1300PRO 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail - $98.00

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Retail - $160.00

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail -$79.50

SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM - $10.00

LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE DVD Burner Model SHW-160P6S - Retail - $42.99

total without taxes and shipping - $493.99



he has an Audigy 2 which I am also going to move over...
he wants to be able to play Rome:total war without it lagging.

he also does a large amount of Audio encoding and uses finale, cool edit pro, and stuff like that...

thanks for any input!
 
oh no...just noticed I posted this in the wrong thread...lol

sorry mod!!
I was originally going to ask what video card would be good with this and if the card I got was good enough... I know NOTHING about budget cards... my expertise is usually with mid-high cards... sorry!

if you want to move to general hardware or full systems i have no problem with that...
 
get 6600gt, x800, or x1600pro for video card ranging from $110-140. Look for a good deal. x1300pro is not really for gaming.
Why not use the old Case, Power supply, floppy drive and cdrom drive? (cdrw or dvd?).
 
ClearM4 said:
get 6600gt, x800, or x1600pro for video card ranging from $110-140. Look for a good deal. x1300pro is not really for gaming.
Why not use the old Case, Power supply, floppy drive and cdrom drive? (cdrw or dvd?).
Click to expand...
thought about that but I think he at least wants a new case... you know that "new computer feel". I do have some sticks of samsung pc 2700 I could throw in there instead of the cosair, but I think he would benefit from the cosair. I was mainly worried about the processor... If he is going to do a lot of audio encoding, editing, ect. then wouldn't he benefit from a better processor? I am also trying to give him some future proofing. (PCIxpress, 64-bit proc) Im running a x850pro 1g cosair XMS but an old 2.8C... Im fine for gaming with this...(FREAKIN CPU BOTTLENECK!)

I have an 9800pro lying around... and an IC7-Gmax2. technicly, I could build him good system and just buy a new proc, memory... remember... he doesn't always play the latest games... Rome is the newest one he has I think and he's not computer savvy or a REAL gamer. just casual. I'll ask him about using the case but you think the power supply can handle a new comp?
 
FalconSS said:
thought about that but I think he at least wants a new case... you know that "new computer feel". I do have some sticks of samsung pc 2700 I could throw in there instead of the cosair, but I think he would benefit from the cosair. I was mainly worried about the processor... If he is going to do a lot of audio encoding, editing, ect. then wouldn't he benefit from a better processor? I am also trying to give him some future proofing. (PCIxpress, 64-bit proc) Im running a x850pro 1g cosair XMS but an old 2.8C... Im fine for gaming with this...(FREAKIN CPU BOTTLENECK!)

I have an 9800pro lying around... and an IC7-Gmax2. technicly, I could build him good system and just buy a new proc, memory... remember... he doesn't always play the latest games... Rome is the newest one he has I think and he's not computer savvy or a REAL gamer. just casual. I'll ask him about using the case but you think the power supply can handle a new comp?
Click to expand...


If you could hook him up with some of your old stuff I would do that. If he doesn't play the latest games no real reason for a pci-e slot you can still get him a nice agp card and there are rumors of a 7800 agp card coming out.
 
I just talked to him and he says he doesn't care about looks as long as its faster so I can scrap the rest of the stuff and concentrate on

-mobo
-proc
-ram ( I think I'll stick with the 1Gb corsair)
-video card

which brings me to my next question... would an opty be better suited for the audio work? I don't know much about AMD so I need help big time in that department.

whats the difference between clawhammer core and venice core? Im now thinking of getting him a 3500+
 
FalconSS said:
ok...here is what I got now...

total- $498.50 before tax and shipping
Click to expand...


I would go with a 3200 venice core and the sweet multiplier it comes with and put a little bit more into video like a x800gto2 it should come out to be the same (cash wise) or change the claw hammer to a 3500 venice from what I have read it is better than the claw hammer

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102646 gto2 w/vivo 179$ after 20$ rebate (its vivo can flash or will already run at 16 pipes out of the box instead of 12)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535 3200 venice 160$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103603 3500 venice 201$
 
Go with a 3000+ Venice and OC it a lil bit and put the money u saved towards a 6600gt.
 
hes going to be doing more encoding, decoding, and editing than gaming... thats why I want to give him a faster proc. keep that in mind... theres no use in spending $2-300 on a video card that he may never use...
 
FalconSS said:
hes going to be doing more encoding, decoding, and editing than gaming... thats why I want to give him a faster proc. keep that in mind... theres no use in spending $2-300 on a video card that he may never use...
Click to expand...


yes but the difference between a 3200 and a 3500 is not that much. A 3200 venice can easily OC to above 3500 speeds and on a games like rome total war the gto2 running with 16 pipes will really help.
 
Hold on I made a list of stuff for 500$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813130491 80$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130214 139$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820220037 75.99$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103533 201$

495.99 before shipping the msi board is better quality than the biostar and the evga 6600gt has ddr3 not ddr2 and a memory frequency of 1000 not 800 It only has 128mbs of memory but with the 128bit bus that 6600gts have 128mbs is fine 256mbs is overkill. Fast cpu for all you ripping and editing needs and memory w/ heat spreaders. What do you think?
 
Hmm.

I'm looking at the power supply on the chassis. Unless NewEgg's pics are old, you're only getting 15A on the +12v.

I don't feel comfortable without 18A on the +12v. I think you'll be fine but if he wants to upgrade to a better card later on, he might feel the pinch...
 
id like to see what other people are saying too... just keeping my options open. though I will probably use your ram.
 
Brian Boyko said:
Hmm.

I'm looking at the power supply on the chassis. Unless NewEgg's pics are old, you're only getting 15A on the +12v.

I don't feel comfortable without 18A on the +12v. I think you'll be fine but if he wants to upgrade to a better card later on, he might feel the pinch...
Click to expand...
read above... ditching the chassis...

i'll take a look at his current PSU and see how much it can hold up...
 
Other than that, I'd like to know what he's doing with a floppy.

I'd leave the Floppy out completely or replace it with a combo floppy/media reader.

I'm actually working on getting a very very similar configureation myself - I decided to go with an ASUS board instead of Foxconn (Honestly, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI - all offer something in this range and it's all a crapshoot) and went with Buffalo RAM and an Small Form Factor case, but other than that, it looks golden.
 
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