How's This For A Budget Upgrade

[caniroc]

I'm extremely new at the upgrading scene but I've been doing alot of reading lately.
I'm looking to upgrade my kids' computer. Its an old Celeron 400 with onboard video and sound. I want to get a new mobo, processor, video card and ram. Here's what I have in mind.
Mobo-- Asus A7N8X-X $72
Proc.-- AMD AthlonXP 1800 $49
Ram-- Crucial PC 2100 $38
256 mb
Video-- Sapphire ATI Radeon 7000 $37

Grand total of $200
They use it most for surfing the net and playing the Sims. Will the upgrade do for them?

Bob

 

[Andyman53]

I think you can come down on the mobo since you're cheaping out on the proc ( no offense rofl). Pricewatch.com has decent Socket A mobo's for around 50, that'll do fine for you. Ram is good, you can prob do better on some OEM ram on pricewatch. For forty and change you can get a radeon 9200 regular or SE.

 

[caniroc]

Thanks, any recommendation for the mobo?

Bob

 

[someone16]

ecs e7s5a? sells for like 45~~?

 

[Bonesdad]

You can get a Shuttle AN35N NForce2 mobo for $62. Still a good, fast NForce2...

 

[MDE]

I'd try to get at least a Radeon 8500 and 512MB of RAM would be better, but that config should work.

 

[clicknext]

Originally posted by: someone16
ecs e7s5a? sells for like 45~~?

Don't get that one, it has all sorts of problems. I'd recommend the Shuttle AN35N NForce2 mobo for $62 as well.

I'd try to get at least a Radeon 8500 and 512MB of RAM would be better, but that config should work.

I second that.

 

[Hyperfocal]

Stick with an Nforce2 motherboard.

I would get at least PC2700 RAM. It won't cost much more than the PC2100 and will give you some options for future use. Look around, there are a lot of deals where you can get 512MB of PC2700 of under $50 after rebate. Best Buy just had a deal for 256MB of Kingston Value Ram PC2700 for $20 after rebate.

If you can, get PC3200 RAM so you can drop a 400 FSB Barton in the board in the future and run it at full speed.

 

[foofoo]

hi,
i'd consider getting the shuttle mn31n. it had the igp built in video and the mcp-t good audio + 1394 southbridge. the built in video is as good as what you've been considering (except the 8500) and the incremental cost over the an35n is small ($85 vs. $62) for what you get. put the extra money into faster processor + ram from the hot deals or fs forums.
also, if your old computer is as old as a 400 celeron suggests. you should definitely consider upgrading your hard drive. it is the bottleneck for the perceived "speed" of the computer. any modern 7200 rpm, 8mb cache hd will make a huge difference.
i'd suggest:
shuttle mn31n -- $85
xp2000+ -- $52
hsf -- ~$5
256 pc2700 ram -- $20 ar (from previous post)
80gb hd -- ~$40 (this happens pretty regularly on the hot deals forums here and at fw)

total :$202 +t/s if applicable

edit**************
the pc2700 will let you overclock a bit if you want.

 

[Special1Sauce]

I still suggest the K7S5A good Overclockers and a pretty stable board.

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: Bonesdad
You can get a Shuttle AN35N NForce2 mobo for $62. Still a good, fast NForce2...

 

[GreatDaleness]

Originally posted by: foofoo
hi,
i'd consider getting the shuttle mn31n. it had the igp built in video and the mcp-t good audio + 1394 southbridge. the built in video is as good as what you've been considering (except the 8500) and the incremental cost over the an35n is small ($85 vs. $62) for what you get. put the extra money into faster processor + ram from the hot deals or fs forums.
also, if your old computer is as old as a 400 celeron suggests. you should definitely consider upgrading your hard drive. it is the bottleneck for the perceived "speed" of the computer. any modern 7200 rpm, 8mb cache hd will make a huge difference.
i'd suggest:
shuttle mn31n -- $85
xp2000+ -- $52
hsf -- ~$5
256 pc2700 ram -- $20 ar (from previous post)
80gb hd -- ~$40 (this happens pretty regularly on the hot deals forums here and at fw)

total :$202 +t/s if applicable

edit**************
the pc2700 will let you overclock a bit if you want.

I agree with the mn31n, especially since they don't use any 3d. One thing I would change would be the memory. Dual channel memory makes a big difference with the Nforce2 IGP, so get two sticks of memory instead of one. At $20 per stick, I would definately get 512MB. Stay away from the K7s5a. I have this board, and it is garbage. It only supports 266 FSB, so they won't be able to upgrade in the future. It is unstable. It resets the BIOS at least one a month. Nforce2 is the only way to go with AMD.

For comparison, the Nforce2 IGP is equal to the geforce 4MX 440 when you use dual channel memory. A good upgrade from that would be the ATI 8500, which has been renamed the ATI 9100.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Id probably stick with an Nforce 2 M/B. I would also try to stick to Asus Abit or Gigabyte. ECS is extremely basic. I owned a K7S5A at one time and it was good for very little. Make sure you get quality RAM tho. Any Athlon XP chipset is VERY picky on RAM. Kingston VR tends to be very unstable and slow. Id stick to Value RAM from other manufacturers. For the Vid card i would prob go with a Radeon 9200SE for 45$ at newegg. Also there is a slight chance that your case might not be ATX might still be AT. You need to check that.

 

[caniroc]

Wow, lots of opinions. Thanks for all the input guys. The case I have is actually only a year old (bought it when I put in a cd/rw).

Bob

 

[magomago]

I would have to disagree with all the ECS K7S5A Pro bashing...I have one, and the system (I'm typing on it now- its a 1700+ with 512 megs of ram) is rock solid and there has never been a problem with it. Granted, its setup exactly with the same mind that you are using it for (its my parents pc, and they use it to type up their documents, etc. and my little 9-10 year old brother plays the occaisonal game on it) and its preforming well.

Furthermore, I disagree with many people who say that you need pc2700 or pc3200 ram. The next time you are seois about upgrading your system (Especially since you are still with a 400mhz Celeron this entire time), the ram you will have will be useless and you'll end up buying newer ram anyway.

IMO I would suggest two things:
-512 megs of ram- If you are going to be using WinXP, and even for just word processing/everyday office usage tasks, I have noticed that Windows runs faster with the extra ram. I'm not thinking in terms of game usage, but more like laucnhing applications that have been stored on ram (something that MEchBgon has mentioned before)
-Getting an IGP Motherboard. With your setup you will be runninat 100 dollars for the Mobo/Vid Card, and you can get this http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-138-234&catalog=22&depa=0 for 66 dollars from newegg (seems to have great ratings too), which is just as cheap as your current motherboard selection without forking over the extra cash. Others may say to get a better video card, etc....HOWEVER, if all he will be doing in playing the Sims and games of the sort, I don't think that you should be making a good videocard a priority. And if in the future you deem it necessary to get a better card...then you hvae a AGP slot


edit:

Oh- if you can grab those Frys deals (if you have one near you) I highly suggest you go for them Last november I got a 2200+ and the ecs mobo (i ook the 2200+ b/c I doubt my parents can tell the difference ) for 49.99

 

[caniroc]

Interesting. So you're saying that the Integrated graphics will be fine for what we want it to do? Instead of the video card, buy more ram? How good is the the integrated graphics?

Bob

 

[foofoo]

Originally posted by: caniroc
Interesting. So you're saying that the Integrated graphics will be fine for what we want it to do? Instead of the video card, buy more ram? How good is the the integrated graphics?

Bob

hi,
the ecs board doesnt have integrated video.
with all due respect to those with different experiences, i'd also warn against using ecs. i've tried the k7s5apro (even though i swore against another ecs board after the original ecsk7s5a) and had problems with it too.
imho, these boards are setting yourself up for lots of niggling problems, but, of course, other peoples experiences are different.

the shuttle mb (originally suggested ) had the built in video.
it's quality is described in the above posts.
good luck

 

[Bonesdad]

I never had a problem with a single K7S5A. Built about 10 systems with them, I use Nforce2 for all builds now, but the K7S5A is a decent board. But I do agree it will seriously limit their future upgrades. Don't get the K7S5A.

Having said that, if the IGP is enough for their purposes (which it sounds like it is) then get the MN31N. I have done several builds with this board as well (one in my own house) and it is excellent. If they ever have the need for a "real" video card there is an 8x AGP slot on the board. Save yourself the $$ and get the IGP board. If you do, be sure to get 2 sticks of memory as this will greatly enhance the operation of onboard graphics over a single stick. 2x256 should be fine, and PC2700 is good too. Have fun!

 

[caniroc]

Please keep critiquing my choices. Here is my revised choices based on input here.
Mobo-- Biostar M7NCG (using the onboard video) $66
Proc.-- AMD Athlon1800XP+ $49
Ram-- Cricial PC 2100 (2 sticks of 256 mb) $70
Hard Drive-- Maxtor 40 Gb with 8 mb buffer $61

I'm going on the advice that the onboard video on the board will suit my needs and that putting more money into extra ram and a new faster HD will be more beneficial.

This prices out more than my original setup but I will be getting a new hd out of the deal.

Bob

 

[GreatDaleness]

Originally posted by: caniroc
Please keep critiquing my choices. Here is my revised choices based on input here.
Mobo-- Biostar M7NCG (using the onboard video) $66
Proc.-- AMD Athlon1800XP+ $49
Ram-- Cricial PC 2100 (2 sticks of 256 mb) $70
Hard Drive-- Maxtor 40 Gb with 8 mb buffer $61

I'm going on the advice that the onboard video on the board will suit my needs and that putting more money into extra ram and a new faster HD will be more beneficial.

This prices out more than my original setup but I will be getting a new hd out of the deal.

Bob

With that setup you can upgrade in the future to an XP3200+, 400MHZ memory, and fast AGP video card. All that would make it about twice as fast in normal applications and several times as fast in 3D. So it is cheap, but it also leaves alot of room to upgrade in the future.

 

[Texun]

I would go with PC3200 memory. Looking at New Egg's Crucial I see $4 more for the 3200 than the 2100 and would work fine if you decide to go for a faster cpu later on. The problem is that 2100 is dead end memory. Unless you plan to stay with a 266FSB cpu\board there won't be much use for it.

 

[Texun]

My bad.... I was looking at the wron RAM. Here's what I come up with.

XP1800 - $49
BIOSTAR nForce2 - $66
Corsair Value Select 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC3200 - $78
Western Digital 40GB 7200RPM \ 8 Meg - $61

Total $254 @ Newegg

 

[optimistic]

Since you won't be doing any serious gaming duties, the video card you have chosen is good, but let's do one better. Have you considered the integrated video of the nforce 2 IGP?

Mobo-- Biostar M7NCG-400 NF2 IGP $60.90
Proc.-- AMD AthlonXP 1800 $49
Ram-- Kingston PC 3200 $85.49
2x256 mb
Video-- Integrated Geforce 4 MX

Grand total of $195.39
With that setup, the comp will benefit from the 512MB ram, gaming performance will be improved with the NF2 IGP running dual channel with two sticks of 256MB of PC3200

edit: lol, I'm sorry. I see my idea has already been mentioned.

 

[AIWGuru]

See my sig. Take the base outta that.

 

[Bonesdad]

I agree, get the PC3200 memory...it is so worth the extra $16. You can get the same price if you want to use Crucial Mem.