Upgrading to A64 from Celeron 1.8

[KillaKilla]

Currently I have:
Celeron 1.8Ghz
P4VXMS (cheapest available Sct 370 board with convertor
Terrible PSU
Geforce 4 Ti4600 128MB
1024MB PC133 SDRAM
512MB DDR2700

I have about $350 saved up and I would like to upgrade. It would be used solely for gaming, first person shooters. I don't care about sound quality I use my server to do word processing and other applications.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Pretty obvious, but:
- Keep the ti4600 (you need to spend $200 for anything better), sell everything else, the SDRAM is actually worth something, especially if it's low-density.
- read a few of the 1,023 rig threads for A64 motherboard suggestions.

 

[jpeyton]

Newegg has a A64/Mobo special for $223 shipped. Add a decent heatsink for under $25, 512MB of PC3200 for around $90 (Kingston Value RAM), and a good PSU for around $40 (Forton).

 

[wseyller]

$350 might be tough.

The Cpu will be minimum of $185 for a retail version of a 2800+ with heatsink included.

The motherboard will be anywhere from $74 to $176
Pay attention to chipsets. K8T800 is good but no agp/pci lock which limits overclocking. Some of the newer chipsets out now are the K8T800 Pro which will have the agp/pci lock as well as the Nvidia NForce3 250. The Nvidia NForce3 150 is an older chipsets and isn't that great IMO.

You will need a good power supply. Prices vary. Antec is a good one plus many others that others might offer advice. I would get at least a 350w or 400w PS.

Your PC133 ram is useless in this system, so I would try to sell it or use it in a different system. The ddr2700 ram should work fine although ddr3200 would be better. Some games will have better performance with 1024MB ram then 512MB, but it should work decent.

You can reuse the video card.

 

[KillaKilla]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Newegg has a A64/Mobo special for $223 shipped. Add a decent heatsink for under $25, 512MB of PC3200 for around $90 (Kingston Value RAM), and a good PSU for around $40 (Forton).

Holy ¥?£¢!

Originally posted by: wseyller$350 might be tough.
Pay attention to chipsets. K8T800 is good but no agp/pci lock which limits overclocking. Some of the newer chipsets out now are the K8T800 Pro which will have the agp/pci lock as well as the Nvidia NForce3 250. The Nvidia NForce3 150 is an older chipsets and isn't that great IMO.

I wasn't even considering an NF3-150, it was just a holdover for the 250. Looking at the K8t800 Abit KV8 with an A64-2800+ for $198, as I dont plan any OCing.

Originally posted by: wseyller$350 might be tough.
You will need a good power supply. Prices vary. Antec is a good one plus many others that others might offer advice. I would get at least a 350w or 400w PS.

What PSU would I need for just the motherboard, RAM, Video Card, and other things that draw motherboard power? I can use the current 350w PSU for all other stuffs. It clearly won't be enough for all of it though. I can't figure out what the brand is, it's not labeled as far as I can tell, that's how off brand it is!

Originally posted by: wseyllerYour PC133 ram is useless in this system, so I would try to sell it or use it in a different system. The ddr2700 ram should work fine although ddr3200 would be better. Some games will have better performance with 1024MB ram then 512MB, but it should work decent.

Of course that will be for a different upgrade... don't have the budget and I figure DDR1 prices will come down as DDR2 is introduced.