Christmas Upgrade

[F1N3ST]

50$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135023 Motherboard

100$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129155 Antec Case/PSU Combo

183$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115005 Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86Ghz

How does all that stuff look? I am using my existing RAM and my existing video card (for now) but in the future will be upgrading to a X1900GT or similar. And should 768MB of RAM be enough, because i have never used 768mb not while gaming or anything.

 

[JimShady23]

Ddr-ii

Is your currant memory DDR-2 ?

 

[F1N3ST]

No its DDR-400, which this mobo supports.

 

[JMMD]

I think 1GB is the minimum for any PC. For games, 2GB is becoming pretty common.

 

[nickslick74]

Since you are using a PCI vid card, I din't think the amount of memory you have will impact you that much. When you get your X1900XT (or whatever) you will want to get 2GB worth of some good DDR2-6400 memory.

 

[Tedster]

windows works fine with 512mb

 

[YosefM]

IMHO ... your money will go farther in an AMD system. I feel your need to upgrade what you can now, I'm doing a partial upgrade in March.
For games, the limiting factor is the vid card, and most games dont make good enough use of the dual core CPUs to justify one in a truly budget system.
Bang for the buck? I suggest bucking the system - grab the cheapest sempy, and a 754 nForce 4 MB. Get a PCI-e card when you can. Wait for things to settle out for a year after the Vista DX10 scramble.

 

[F1N3ST]

Im gonna wait till november to make a decision, AMD is supposed to be releasing 65nm chips next month.

 

[nickslick74]

754?!?! No way. You get stuck with a 3 generation old mobo that only supports single channel ddr.

EDIT: I think Intel is going to launch their Core 2 Quadro next month, so that may help drive down the price of the C2D's.

 

[YosefM]

754?!?! No way. You get stuck with a 3 generation old mobo that only supports single channel ddr.

Perhaps I was a little hasty. I've just looked at his listed system specs - he currently has a Celeron D 2.9G, 768M DDR400, X1300PRO PCI, that must mean he has an s478 CPU. I dont find any s478 MBs that have PCI-e - I think we have to abandon that CPU.
FIN3ST:
hmmm - $90 buys the Gigabyte 945P-S3, $95 buys a D805, another $100 gets a pair of DDR2 512 sticks for 1G memory - yeah, it's 533, but ya gotta cut corners somewhere. If you have another $100 lying around, use it for a PCI-e vid card, not the 6300 C2D.

 

[F1N3ST]

Im not reusing my CPU it bottlenecks my video card.

 

[YosefM]

Im not reusing my CPU it bottlenecks my video card.

The D805 is an Intel CPU - Smithfield core, the D indicates dual core - kinda famous for its OCs. Since it also works well as a hotplate, dont attempt to OC w/o at least a Freezer 7 Pro cooler.

 

[F1N3ST]

Im gettin a X850XT PE for a vid card because it will play my games at 1024x768 .