Help Building a computer

[purple_haze]

Hi, i've been a long time browser of this forum and finally i decided to convert from my old p4 system into a athlon xp i was wondering if you guys could give me some suggestions on building my system. so far heres my list of items i just ordered any comments would be helpful

Athlon Xp 2500+ processor

Abit nf7-s

Corsair 512mb pc3200 valueram

Antec Slk3700Bqe

 

[Stugots]

what are your current system specs.

 

[purple_haze]

my current system is a p4 2.2ghz system
768 mb pc2100....
ati radeon 9700 pro
160GB WD Caviar
lite-on 8x dvd +- rw
lite-on 52x cd-rw
creative audigy gamer soundcard

 

[Fezdog192]

If you're going to upgrade now, go Athlon 64 if you can afford it and if you can't yet, just save up a little more.

 

[Stugots]

agreed, i dont think youll see much a difference in going to an amd 2500. itd be a better idea to upgrade to a s939 a64 system. what motherboard is your p4 on, whats the max cpu you can handle. if you can go to a 533fsb cpu, you might be able to find a 3.06 for a good price, that would give you a decent performance increase.

 

[Fezdog192]

I would personally suggest going the s754 Athlon64 route, if you're on a budget, as it looks like you are. The performance will be heads and shoulders above your current set up, and not too far behind the s939 rigs.

 

[purple_haze]

mines a locked sony motherboard some pos so im just upgrading i might head the 64 route later but not now and its a 400fsb so a long delayed upgrade was needed

 

[purple_haze]

btw whats the difference between socket 939 and 754 i've been a long time intel kid so could you guys give me a heads up on those

 

[Alyosha]

btw whats the difference between socket 939 and 754 i've been a long time intel kid so could you guys give me a heads up on those

Socket 754 was the first version of the A64 chip released (not counting the Opterons). It only supports single channel memory. Socket 939 was just released a few months ago and supports dual channel memory. At first, 754 was the budget chip and 939/940 were the top-of-the-line chips but now 754 is being phased out (slowly) and being replaced with slower 939 chips.

That said, I'd reccomend getting a slower 939 A64. You can get the 3000 or 3200 for around 200$ these days and they are excellent processors.