Care to make a suggestion on how to spend MY money?

[silverspyder00]

I've got ~$450.00 to spend on upgrading my PC. I've currently got an ECS K7S5A motherboard with an Athlon 1.4. I plan on pulling out those pieces (including the RAM), and replacing it with new equipment. I've been monitoring this forum for a few weeks, and am getting more confused each day - and I need to order the new equipment by this weekend.

If YOU had $450.00 to $500.00 to spend - which motherboard/CPU/RAM would YOU get?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Acts837]

If I had $450 for mobo/cpu/ram I would definetly spend it on a P4 with the best chipset I could afford and Crucial DDR.

 

[rhodeyelandah]

I would get an Abit NF7-S 2.0 from excaliberpc or newegg (make sure its a 2.0)

A JIUHB 1700+ T'bred B Athlon XP (excaliberpc sells them spec'd as such). Just up the multiplier to 12x166 on the NF7 and away you go!

2x256mb sticks of Twinmos or Corsair PC3200 C2 (to take advantage of dual ddr)

And a new graphics card (Nvidia 5200, ti4200 or Radeon 9500) with the money you have left over!

 

[LegionX]

Originally posted by: silverspyder00
I've got ~$450.00 to spend on upgrading my PC. I've currently got an ECS K7S5A motherboard with an Athlon 1.4. I plan on pulling out those pieces (including the RAM), and replacing it with new equipment. I've been monitoring this forum for a few weeks, and am getting more confused each day - and I need to order the new equipment by this weekend.

If YOU had $450.00 to $500.00 to spend - which motherboard/CPU/RAM would YOU get?

Thanks in advance.

well since i am in canada i dont know what you can get for that. if you cant get a atleast a 2.53 p4 and a 675pe MB i would go the amd route with a nforce2 board. i think that would give better bang for your buck though if you were going high end i would chose the p4.

i also would either say get a 9500-9600 preferable or the low end new nvidia or 4200. the higher end nvideas IMHO arent worth it. ati finally has thier crap together and nvidea doesnt with the newer products.

you didnt list what else yuou have though , beyond the basics mb,cpu and memory you should tell us your video card and hard drive which both can easily be bottle necks.

 

[Insane3D]

Here's a nice combo...


Abit NF7-S Rev 2.0 for $123 shipped

XP 2500+ "Barton" Retail for $92 shipped

2 X 512mb HyperX PC3500 (DDR434) for ~ $200 shipped (after rebate)

Total: ~$415

 

[silverspyder00]

Originally posted by: Acts837
If I had $450 for mobo/cpu/ram I would definetly spend it on a P4 with the best chipset I could afford and Crucial DDR.

OK... How's this for a start?

ABIT IS7 $109.99 (GoogleGear)
P4 2.4 CPU $172.00 (NewEgg)
Crucial DDR PC3200 $89.99 (Crucial)
(512 mb)
Total $371.98

BTW - I have a 7200 RPM Maxtor 80 gig drive and an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro video card.

 

[Insane3D]

So are you going Intel only?

 

[silverspyder00]

Originally, I planned to go AMD. However, I'm a private pilot in learning, and I just read that the new version of Flight Simulator is supposed to reap the benefits of the P4 architecture - specifically the hyper-threading capability, so I'm being swayed that way...

 

[rhodeyelandah]

I have two rigs here, an 875p/P4 rig and an nforce2/Athlon

The nforce2 rig is by far the better value and so far appears to be just as stable. In some respects (3dmark2001 and 3dmark03) it even outperforms the Intel box.

However if I were to own only one rig and it was mission critical (in my case rendering in maya and 3ds max) it would probably be an Intel box (based more on past experience than present and future expectations)

 

[Acts837]

spyder - I have a 1700+ sitting on an Epox 8RDA+ with 1 GB of Crucial PC2700. A setup like mine with a faster CPU would be below your $450. But from my experience on both sides of the fence Intel rigs are less finicky.

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: Acts837
spyder - I have a 1700+ sitting on an Epox 8RDA+ with 1 GB of Crucial PC2700. A setup like mine with a faster CPU would be below your $450. But from my experience on both sides of the fence Intel rigs are less finicky.

I think that used to be true, but is much less so nowadays.

 

[sniperruff]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
Here's a nice combo...


Abit NF7-S Rev 2.0 for $123 shipped

XP 2500+ "Barton" Retail for $92 shipped

2 X 512mb HyperX PC3500 (DDR434) for ~ $200 shipped (after rebate)

Total: ~$415

i have the same idea. would replace retail HSF with a nicer quiet one and moderate on the ram. i've heard good things about the asus A7n8x and its kickass audio. spend extra dough for some slick goodies, like a DVD+RW maybe ;D