Upgrade Recommendations Please

[noway]

I fear my harddrive might be dying and I havent upgraded anything in years so
now is as good a time as any. I've thought about getting a system from Dell
and have also thought of upgrading certain parts of my current homebuilt
machine. I'd like to go whichever route is cheapest and right now I don't
think the deals on Dells website are that great.

Here is what I currently have:

Asus a7a266 motherboard
2.0 ghz AMD Athlon processor
80 GB western digital harddrive
768 PC133 ram
nVidia Geforce4 Ti4200
Creative SB Live
400w power supply
52x CD drive
12/32 Plextor CD/RW drive

I have not kept up with the latest hardware so I really have no idea what the
'current' stuff is. I will keep my current keyboard, mouse, CD drives, case,
floppy, and sound card. Here is what I would like to purchase to upgrade:

19" flat panel monitor
motherboard/processor
video card - prefer nVidia
Ram
Harddrive


So what would you all recommend?

 

[jaster]

I fear my harddrive might be dying and I havent upgraded anything in years
so now is as good a time as any. I've thought about getting a system from
Dell and have also thought of upgrading certain parts of my current
homebuilt machine. I'd like to go whichever route is cheapest and right
now I don't think the deals on Dells website are that great.

Here is what I currently have:

Asus a7a266 motherboard
2.0 ghz AMD Athlon processor
80 GB western digital harddrive
768 PC133 ram
nVidia Geforce4 Ti4200
Creative SB Live
400w power supply
52x CD drive
12/32 Plextor CD/RW drive

I have not kept up with the latest hardware so I really have no idea what
the 'current' stuff is. I will keep my current keyboard, mouse, CD
drives, case, floppy, and sound card. Here is what I would like to
purchase to upgrade:

19" flat panel monitor
motherboard/processor
video card - prefer nVidia
Ram
Harddrive


So what would you all recommend?

Well you're going a long way just to replace an aging hd. Most
new motherboards have onboard 5.1 or 7.1 channel sound and will require
PC2700 or better.

939 motherboard prices are falling so if you're thinking AMD then I'd go
for a 939 mb/cpu combo. For example, an ECS mb with a AMD64 cpu for
basically the price of the AMD64 cpu.

1g of DDR PC2700 can be found starting at $80.

120gb IDEs can be found starting at $70, 160gb at $100.

Your gf4200 should be good enough if you're more
surfer than gamer or audio-video enthusiast.

What do you mean flat panel? Flat screen crt, LCD???

 

[adsci]

I fear my harddrive might be dying and I havent upgraded anything in years so
now is as good a time as any. I've thought about getting a system from Dell
and have also thought of upgrading certain parts of my current homebuilt
machine. I'd like to go whichever route is cheapest and right now I don't
think the deals on Dells website are that great.

Here is what I currently have:

Asus a7a266 motherboard
2.0 ghz AMD Athlon processor
80 GB western digital harddrive
768 PC133 ram
nVidia Geforce4 Ti4200
Creative SB Live
400w power supply
52x CD drive
12/32 Plextor CD/RW drive

I have not kept up with the latest hardware so I really have no idea what the
'current' stuff is. I will keep my current keyboard, mouse, CD drives, case,
floppy, and sound card. Here is what I would like to purchase to upgrade:

19" flat panel monitor
motherboard/processor
video card - prefer nVidia
Ram
Harddrive


So what would you all recommend?

your rig sounds like my equipment (though most parts arent the same its
on ~same performance level).

im going to buy a completely new pc since i need to use my old one for
work now and the new one will become my new baby

after some weeks of investigation i propably go for that:

# AMD Athlon 64 4000+ w/ Arctic-Cooling Freezer 64 Pro,
# Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe,
# OCZ DIMM 1 GB DDR-400 Kit, (maybe 2GB)
# PowerColor GameFX-Radeon X850XT,
# Samsung SH-D162C DVD-ROM,
# Maxtor 6L160M0 160Gig,

in Enermax casing:
# Enermax CA-3030 Pandora,
# Enermax Liberty 500 Watt,

which costs around 1100€ this month (incl. floppydrive and stuff).

 

[Chris Hill]

I fear my harddrive might be dying and I havent upgraded anything in years so
now is as good a time as any. I've thought about getting a system from Dell
and have also thought of upgrading certain parts of my current homebuilt
machine. I'd like to go whichever route is cheapest and right now I don't
think the deals on Dells website are that great.

Here is what I currently have:

Asus a7a266 motherboard
2.0 ghz AMD Athlon processor
80 GB western digital harddrive
768 PC133 ram
nVidia Geforce4 Ti4200
Creative SB Live
400w power supply
52x CD drive
12/32 Plextor CD/RW drive

I have not kept up with the latest hardware so I really have no idea what the
'current' stuff is. I will keep my current keyboard, mouse, CD drives, case,
floppy, and sound card. Here is what I would like to purchase to upgrade:

19" flat panel monitor
motherboard/processor
video card - prefer nVidia
Ram
Harddrive

Add power supply to that; yours won't likely work with some of the
current mb offerings. I bought an Epox (have had good luck with them
in the past unlike ecs) ep9npa+ ultra board, an amd xp 3200 chip, and
a gig of Kingston ddr a few months back. I also splurged on an Antec
450w power supply. It is running quite well, and a lot faster than my
amd 2200. For a hard drive check Seagate, they used to have some with
5-year warranties on them. If you're going to go to all that trouble,
take a close look at your case and think if it is roomy enough and
keeps your stuff cool enough; I'd have saved myself a lot of work if
I'd just bought a new case at the same time; I finally decided I
didn't like my hard drive getting to 100 dgF so I moved everything to
a new bigger case yesterday.

 

[adsci]

Add power supply to that

i always recommend ENERMAX power supplys. They usually are very stable,
powerful and sophisticated.

im sure there are other brands who are this way or better(!?), but ive
had other brands power supplys before and since i use enermax i had
never stability problems again.

 

[jaster]

your rig sounds like my equipment (though most parts arent the same its on
~same performance level).

im going to buy a completely new pc since i need to use my old one for
work now and the new one will become my new baby

after some weeks of investigation i propably go for that:

# AMD Athlon 64 4000+ w/ Arctic-Cooling Freezer 64 Pro, # Asus A8N-SLI
Deluxe,
# OCZ DIMM 1 GB DDR-400 Kit, (maybe 2GB) # PowerColor GameFX-Radeon
X850XT,
# Samsung SH-D162C DVD-ROM,

Get a DVD-RW instead of DVD-ROM.

 

[adsci]

Get a DVD-RW instead of DVD-ROM.

ill save that extra money since i've 2 dvd-rw's already.
one in my actual computer and one in my wifes notebook.

you wont see me often burning 3 dvds at the very same time.

if one day i'll have the desire to have a dvd-rw in my new rig ill
switch the drive with my old computer.

thank you anyway

 

[jaster]

ill save that extra money since i've 2 dvd-rw's already. one in my actual
computer and one in my wifes notebook.

you wont see me often burning 3 dvds at the very same time.

if one day i'll have the desire to have a dvd-rw in my new rig ill switch
the drive with my old computer.

thank you anyway

Yes, your post didn't mention other computers or components.

 

[Kobe]

This is the original poster just using a different account to post. I
went to newegg.com and found what I thought we be good upgrades.
Please critique and if you think something else is better please let me
know what you suggest. I do not have a video card or LCD monitor
picked out yet cause there are so many different brands I couldn't
decide so any suggestions there will be great. My current video card
is a Geforce 4 Ti4200 64MB so if your suggestion is to keep that then
let me know. I will also need a new power supply which I have not
listed either. Should I go with 450w or 500w?


Motherboard - ECS KN1 Extreme - $107
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135203

Processor - AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego - $223
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

Memory - Corsair ValueSelect 1GB DDR 400 (PC 3200) x2 - $164
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145505

Harddrive - Western Digital Caviar 160 GB 8MB Cache Ultra ATA100 -
$79
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144203


Video Card -


Monitor -

 

[John Weiss]

I have not kept up with the latest hardware so I really have no idea what the
'current' stuff is. I will keep my current keyboard, mouse, CD drives, case,
floppy, and sound card. Here is what I would like to purchase to upgrade:

19" flat panel monitor
motherboard/processor
video card - prefer nVidia
Ram
Harddrive


So what would you all recommend?

Samsung monitor.

Your choice of MoBo to run a dual-core Athlon X2 or FX (depending on budget and
computer use).

WD Raptor 10K RPM SATA HDs.

 

[Chris Hill]

This is the original poster just using a different account to post. I
went to newegg.com and found what I thought we be good upgrades.
Please critique and if you think something else is better please let me
know what you suggest. I do not have a video card or LCD monitor
picked out yet cause there are so many different brands I couldn't
decide so any suggestions there will be great. My current video card
is a Geforce 4 Ti4200 64MB so if your suggestion is to keep that then
let me know. I will also need a new power supply which I have not
listed either. Should I go with 450w or 500w?


Motherboard - ECS KN1 Extreme - $107
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135203

I'd rather pay $30 more and get the Epox. The mainboard is the heart
of a system, second in importance only to a good power supply.\

Processor - AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego - $223
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

Memory - Corsair ValueSelect 1GB DDR 400 (PC 3200) x2 - $164
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145505

Harddrive - Western Digital Caviar 160 GB 8MB Cache Ultra ATA100 -
$79

You can get the same drive with a five year warranty in Sata II from
seagate for $87.