The great $1000 upgrade - help appreciated (Updated)

[RobertCane]

After 5 years, I think it's about time for an upgrade. Still, I'm gonna try to stick to a $1000 budget. Keeping only my case (Antec 1080 ATX), monitor (Samsung 955DF), keyboard, and mouse, I've priced out the following [all parts from Newegg]:

ASPIRE ATX-AS520W BLACK ATX 520W Power Supply - Retail $55.00
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD - Retail $164.00
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB Cache Sock. 939 - Retail $223.88
CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) $186.00
eVGA 128-P2-N368-TX Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 - Retail $154.00
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB Serial ATA150 - OEM $112.00
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM $44.99

Total shipped: $950.19

The main weakness here seems to be with the graphics card; any suggestions? Also, I'm probably not gonna do any OCing, which is why I have the 3500+ over the 3200+. Your feedback is greatly appreciated; thanks.

EDIT: Updated! See post below.

 

[Ricemarine]

Downgrade a8n-sli to a dfi ultra-d

Get an enermax 535w whisper II power supply.

that 6600gt is fine.

 

[Nohr]

Definately go with a better PSU. The rest looks fine.

 

[daftpunkit]

I have to second that Enermax 535W psu

 

[jd103]

Does that motherboard take DDR-2?

 

[Nohr]

Oh yeah, didn't catch that. DDR2 is Intel only currently. You need regular 184-pin DDR.

 

[CreativeTom]

I would downgrade the processor to a 3000+ Venice and get the DFI board with some OCZ value ram instead of the corsair. I would then take the extra money and invest in a better Video card, I would recomend the x800xl for the money to performance ratio.

 

[AntiStatic]

Watch out for that mobo, it has a known issue with it's nb fan. If you want an Asus, get the Premium version with the heat pipe cooler on the north bridge. Oh and get a better PSU.

 

[Bucks]

Originally posted by: CreativeTom
I would downgrade the processor to a 3000+ Venice and get the DFI board with some OCZ value ram instead of the corsair. I would then take the extra money and invest in a better Video card, I would recomend the x800xl for the money to performance ratio.

 

[MrDrinkingLysol]

 

[Parkre]

Originally posted by: RobertCane

eVGA 128-P2-N368-TX Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 - Retail $154.00

The main weakness here seems to be with the graphics card; any suggestions? Also, I'm probably not gonna do any OCing, which is why I have the 3500+ over the 3200+. Your feedback is greatly appreciated; thanks.

The eVGA is all right, but I would spend a little extra getting the 7800gt or gtx if you have the money. If you look closely, (hot deals forum), and don't mind a little waiting, go with the 7series.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Switch that PSU for the Fortron 450W with dual +12v rails (18A, 18A) for $50.
Get the DFI Lanparty Ultra-D and 3200+ Venice and overclock it to like ~2.6-2.8ghz.
That Corsair is DDR2 RAM, which isnt compatable with AMD motherboards, which only support DDR RAM.
$1000 should be enough to get something better than a 6600GT. Try a 7800GT/GTX if you can afford it, or an X800XL if your budget is a little smaller.

 

[KoolDrew]

Get a different case and CPU. You can get a Cooler Master Centurion 5 for $50 and then get something like a a Fortron 400w Blue Storm. Also get rid of the SLI board. Especially since you have a 6600GT listed there. With the money saved try to get the best video card you can. The 6600GT is pretty low-end.

 

[RobertCane]

Thanks to everyone for their help so far. Here's what I've got now:

Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply - Retail $105.00
EPoX EP-9NPA+ SLi Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $138.00
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Retail $190.00
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered - Retail $89.75
SAPPHIRE 100105-BL Radeon X800XL 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM $289.00
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB Serial ATA150 - OEM $112.00
LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner Model SOHW-1693S Black - Retail $46.99
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum/Steel ATX Mid Tower Case - Retail $49.99

Total shipped is $1051.85, minus a $20 mail-in rebate on the PS = $1031.85 shipped. Thoughts?

 

[PKing1977]

you may want to see if you can find an ATI dual gpu board .. they should be out soon, then you can upgrade a second gpu with that card in the future.. With the SLI board you will just be stuck with one card.. Just trying to save you money in the long run

PKing

 

[KoolDrew]

Change the PSU. If your case poses any backpressure to the PSu's fan it won't draw any air. Something like a Fortron AX500-A would be fine for that rig. Also just get the non-SLI version of that board. Bump down to a 3000+ if you are overclocking. You could actually get just a 1GB stick so you can just add another stick later rather then running 4 512MB sticks. You can get a 6800GT for the same price as that X800Xl so go with that. I like the NEC burner.

 

[RobertCane]

What's the difference between the two power supplies (the Antec I have and the Fortron you're recommending) that would cause one to fit better than the other? Size?

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

That Antec is a bit overkill with you. The 450W Fortron I mentioned above should be more than enough. It has a combined 36A on the +12V rail. Even though it's not quite the same as having like 36A on one +12V rail, it's still an excellent PSU. Fortron is like the 2nd best PSU manufacturer, and it'll definitely server you well.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Nah. With DFI you need something stronger.

Get an Antec TruePower 2.0 or OCZ Modstream. Forget Fortron.

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: RobertCane
Thanks to everyone for their help so far. Here's what I've got now:

Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply - Retail $105.00
EPoX EP-9NPA+ SLi Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $138.00
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Retail $190.00
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered - Retail $89.75
SAPPHIRE 100105-BL Radeon X800XL 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM $289.00
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB Serial ATA150 - OEM $112.00
LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner Model SOHW-1693S Black - Retail $46.99
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum/Steel ATX Mid Tower Case - Retail $49.99

Total shipped is $1051.85, minus a $20 mail-in rebate on the PS = $1031.85 shipped. Thoughts?

As others have mentioned, ditch the SLI boards. Especially in this case, as you seem like you're mentioning an ATI card (SLI is nVidia only - ATI has a different dual card setup called Crossfire).

Personally, I'd drop the processor to a 3000+, the motherboard to something in the $90-100 neighborhood, and ditch the 250G barracuda. I'd get something like 3x 80G drives (I have one 80 and 2x120s now) one for a boot drive and two in a RAID array. That PSU should still be plenty and as cheap as smaller drives are these days, it's a no-brainer. You'll end up with about the same amount of storage, but in a much better configuration (in terms of speed - keep anything with load times on the RAID drive) for not much more money. I also keep duplicates of important files that I use from the RAID backed up on my single drive.