What combo to get for XP 2500+

[n666]

Hey all,

looking to speed up my current system and not really sure what to go with .. i've been kinda out of the loop so dont really know what i should go for.. this is not an "i'm lazy" post.. i jsut figured i'd ask for some suggestions.

also if you know some good deals for something other then 2500+ then let me know..

oh the use.. well i usually use aps and stuff.. adobe/front page... but also like some gaming once ina while.. and Doom 3 alpha ran pretty slow on my current box. 1ghz athlon with a geforse4 TI 4400.


on board sound is not important i got an SB Audigy 2

oh yea some faster ram would be cool too..

thanks in advance!

 

[Mik3y]

if you want to go cheap and be able to play new games well, then i'd have to recommend you to get a mobile athlon xp 2500+ and the abit nf7-s motherboard. that will cost about $170ish from newegg.com. for video card, get a radeon 9700 pro (for about $170ish) to play the games. that is about the minimum you should go for to play the games smoothly. i have to recomend the 9800 pro for best value/performance. 2500+ itself wont be strong enuff for the games to run perfectly, but u'll still be able to handle it. that's y i recommend u the mobiles, because they can overclock like crazy. u'd need a very good psu though and some decent ram. if u give us ur budget, it'll make it easier for us to find u more info.

 

[n666]

i was gona spend about
150 on cpu/mobo
and i was hoping the geforce would hold up for a bit longer since it's been doing fine with game up to date..
now PSU is something i know nothing about so something good for cheap heh.. dont really know what number to give you

btw thnx for help

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: n666
i was gona spend about
150 on cpu/mobo
and i was hoping the geforce would hold up for a bit longer since it's been doing fine with game up to date..
now PSU is something i know nothing about so something good for cheap heh.. dont really know what number to give you

btw thnx for help

Try this:

Overclocking:
Mobile Athlon 2500+ ($88)
Thermaltake SP-97 heatsink (a little complex to install, but boy does this thing keep your processor cool and quiet!) ($50)
A quiet 92 mm fan for the heatsink (<$10)
Abit NF7-S Revision 2 motherboard ($95)
CPU/Mobo total: $243

Non-overclocking:
Retail Athlon 2500+ with included heatsink/fan (~$75)
Shuttle AN35 motherboard ($58)
CPU/Mobo total: $133

PSU: Antec 430 is enough to power either of these setups ($77 shipped on amazon)
RAM: 2x256 mb ($104) or 2x512 mb ($186 at crucial.com) PC3200 DDR400 RAM

 

[iwantanewcomputer]

hey crimsondude,
i looked at newegg and they've got 2 of those abit nf7's:
$95- ABIT "NF7-M" nForce2 IGP Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
$94- ABIT "NF7-S" nForce2 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
first one's got integrated p.o.s. graphics seconds got usb2, sata raid
are either the "revision 2"

my advice... get the overclocking setup, however i don't know if that expensive ass heatsink is necessary

 

[thetman]

the NF7-S is rev 2 (see "Model#: NF7-S V2" guess what the v2 stands for )

 

[Fern]

n666,

The abit's prolly a better mobo. But the Shuttle an35n-ultra also has the nforce chipset and goes for about $55. I got last month, seems to be doing fine with my old desktop Barton in it.

Since it sounds like you're stuck with old/slow ram for now, get the mobile barton to go with the shuttle and just ramp up the multi.

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: iwantanewcomputer
hey crimsondude,
i looked at newegg and they've got 2 of those abit nf7's:
$95- ABIT "NF7-M" nForce2 IGP Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
$94- ABIT "NF7-S" nForce2 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
first one's got integrated p.o.s. graphics seconds got usb2, sata raid
are either the "revision 2"

my advice... get the overclocking setup, however i don't know if that expensive ass heatsink is necessary

unless you need integrated graphics on the NF7-M, then get the NF7-S.

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: Fern
n666,

The abit's prolly a better mobo. But the Shuttle an35n-ultra also has the nforce chipset and goes for about $55. I got last month, seems to be doing fine with my old desktop Barton in it.

Since it sounds like you're stuck with old/slow ram for now, get the mobile barton to go with the shuttle and just ramp up the multi.

quite right... the mobile barton uses 133fsb/266ram MHz while the desktop version uses 166fsb/333ram MHz minumum. So PC2100 DDR266 would suffice for the non-fsb-oc'd mobile, while you'd need PC2700 DDR333 for the retail 2500+.

If you can save $40 on a motherboard, go for it, especially if you're not going to majorly overclock it.