$500 upgrade? PLEASE HELP!!!

[LP29]

I'm going to upgrade my pc in the near future. I'll buy a mobo, video card, processor, and memory(depending on the processor I may also need a cpu fan and power supply). My budget is only 500 dollars.

Please Help!!!

 

[Poof]

If you read through the threads here, not counting a monitor, most of the systems people are putting together are easily coming in at $500 or less.

The key for you to decide is whether you plan to game on it (requiring a more expensive video card and a decent sound card), save alot of mp3s or other files (requires a bigger hard drive), or overclock (often requiring special heatsinks and other cooling, and a decent power supply). A fancy case might cost more too.

You can get micro-ATX mobos with built-in video, sound, and even networking. Do you plan to get on the internet? If so, do you have broadband or dialup. That will make a difference as to whether you need built-in networking or a NIC or you just need a modem.

Hope this helps?

 

[LP29]

here's my spec

celeron 533Mhz
64MB PC133
S3 Trio 3D/2X AGP card
40 gig maxtor D740X 7200 RPM
4.3 gig samsung 5400 RPM
Asus 52X CDROM
Creative Vibra 128 Sound card
Globalwin FOP32-1 cpu fan
56k modem
200 watt power supply

I'm gonna change the processor, videocard, mobo, and memory. Do I need to change my powersupply and cpu fan when I upgrade. 500 dollars budget.

please give me specs.

thanxs!!!

 

[QuTip]

wow, how do u run 533Mhz on 64MB of ram? i got a 633Cele i'm looking to upgrade i run 128mb of sdram 100Mhz i easily use 70% of my ram surfing the net! btw the same advice goes for me, i was thinking duron w/ intergrated graphics + sound + nic prolly an ASUS board and 7200rpm el cheapo 2meg cache HD duron would prolly be around 1.2Ghz and sdram is good enough for me.

 

[Duvie]

Get a 1.6a p4 and a MSI sis645 ultra board or a little bit more expensive asus p4s333 mobo...then heatsink and fan will come with the cpu...Then get a 300watt or 350watt antec for about 55 w/ shipping...get one stick of kingmax pc2700 at newegg for about 93.00...

I am confident all that equlas to about just under 400 then spen 100 or a bit more and get a gf3 ti200 or radeon 7500 if you need to save cash...

200watts will be insufficient for most cpu upgrades...

 

[AGodspeed]

It all depends on what you're looking for in your system.

If you don't overclock or only overclock occasionally, then an Athlon 1600+ CPU and ASUS A7N266-C or Epox 8KHAL motherboard will do very well for you.

However, if you're into extreme overclocking (i.e. you overclock to the max almost 24/7), then a 1.6A Pentium 4 CPU and ASUS P4B266-C or P4T-E motherboard would be an excellent choice.

Also, exactly what type of stuff are you going to be doing on your computer. Web surfing? Gaming? 3D modeling? More info is necessary to answer your questions better.

 

[Peter007]

What cheapest and the best upgrade option would be this:

1. Buy a FRY's $89 Duron 1G and ECS Motherboard (comes with NIC and Soundcard)

2. Sell or trade your lame Soundcard, 64mb SDRAM, Celeron, and all its motherboard crab for
256mb of DDR mem

Keep your case, HD, and 56K modem.

That would be my advice