Spare an old member a moment of your time if you would?

[downhiller80]

Cheers guys, I've not been around for ages and as such my knowledge of the current hardware scenario is pretty slim.

Still on an Asus A7V board with a 1400MHz Athlon, looking for some more speed. What proc/motherboard do you recommend? Should I be going A64 route or sticking with a Barton?

I know this is terrible of me, but I don't have the time to run searches and spend half a day reading up on the current hardware situation - someone summarize it for me

Cheers!

- seb

 

[GreatDaleness]

Originally posted by: sebfrost
Cheers guys, I've not been around for ages and as such my knowledge of the current hardware scenario is pretty slim.

Still on an Asus A7V board with a 1400MHz Athlon, looking for some more speed. What proc/motherboard do you recommend? Should I be going A64 route or sticking with a Barton?

I know this is terrible of me, but I don't have the time to run searches and spend half a day reading up on the current hardware situation - someone summarize it for me

Cheers!

- seb

~$200 US Barton
~$400 US A64
for MB/CPU/Ram

 

[John]

Barton or Mobile 2500+
Abit NF7-S
512 - 1024MB PC3200
----
~300.00 for a setup that is capable of running 3200+ and higher

 

[NFactor]

If you have the extra money the A64 by far is the better processor but if not a nice Barton 2500+ will serve you very well.

 

[Jhhnn]

Depends on your budget and usage. One thing to be careful about is planning on bringing your old vidcard into the new build- late model boards demand 1.5v agp cards, so be sure you have one.

Also be sure that your operating system is 98SE or newer if you go with an Nvidia chipset- older versions of 98 are not compatible.

You didn't mention overclocking, either, or the planned usage. If you don't intend to overclock, and if you're not a big gamer, then the nforce2 chipset boards with integrated video will save you beaucoup bucks.

Kinda fill us in on how you use your computer- it makes a difference, particularly when budgeting is an issue...

 

[MadRat]

The A64-3000+ is a good $50 cheaper than A64-3200+, and its performance is rather similar. The chipsets are stable for them but they don't overclock worth beans even though the A64's don't ever get very warm. You'd be better off getting either the via K8T800 or amd 8151 than the NF3/NF3Pro. The K8T880-Pro and the NF3-250 should be right around the corner with their purported AGP/PCI locks. Might just want to hold off for these second gen chipsets.

 

[robcy]

by looking at your signarute rig. I am going to assume you are going for a full upgrade (CPU,MB,MEM,VIDEO). If so then I would recommend you go with the A64 since the added cost now will pay off in a longer usefull life of your machine.
I would suggestest a
2 x 256mb DDR 3200 Linky
K8t800 Linky
A64 3200+ Linky
ATI 9600XT Linky

 

[downhiller80]

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
Depends on your budget and usage. One thing to be careful about is planning on bringing your old vidcard into the new build- late model boards demand 1.5v agp cards, so be sure you have one.

Ah, thank you. I still have an old Creative Geforce2GTS (I don't play games too much these days, but will buy a new card when Doom 4 comes out ) Do you know if this is 1.5v or not?

 

[downhiller80]

Originally posted by: robcy
by looking at your signarute rig. I am going to assume you are going for a full upgrade (CPU,MB,MEM,VIDEO). If so then I would recommend you go with the A64 since the added cost now will pay off in a longer usefull life of your machine.
I would suggestest a
2 x 256mb DDR 3200 Linky
K8t800 Linky
A64 3200+ Linky
ATI 9600XT Linky

Cheers for the suggestions!

As for my useage: like I said I don't play many games these days, but tbh that's mainly because I know my graphics couldn't handle anything currently However I feel now is a silly time to buy a new graphics card, and would rather just get the rest of the system up to speed. I'm going to buy a 180GB 180GXP drive for it's capacity, performance, and low noise levels. I'd like a gig of RAM since it's not a big expense. What do I use it for? Well, not too much if I'm honest - web, excel, a little C++, some web development, occasional game, MP3 server, etc. I don't stress it too hard but I'm always in front of it so any speed increase will be welcomed

 

[chilled]

Originally posted by: sebfrost

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
Depends on your budget and usage. One thing to be careful about is planning on bringing your old vidcard into the new build- late model boards demand 1.5v agp cards, so be sure you have one.

Ah, thank you. I still have an old Creative Geforce2GTS (I don't play games too much these days, but will buy a new card when Doom 4 comes out ) Do you know if this is 1.5v or not?

Yes the GF2 GTS will have no problems on newer boards. Well...as long as the board has a AGP slot

Originally posted by: sebfrost

Originally posted by: robcy
by looking at your signarute rig. I am going to assume you are going for a full upgrade (CPU,MB,MEM,VIDEO). If so then I would recommend you go with the A64 since the added cost now will pay off in a longer usefull life of your machine.
I would suggestest a
2 x 256mb DDR 3200 Linky
K8t800 Linky
A64 3200+ Linky
ATI 9600XT Linky

Cheers for the suggestions!

As for my useage: like I said I don't play many games these days, but tbh that's mainly because I know my graphics couldn't handle anything currently However I feel now is a silly time to buy a new graphics card, and would rather just get the rest of the system up to speed. I'm going to buy a 180GB 180GXP drive for it's capacity, performance, and low noise levels. I'd like a gig of RAM since it's not a big expense. What do I use it for? Well, not too much if I'm honest - web, excel, a little C++, some web development, occasional game, MP3 server, etc. I don't stress it too hard but I'm always in front of it so any speed increase will be welcomed

I bought my 180GXP a year ago. Runs well, but I wish I had waited until a 8MB chache version was available. Not that I've had any problems.
You might also want to look into the Hitachi 7K250 - faster than the 180GXP (only second to the raptor), runs cooler and quieter too.

 

[downhiller80]

Originally posted by: MadRat
The A64-3000+ is a good $50 cheaper than A64-3200+, and its performance is rather similar. The chipsets are stable for them but they don't overclock worth beans even though the A64's don't ever get very warm. You'd be better off getting either the via K8T800 or amd 8151 than the NF3/NF3Pro. The K8T880-Pro and the NF3-250 should be right around the corner with their purported AGP/PCI locks. Might just want to hold off for these second gen chipsets.

Locks? What's that all about then?

A64 3000+ was the CPU I semi-decided on looking at prices here in the UK. Then set my heart on a K8V deluxe board because I've always used Asus - but have seen theres some problems with those according to people on here. A little suprised at the cost of DDR400 ram, but it's not too bad I guess.

One of the most important upgrades will be when I change my ADSL from 512Kb to 1024 or even 2048Kb, though it's a shame I'll still be left with 256Kb upstream.

 

[Markfw]

I love my K8V. But I would recommend some Kingston Hyperx PC3500 CAS2. The extra headroom gives stability. Mushkin CAS2 level one or level II might work. Thats what I have considered. I just am not sure, since I have been so happy with my config, just hate to mess with a good thing.

 

[MadRat]

Locked AGP/PCI speeds will enable you to get some real extra ghusto out of your A64. Small overclocks result in AGP/PCI instability in current chipsets.

 

[downhiller80]

Originally posted by: chilled

I bought my 180GXP a year ago. Runs well, but I wish I had waited until a 8MB chache version was available. Not that I've had any problems.
You might also want to look into the Hitachi 7K250 - faster than the 180GXP (only second to the raptor), runs cooler and quieter too.

Hmm, was sure I read that the &K250 was considerably louder? Will look into it, cheers.

 

[downhiller80]

Originally posted by: MadRat
Locked AGP/PCI speeds will enable you to get some real extra ghusto out of your A64. Small overclocks result in AGP/PCI instability in current chipsets.

Ah ha - so you can keep the PCI bus at 33MHz and overclock just the CPU/memory bus? Excellent!

Thought TBH I'm not much into overclocking these days - there's just no need. I remember when I overclocked my Duron 650 to over 1gig back in the day, now that was good, and a worthy speed incremently. But procs are so fast these days and the overclockable margin so much smaller I just dont see the point.

 

[Corporate Thug]

i would get a A64 3200+ and no worry about another upgrade for a while

 

[0roo0roo]

depends on budget. if your on a tight one, any frys combo cheapie deal will still bvlow your setup out of the water. cheapo barton should do it. if you have a little more cash, an a64 would be nice.
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index.html