I killed my 1.8 AMD suggestions for upgrades

[Eve Giddion]

I was running 6 HDs, 2 DVD burners, 1 Floppy, Audiology Z something,
TV Turner, 1 gig ram and a 5800(ish) Video card - All on my 1.8 Ghz
AMD. The PS went out. I upgraded.
My motherboard,cpu, or something then died on me. It will not boot.

Now I've switched to a store bought "secondary system" consisting of
an Emachine with a 330 Intel Celeron D 2.66Ghz cpu.
The machine was worth the money spent but it is short on
upgradeability.

I'd like to get my primary system working again. I'd like a MB & CPU
for around $150.
I was debating a Mercury KVT600x-l with a 3000+ AMD Athlon chip for
$89 or a Mach Speed Viper K8M8MS Sempron 2800 with 512 Megs of ram for
$160.

With the changeing of the CPU nomenclature I cannot keep up with what
is faster. I think that the Athlon is faster, but in some cases the
Celeron is faster. Of the two systems, I'd guess the latter was the
faster. Am I right? (Question # 1.)

Question # 2. Will either system be noticably faster then the Celeron
D 2.66 Ghz system I am using now, or should I wait 4 months and try
again at my $150 price limit?
I'm very open for advice and suggestions.

Thanks
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[jaster]

I was running 6 HDs, 2 DVD burners, 1 Floppy, Audiology Z something, TV
Turner, 1 gig ram and a 5800(ish) Video card - All on my 1.8 Ghz AMD.
The PS went out. I upgraded.
My motherboard,cpu, or something then died on me. It will not boot.

Yes sounds like the system is using a lot of power so I'm not surprised
the psu died. My guess is you need a bigger, better psu.

Did you try booting with a minimum config video, cpu, memory? Also, make
sure the memory and video are securely installed. If it boots add in
another component like the 2 HDs or 2 burners until you get a failure then
you'll know your system limit.

Now I've switched to a store bought "secondary system" consisting of an
Emachine with a 330 Intel Celeron D 2.66Ghz cpu. The machine was worth
the money spent but it is short on upgradeability.

I'd like to get my primary system working again. I'd like a MB & CPU
for around $150.
I was debating a Mercury KVT600x-l with a 3000+ AMD Athlon chip for $89
or a Mach Speed Viper K8M8MS Sempron 2800 with 512 Megs of ram for $160.

Well, if you're near Fry's they have an AMD64-3200 on ECS 755-A2 for $160
without a fan, but they sell a CoolerMaster C8-8J for $20 that will keep
the cpu cool and very quiet. Outpost.com is Fry's online store and they
might have the same sale.

I've seen Sempron 2800 mb / cpu combos for $80 add 512mb PC2700 $30 so
$160 is high. If you have a PCI controller for the extra HDs and DVD
burners then you don't need an extras on the mb just enough slots. The
ECS 755-A2 has the usual extras.

If your 1Gb is PC2700 you can reuse it on the new mb.

With the changeing of the CPU nomenclature I cannot keep up with what is
faster. I think that the Athlon is faster, but in some cases the
Celeron is faster. Of the two systems, I'd guess the latter was the
faster. Am I right? (Question # 1.)

No I think the 3000 should be faster although hotter I think, the 2800 is
better for overclocking.

Question # 2. Will either system be noticably faster then the Celeron D
2.66 Ghz system I am using now, or should I wait 4 months and try again
at my $150 price limit?
I'm very open for advice and suggestions.

Faster but not that much faster really. A lot depends on the overall
system, memory, hd, video. But you're burning videos and there is a
difference Intels being slightly faster of comparable AMDs.
For AMD the XP64s are faster than the XPs which are faster than the
Semprons.

Here's a side by side interactive comparsion.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/index.html