I am completely lost

[aroundincircles]

I know *how* to open a case and add parts, but I know nothing about how to choose what to put in there.

I am looking to upgrade my system board, memory, and will probably need a new power supply for them. I would like to *try* to keep the total cost to $350 or less, but if its a system that is good, I will go over.

Can anyone help me?

I currently has an AMD Athlon 1.39GHz with 256 ram. Yes, I know, 256 ram. It's a wonder I can do anything on this! I'd like at least 1 gig ram, I do know that much.

Thanks!!

 

[o1die]

Fry's has some combo specials with board and cpu for $80 and $180; both Intel. If you don't live near Fry's, I would go with a gigabyte 965pe board and Intel e4300 cpu. Both will run you about $220 at newegg. For memory, newegg has some wintec 2 gig 6400 ddr2 for $90 shipped, last time I checked. For video, you'll have to skimp on this item until you get some more $$. You'll have about $40 leftover for a pci-e card. If you go low end, you may be able to reuse your old power supply, if it's at least 350 watts. Agp cards won't work on most newer motherboards.

 

[Butterbean]

You can get a start with a new mobo and cheap procesor. An Intel Celeron D 2.8 Mhz for under $40.00 will fit the new Core 2 Duo mobos with the L775 socket:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819112205

You could get a C2D mobo and Celeron for under $150. DDR2 memory is cheap now and the G.Skills I have that used to cost well over $200 are now $120for 2 gigs. You could have 2 gigs of memory and new mobo/Celeron for 275.00. Thermaltake has a decent 440 watt power supply for around $40 at Newegg. Latter on you can get a nice C2D for $150 or so. I play Half life 2 fine on a $50 X550 Sappire Radeon PCIx (265 meg). I'll maybe upgrade that soon for $125 or so. I'm not that frequent a gamer. For now I would say try to get the best you can for now and add things along the way. I wouldn't try to whiz-bang a whole system now for $350. A good mobo is first key. It influences everything else and its apain to swap out. The other things are easy enough. The 775 socket is a snap to swap cpu's with.

 

[Doggiedog]

You can also go to Mwave and get a preassembled and tested MB+CPU bundle. Its slightly more expensive but if you don't want to mess around, its not a bad alternative. I actually went that route once with a AMD Duron bundle and its still going strong after all these years.

 

[j511180]

I don't know