$500 (maybe $600) to spend...help!

[Tullphan]

Needing a motherboard, cpu, memory & hard drive.
Wanting to possibly improve on a 2.53 w/512mb Corsair XMS.
Debating on 2.6c w/IS-7 or 2500+ w/NF7-S.
Debating on 512mb ram vs. 1 gig.
Debating on stock cooling or SLK900.
Debating on SATA vs. IDE.
Wanting best bang for my buck.
Can anyone help?

 

[Boonesmi]

personally i would take the xp2500 with the slk900

sata or ide doesnt really matter to much, but i do like the sata seagate drives

and more ram is always better

 

[Buz2b]

Agree mostly.
Take the Barton. After 512 RAM, the improvements are slight (vs. the change from say 128 to 256 or more), so if you want to save a few bucks, do it there. The only caveat would be if tons of digital files are rendered, etc. Then the RAM would show more assistance. SLK 900 is a no brainer; do it. Agree, SATA right now doesn't have any vast improvement over IDE. Numbers in tests have been almost identical with fast IDE. Supposedly there might be better numbers some time in the future but who knows how long that will be? Save the bucks there and stick with IDE & RAID setup.

 

[Tullphan]

As far as the motherboards go, i'm torn between the A7N8X & the NF7-S...it appears they're fairly equal in features & cost.
So for surfing, burning cd's/dvd's, some light gaming, some light videoconferencing 512mb will be ok? If so, should I go the 2x256? I'm thinking Kingston HyperX if there's no compatibility issue with the above mentioned boards.
Comments? Suggestions?

 

[Buz2b]

Personally, I'm fond of ASUS and kind of anti-Abit, so I'm not the one to ask as far as a choice between the two. From looking at them they are almost identical. Just remember that if you want to use the Dual channel, you will need (for the most part), matching RAM sticks. I've seen posts that have contradicted this but without personal experience, I can't say. The thing you have to decide is either one 512 w/no dual channel and later adding a second stick to do dual channel, OR going for 2x256 w/dual channel right now. Tough call but if you ever do decide to add more RAM, you could add a third 256 stick and might still have dual channel (POSSIBLY, and Boonesmi or others can correct me here if necessary), but I kind of doubt it.
At any rate, for what you explained as your usage habits, 512 is perfectly fine. Yeah, we all like to have more RAM but sometimes it's more bragging rights than usefull. I do pretty much the same as you but add in a ton of digital photography, using Photoshop Elements 2 and I have no problem with a shortage of memory. I run 512 MB on my A7V333 and 512 on my Dell Laptop.

 

[Peter D]

I vote for the NF7-S, 2500+, SLK900, Gig of RAM, SATA drive (Seagate SATA 80's and 120's are cheap)

 

[orion7144]

Get the P4 setup they will be pretty close in price and you will not regret it since the 2.6 (or get the 2.4 cheaper) will kill the Barton.

 

[Boonesmi]

Originally posted by: orion7144
Get the P4 setup they will be pretty close in price and you will not regret it since the 2.6 (or get the 2.4 cheaper) will kill the Barton.

the 2.4 is a very nice chip... but it sure won't "kill the Barton"

 

[orion7144]

Originally posted by: Boonesmi

Originally posted by: orion7144
Get the P4 setup they will be pretty close in price and you will not regret it since the 2.6 (or get the 2.4 cheaper) will kill the Barton.

the 2.4 is a very nice chip... but it sure won't "kill the Barton"

O.k maybe not "Kill" but it does "outperform"

 

[Corporate Thug]

2.6c w/IS-7

512 buffalo pc3200 (get the one w/ winbond modules)

SATA is cool

stock if there is gonna be little/no OCing

 

[Tullphan]

After alot of deliberation, I went with the IS-7 w/a 2.6c, a Seagate 120gb 7200rpm 8mb cach hard drive, and a 512mb kit of Kingston PC3500 HyperX ram.
I figured with what little cost difference there was between this setup & a 2500+ (~$55), i'd end up spending it on better cooling, then there'd be insignificant cost difference.
I think in the end, i'll get better performance with this setup, yes?

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: Tullphan
After alot of deliberation, I went with the IS-7 w/a 2.6c, a Seagate 120gb 7200rpm 8mb cach hard drive, and a 512mb kit of Kingston PC3500 HyperX ram.
I figured with what little cost difference there was between this setup & a 2500+ (~$55), i'd end up spending it on better cooling, then there'd be insignificant cost difference.
I think in the end, i'll get better performance with this setup, yes?

Probably a good choice. While I might have preferred the Barton, I agree that cooling might be a mild concern. I wish you well in this. Let us know how it turns out!

 

[r0ck]

how much did your total come out to be ??
and keep us updated once you get the parts

 

[Sunny129]

i'll say that the AMD route is slightly more of a cost-conscious one. but you did say that you're looking to improve on your current P4 2.53, and i'm not so sure the AMD system will noticeably outperform your current one, even after OCing. if you want to improve on your current system and notice the difference, i'd also suggest a P4 2.4C (or a 2.6C) and the IS7 mobo.

EDIT: HAHA...didn't realize you had already made a decision. that's what i get for not reading through the entire thread first.