....need advice.....i have some money to spend....

[kirkles0206]

I just got my tax refund check [$200] and was thinking of blowing it on a decent CPU/MOBO combo. I can go either Intel or AMD. Any suggestions??

 

[Buzzman151]

what are you currently upgrading from and what are the rest of the components in that system?

 

[Ausm]

Dude we need more info...

Ausm

 

[DT4K]

<< Dude we need more info...

Ausm >>



Very true, give us the specs on your current system.

Do you want to spend just the $200, or can you spend more?

And What do you use a computer for? (gaming, surfing, music, etc.)

 

[MilkPowderR]

<< I just got my tax refund check [$200] and was thinking of blowing it on a decent CPU/MOBO combo. I can go either Intel or AMD. Any suggestions?? >>



Do you have some DDR ram stick on ya.
If you don't, get a real good one.. with a Epox 8K3A(the fastest & most oc'able board right now) and either AXP or the Morgan Duron. It'll cost you more than 200 bucks though.

 

[MustangSVT]

if u already have a decent pc,, i say use part of the money to buy Gran Theft Auto 3! for PC!😉

 

[Jwyatt]

Do like you should. Put it in the bank and wait till you have more money. When you have ~700 start getting parts to build your new rig!

 

[Freshbrain]

Either you go for Inter or AMD (which are both quite similary priced for performance nowadays) you should get a nice DDR board with a pretty powerful CPU and high quality DDR to start with.
If you can't gather enough money to get those 3, better wait til you do.

 

[railer]

c'mon people....

Get yourself an ECS K7S5A and whatever AMD chip you can afford (Duron, XP, whatever). You could've got that board, a 1 ghz Duron, and a GF3 200 Ti for about $200 if you had played your deals right. Use your existing mem till you can afford DDR. The difference in performance is not great...

How's that for price/performance? $700 my ass....

 

[DT4K]

<< c'mon people....

Get yourself an ECS K7S5A and whatever AMD chip you can afford (Duron, XP, whatever). You could've got that board, a 1 ghz Duron, and a GF3 200 Ti for about $200 if you had played your deals right. Use your existing mem till you can afford DDR. The difference in performance is not great...

How's that for price/performance? $700 my ass.... >>


Not worth the headaches. Don't skimp on the mobo. Get a good one (Abit, Epox, etc.)

 

[Jwyatt]

If your not overclocking and trying to get every bit of gut wrenching performance out of your machine the ECS boards do fairly well when on a budget. Not sure if 200 is enuff to go with ddr/cpu/mb though

 

[DT4K]

<< If your not overclocking and trying to get every bit of gut wrenching performance out of your machine the ECS boards do fairly well when on a budget. Not sure if 200 is enuff to go with ddr/cpu/mb though >>


The ECS boards perform well, but tend to have more glitches and require more troubleshooting. I had one until I got tired of it and replaced it with an 8kha+. I've had zero problems with the Epox board, and it was only $92.

I don't know this for a fact, but I have heard of a lot of people's ECS boards dying after a couple of months.

 

[rogue1979]

I don't know what you have now, but here are three possibilities.

1) ECS P6S5AT $50 shipped, Celeron 1.0a (tualatin) $65 shipped, 256MB PC133 $43 shipped, total $158. This board will allow an easy
overclock to 1333MHz for the cpu, but future upgrades will not be possible, socket 370 memory bandwidth not so good.

2) ECS K7S5A $53 shipped, XP 1600 $93 shipped, 256MB generic PC2100 $59 shipped, total $205. Not much in overclocking options.

3) ECS K7S6A $77 shipped, Morgan 1.2GHz $59 shipped, Micron PC2100 $71 shipped, total $207. Can overclock the cpu to 1300MHz,
can overclock the fsb also for better DDR performance.

The second choice is the fastest set up, but I would go with choice three and get a better cpu later.