Motherboard/CPU recommendations...

[majmera]

Hi,
I am in the market for a new motherboard/CPU. My previous PC has a Athlon XP 1600+ and MSI nforce board. I am looking to upgrade both of those.
I am not into gaming or overclocking. This PC will mostly be used for playing with images from my digi cam (Photoshop etc) and surfing/Word etc. and burning DVDs
My budget is around $200. I already have hard drives, 1GB DDR 400 RAM and DVD burner, case and power supply.

What are you recommendations? Should I stay with AMD or go for Intel (maybe HT)? What Mobos should I look at?

 

[joelslaw]

if you're just using apps like you mentioned above Intel is the better bet, especially if those programs use HT. Unfortunately, Intel is always the more expensive choice. I don't know much about intel boards or CPUs, especially on the "budget" level, so I don't feel comfortable giving recomendations.

 

[hundesau]

well 200$ aint much cash to spent and as joelslaw said iintel tend to be more expensive and in ur case u dont really need the INtel advatages in rendering and ripping cuz all ya do is watching some photos and stuff so i suggest u stick with AMD. for instance a ECS KV2 Extreme and a cheap socket 939 Winchester like a 2800+ or a 3000+. Or an ABit AV8. Have a look at there prices.

 

[Fern]

If you can find an inexpensive 64bit AMD combo, that would be the best. Look at socket 754 cpu's and mobo's.

Otherwise, for that budget you could also get an nForce mobo (like a Shuttle an35n-ultra -$50) and a Barton 3200+ (I'd just get a mobile Barton and set it to 11x 200 -$80 - $100)

Fern

 

[majmera]

What do you guys think of this combination.

MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR mobo + GIGABYTE ATI RADEON 9250 Video Card, 128 MB (total around 110$) I can probably stretch my budget a little and get a Athlon 3000+ with 400FSB.

Also this might be stupid question, but just curious: Will Athlon 64 work with regular WinXP Pro?

 

[o1die]

I'd go with the chaintech vnf-250 and athlon 64 2800, both about $200 shipped, and one of the recommended options in the current "value pc" from anandtech.

 

[majmera]

Is it really worth the money to go for a Athlon 64 versus a Athlon XP "Barton"?

 

[o1die]

Yes. You will notice a difference, and many are overclocking to 2.2-2.4 with the nforce3 chaintech board.

 

[joelslaw]

Originally posted by: majmera
Will Athlon 64 work with regular WinXP Pro?

yes. A64 is fully backward compatable with 32 bit programs.

 

[majmera]

After looking at everything decided to shell out a little more money and go for a Athlon 64 (939) 3000+ and K8N Neo2 Platinum. Anyways I have heard a lot of things about the board not being compatible with some PSUs, Can you tell me what I should look for in a PSU to make sure the board will work? Basically I might buy a new case as well.

Thanks

 

[freshspace]

Uh oh, that $12000 car that you were looking at suddenly became the $35000 LS coupe. Awesome choice.