Need advice on an upgrade, new mobo and vid card

[p0ntif]

Hi, looking for the biggest bang for the buck. I have a stock dell dimension 2400 with a p4 2.6 and 1 gig of PC2700 333Mhz ram. Currently using a PCI 128 FX 5200 card, and a SB live! soundcard (yes I never got rid of this one) and it plays BF2 great with no problems. Surprisingly. I am looking to upgrade in the next couple of months but only want to upgrade the mobo so I can take a faster vid card . . .PCI express would be grand.

Summary:
got a stock dell dimension 2400
want to upgrade the mobo and vid card and retain the p4 2.6 and 1 gig of PC2700 333Mhz ram.

Would like the best bang for the buck. Please give me some suggestions! Thanks!

 

[bamacre]

You'll need a new case and psu as well, I imagine. In regards to what is the best bang for your buck in upgrading, ask a few days before you're ready. The answer to that question, WILL change in a couple of months.

 

[p0ntif]

Ok so how about a theoretical this weekend upgrade?
Or is there something on the horizon that I should wait for? (i.e. it will be worth waiting for).

 

[bamacre]

You have a budget in mind?

 

[p0ntif]

I'd like to keep it relatively inexpensive, say ~$300 total for mobo and card. But I could push it up to $400 if there was to be a huge difference in performance. Also, I'd like to have the mobo be able to have a good deal of expansion capabilities, much like my older abit BX6 that I had running for a good 6 years.

 

[hardcandy2]

Like the man said, you will need a better PSU, figure on around $60 for that, probably a better case fan as well. Why not start from the ground up and figure for a new computer? Be better in the long run. Keep the Dell as a backup.

 

[jayanath]

there are rumors that the 7900gt will be $299 and 7900gtx will be $499(or something like that)..... wait....

 

[jayanath]

ur father did discover the cure for aid ... never get infected

 

[bamacre]

I see two motherboards with skt478 support and PCI-E support, both seem to be OOS everywhere. They are...

Asus P4V800D-X
Asus P4RD1-MX

Neither are in stock at ZZF, and neither pull up anything at pricewatch.com.

Otherwise, you're stuck with AGP. In that case...

Motherboard
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240428
$64

Case/PSU
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=CA-3800BK&c=pw
$109

Video Card
http://tinyurl.com/qgn87
$148

If you can find a motherboard with PCIe support, that would be MUCH better for two reasons, one, it'll last longer, and two, PCIe cards are cheaper than their AGP counterparts.

 

[Yoshi911]

OK, This is the Best deal out now. Period: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130277

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Yoshi911
OK, This is the Best deal out now. Period: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130277

But that won't work with a skt478 Pentium.

 

[mongoose3412]

^ But that mobo supports AMD, he needs socket 478 for intel.

Edit:beat me to it