Upgrading my system - how's this look?

[Mogadon]

1GB OCZ premier value

3200+ Venice

MSI Neo2 Platty

edit - I'm thinking about going with an XP-90C for cooling. Can i expect the XP-90C to cool substantially better than the XP-90?

That's to go with the rest of what's in my sig.

I'm not going PCI-E right now as I don't have the money and my friend's donating his 'old' X800.

The mobo and the CPU i'm sure of, the RAM is where i'm a little undecided.

What do you all think about the components and what kind of real world performance increases, mainly in games, do you think I should see? I'm thinking they won't be huge but I have the cash and like to tinker with computers.

 

[CheesePoofs]

Looks nice. The XP-90C is only 1-2 degrees cooler than the XP-90, so I would recomend getting the cheaper and lighter XP-90.

 

[JEDIYoda]

go with copper...its not that much heavier!!

 

[biostud]

AFAIK a DFI motherboard is what you should get if you plan on o/c.

 

[imported_Vanden]

Back in the days, the neo2 plat was the way to go and it still is for 939 agp imho. DFI is on top this generation for oc'ing. Things change fast in this world.

Maybe some lower latency ram. Good tccd or tcc5 for oc'ing.

 

[Shenkoa]

I can relate to that setup. Cant beat it for the price.

I have

64 Venice 3200+ @ 2.6 GHz
MSI K8N Neo2 Plat
1024 MB Corsair

I actually did a poll a whie back with the DFI and MSI offerings with Nforce 3 on AGP for general use as well as overclocking. The MSI had the most votes in the end.

Actually save yourself some money and get this one, its the same thing but without firewire and dual LAN.

 

[Mogadon]

Originally posted by: Shenkoa


Actually save yourself some money and get this one, its the same thing but without firewire and dual LAN.

That is a great point, thankyou for mentioning it, I imagine the o/cing ability is the same for both boards and that the only difference is the firewire and LAN, they certainly have the same specs according to MSI's site.

 

[n7]

Are you planning to add that OCZ to your existing 2x512 MB Geil?

If so, good luck.

For some reason (likely the very infrequently mentioned issues with the dividers screwing with timimgs that one cannot set in the bios), i wasn't able to get 4x512 MB stable on my Neo2, & i eventually gave up & got 2x1 GB.

If not, then i'd recommend looking at 2x1 GB kits, since for newer games, 1 GB isn't really enough.

OCZ value or maybe Mushkin or that Patriot kit would be fine.

 

[Bona Fide]

If you're looking to have 2GB total, I would look at Crucial Value RAM. It's only $100/GB at Newegg, and many people have been reporting speeds of 500MHz at 3-3-3-8-1T timings.

Also, between the MSI Neo2 Platinum and DFI NF3 250GB, just get whichever one is cheaper.

 

[Mogadon]

I wasn't planning on adding the OCZ to the existing Geil RAM. I've heard so many reports of issues with 4 sticks running I decided i wasn't even going to try.

Ideally i'd like to go with 2GB. Orginally I didn't think I could afford it but by getting the non platinum neo2 I may be able to find enough cash to pick up 2GB. I was looking at those sticks Bona Fide, I have read mixed reviews of them but think I may pick them up and try for myself, if they're crap i'll just RMA them.

Thanks for your input everyone.