The computing dilemia

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TheGardenTool

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I have a serious dilemia and do not know how to solve it.

I have always loved AMD since the Athlon days. I upgraded to an XP not too long after the 2500+ came out. I am still using the 2500+ and a Radeon 8500 in my desktop. The machine is dieing. I barely get enough frames even in some older games to make them enjoyable. I need a new desktop as I will be taking all my college classes online for the next year, and I want something to do between Xbox 360, work, school and drill weekends. And I already have a laptop that I will use for my school work.

The prices of AMD's newer processors is a turn off for me. I am in the situation now that I would like to have dual-core processing on my desktop. The $300 price tag on the low-end of AMD's dual core is absurd to me. Even with a price drop after Conroe, it will still be too much for me to hand over.

I don't want to break the bank but I want something that will work for my needs. I enjoy playing WoW and trying out other MMOs, and I always love trying out any other online games I can.

I'm kinding of wanting something I can slowly upgrade when I make the cash available. So would a board with ddr and ddr2, and agp and pci-e be a good starting point?
 
You are going to have a lot more choices in motherboard selection if you go ahead and move to PCI-E and DDR2 and get a cheap video card and CPU.
 
If you can and have the time, wait for conroe to be released and get the entry level CPU (e6200 if I remember right).
Don't remember the price right now but I think it was below $190.

Of course this means you will need a new motherboard if your current one isn't conroe ready (which I doubt) and you will need some DDR2 memory and a PCI-express video card.

On the plus side you will then have a system that will last you some years and can be upgraded when needed.
 
The dilemia really is I don't want to spend a lot of money to upgrade. I don't care about top of the line performance, just something that works. The less money I spend means more money to spend to make the girlfriend happy. And she wants a ring. :rolleyes:

I am now torn apart once again. I will wait on the Conroe upgrade for awhile. $200 on a processor is still more than I want to pay, espically for the entry-level.

The 805D seems like the most logical choice. They overclock nicely, they will be under $100.

For $30 less, the Pentium 524 isn't looking that bad either. The hyperthreading will compenstate for music and etc. in the background. I really don't need dual core yet; I only wanted it so games don't get bogged down.

As long as I got either a cheap motherboard or one that is Conroe ready I figure I could upgrade processors again within the next two years.
 
Get what I got ---V

you could use the same ddr ram in that asrock mobo.

Edit: all together was $150
 
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