Updating my PC

[Youngling]

Sorry if this is trite, but... well... I need help and google sent me here.

I have been without my pride and joy (that'd be my old PC) for... damn near nine months? Jeez. It putted to a stop back in October? Something like that. It was my first self-built machine. It ran an AMD 2100+, 1 gig of ... 333 (?) DDRAM, a GeForce 4600, an IBM 120gig HDD, and a A7N8X-X motherboard (I think, all this is straight from memory, as it is shoved in a deep, dark corner of my closet to hide my lack of computer shame). All in that lovely Lian-Li aluminium case. So pretty. It was my second motherboard, the first having fried in a power surge the previous December. Then this board goes out. I have the worst of luck. Then I let my friend borrow my video card since I had no use for it. Then its fan burns out. I have the worst of the worst luck.

Anyway. Now I finally have some spare cash floating around and want to update. Problem. I haven't paid attention to the ever-changing world of PC hardware since AMD's "Clawhammer" was still a distant thing of the future. So. I planned on just replacing the video card and motherboard, but decided "why not" and go with a new processor, too.

Basically, I'm asking for help in picking out these things. Video card. Motherboard. Processor. Possibly RAM. Possibly sound card (the last was OB).

I'm not looking for top of the line... I'm saving that for when I have quite a bit more money to spend. Right now I'm looking at maybe... 500ish dollars to put into this. Maybe a bit more, depending on my next paycheck.

For what I want from it, I'm a gamer. Born and bred. Grew up on WarCraft, Castles, StarCraft, Fallout, Sam and Max, all the new old classics. Now, with all the new crap out there, I want to get back into gaming, but it's hard without... well... a computer. New games on the horizon make me smile. And some already out. Like I said, I'm not looking for high-end, but I don't know much about much these days. Something that can run current games pretty well and new games alright. I was thinking, just because I've always dealt in AMD, that I'd go with those newfangled AMD 64s and get somewhere around a 3200+. As for video card, I'm deaf and dumb with new stuff. Don't know up from down. I'm completely open to suggestions. I've got a bit of leeway in the funds... just depending on how much I want to eat in the next month :cool: I just saw a 160 gig HDD over on zipzoomfly for 89 bucks and almost drooled, remembering paying... 200, 250? for my 120 gigger back in the day.

Anyway. Thank you greatly for any and all input. If I've reposted a recent question... I'm sorry. It's very late, I'm very tired, and I saw this place while looking up info about what the heck "FSB integrated into chip" means, and thought this would be a cozy home to ask around at. I poked around a bit, but couldn't find a thread particular to my issue.

I really can't wait to order whatever you might suggest, as this has been (literally) months in waiting, but I've just been lazy and not taken the time to poke around on forums and ask this very question.


Thanks again,

~J

[Youngling]

No replies, so I'll update you guys on my own thoughts, for anyone that may help in the future.

After a night of deliberation, I've managed two ideas using zipzoomfly

Athlon 64 3200+ @ roughly $180
Possibly instead a 3000+ @ roughly $150
+A question this raised is into what the difference between "Venice" and "Winchester" are.

GeForce 6800 GT AGP8x 256mb @ roughly $300
+Tons more than I wanted to pay, but it's a pretty nice looking card. My friend has one and says it works wonders, however I find it odd that I can find cards for a fair penny less that have much higher core clock speeds (albeit lower memory clock speeds)


Any input? Would one bottleneck the other? Is the card overrated? Over priced? Anything?

[Budfred]

Hang on and one of our people who are most up on these things will be by... The person with the most expertise in the latest tech is probably saphalline and he is only around at times lately... It is worth the wait...

[Youngling]

Thanks much for the info. I was wondering why the world was silent :)

[pop pop]

I just built a new "killer" system using parts from Newegg. If you're in the U.S., you might want to check them out--stellar in every way.

PROCESSOR--The processor choices look real good (speed and 64 bit), but I'm not an AMD guru. Like Budfred said, Saphalline's the man there...and with RAM...and graphics. You get the picture.

GRAPHICS--Are you going to buy a new mobo too? If so, go with a board that has PCIe16 for the graphics card, much better than AGP. AGP is in its death throws. If you can afford it, get a PCIe16 graphics board with 256MB. I bought the eVGA 6800GT PCIe16. Astounding, and not outrageously pricey ($359). A little less expensive and on the ATI side is a X800XL ($279).

HDDs--Again the mobo is a consideration with the choice here. SATA is really nice. Right now I'm partial to Seagate Barracuda drives. They're fast, come with an 8MB buffer, and reliable--5 year warrantee. A 160GB goes for about $105 right now.

[Youngling]

I saw an Ultra ATA100 160 gig HDD over on zipzoomfly for a whopping $89 and just about fell flat on my face. Back when I bought my parts a few years ago it was somethign like $200-250 for my 120 gigger.

I hadn't even thought about SATA, in fact I only vaguely knew it existed.

But, about that, if I do, what would hte impact be on my old ATA100 drive? All of my important crap is saved on a partition of it. If I get a SATA board, the ATA100 is out of commission, isn't it?

[pop pop]

Not at all. The mobo that supports SATA will and must still support ATA. You're OK there. Likely it will have the standard two ATA connectors where you can put up to four ATA devices--like HDDs and optical (CD/DVD) devices. Then it will have connectors for the SATA devices. I have a CDRW/DVD and Dual Layer DVDR on one ATA channel. The other ATA channel is empty. Then I have a 10,000RPM WD Raptor SATA HDD that is the boot drive. The data drive is a 7200RPM SATA Seagate Barracuda. The Raptor has Blazing speed. XP Pro boots in seconds. The Barracuda ain't bad either. :D

[Youngling]

Well, this seems to be a fair idea so far. From what I've gotten from other forums is that this would be a good way to go:

MSI K8N Neo4-F
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130491

Retail 3200+ Venice
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch&ATT=Microprocessors+PC

Corsair 1gb (2x512mb) PC3200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

Rosewill x800xl Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814164041&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch&ATT=Video+Cards


It comes out to roughly... $650

Thoughts/suggestions?

[pop pop]

That all looks nice. BTW, I use 2GB of Corsair RAM. Good stuff. Only Crucial is better...more expensive, though.

With that mobo you can add the SATA devices when you want. Noticeable throughput difference, especially with NCQ.