Upgrading From Pentium 3...

[Lavace]

Well, I've been on Pentium 3 since it came out and I believe its time to upgrade.
Just to say, I played on a friends powerhouse computer and am inlove with the highets settings on games like Oblvion, I can't get over the superb GFX.

ANyway, I am planning to use my old optical drives and two IDE hardrives (IS that possible, using a SATA to IDE converter?). Also I'd rather go futureproof, and have a dual core CPU.

I have around $500/£250 for this upgrade, so was thinking of:

Abit SG95 SKT 775 £55/$104

Intel Pentium D 915 2.80ghz £75/$142

Asus ATI X1600Pro 512MB PCI-E £70/$133

Kingston Ram 1GB 533MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL4 DIMM £66/$125

Total: £266/$506

Anyone else got a good futureproof upgrades I can use?
I am planning to overclock to achieve my ohsowanted max specs in games 🙂.

Thanks alot guys!
Lav.

 

[DaveSimmons]

How much does a core 2 E6300 cost there? It's faster than a P4 dual-core 3.6 GHz so is much more future proof than the 915.

 

[Lavace]

£117/$222

I think it should be possibly all prices will drop ALOT for other components, due to Vista arriving. Along with new DX10 GFX cards. Am I right?

Im planning to buy at Christmas 🙂.

Buh, my P3 done me well, can still play Jedi Academy witha Nvidia TNT2 64MB 😛!

 

[Lavace]

£117/$222

I think it should be possibly all prices will drop ALOT for other components, due to Vista arriving. Along with new DX10 GFX cards. Am I right?

Im planning to buy at Christmas 🙂.

Buh, my P3 done me well, can still play Jedi Academy witha Nvidia TNT2 64MB 😛!

 

[xgsound]

Most mATX mobos have little or no overclocking (bios limitations) capabilities. The specs also state that the FSB is limited to 800 and the mem is limited to 667, so keep that in mind. If a Core 2 DUO fits in there for US$222, I wouldn't consider anything else. If you pick another mobo be sure it has support for 4 IDE drives like this one has.

That board accepts a 24 pin power supply and will require the additional 4 pin 12V cpu connector. You will need the 4 pin 12V connector which wasn't around when the P3 was sold.

After a p3 either one will be a pleasant change. I just went from an Athlon 800 to a AMDX2 3800+ with DDR2. I hope you're as happy as I am. It runs at 1 GHZ most of the time and temp occasionally goes to 30C.


Jim

 

[Leros]

What speed is your old harddrive? I'm bettings its 5400rpms. You might want to upgrade that too.

 

[Aluvus]

The jump up to the Core 2 Duo is well worth it. Unless prices are dramatically different on your side of the pond, the Pentium D is just a terrible vallue proposition: better to spend a bit more and get a Core 2 Duo, or spend around the same and get an Athlon 64 (or X2).

SATA-IDE adapters do exist, and do suck. You would be better served buying a PCI IDE card. They can be fairly cheap, and work much more reliably.

I'm not intimately familiar with Abit's current crop of boards, but I will note that you should at least give Gigabyte's 965P-S3 a look. It's in about the same price range. Reviewed here.

 

[pkme2]

Good luck with your build. Checkout the AT FS/Trade thread for computer pulls. Just saw some DDR2 memory a short time ago.