ADVICE: 400$ Budget for Mobo, CPU and Case

"I guess I'm just looking for expert advice on the best I can do.."

I'm going to have 400$ to spend after holidays, and decided I mine as well upgrade as I've been wanting to do for awhile now. All I'm going to need is a case (ATX I assume), motherboard and processor.

Currently have:
Antec 480-W 12V PSU
WD Caviar 300GB HD
Radeon 9800 PRO 128 MB (Does fine for now, thank you
DVD-RW Drive
M-Audio 9268 Sound Card

Currently need:
Case
Mobo
Processor

So - I'm thinking of a mobo with AGP and PCI-E, which I did find the ASROCK for 70$, which features that, 1000mhz FB, and up to 4Gig of 3200 Ram. I'm liking that. Also leaning towards AMD 3500, found that for about 200$.

I guess I'm just looking for expert advice on the best I can do, any help is truely appreciated.

Thanks
David

The aspire X-Navigator is a really good case. There are two versions, an aluminum one, and a steel one. Steel is $99 and Aluminum is $150. The Steel one is better. It doesn't have a good psu though you said you didn't need one. The athlon 64 3700 is a really good cpu. And the Asus A8N-SLI is the best motherboard out there. Here are links to all items.

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811144167

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131524

Total, these will cost $450, but you will have a really upgradable path. The CPU has more built on Ram then the 3500. Good Luck.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I noticed too that the 3700 was definetly worth the upgrade.

Though the mobo is very nice, its definetly needed that I still have an AGP 4x/8x in there, which was the only flaw. Basically the reason I suggested the mobo in my first post. I'm comfortable with the video card I have now, and won't be upgrading that until summer. It's my current setup now which is actually being the bottleneck.

And that case looks very nice, thanks for pointing it out.

if you plan to keep your 9800, then you would be looking to upgrade mobo with agp slot, which means that you have no option of upgrade the gfx for the future (as all new cards comes with pcie slot).

For 400, I would suggest get a nf4 mobo, amd64 3200+ or 3500+.

I guess you plan to upgrade to this board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081
~70

then I would suggest getting this cpu:
amd64 3500+ or 3800+
3500+:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103603
~200
3800+: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103531
~280

To be honest, if I were you, I would spend like around 100 on a good mobo and spend like 200 on the cpu (3500 or $150 on 3200) then spend the rest of the money on a gfx card, like 6800gs (~200). This setup would be much better and you would gain more performance compare to your 9800. YOu can sell your 9800 and add that funds to the new gfx card.

I agree, get a PCI-Express mobo, a new cpu, and a PCI-Express graphics card. You can always get a case later, or look for one on extreme sale. PCI-Express is the way of the future.

I completely understand what you guys are saying - that mobo has the PCI-E and AGP. So I was just hanging on to the Radeon 9800 until the next wave of extra cash comes in.

So the ASRock MOBO with the AGP 4x/8x and PCI-E 16x, the ADM 3700 and a decent case for now, video card 4-6 months down the road. Reasonable?

I should say, I'm not really measuring for 70FPS on average or anything, I mean obviously it would be nice. But something that will measure up for the next 16 months or so would be nice.

I have the AsRock Dual Sata2, I realy like it. Very stable with my 3200+ Venice (mine is clocked at 2.68ghz, he, he.) A good choice, uprade to PCI-E later, and M2 aswell--unbelievable. If you can fine a 144 or 146 Opteron it's alot like a slower 3700+, I mean same cache, great performers.

No NO NO NO NOOOOOO! No Motherboard in the world has AGP and PCI-Express 16x. You have to choose one or the other.

oh yes, yes, yes.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081
Full speed, both slots, even at the same time. M2 upgrade on the way. Awsome.

WHAT! When did that come out? I've searched for those things forever and never found one! Well, I still would get a PCI-Express mobo and a newer PCI-Express Video card.

Like august, I've had mine sence october. Nice mobo, just want more voltage. 2.7v on Vdimm, 1.45 on Vcore. Mods are at OCworkbench. Look there, extremeoverclocking.com, or pcper.com. Alot of talk about this board. Cost less and works better than that Nforce junk. But Nvida just bought ULi, so I gess I have a nvidia chipset now.

Ha! Glad I could help YOU out :grinthumb

The ideal setup for a new pc is:

Mobo:
ASUS A8N-SLI.

CPU:
Athlon 64 (3500-4000).

GPU:
Geforce 6800 (GT or GS).

Case:
Aspire X-Navigator.

With these components you can upgrade for years to come.

David,

How about lowering ur budget to about $300 and saving some money for ur video card upgrade in the summer?

I suggest getting the ASRock Dual 939 board.
ur CPU could be AMD64 3000+
and case could be the thermaltake soprano
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Showi.../Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
it comes with 2 120mm fans and a side fan.. my friend has it and its very quiet and has good air flow.

this totals up to: 292

if ur gonna get the 3500+ think about getting an opteron 148. same price.. i stil have to review the main differences. . maybe someone here can tell u

AMD has cut the 3000+ Venice, the 3200+ is the bottom now. And gess what? Raised prices too. In October I bought a 3200+ for $156, now it is $174.

Opterons are just like San Diegos, but seem to be slighly higher quality. But gess what? CANCELED! You may find one somewhere, 148's are still at newegg. If you do find a 144 or 146 939, jump on it, I wish I had one.

the navigator case is the one im thinking about getting (im on expert) here is the psu it comes with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148027

my suggestion would be to get that agp/pci-e board. that way u dont have to buy another board later.

the one thing about that board though is the north & sough bridge i dont know the importance of them but most mobos use the nv4. can some1 tell me and him

The north bridge goes to the PCI buss, the soulth bridge goes to IDE and SATA.

This board is a NON-plug and play nightmare, XP sorts it out fine. This goes from the north:

one PCI-E16x slot
two PCI-E4x slots, one has onboard SATA2 controler
one AGP 8x/4x slot
firve PCI slots, one with 5.1 sound (not very good eather,) and one with 10/100 ethernet onboard
two serial ports
one paralel port
two ps2 ports
one game port
eight USP ports

I had some problems porting an old install or Windows 98 to it. Had to mess with IRQs but got it to work.

The south:
Two IDE 133s, four drives
four SATA 150, raid is supported but I hear drivers use alot of CPU.
(I might have missed some)

There are jummpers connecting the north and soulth bridges to the CPU or the Upgrade CPU slot. It will have a M2 slot and DDR2.

It has a regular 20 pin power connector(but the 24 will fit, spilling over a little) with a four pin CPU power connector.

This is the most upgradable mobo ever, and it works AWESOME. My 3200+ is at 2.68 ghz and folding(for team 11314.)

Im sold on the Mobo. Been reading as much as I can about it - the availability of the AGP and the M2 upgrade option are the clinch factors for me.

Now I'm onto either getting an AMD 3700+ or the Operton 148 (that might be the wrong one...) - they are both the same price, same FBS, same Mhz. Operton, though made for servers, seem to perform faster, and are more open to being overclocked.

Besides the CPU, biggest obstacle is now the girlfriend. I'm supposed to be saving for a ring. :blackeye:

Get the optie, everyone with one loves'em. OCs like mad on low volts. People say the first ones where realy locked FX-57s!

edit; Maybe get a ring, girls are more important...

Ha. I'm still young. I got time. Besides, that's what
credit cards are for.