Best bang for buck if I want to keep ram.

[episodic]

I have 1.2 gigs of pc2700 ram. (2x512) and 1 x 256

I have a Barton 3000 333 mhz processor

I have an ASUS KT400 Via Board.


I would love some recommendations on a low cost budget upgrade for the motherboard and the processor that would not involve needing to upgrade my ram. I am seeking better performance on photo related applications and "light video" editing. I would also like an onboard video/sound solution. I'm not prejudice to either intel or to amd.

I've been looking at the celeron d processors and the am2 chips from amd. The AM2 chips seem to need new ram though.


Thanks for reasonable thoughts. I'm looking for a total around 100$ solution here

 

[jpeyton]

Fry's Pentium D 805 & ECS P4M800PRO-M Combo + Arctic Cooling Alpine Heatsink/Fan = $90

You can only use 1GB of your memory though.

Otherwise, sell everything, get a X2 3600+ & Biostar TForce550 combo from Newegg ($150), Arctic Cooling Alpine ($10) and 1GB DDR2 ($65).

 

[episodic]

Sounds great j, however there is no frys anywhere near me. I'd have to do newegg or something similar.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Go for 2 gigs of ram as well if you are using Photoshop, Photopaint, or something similar. To prevent disk swapping when manipulating a photo, you need enough ram to: run Windows, the photo app, the original pic, and the modified pic at the same time.

 

[imported_Nacelle]

You should have given us a budget and whether or not you're a gamer.

 

[episodic]

I did - around 100 bucks. I asked for onboard video - not really a gamer. . .

 

[imported_Nacelle]

Sorry, my eyes are going buggie.
CPU
mobo

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Nacelle
CPU
mobo

While this is a bit above budget, it's worth the extra $10-20 (shipped). You should also sell your old stuff. That Barton chip will probably fetch a decent amount. Oh yeah, lose that extra 256MB because you'll take a performance hit that's higher than what you gain with the extra bit of RAM. Just run the 2x512MB. Socket 939 will run that as dual channel so you'll basically double your stock PC2700 performance.