System componet swapping maddness!!!

[The Internal]

Hi all!

First off, for those that reassured me a 6600 GT would work great with a 2400, thanks for your input.

K, the current situation:

I have a number of parts to work with, and if I buy a new motherboard, graphics card, and RAM I can build a second system. I'd also like to get a tv tuner card, wireless natural keyboard, and am debating over if I should get another SATA HD and a LCD moniter.

What would you build with this stuff? I'm leaning towards putting/keeping the better components in my current Barton system. Should I move my good parts to the Aluminum case?

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Here's what I CURRENTLY have to work with:

Processors:

Athlon XP 3200+ (Barton) with AMD retail heatsink
Athlon XP 2400+ (Thoroughbred) with AMD retail heatsink
Athlon XP 1600+ (Thoroughbred) with AMD retail heatsink

Motherboard:

ABIT NF7-S rev 2

RAM:

2 x 512 MB Crucial Ballistix DDR400
1 x 256 MB Compaq 256MB DDR266

Video Card:

ATI Radeon 9600 XT All in Wonder

Sound Cards:

Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum

Hard Drives:

Maxtor Maxline III 300 GB SATA
Western Digital Special Edition 120 GB PATA
Western Digital Special Edition 120 GB PATA in a external USB 2.0 enclosure

Optical Drives:

Pioneer 16x DVD+/-RW
Lite-On 52x CD-RW/16x DVD-ROM combo drive
Lite-On 40x CD-RW
Toshiba 16x DVD-ROM

Power Supplies:

Enermax 330 Watt Max
Enlight 315 Watt Max

Cases:

Antec Clone mid-tower steel case (looks externally very similar and internally identical to this)
A-Top Clone mini-tower aluminum case (looks externally similar and internally nearly identical to this, except mine has a a little dettachable metal thingie to mount three more 3.5" internal devices in the middle of the bottom. The little panel that covers the usb devices is broken off, so it looks a tad ghetto. Fortunately the side panel is still in okay shape.)

Speakers:

2 Klipsch Promedia (revision 3) 5.1 THX certified 500 watt surround sound speakers
1 Labtec Pulse 424 2.1 speakers

Moniters:

19" Viewsonic GS790 CRT
17" no name CRT (screen goes pink if you don't wiggle the cord to just the right position)

Keyboard:

Microsoft Natural Professional (Model RT9402)

Mice

Logitech MX-1000 wireless laser mouse
Logitech Optical Mouse (Model M-BJ58)

Operating System

1 Windows XP Professional full liscence
1 Windows XP Professional update one time use liscence
X whatever Linux kernel I feel like



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What I'm thinking I should get to complete a second system/upgrade my current system with:

Motherboard:

ABIT NF7-S rev 2

Video Card

MSI Geforce 6600 GT AGP- Retail

RAM

undecided. Maybe 2 x 512 MB Mushkin 2.5-3-3 timed DDR400? Or should I get a gig of the good stuff?

TV tuner

undecided. I need something that can at least do s-video in and that plays well with my PS2, and that has a remote and good software.

Keyboard

Microsoft Natural Pro 2.0 wireless desktop (included a mouse... which I probably won't use)
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If you actually read all of that, you rock! I'd appreciate any and all suggestions.

 

[ohnnyj]

I would keep all the best stuff in your main rig and then compile all the rest into a second best rig.

I would ditch the 256MB of Compaq memory, however, and get a decent stick of 512 for the secondary machine.

If you really need a good secondary machine I would get a better PSU and a decent video card and probably a better case. If it just going to be a testing computer than go ahead and keep what you have and get a cheap video card, etc.

 

[The Internal]

For a athlon xp system, I feel quite comfortable with either of the PSUs. If I was to buy a PSU, it would be a fanless. I'd love to have a SILENT system for watching movies and listening to music. However, if I was to make a silent system, I know I'd have to buy a case that could hold a 120mm fan, like the Antec Sonata we use in our tower builds at work.... unless someone knows of something better... Also, I'm using stock heatsinks. Is there a passive heatsink on the market that works?

Of course, the question could be asked... why not upgrade to an Athlon 64 and PCI-Express graphics card? Should I do that instead and I hope I can find some people to sell my old thoroughbreds to for $20 bucks a pop?

 

[The Internal]

My roomie might buy my spare parts instead! Maybe... possibly, if I'm lucky! I'd be selling him my nice little ATI all in wonder, but I'd get enough for all the parts to buy a 6600 GT and a PCI tv tuner. Woohoo! Wish me luck!