$500 Area, need Mobo, CPU, HSF, and Gfx card (maybe case). Recommendations?

[joshg]

OK, I've been out of the loop for a while but it looks like I may may may get to do an upgrade to my computer sometime soon.

Here's a quick idea what I'm running now:

EPOX 8K7A
AMD Athlon 1.33GHz
512MB PC2100
40GB WD ATA100 / 7200RPM
16x DVD
24x CDRW
Creative Labs GF2 GTS 32MB
Philips Acoustic Edge


I would like to up the Mobo, CPU (and HSF of course), and hopefully the GFx card and MAYBE the case. I think the rest of my system is pretty good for now

Anyway, I am seeing that Intel seems to be having a lot more stable and faster board/systems coming out than AMD recently. (Well, the recent surge of P4 Mobos and how they tend to be a little more superior than that latest AMD stuff).

I would like to go to a Mini case model if at all possible. So I would like to get a REALLY good mobo with only like 3-4 PCI slots so that I can put it in a smaller case (something with only like 2 5.25" and 2 3.5" external bays).

Can anyone make some recommendations as to what I should go with? I would only want my upper limit goal to be $500 for this upgrade, but I can adjust up a little (and would be happy to adjust down!! )

Also for GFx, I how are the new RADEONS ? I have always liked ATI's 2d picture quality much more than nVidia personally. Also for the new performance of these cards the price seems pretty nice.

Thanks for the help all!

 

[TheGreenGoblin]

If I were you , I'd wait a bit on upgrading your motherboard , AMD 760 isnt slow compared to kt266a or kt333/400 . If you need some extra speed you can get an Athlon XP fairly cheap , and you can upgrade your video card if it's chugging a bit in some games.


New Ram and a new mobo when you're already running on a DDR pc2100 system wont give you a huge boost , you can spend a bit more on a cpu and video now than you planned to and wait a while then upgrade to either nforce2 or kt400a when they're a bit cheaper . All you'll have to do then is get the mobo and ram .

If you're dead set on upgrading , i'd get an nforce2 chipset.

 

[mechBgon]

That's good advice, upgrade your video card (9500 Pro maybe?) and you should get not only higher frame rates, but better eye candy (I have a GF2GTS-V and it doesn't show some of the effects that even a Radeon 8500 does). If you still feel the compulsion to upgrade the motherboard, I would go with nForce2, maybe the A7N8X-Deluxe if you want 5.1.

I really have to disagree with this silly AMD-is-unstable myth. At work, I support 80 PCs, most of them running Win2000 at this point. We have PentiumII on 440BX, Pentium3 on i810, Pentium4/RDRAM on i840, CeleronII on VIA 694, and AMD on nForce 220D, plus one AMD system on KT333 in Fiscal. The 19 AMD systems are fantastic, practically flawless. I run mine 24/7 as a file server + workstation, and soon it will be hosting a networked HP 7400C scanner too.

edit: I didn't skimp on the power supplies, however. Maybe the "unstable" thing comes from the tendency for the penny-pinchers to choose el-cheapo power supplies?

 

[natopotato]

here is what i would recommend

with a cheap mini case in the mix

CPU: Athlon XP 2000+
Mobo: Asus A7N266-VM
Case: FOXCONN Model# TM-124
PSU: Antec 350W
Vid Card: 9500 Pro
HSF: Thermalright SK-7 w/panaflo L1A or vantec stealth or nidec beta V

that should put you right about 500. if a less drastic upgrade will do, or you want a more expensive case, you could knock the vid card down to a 128meg radeon 8500LE and/or take the proc down to an 1800+ or lower. at that proc speed, you could also get a cheaper HSF setup as well.