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Advice sought - Upgrading system

T

Tresdrez

Junior Member
I was planning on upgrading my system after the first of the year. However, my motherboard decided to go south on me Saturday, so I decided now would be a good time to upgrade. So I could do research on the web I threw together a bunch of old parts, surprised a P100 32MB will even run a cable modem.

Previous Setup was:

AMD Athlon 850Mhz (Slot A) - with Approved PSU
Abit KA7 Motherboard
1GB Mushkin PC 133 Ram
32MB GeForce2 GTS
SB Live Value
10/100 Ethernet
20GB HDD
FDD
16X DVD-ROM
16/10/40 Plextor CD-RW
100MB Zip Drive

I plan on carrying everything except the MB, Memory, CPU, & PSU over to the new one. In a few months I will upgrade the Video Card, but until then I plan on running the current GeForce2. I do not plan on overclocking the new setup.

I have spent almost all of my spare time (and some of my sleep time) researching chipsets, motherboards, memory, PSUs, & CPUs trying to decide what to upgrade to. Based on what I have read, and the feedback I have gotten to previous posts, this is what I have come up with, along with a slew of new questions. If you have time, I would greatly appreciate you feedback, and advice.

Thanks,

Jeremiah Puetz

After many hours of research I started typing out what I thought I had it narrowed down to. I had Asus P4PE, Intel D845PESV, and Asus P4G8X-Deluxe. After comparing prices, availability, and vendors. I think I am going to go with the Asus P4PE.

ASUS P4PE/R/L/SATA Motherboard for Intel P4 478 Retail w/ Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, Onboard LAN, Firewire IEEE1394, Serial ATA, SoundMAX Digital Audio System
Specifications:
Supported CPU: P4 Socket 478 1.4 GHz 3+ GHz
Chipset: Intel 845PE
FSB: 533 / 400 MHz
RAM: 3 x 184-pin DDR333 PC2700/PC2100/PC1600Max 2GB
IDE: 2 x UltraDMA 100/66/33
Serial ATA
Slots: 1x AGP-4x 6x PCI
Ports: 1x LPT, 2x COM, 2x PS/2, 1x RJ45, 1x 1394, 4x USB 2.0
Onboard LAN: BroadCom® 10/100 Mbps
Onboard Firewire: IEEE1394 interface
Price $146 @ www.newegg.com
http://www.asus.com.tw/prog/spec.asp?m=P4PE

Now for the questions:

Will I get better performance from installing a single DIMM, or a Pair?

I had planned on installing (2) 512MB DIMMs, if I decide I need more in the future, will it hurt performance to install a 3rd rather than running a pair of bigger ones?

Is Newegg.com a good vendor? I have never heard of them before visiting AT, but they are mentioned all over the boards.

What brand and speed RAM should I purchase, keeping in mind I do not plan on overclocking it?

Mushkin:
512MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM 333Mhz FSB, Unbuffered, 6-layer PCB, rated 2.5-3-3, 6ns DDR333 w/heat spreader $199 (mushkin.com)

512MB PC3000 DDR SDRAM 366MHz FSB, Unbuffered, 6-Layer PCB, rated 2.5-3-3, 64x64 module 32x8 chips Dual bank org. in double sided config. w/heat spreader $199 (mushkin.com)

512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz FSB, Unbuffered, 6-Layer PCB, rated 2.5-4-4, 64x64 module 32x8 chips
Double bank org. in double sided config. w/heat spreader $235 (mushkin.com)


Crucial:
DDR PC2700 ? CL=2.5 ? Unbuffered ? Non-parity ? 6ns ? 2.5V ? 64Meg x 64 - Guaranteed compatible at $168 a stick (crucial.com)


Corsair:
XMS2700 CL2 DDR333 = Part Number CMX512-2700C2 - $185 w/heat spreader (newegg.com)

XMS3200 CL2 DDR370 = Part Number CMX512-3200C2 - $199 w/heat spreader (newegg.com)

XMS3500 CL2 DDR434 = Part Number CMX512-3500C2 - $216 or $227 w/heat spreader (newegg.com)

Processor:
Intel Pentium 4 2.4BGHz 512K 533MHz CPU Northwood P478 Processor Retail Box $193 (newegg.com)

Power Supply & Case:
I currently have a case and power supply, but since the system is 18-months old, I assume I need a new PSU. So if you have any suggestions on power supplies and/or cases please let me know. There is nothing wrong with the case I have now (except its black and nothing else is), so if I can get a good PSU significantly cheaper than buying a new case/psu, that would be helpful.

Thanks for all the help, plan on ordering everything Friday afternoon.
 
>Will I get better performance from installing a single DIMM, or a Pair?
It's not going to make any noticable differance.
>I had planned on installing (2) 512MB DIMMs, if I decide I need more in the future, will it hurt performance to install a 3rd rather than running a pair of bigger ones?
Not really only take the chipset another couple nanoseconds to goto that third DIMM (and your not going to notice it), and 1GB of RAM should be sufficent for a long time to come.
>Is Newegg.com a good vendor? I have never heard of them before visiting AT, but they are mentioned all over the boards.
Yes, I've personally ordered from them over a dozen times I'm very happy with them most people on AT are too.
>What brand and speed RAM should I purchase, keeping in mind I do not plan on overclocking it?
The Crucial stuff in your post should be sufficent. All that DDR370, PC3200 etc stuff isn't going to do you a whole lot of good if your not overclocking.

How big of a power supply do you have in your old system? If you have at least 300w (you could probbably get away with 250w too) you should be ok.
 
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