UPDATE: What do you think of these upgrades?!

[HappyFace]

My system is really starting to show its age, and now that MaxPayne 2 is out, and we're seeing Doom3/HL2 on the horizon, I'd like to add some pep.

I have an Asus MB, 512 PC133, 40GB WD hard drive, and a TI4200 video card OCed to 4600 speed. It's been awhile since I've been in the market for upgrades .. so I'm not really familiar with the best parts for price vs performance. I'll probably need a good motherboard, CPU, hs/fan combo, 1GB of DDR ram, a 120GB or larger hard drive and fast video. I may also want to buy a quieter power supply, and fans. Problem is, for the most part I don't know which brands and models to get.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

UPDATE: Here's what I'm looking at, what do you think?

From Newegg -

Soltek Motherboard SL-NV400-L64
Seagate 120GB 7200rpm 8MB
CRUCIAL MICRON 512MB 64x64 PC 3200 DDR RAM
Thermaltake Silent PurePower, 420W PS
Retail Athlon XP2500 Barton
Audigy 2 OEM
SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB

Total @ Newegg w/ Shipping is $781.99

From SVC - (sweet sweet silence!)

Thermalright SLK-900(A)
Zalman ZM-F2 92MM fan
(4) Zalman ZN-F1 80MM fans
Vantec IceBerq Aluminum DDR Heat Spreader

Total @ SVC w/ Shipping is $76.58

Grand Total Upgrade Cost = $858.57

I'll probably sell my current MB, ram, cpu, fans, video, sound, hard drive, and NIC. Heh.. almost my entire system. This will offset the upgrade cost by a few hundred. 😀 So whaddya think? Comments/suggestions welcome!

 

[lordtyranus2]

My reccomendations:

ABIT NF7-S or Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Barton 2500+
grab 2 nice HDD from the Hot Deals forum
VANTEC CCK-6040
Radeon 9800 nonpro
Buffalo 2x512 MB PC3200 DDR RAM
PSU and fans I cannot advise on. I have generic brands for both.

 

[Nutdotnet]

Originally posted by: lordtyranus2
My reccomendations:

ABIT NF7-S or Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Barton 2500+
grab 2 nice HDD from the Hot Deals forum
VANTEC CCK-6040
Radeon 9800 nonpro
Buffalo 2x512 MB PC3200 DDR RAM
PSU and fans I cannot advise on. I have generic brands for both.

How much do you think that would cost?

 

[lordtyranus2]

lets see, off newegg

$100, $90, $100 or $200 depending on 1/2 HDD, $16, $250, $150, tack on $40 for PSU/fans, $30 for shipping and

$776

or $876 with 2 HDD.

 

[sniperruff]

wait til the damn HL2 comes out then load it off with a top model barton or even a A64...

 

[Ionizer86]

Abit NF7-S and Asus A7N8X DX are pretty much the two best boards since EPoX stopped making their 8RDA+ (which had most of the features and was ~$40 cheaper).
2500+ is the chip of choice since it overclocks so well.
Quiet cooling: SVC is selling the SLK-900A heatsink for $20. Very good deal for a usually $45 heatsink. Toss on a quiet 92mm fan and it'll do very well.
Buffalo ram is good. You can even get their PC3700 since it's only slightly more than PC3200 at Newegg.
Quiet, affordable fans would be Panaflo L1As. 21dBa. A quiet power supply that won't break the bank is Newegg's Allied 400W (~$33).

 

[HappyFace]

Thanks for the info so far! Anyone else? ^^ 😀

 

[Arcanedeath]

I'd suggest an Abit NF7-S or Asus A7N8X DX for the motherboard
an Athlon XP 2500+ most make it to 2.2Ghz + easy
a Thermaltake Silent boost or a Thermal take SK-7 or higher
and 2x 512mb of Buffalo DDR from newegg, you can get the 3200 or 3700 for just a bit more
For a HDD, Best Buy is running the 120GB WD SE drive for 80 bucks after rebate, so that might be worth looking into
if you want DX9 support I'd get at a min a 9700 Pro, or possibly a 9800 of some type, whatever fits in your budget, but your TI 4200@ 4600 speeds still isn't bad, none of the cards in the current generations really impressed me that much over the Geforce 4 TI cards, if you don't use AF/AA they are still pretty solid cards
Hope this helps... 🙂

 

[Johnbear007]

Personally I am going to stray from the crowd. Everyone is going dual channel and I think that is a waste of money for a price/performance bang for your buck system.

I would recommend the Soltek NV-400 Nforce 2 Single Channel board for


76$ shipped at newegg

You can Find reviews here:

At Anandtech

And here at AMDMB

The only real issues raised were that it didnt have an AGP clip, and No fine tuning of memory timings

However, The clip is on the shipping version (I know I HAVE one) and Soltek will send you and Enthusiast BIOS that offers the lacking memory settings, if you just simply send them an e-mail

I have to add that I have never been so impressed with support as I have been with Soltek.

Then I would agree with the rest in a 2500+ Barton. Mine hits 2200MHZ at stock voltage with stock cooling (This is 3200+ speed)

I would go to SVC and get a Thermalright SLK 900 A and a Zalman F2 for on top

I would put it inside a Antec 1080 AMG Case with 430w True Power power supply included

I would get a stick (or two) of Crucial The price is good, and regardless of how much hoo ha people say about buffalo, the fact is that I have heard too many stories about it not hitting rated speeds. Crucial WILL work at rated speeds and this module gives you all the performance you need.

I would then get either a Radeon 9800 pro (305$- 350$) or a Radeon 9600 pro (150$) Depending on your budget. I would put more money towards a 9800 Pro and get 512MB of Ram rather than a 9600 and 1 GB of RAM IMHO

If you want good sound and game support I would get a Soundblaster Audigy 2 (not ZS it isnt worth it) for 70$ at newegg or less if you shop around. If you dont care about that, onboard sound will work fine.

NIC is onboard, works great.

Thats my recommendation. I think expensive dual channel setups are a waste of money right now, for a small amount of performance increase. Read the reviews I linked, and form your own opinion before you get suckered into spending more than you need to.

 

[HappyFace]

bump for update! 😀

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: HappyFace
bump for update! 😀

Looks great to me. The only thing I would do is add this at SVC:

Vantec chipset cooler

This is a VGA / Chipset cooler combo. I put the VGA cooler with fan on the northbridge with Arctic Silver Ceramique. It fits the northbride perfectly. The stock northbridge cooler is a little light.... and then also that little south bridge cooler comes in handy, because the southbridge on this baord runs a little warm. Finally, I just threw the last northbridge heatsink on my Audigy 2 (Hey, I know this is TOTALLY unecessary, but it looks cool and can't hurt)

Anyway, it adds some stability and a cool look for 6.50$ if you have 6.50$ to spare.. if not, no biggie.

Also, pick up a tube of Arctic Silver Ceramique for everything, if you dont already have a good compound. Other than that you look good to go. Awsome system, I am sure you will be very happy with it.