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Looking for advice

D

DuffmanUO

Junior Member
I'm looking to upgrade my ancient PC (K62 300) to something a bit better. I'm looking at an AMD 1800 XP processor a new case and an abit or asus motherboard and 512 mb of ram along with a gainward geforce 3 or 4 videocard. Could anyone give me advice on what type of mobo/ram/cpu/case combo would be good. I am on a budget of around 600 dollars. Any ideas?
 
If you're shopping at newegg, I would look at this stuff:
AOpen AK75 or AK77-333 mobo
The Evercase screwless case looks good - easy to play with
Look at the AMD XP-1600+ - easily OC to around equiv of 2100+ and will probably be plenty fast enough for most w/o OCing.
If you're not going to mess with OC'ing, get some good 2100-CAS2 module(s). If you are (or think you might), get higher rated Crucial, Kingmax, Corsair, Samsung are good brands.
.bh.
 
Would this be a good combo? at newegg.com

Asus VIA A7V333 KT333 Chipset ATX Motherboard $118.00
MAXTOP CSX-147K-GF-USB-GRAY Case $49.00
(x2) CRUCIAL MICRON 256MB 32x64 PC 2700 DDR RAM - OEM $180
AMD ATHLON XP 1900+/266 FSB PROCESSOR CPU - RETAIL 1900+/ 1.60GHz $94.00
GAINWARD/CARDEXPERT GeForce 4 Ti 4200, 4ns, 128MB DDR, Power Pack Golden Sample $183

total $624
 
I don't think you get $32. more value from the Asus KT333 mobo than from the AOpen KT333 ($82.+$4.s&h). AOpen are among the most reliable out there. Right up there with Asus and Gigabyte.
And I would still prefer the Evercase Black/Silver. The Maxtop looks poorly thought out. The deep fan at the top could block the ability to put a long device in the top bay (like a removable hard drive tray) and scavenge air from the PSU's airflow pattern. And it was pretty stupid to put the front USB connectors in the place where the nameplate is supposed to go--notice the hatch cover over the external ports on the Evercase. Also note that all of the PSUs supplied with the Evercase have the German TUV rating--the most stringent PSU rating. Also you can buy the bare case and put whatever PSU you want if the 300W units in the packages aren't enough. Beyond that, the screwless, snap-in drive mounting systems put the Evercase at the top of my list.
Nothing else to quibble about.
.bh.
 
To confuse things a bit more, I just bought an MSI KT3 Ultra2 from Directron. Read it's feature list. I think it's a great board and has all the stability that my old ASUS A7M266 board had. I don't think the AOpen board supports the XP thermal diode, but the newer MSI and ASUS boards do, if that's important to you. Your list is fine, Duffman, but I'd change the mobo to the MSI. Directron also has one of the largest selection of cases around. I'm sure you can find something there you like.
 
so are MSI any good what about MSI Model KT3 Ultra2(6380E-050)?

so here is a revised list

Asus VIA A7V333 KT333 Chipset ATX Motherboard $118.00 (or MSI Model KT3 Ultra2(6380E-050 $82.00)
BLACK EVERCASE E4252BEF5 $42.00
(x2) CRUCIAL MICRON 256MB 32x64 PC 2700 DDR RAM - OEM $180
AMD ATHLON XP 1900+/266 FSB PROCESSOR CPU - RETAIL 1900+/ 1.60GHz $94.00
GAINWARD/CARDEXPERT GeForce 4 Ti 4200, 4ns, 128MB DDR, Power Pack Golden Sample $183

total $581
 
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