Help building a new PC/upgrading current PC

[Touchdown]

I currently have the following PC and would like to build a new PC/upgrade the following. My budget is $400-$500. I mainly use my PC for web page development, some light occasionaly gaming, photo editing, and would like to start doing some video editing of home movies shot with a digital camcorder.

Here is what I currently have:
Antec case
NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS AGP4x 64MB Video Card
AMD Athlon 700 Mhz on an Asus K7V Motherboard
256 MB RAM
Maxtor 20GB HD and Western Digital 20GB HD
50x CD-Rom
12x Philips CD-RW
Modem
NIC Card


I think I can keep the case, drives, nic card,modem and would like to upgrade the memory,cpu,mobo. I'm unsure of the video card. Is that too outdated now?

Any suggestions I what I could do between $400-$500 would be greatley appreciated!

Thanks

 

[Macro2]

Is there someone you can sell that rig to? Sometimes it's better to start over...

Just my opinion.

If you can get say 200 for it and add that to the 400 or 500 you're way ahead of the game.

Otherwise you could upgrade your cpu, mobo and memory for 200-300,

 

[Cerb]

I agree w/ macro2. It's a nice web/mail box, but you'd basically need to replace 80% or so in an upgrade anyway.

 

[Bonesdad]

EPoX 8RDA+ Mobo $102

Athlon XP 2100+ CPU (retail) = $95

2x256 MB Crucial PC2700 DDR memory = $80

GeForce 4 4200 or Radeon 9500 = around $150

you WILL need a bigger Hard Drive to do video editing...but if you dont start right now the HD you have should work for a SHORT time. I'm sure they are 5400 rpm. Plan on a 120GB drive w/ 8mb cache for about $140.


Without the HD, the total for this comes to $427. If you spend about $600, you can get HD and a new CDRW too. All prices quoted are from Newegg.com

Good luck

 

[Touchdown]

Thanks for the suggestions. My wife is urging me to just purchase a Dell system, but I know I can build one for cheaper and better on my own so it's great to get some suggestions. There's a Hot Deal going on now for a WD 120GB HD so that might get me started. I'll also check out that EpoX mobo.

 

[Touchdown]

Anyone care to critque this setup? This is what I'm thinking right now.


Motherboard ASUS A7N8X $119.99
Processor AMD 2100 $88.00
Memory Kingston 512MB PC2100 $58.00
Video Card ATI Radeon 9500 $155.00
Hard Drive WD 120GB $84.00

This would total about $505.00. I have a Antec case with a 300W power supply. Would that be enough juice? Any thoughts on this setup?

 

[moonshinemadness]

i wud say a 300w would work, unless the 9500 needs extra power like the 9700 which has to have a 350w PSU. Otherwise looks a sweet setup !

 

[Macro2]

Looking at your latest rig I'd say you are getting there. Quite an upgrade. 2 sticks of DDR in that board will give you a boost. Only buy one stick if you plan on adding another in the foreseeable future. I'd also pay a little extra and get PC2700 ram because that 2100+ is very overclockable AND if if you don't OC PC2700 is much more flexible going forward towards an upgrade path.

DO you really need a 120 GB HD? Might save a little their and get a 80 GB. Up to you.

Id have to see the amperages on that Antec 300W to be sure. Last I heard Best Buy had a SX835-II w/350W PS for about $55.

Like I said before you could always sell your old rig and upgrade the case and optical drives too.

 

[Touchdown]

Thanks for the feedback.

Macro2: Yes, I'm still not convinced that I need the larger HD myself either. I have two 20 GB HD's now and only use about 50% on each of them. But you know how it is, the more storage you have the more you use. The $84.00 drive from Office Depot right now seems like such a good deal though. I'll price the 80GB ones.

I've never Overclocked before because I always thought it was too hard to do so I didn't give it much thought. If it's not that difficult now (i.e just a few changes in the BIOS) then I'd be willing to give it a shot. If I have to get into switching jumpers around and purchasing extra cooling and such than I might not mess with it.

I'll also look at your suggestion on the PC2700 memory