Need a challenge? I need your help.

[crabtree]

Current setup has been pieced together over the last 3-4 years

-ASUS A7V333 mobo with VIA KT333 chipset w/onboard sound (has served me well but its getting old)
-Athalon XP 2200
-2 x 512 PC2700 DDR sticks
-Geforce 4 Ti 4600 128 mb
-17" Viewsonic flat screen monitor
-plextor cd-r/rw
-atx mid-tower case

I have 2 options upgrade and max out current mobo capabilities or start with a newer board
If i were to upgrade today from newegg.com heres what i would get using existing mobo

1)AMD Sempron 3000+ Barton 333MHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket A Processor $115
2) PNY GeForce 6800 GS 256 MB GDDR3 for $229
3)Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 333 (PC 2700) $79.37 **Adds to the existing 1 gb pc2700 RAM
4)CMV CT-934D Silver 19" 8 ms (Tr+Tf) LCD Monitor 320 cd/m2 500:1 Built in Speakers 0.294mm Pixel Pitch $259 with $60 mir
5)SAMSUNG Beige 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 5X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATA/ATAPI DVD Burner for $37.99

Total price for upgrade: $721.35 + shipping

My debate is whether or not to dump this much money into aging technology. I would get a relatively modern system at a decent price. Heres your challenge. Find me a better system for under $850 excluding shipping costs. Id like to get a newer mobo and cpu. I need a gpu thats comparable to ATI's x800, 850 or nvidia's 6800 or 7800 series. I want a flat panel monitor thats at least 17". I need at least a gig of ram but id like to expand it to 2 gigs. So can I get better tech for my money, or do i squeeze everything out of the current system??

The person who submits the best performance build thats remains under budget will be forever recognized and linked in my sig. Thanks!

 

[Cinna696]

definatly don't squeeze what you can out of the current system, give me a few mins with the setup and i'll be back

 

[Cinna696]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136160 82$ DFI MB SKT 939
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535 166 A64 3200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440 69$ Corsair 1gb (2x512m)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822145082 50$ Hitatchi 80gb SATA 7200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130271 179 EVGA 6800GS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16824014100 199 BenQ 17" LCD 8MS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827101002 36 BenQ DVD Burner 16x
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811129150 62 Antec SLK1650B 350W pSU

Total 835

can you not reuse your old 17" lcd?

 

[sniperruff]

buy a dell with coupons, throw in more ram and a video card.

 

[crabtree]

Thanks for the quick response. My current monitor is a 17" CRT. Id like to switch to an lcd. The 19" lcd id like which is listed comes to the same price as your 17" with the mail in rebate. Any reason you picked the BenQ? or were you just going by price?

 

[Cinna696]

i never factor in mir cause there is no gurantee you get them. however BenQ does make a good quality monitor

if you want to go with a 19" you will certainly be pleased

 

[crabtree]

Ive got a 7200 rpm Seagate Barracuda 120 GB HD that id like to reuse. How much of a performance difference in gaming does SATA have over ATA?

 

[Cinna696]

there is none, while sata offers more bandwith over the actually connection, the hard drives do not push out more information than either can handle

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

That list looks pretty good. The DFI Lanparty Ultra-D has compatability problems with Corsair RAM, but I don't know about that motherboard. You can drop the HDD and maybe get a better PSU. Don't forget to shop around to get the best price though.