Friend needs to Upgrade CPU/MB/memory for $300

[DirtylilTechBoy]

Hello,

A friend of mine has a PC with an AMD K6 300 and wants to upgrade his motherboard and CPU. He has about $250-$300 to spend

I am thinking of getting a MB/CPU combo with an AMD XP 1500-1700. I found some on Pricewatch for about $100. That then leaves him with about $150 to spend on memory. Do you think his power supply will be able to handle the new board? I think its 250watts.

He already has a 64meg video card and a hard drive, etc. He just wants to remove the motherboard and cpu and upgrade that. He is not really a hardcore gamer, more into music and Photoshop stuff.

 

[mechBgon]

How about

EPoX 8RDA+ $110 shipped from mwave.com
512Mb Crucial PC2700 $119 shipped from Crucial
AthlonXP 1700+ OEM and This economical copper-based heatsink, plus a tube of Arctic Silver 3 thermal compound for when you want to take it off again, $75 shipped from newegg

and I think a quality 250W might squeak by but for another $27 you can get a 300W Sparkle Power PSU from newegg and be sure. PSUs have changed since the time of the K6, and have a lot more power on the 3.3V + 5V lines these days.

edit: this could be made cheaper with an Asus A7N266-VM and PC2100 memory, but since the EPoX board will take 333MHz-based CPUs, you have an upgrade path, and the PC2700 will be ready for a faster CPU later.