Wanna upgrade my rig

[ndee]

Hey guys,
I wanna upgrade my rig(see sig) with some components. I mostly play games(World of Warcrack, Pro Evolution Soccer 5, Battle for Middleearth) and do some PHP coding.

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ BOX, Socket 939, San Diego
Asus A8N-E, nForce4 Ultra, PCI-E, NVRAID, GLAN, Audio
Kingston KVR400X64C3A/1G, 1GB DDR-DIMM PC3200 CL3
Asus EN7900GT/2DHT, GeForce 7900GT, 256MB, Dual DVI

Any alternatives? I figured those are the best values at the moment.

 

[1N0V471V]

DFI LANPARTY nF4 Ultra-D: whether you are overclocking or not, but keep in mind those San Diegos can do 2.7-3GHz on air.
EVGA 7900GT: any of them work, they have better warranty and support than the ASUS cards.
2GB of RAM is the sweet spot right now. Corsair if you aren't overclocking, but I would really recommend some good OCZ sticks.

 

[InlineFour]

your rig link doesn't work.

 

[ndee]

Hm, for quite some time, I only had Asus mainboards and was always happy. How does DFI compare to Asus?

 

[tjpark1111]

dont get DFI if you're not oc'ing, get ASUS as you planned.

 

[Crescent13]

Opteron 165
EPoX EP-9NPA+ Ultra
pqi TURBO 2GB (2 x 1GB) Kit
Leadtek GeForce 7900GT


LMK if that's too expensive. Also, STAY AWAY FROM DFI!!! DFI boards are very unreliable, and their QC is just going down, I got one, It was a week of hassles, RMA'ed it, and got a Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe. I have the epox EP-9NPA+ Ultra in my dad's comp and it works wonderfully! No problems at all, and it overclockes quite nicely too if you ever decide to.

 

[ndee]

Thanks for all the input. My old rig:
Athlon XP 2400+
1GB RAM
Gigabyte 6600GT
Asus A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard

Ah btw, can I use my old power supply? It's a Heihachi 300W IIRC gonna check it in a bit. And I also don't plan on overclocking, never had much luck with OC'ing and also, I want a quiet computer

 

[DerwenArtos12]

If you're not going to overclock and don't want/need the extra settings then a DFI is overkill. I'm sorry to hear about crescent13's bad luck with DFI as I've owned atleast a dozen DFI boards without a hassle from any of them beyond the somewhat excessice memory settings on the NF4 series. I'm replying from an nf4 ultra-d and I've got three nf2 lanparty's(one rev.a and two rev.b's) running under the desk right next to it. I do however have an a7n8x dlx sitting on my desk with a FRIED southbridge. I also have one gigabyte, two intel and a tyan running in other rooms of the house. Your best bet is going with what you're comfortable with. For gaming an ASUS is pretty much never a bad choice.

I would definatly go with eVGA for the video card, great warranty, good enough tech support and more than decent stock cooling solutions. I have a eVGA7800gt on this system with an aftermarket cooler pushed past 500/600 so I very much don't doubt their component quality.

2GB is definatly the sweet spot and though I've had some problems with their products, the speed and helpfullness of their tech support and RMA departments prompt me to suggest OCZ. If you're not overclocking their value series is definatly good enough.

The 3700+ san diego is a great prive/performance choice. Again I have one of these on the system I'm typing from running at 2.9ghz 110% stable and with an Tr xp120 it idles at 38 and never breaks 50 with a cheapo fan i had laying around.

You're definatly going to want to upgrade your power supply, 300 may function but, the psu with have temp problems down the road not too far and your voltages are going to sag, noticably. I would reccomend doing a lot of research before settling on a power supply. I have a hard time reccomending seasonic just because I'm taxing my 600w with fewer components than should be taxing it but, for the money they are as quiet as it comes.

 

[ndee]

DerwenArtos12: Thanks alot for your input, greatly appreciated!

After all the things that I've read, I might want to overclock just a little bit I have some Papst 8412 Ultra-Silent fans laying around and I will definitely replace the fan on the heatsink with a Papst. The store that I'm buying from(I'm from Switzerland, so I can't order from Newegg ) also has eVGA video cards but they cost about $80 more, which is quite a bit in my budget. The main problem is, when I say "Ah, $80 isn't too much, let's just do that", the total price of the whole upgrade will be more than I expected. And I also don't plan to overclock the video card yet so I should be fine with the Asus one.

I might get me 2GB after all because you can never have too much memory actually and it's also pretty cheap.

The 3700+ does sound very promising. I'm just not sure if I should upgrade now or wait a month until the AM2 socket motherboards come out. I know, with this attitude, I can wait forever but it's just that the AM2 is one month away so, I'm not sure yet.

Gonna check out silentpcreview.com and read up on some good and quiet power supplies.

Thanks for the answers so far

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Do you have a link to the store, I'd be happy to paruse and see what combo's I can't throw together as suggestions.

 

[ndee]

http://www.digitec.ch , on the top, you can switch the language to English.

I think I gonna go with a Seasonic SS-401HT

 

[DerwenArtos12]

I know it's twice as much but you would be a lot better off with the OCZmodstream 520. only three dollars more than the s12-500 and will much better suit your needs. even pre-SLI 400w is a little low IMHO.

I'm going to force you into a decision here, on your current budget, do you honest to god, on your mothers grave, intend upon going to SLI?

if so, go with the ASUS, if not go with the DFI ultra-d.

the asus video card is out of stock, the evga is in stock. the asus card has a 3 year warranty, the evga has a 5. evga has an upgrade program to help you transition up at a much lesser expense, ASUS doesn't know what that means. totally up to you.

at the same clock speed you're looking at spending 50% more money to get a second core. by logic thats a good deal but, working another 206 chf into your budget probalby cancels that idea out.

for the ram I would suggest going up to the corsair 3200c2 for 309, it's 54chf more than the stuff you had listed but it's worth it.

 

[ndee]

I read some reviews over at silentpcreview and they only had good things to say about the Seasonic SS-400HT. And I figure the SS-401HT won't be too much different, yet, it also saves me some money.

I'm not sure about going SLI, it might be worth it in lets say a year when the 7900GTs are even cheaper. I might go with the Asus A8N-SLI SE, nForce4 SLI, PCI-E, RAID, GLAN after all, because it costs like 10chf more and gives me the option to go SLI.

For the video card, I have to checkout how "loud" they are and maybe it's worth to spend more for the eVGA if it's more silent. I heard about that eVGA upgrade thing but I'm not sure if that also works out of Switzerland.

Now that I think of, when I wanna go SLI, it would also help go with a beefier power supply. Hhhmmm, decisions, decisions

Ok, gonna think over the RAM again. I think if I have alot of projects next month, I gonna go the "expensive" route

 

[DerwenArtos12]

It's usually cheaper to go the expensive route right away instead of going the cheap route at first and chiseling away at your bank account every month or two just upgrading one thing cause it's not quite that fast, believe me, been there, done that, still do.

 

[Bobthelost]

Don't worry about SLI, nearly everyone who buys a SLI board "just in case" ends up not using it. When the next generation of cards roll around the price of the 7900GTs wont' fall much, the supply will just disapear. Of course you can get second hand cards from ebay etc. but i'm not a fan.

400W is plenty for a non SLI system.

eVGA is worth it, because they let you swap the heatsink out and keep the warranty. The 7900GT is not a quiet card by any account i've heard. Step up is a null point unless you're upgrading in the next 90 days to a 7900GTX.

Value RAM is the best bang for buck, faster ram or lower latency stuff is nice, but not economical for the most part.

 

[ndee]

Is there a way to make the 7900GT quiet? I just hate tinkering around with exchanging the cooler, etc.

 

[Bobthelost]

Not really, i don't have one myself so i am far from an expert about it, but making sure you've got good case airflow etc. should let you run the cooler at the lower speed settings, so it shouldn't be too bad.

The only practical way is to either mod the cooler (ie take off the heatsink cover and cable tie an 80mm fan to it), or swap it out.