Need upgrade reviews please!

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Wilken

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 17, 2002
Messages
151
I am upgrading my PC but i'm not an expert so I need your opinions on whether or not all of the following parts are compatible and good choices for the

money. If you see anything that can be significantly improved for a slightly greater amount of money, please let me know.


BUDGET = 500-550 dollars or LESS

UPGRADES:

MoBo - EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra - $94
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123236

CPU - Athlon64 3000+ Revision E "Venice" core - $120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537

GPU - eVGA NVIDIA Geforce 6600GT - $135
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130214

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - $86
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148065

RAM - Patriot Signature Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) - $68
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220037


TOTAL = $503




EXISTING PARTS BEING RE-USED:

CDR - Sony 12x/8x/32x

DVD Rom - Lite-On 52x

Sound - Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

Case - Lian Li PC90 w/ 300w PSU

*^It's been a long time but I think the case is a PC-90. Will I need to upgrade or will the mobo fit into it?^*




QUESTIONS:

1- Is it worth it to spend $135 ($68 more) for 2gb worth of patriot memory or would the performance difference between 1gb and 2gb be negligible?

2- Is there a way to set my current IDE HDD as a slave to the SATA drive which I hope to buy? I have about 4,000 mp3s that I do NOT want to lose so it's

important that they are transferred to the new hard drive.


Thanks a lot for information and opinions!
 
I say get the 2 gigs. Nowadays the more ram you have the better, especially if you are gonna be gaming or video editing. Also yes, you should have no problems setting your current hdd as a slave drive. Also spend the extra money and get an asus mobo, epox kinda sucks in my opinion. You can also get a significantly better card for about 20 bucks more. Id go with a 6800gs or something along those lines. Best card for the money right now.
 
I think the extra ram will help, but I would rather spend the extra money on a better graphics card or cpu
 
Thanks for the responses so far, guys. Another issue I have is my case. It is a Lian Li case designed for ATX mobos. I bought it about 3 years ago. I think it is a PC-90 and it has the acrylic window in the side, etc. Will it still fit the new mobos or has the design changed in some way which would require a new case?

Oh, it has a 300w PSU as well. Will that be sufficient?

For the mobo, would you reccomend the following Asus one. It has on board video which I don't care for but it is also cheaper than the Epox I had chosen. If not this board, what would you reccomend?

ASUS A8N-VM CSM Socket 939 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131570

In comparison to what I had chosen:

MoBo - EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra - $94
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813123236
 
Personally I'm a big fan Asus, so go with the Asus boards. They are consistently stable and reliable.

Your PSU should be enough to run your computer but I would still try to use one that at least has 400W. Fortron makes good PSUs they wont break the bank
 
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