4 year old custom system *Upgrade*

[mrblahman]

Well I took a 4 year leave from the computer building world and I can tell you my system has been stable for a good 4 years now with zero problems (crosses fingers). But, all the new games coming out for the PC have been owning my setup. I'm looking to upgrade the system and save some of the old parts to keep for my future wife's pc (internet only, some multimedia). What are my best options right now?

Current system specs:
---------------------------
CASE: Lian Li PC-65 Mid Tower

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.2 ghz)

Motherboard: Abit AT7 Max2 (I believe)

RAM: 1 gig DDR Corsair (think it's 333 mhz speed, but forget)

VIDEO: ATI 9800 Pro (128mb)

FANS: Out the wazzo! Put all custom fans in the case (it sounds like an airplane sometimes)

Harddrives: 45 gig maxtor master drive (OS and program files) + 250 gig wd slave both talk old school IDE

Sticky questions answered below
-------------------------------------
1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Gaming/Internet/Multimedia/Graphic Design/Web Design

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

Like to save as much as possible and reuse any hardware if possible

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

US

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.

Used to be a AMD/ATI/WD Fan boy, but I've been out of it for 4 years now and have no clue what direction these companies went.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Hard Drive.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

Yes

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

If needed, but would have to spend more on cooling.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks in advance!

 

[jkresh]

your going to need a new motherboard/cpu/ram and gpu minimum (and probably at least 1 new hard drive). Without a budget (or range) its difficult to give specific recommendations.

 

[mrblahman]

What's minimum we are talking? Could you give me a high/low for all componets that you listed? I guess I got to start looking around and pricing those components. Ha, I knew what everything cost in my head 4 years ago, i'm sure it's changed a bit.

 

[MichaelD]

Hi there. I'd say "Welcome to the forums" but you've been around awhile...albiet with 4 whole posts.

I've got good and bad news for you.

First, the good: You can reuse your hard drive...though at 4 years old and heavily used, I would NOT rely on it as a system drive. A backup drive, sure

Second, the bad. The rest of your system is essentially a paperweight, worth pretty much nothing in resale value....except the case. Nice case. Reuse it.

You mentioned nothing about the power supply, but at 4 years old, it doesn't have the connectors (nor the guts) to power a modern gaming rig.

Honestly...I'd say you need to start from scratch. Here's why:

Memory: Everything these days is DDR2 and moving to DDR3...old, basic DDR is more expensive and not as widely available

CPU: Nothing really to say...that's how badly a 4 year old CPU fares against even newer budget offerings

CDROM - you could reuse at least your burner - 99% of all new motherboards only have a single IDE channel. That means two IDE devices, maximum

PS - you need a newer PS b/c it will have PCI-E video card connectors. If you're buidling a gaming box, you'll need a video card with at least some nuts...and said card will need the PCI-E auxilliary power plug

Graphics card - all new motherboards in the past two years or so have PCI-E graphics card slots. AGP is dead and has been for a long time. A 9800Pro (I had one ) has about 20% of the performance of a newer, $250 video card.

Not trying to be mean, but realistic. Your rig is not upgradable; it's "secondary rig-able". Buy a big IDE drive, take the fans out, remove the overclock and use it for backup duties.

Your new rig should start w/a clean sheet of paper, my friend.