Need Advice on Hardware Purchase

[benDalton]

Setup
I work at Best Buy and I have been participating in the Intel Retail Edge Program for over a year and will be getting this year's bundle which consists of:

Intel D915pbl Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 550 (3.4ghz, 800mhz fsb, socket 775)
Win XP Pro

I'm spending $200 on this bundle... GREAT DEAL


Delima
However, my delima comes in where I have to put together a system.
The motherboard has ddr2/sata/pci-e support and only one paralell ata interface.

I have an existing system that is:
athlon xp 1800+
gigabyte 7vt600 mb
512mb Kingston Value Ram pc3200
WD 120gb ATA HD
Cheapo GeForce 4MX
Decent Case and Antec 400watt PSU (solution series)

I own several copies of Windows XP Pro (MS Action Pack Subscriber)

The new intel mb requires a 24 + 4 (not 8) pin power supply, most EPS12v psu's have the 4 pin connector as well. But regardless, unless i just buy an adapter cable, i need a new psu.

I need ddr2 memory, would like to get 2x512 of decent memory (maybe crucial ballistix)

Probably need to get a SATA driver (or 2) so I can use my existing pata optical drives)

would like a new case... and eventually a new video card ( considering the x700 )

That is a lot of dough right there, especially with DDR2 being so expensive.
If I were to keep both pc's and build a new one around this intel bundle, it would take me a while with my current income.

So, I need some advice

My Options

a) Keep old PC, Slowly build my new PC around bundle, and just deal with it
b) Sell my old PC (all or part) and hope i have close to enough money to get a new pc up and running
c) Keep some of my existing components, use converter cables PATA->SATA, 20pinATX->24pin And sell my old parts
d) Sell/Trade the whole bundle for a new pc
e) Sell/Trade MB/XP for a new motherboard with traditional DDR Support and go from there
f) OTHERS?

I need help guys, and i figured that this is the place to get it!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Nickel020]

It depends on the deal, but I think you will probably be best off selling/trading the parts for an A64 combo as you will then be able to keep your remaining parts.
If you sell your old parts for new parts you won't get very much for them so basically you are paying a lot just for exchanging your HD, PSU and video card even though you won't notice any difference from exchanging them (assuming you're not a gamer). But if you sell the P4 and buy an A64 you might make a small loss compared to their actual retail prices but you won't make any loss from replacing you old components - because you don't need to.

 

[benDalton]

I Just read a review of the LANPartyUT 915P-T12 and think I may try to go this route. Sell the Intel Board, get the DFI Board which supports regular ddr as well as ddr2 and comes with a sata->pata adapter. Sell my old mb/proc /oldvid card and then buy a new vid card and power supply 20->24pin adapter (around 18 bucks shipped). THis sound like a good idea?

 

[Markfw]

Do you game a lot ? If so, I would sell off the bundle, and get an a64 combo. Then you could use all your old parts. You could probably get the a64 combo for not much more than the Intel bundle when sold, and if you were able to get something for your old mobo/cpu, that would probably fix you right up.

 

[benDalton]

Not really, but I would like to go in that direction. That dfi motherboard i listed appeals to me in that it has pci-express and ddr2, but would only really force me to upgrade video cards [L]http://www.legionhardware.com/html/doc.php?id=336[/l]. I like the idea of being 'current' and it also includes the sata->pata adapter. Being as the 'socket t' is new, i'd imagine the combination of the ddr2, the pci-express, and maybe a faster p4 chip in the future might benefit me more than an older a64 combo. If i'm wrong, please tell me. It won't be the overclocker that the a64 is, but i saw on one of the dfi reviews that they got one of the new chips a 3.0 up to 3.6ghz... not too shabby if you ask me... a
The intel board retails for close to the same cost, and even if i lost 50 bucks on the board i would be that bothered by it.

am I looking in the right direction?

 

[piasabird]

Slowly building a PC can cause warranty problems. You need to know that everything will work at the same time together.

 

[Nickel020]

If you get that DFI motherboard you will need to get a new HD, that board also offers only one IDE channel. The A64 combo is probably the way to go.

 

[benDalton]

good thought about the warranty, hadn't considered that.
The DFI board comes with the pata->sata converter meaning use my pata hd on the sata controller and use my optical drives on the single parallel ata channel......