Need advice

[mrmagoo_83]

I am running an Asus A7N8X-Dlx, or I should say was running. I had an issue a week ago that it quit seeing my SATA drive, which thank God isn't my boot disk. However, I cannot boot into Windows as I get a BSD. I managed some how to get into Safe Mode, then flash to the latest BIOS, and my computer booted up and saw the drive.

So now flash forward to last night...computer rebooted, but again didn't see the SATA drive, and now it blue screens every time. So now its time for an upgrade, but not a ton of cash on hand.

I am debating picking up an ASRock MB with AGP/PCI and a slower C2D processor, then simply reusing my 6800, and PC3200 for a while. And then sale my 3000+, and the 3500+ I recently traded for.

So what are the opinions out there? I do not have but maybe $150 to put towards this right now, unless I can get some cash for the processors, which would add to my total, which I guess I might as well do, since I cant use the PC at the moment anyway.

What would be a middle to lower end setup for not much money? If I can find a cheap enough setup I could maybe upgrade to PCI-E and DDR2, that is if I can sale all the stuff I have now.

Current Stuff:
AMD 3000+ (Skt A)
AMD 3500+ (s939)
Corsair PC3200 (2x256 & 1x512)
XFX 6800 (Unlocked extra pipelines)
Asus A7N8X-DLX

I just need to hear some thoughts on what to do?

 

[EET]

I'd say if you want to try for a modest o/c go for the C2D setup, though from what I've read about the AM2 quads they're supposed to be good, so you could go with an inexpensive AM2 setup for now, and hold out for a better mobo/cpu when the time comes.

 

[mrmagoo_83]

The AMD Quads are supposed to be better than the Intel Quads? WOw, hadn't seen that, but then again I haven't been paying attention a lot as of late.

I am thinking the most efficient thing is going to be to sell the parts I have now, then attempt to use that money plus what I have to purchase at least a C2D setup, or CQD setup if the cash allows. I wonder what I can get for my parts, time to head over to the FS/T forums again.

 

[engiNURD]

AT did some reviews on that AsRock board:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3024

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2810
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2813
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2814

Summary: The board is a good, budget stopgap solution for people who want to get more life out of their DDR and AGP stuff. DDR400 is still fine for today's applications, and only high end NVIDIA graphics cards will be affected by the 4x speed of the 16x sized pci-e slot, but not by much (PCI-E Scaling Review).

Pair it with an E2160 or E4400 and OC either one to 3Ghz, and you'll be all set!
$69 - Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 Socket 775 Via PT880 Pro/PT880 Ultra Chipset DDR2 667Mhz, AGP & PCI-E x16 8-Ch Audio

$85 - Intel Dual-Core E2160 Allendale 1.8GHz 1MB L2 Cache (review)
$130 - Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 Allendale 2.0GHz 2MB L2 Cache

$16 - Cooler Master RR-CCH-L9U1-GP 92mm Hyper TX2 ($15MIR) ($30 - $14 Promo: EMC920ACCE02)