$200-$300 to spend on an upgrade

[NTB]

The upgrade bug has bitten me once again, so I'm looking to replace my Athlon 1600+ system, and trying to decide what to get. My budget is $350 tops, and I need a Motherboard, CPU, and RAM (512MB at least). Suggestions? My original idea was a Shuttle AN-35N Ultra & AMD Athlon XP Mobile, which I was going to OC. This was the cheapest combo I could come up with. Since I found somebody to buy my old parts though - I have enough old stuff around here to put together a complete system for them - my budget has gone up a bit 🙂. What do you guys think?

Nate

 

[Schnook121]

for $350, you can get an athlon64 3000+ 754, the chaintech VNF-250 mobo and 1gb pc3200 corsair valueRAM.
Thats what I would do!

 

[NTB]

I've been digging around on Newegg.com a bit, and here's something else I've found:

Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 754: $164
Chaintech VNF3-250 : $71
512MB Mushkin PC3200: $76

Grand total is $312 with standard shipping. My only question is how well this combo will work - I've seen people complaining about A64 boards being picky about what RAM they will work with.

Nathan

 

[yankeesfan]

it will work great, but I would spring for the gig of ram if you can.

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: Schnook121
for $350, you can get an athlon64 3000+ 754, the chaintech VNF-250 mobo and 1gb pc3200 corsair valueRAM.
Thats what I would do!

Where are you getting the prices? Just curious. From what I'm looking at, 1GB PC3200 would be $150 or more (2x512MB)

Nate

 

[Bonesdad]

if $300 is all you got, then go for what you have listed. You can always get another stick of 3200 later...

 

[NTB]

Hmmm...just finished reading the AMD roadmap article on AT's main site. No more A64-754s after this year?

Nate

 

[laurenlex]

Well, I'm a noobie, but here is my thought. Yes, they will be phasing out socket 754. Socket 939 supports dual channel memory, which does not help but 5-10%, yet costs at least 5-10% more. But I do not think that socket 939 is "future proof" becuase it lacks pci-e. Soooooooo.... You will need a new motherboard for your next upgrade anyway, because AGP is being phased out, which is all you can get on a 939 now.

So, if you need to upgrade now, do it with socket 754. If you want future proof, wait a few months for the NForce 4 stuff and pci-e graphics interface.

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: laurenlex
Well, I'm a noobie, but here is my thought. Yes, they will be phasing out socket 754. Socket 939 supports dual channel memory, which does not help but 5-10%, yet costs at least 5-10% more. But I do not think that socket 939 is "future proof" becuase it lacks pci-e. Soooooooo.... You will need a new motherboard for your next upgrade anyway, because AGP is being phased out, which is all you can get on a 939 now.

So, if you need to upgrade now, do it with socket 754. If you want future proof, wait a few months for the NForce 4 stuff and pci-e graphics interface.

Good point - I forgot about PCI-e (and DDR2, now that I think about it). And I only do a big overhaul like this every two years or so anyway. So by the time I'm ready to do it again, the whole rig would likely be out of date 😛 754 it is, then.

Nate