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Upgrading

L

Llamas Notsheep

Junior Member
So I've spent a couple of afternoons reading up here and elsewhere on hardware. It's been about 3 and a half years since I built my current system, and it's running into enough problems that I feel it's time to upgrade. I think I'm getting to the point after my research that I've got an idea of what I'd like to order... I'd just appreciate it if someone who knows more than I (which would probably mean anyone here) took a look at it and gave some input.

I will be keeping a lot of my current peripherals: HDDs, CD/DVD, minitor, wireless card, yadda yadda. I'm really just looking to upgrade the motherboard, processor, and RAM. Most of the good motherboards available now appear to be using PCI Express (Thanks for the awesome writeup, The Pentium Guy), so that means I'll have to upgrade my video card, too.

I had been hoping to keep the total cost to $300-350, but it looks like it's going to be closer to the $500 range. Here's what I'm looking at:
Corsair ValueSelect 1GB DDR 400 (PC 3200) RAM (2 x 512MB) $90.50
Chaintech VNF4 motherboard $75
Chaintech Geforce 6600GT $139
Athlon 64 Venice 3000+ 1ghz FSB Socket 939 $146

Anything glaringly wrong about that configuration? What I'm really looking for is something stable and not too terribly noisy (my currenty system is pretty damn loud, and I'd like to cut down on that a little bit).

I guess my main uncertainty comes from the processor... Is a Venice chip the way to go? Should I aim higher than a 3000+? Can I do so without having the cost skyrocket too much?

Also, I'm fairly sure (correct me if I'm wrong) I'll need to upgrade my generic 350W power supply. Could I get a suggestion or two on what to look for? Ideally I'd like to order everything from one source, and Newegg seems like a good choice.

I won't be doing any overclocking--my goal is just stability and reasonable performance. If anyone has any suggestions to that end, please let me know! Thanks a bunch.
 
Get 1 stick of corsair vs or ocz vs timings dont matter with amd64 due to onboard ddr memory controller. i highly recommend you get the 1gig stick and later on get another stick so you have two sticks instead of running 3-4 sticks which the amd64 does not support. as for psu seasonic s12 500W awsome psu.

links:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227221
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151024

tomshardware has stresstest on this powersupply and passed did better than pc and power cooling and is also alot quieter.
 
I went ahead and switched to the 1gb stick, thanks =) I'm going to have to go with the cheaper of the power supplies... $120 is just way more than I want to blow for a PSU. That 500W one does look sexy, though.
 
Also, I'd like to ask... would there be any great benefit gained from switching from a Venice either to a faster, less efficient processor or to a slower, better one? Or is the Venice 3000 a good bet for that approximate price range?
 
Originally posted by: Llamas Notsheep
Also, I'd like to ask... would there be any great benefit gained from switching from a Venice either to a faster, less efficient processor or to a slower, better one? Or is the Venice 3000 a good bet for that approximate price range?
Click to expand...

venice is the 3rd generation so ya, its the best. you wont really see a performance decrease if you went winchester or sumthing but its good to have the 3rd gen.

 
OK, so I got all the parts and they look great. One problem, though. They don't seem to work.

I got everything installed just fine, but when I try to start it up, it does nothing. The fans spin up (Case, mb, vid card, and processor fans all work fine), but there's no post, and the drives don't even spin up. When I unplug my IDE HDDs from the motherboard (leaving them plugged into the PSU) they do spin up.

I've tried flashing the CMOS, removing everything but processor, RAM (tried switching the two 1gb sticks I got out), and vid card. The video card doesn't need an external power connection (chaintek pci express 6600GT), so that's not an issue. I'm using the 450W power supply that Hacp recommended, so power shouldn't be a problem.

I'm assuming that either I've done something incredibly stupid and haven't connected things right (which I doubt), or there's something wrong with my hardware. Any thoughts?
 
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