Computer upgrade advice wanted please.

[Gary McQueen]

I am looking to upgrade my system, which I use mainly for
music-making, to one that will also let me watch videos (DVD and
DivX). I would also like to spend as little as possible. My current
system is:

Some VIA AT motherboard
AMD K6-2 350MHz CPU
192 MB SDRAM

AGP Port:
AOopen GeForce 4 MX440SE

PCI Bus:
Creative Soundblaster Live! 1024
USB Expansion card

ISA Bus:
Modem

Serial mouse
PS/2 Keyboard
14" Monitor

I have seen an AMD Duron 1.something GHz CPU for about GBP 20 (USD 30,
EUR 29) and would quite like to buy it. I realise I would need a new
motherboard, and have seen ones for GBP 30 (USD 47, EUR 43). These
would require new RAM and a new PSU and a new case. They also all seem
to have onboard sound. As I assume my Soundblaster would be better,
would I be able to use it for recording and MIDI and use the output
from the motherboard (as it has 5.1 instead of 4.1 sound) for
playback? Would I need new IDE cables? My larger HDD supports UDMA but
my current BIOS doesn't, so I don't know much about this. I also want
to get a DVD-ROM drive, and as I have an ISA modem I will presumaly
need to get a PCI one.

So if my final shopping list looks like: CPU, CPU cooler, motherboard,
RAM, PSU, case, DVD-ROM drive, PCI modem - am I missing anything
vital? How hard will it be to assemble this lot? I haven't done an
entire system before, just replacing drives and daughterboards. Any
other suggestions or advice would be very welcome.

 

[Jonathan Eales]

If you are going to upgrade your motherboard and memory, then I would put a
better CPU in the socket. The Athlon XP2200+ is a higher clock speed and
larger memory cache for not much more money. Look at www.ebuyer.com for
prices and recommendations.

You probably will need 80-wire IDE cable to take advantage of the ATA 66
drives performance. Very few motherboards have ISA slots, so a PCI modem is
required.

There are some good sources on the web to provide some help and tips in
building a PC. My advice is read well beforehand, take your time, have
plenty of comfortable space and good light to work in. If you get stuck,
have a break and think about it.

Try www.build-your-own-computers.com and www.buildyourown.org.uk

Jonathan