Looking for some advise on a new motherboard and cpu

[Moonbeam]

The computer is a 1900 Athlonxp on a Soyo SYK7V Dragon Plus. 512 Megs pc 2100, four optical drives, 2 80 gig western digital RAID and 160 backup. A family member says it's too slow and wants a faster machine. The Athlon 64 would be nice, but it's over too much money for them right now. They wanted to get to 3 MHz but that costs too. I was thinking to go with a 2.6 or 2.8 P4 800 and overclock to three. I'd recommend toing to the 64 if the chip was more in its final form. But I heard that the 64 and the fx may get a pin change, BXT is comming, and P5 too, so I thought this upgrade should stear a middle course and shoot for a less expensive step. I was thinking about the Athlon 2500, but the cry was that's not a big enough jump. Well overclock. yeah but there's so many really hot drives in the system and all the heat. No airconditioning in the summer etc etc etc. So the person doesn't what to overclock or at least not too extreme.

I figured a 2.6 or 2.8 overclocked to 3 would get her to three OK and still not be too thermally hot. Given the restraint listed above, do you think this is a reasonable aproach. If so can you recomment a P4 board, chip and ram that would get to 3MHz without a problem with heat. Could a 2.8 do this with a retail fan. Noise is another minor issue. Or would it be cheeper to just do. I think what I'm trying to do is get raid and as big a jump from 1.9 as possible without breaking the bank. A gig of top 800 crucial ram was 400 bucks. That's a bit extreme. I just need, I think, a less agressive overclock.

Anyway, would appreciat hearing your opinions Thanks

 

[adams828]

Hm, well any info on what the system is being used for?

 

[Ionizer86]

It doesn't look like it should be too slow for a normal user.

How about sticking with the hardware and doing a tune-up (reformatting or totally cleaning the systray, scanning for adware, etc). When you're done with a reformat or tune-up, ask them if they think it's fast enough.

 

[fredtam]

A 2.6 or 2.8 would do 3.0 easily on stock cooling. My 2.8 is at 3.5 on stock. I would suggest an abit IS7. It is one of if not the best performing 865/845 boards, it has a nice feature set (sata raid, 10/100 ethernet, usb/1394, 6 channel audio etc..), and its only $100. I would suggest 2X 512 (for dual channel) buffalo 3500 for a 2.8 and 3700 for the 2.6. This will allow you to keep a 1:1 ratio at 3.0. If your budget allows I would go for some HyperX.

 

[LunarRay]

Wouldn't the application be of major interest in the matrix of memory, cpu, video card and like that.. for instance if one were to put in a ati 9700 that requires (heavily suggests) separate power supply that not only is the power supply important output wise but the inter relationship between all the factors.. Lets say one is heavy into video manipulation.. what then.. would this setup not seem slow that MB suggests?

 

[fredtam]

Originally posted by: LunarRay
Wouldn't the application be of major interest in the matrix of memory, cpu, video card and like that.. for instance if one were to put in a ati 9700 that requires (heavily suggests) separate power supply that not only is the power supply important output wise but the inter relationship between all the factors.. Lets say one is heavy into video manipulation.. what then.. would this setup not seem slow that MB suggests?

Huh?
I'm assuming he is building a complete new system in which case he would choose the PSU accordingly. As long as the power was there (350W) no matter which vid card was in the system it would not be slowed by an of the components I listed.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: Ionizer86
It doesn't look like it should be too slow for a normal user.

How about sticking with the hardware and doing a tune-up (reformatting or totally cleaning the systray, scanning for adware, etc). When you're done with a reformat or tune-up, ask them if they think it's fast enough.

I guess I could. I just did format the drives and ad a 250 external. The 80s and 160 are pretty full. Anime nut with tons of downloads and a mess of video stuff I don't know much about. The graphics card is the highest hign end Gforce3. I thought it ought to be fast enough too, but then I get it as a hand me down. Wouldn't want to do too much fixing, now would we.

I will, if I can. But I think somebody is looking for a brand new system and has some money burning a hole in their pocket.

The Abit IS7 was my present first pick. I wasn't sure it did raid on IDE. No SATA drives. The raid stuff sorta confuses me even though I set it up.

Also the Soyo takes a century to boot and shut down.

 

[fredtam]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: Ionizer86
It doesn't look like it should be too slow for a normal user.

How about sticking with the hardware and doing a tune-up (reformatting or totally cleaning the systray, scanning for adware, etc). When you're done with a reformat or tune-up, ask them if they think it's fast enough.

I guess I could. I just did format the drives and ad a 250 external. The 80s and 160 are pretty full. Anime nut with tons of downloads and a mess of video stuff I don't know much about. The graphics card is the highest hign end Gforce3. I thought it ought to be fast enough too, but then I get it as a hand me down. Wouldn't want to do too much fixing, now would we.

I will, if I can. But I think somebody is looking for a brand new system and has some money burning a hole in their pocket.

The Abit IS7 was my present first pick. I wasn't sure it did raid on IDE. No SATA drives. The raid stuff sorta confuses me even though I set it up.

Also the Soyo takes a century to boot and shut down.

Didn't notice the ide raid requirement. In that case the P4p800-deluxewould be the better board.

 

[Moonbeam]

Was wondering on the Abit if you could use serial to ata connectors and have a serial raid board for future Raptors.

 

[Moonbeam]

Gonna keep the same case and enermax 350 power supply. Everything runs good right now as far as power is concerned.

 

[fredtam]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Was wondering on the Abit if you could use serial to ata connectors and have a serial raid board for future Raptors.

Yes you can. But at only $27 more I would go with the p4p800 deluxe so you could have the raptors, a few ata drives, and still have room for cdrw and dvd drives. You could do it on the IS7 but the p4p800 seems better suited for such a setup and allows for more raid options (ide).

 

[modestninja]

If you play games and such upgrading your video card to a 9800pro (or even nonpro) would probably provide a huge increase in performance from a geforce3, much more than upgrading the processor.

 

[Moonbeam]

Money bags has three or four consoles and no bread for a 64. Not too many games played on PC.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: fredtam

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Was wondering on the Abit if you could use serial to ata connectors and have a serial raid board for future Raptors.

Yes you can. But at only $27 more I would go with the p4p800 deluxe so you could have the raptors, a few ata drives, and still have room for cdrw and dvd drives. You could do it on the IS7 but the p4p800 seems better suited for such a setup and allows for more raid options (ide).

I appreciate the advise. This board seems to fill the bill. Not too expensive and has what I need. Thanks. Now I gotta choose a processor, maybe the P4 2.6 800 and ram. Will maybe shoot for 3 MHz this way.