Christmas Upgrades

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stabilep

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 27, 2005
Messages
234
Well I have several things I want to upgrade.

I have a desktop as shown in my signature. In addition to that I have another PC that I need to bring up to date as well. That has only a 3000+ Athlon 64 and 1gb of memory and a X800XL Card in it on a ECS nForce 4 Ultra mobo.

My plan was one of two things
1) Take my PC and get a new motherboard upgrade to Intel Core 2 duo and upgrade the memory/video card as well (2gb of DDR2 and a 8800 GTX)
2) Get a dual core socket 939 chip Get new memory (2gb of DDR) and a 8800 GTX
3) Then in either case I would take my old processor put it in the 3000+ machine and take my current two sticks of memory and put that in the 3000+ machine bringing it up to 2gb and also get that machine a 8800 GTX or an 8800GTS

So which is the better route to go? I know Socket 939 is on its last leg and I am pissy at AMD for switching socket designs like every year so that’s why I would simply move to Intel if I was going to get a new mobo. I am going to upgrade to Vista probably and I love FSX so that’s my primary reason for upgrading my main thing is gaming on my machine so that’s what I typically build for.

Also I am planning on getting a laptop as well somewhere below $2000 with at least a 2.5-3 hours battery life 15.4” or smaller display and a half decent video adapter.

Also I am going to upgrade my old 20” JVC TV to a nice HDTV so if you have recommendations for either of those please let me know. I do have an Xbox 360 too which is why I want to get a new TV.

My budget? I want to keep the PC Upgrades under $2000 but I can go to $2500 if necessary. ATA compatiability is important as all my hard drives are ATA and not SATA. The laptop I want no more then $2000 and the TV I am willing to goto $1500. Hope that helps :)
 
Well, most conroe boards will take up to 2 IDE devices...

You've got an SCSI card, which is fine, but I also see you have a 20gb drive... really need this?

Conroe is *really* worth it. Coming from an X2 @ 2.6, best upgrade I've ever made.
 
Well the 20gb is certainly not necessary in fact I rarely use it as it is now.

So the conroe upgrade is worth it huh? I mean the way I saw it is that I need to buy memory and a processor anyways so whats a mothboard on top of all that...thats before I saw most motherboards are around $200 for what I would end up getting....speaking of which any suggestions on motherboards would be nice too....I have some ideas (LIke the new Asus 680 boards but how are the intel chipset based boards?
 
Yes, the conroe is worth it. Especially since you're replacing the mobo/cpu/ram. If you plan on going SLI and want to OC, then go for the nForce 680i SLI chipset boards. If you don't plan on ever going SLI, then stick to the cheaper P965 Express boards (Foxconn P9657AA, Gigabyte DS3, or Asus P5B-E; I think the P5B dlx is a waste of money unless you're going for a cheap xfire/sli hackable board). If you want crossfire, go with the Asus P5W DH dlx. You could also wait for the nForce 650i boards, which should be out soon, if not already.
 
Is SLi really worth it? I mean I got my current setup with the intent for an easy cheap upgrade but the more I read about it the less I feel its worth it by the time the prices are lower.....especially since I can simply just save up for a short bit and buy all new hardware....but then having the option available seems nice....
 
stabilep said:
Is SLi really worth it? I mean I got my current setup with the intent for an easy cheap upgrade but the more I read about it the less I feel its worth it by the time the prices are lower.....especially since I can simply just save up for a short bit and buy all new hardware....but then having the option available seems nice....
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No, I don't think it is unless you need to push a 24"+ lcd. By the time you need an upgrade, there will be a better single card solution you could upgrade to.
 
Thats what I figured.....sounds good to me....how about my power supply is that fine for the job or should I get a bigger one
 
stabilep said:
Thats what I figured.....sounds good to me....how about my power supply is that fine for the job or should I get a bigger one
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Which PSU?
 
Oh sorry. thought it was in my sig....its an Antec 550 Watt True Power 2.0 PSU.....
 
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