Hi
I am recently new to these forums and am in bad need of a computer upgrade. My current one is 10+ years old, but still running pretty damn good.
At the moment I have:

Asus MB - don't know anything about it
P3 450 mhz
160 sdram
20gb HD
48x cd rom
burner - can't remember stats
ATI Radeon 7500 AGP 64 MB video card
Creative SB Live or something like that
and a old floppy that barely works

What I am really interested in replacing is the MB, processor, ram, and the floppy drive, everything else has been replaced recently, and 20gb is plenty for me

I don't need anymore hten really 1.6 ghz, 512 ram, and am on a $400 - $500 budget. I live in canada and we have factory direct, don't know if that is in the states but it usually has decent stuff.

Any suggestions on what I could go to and within my budget. BTW I play games.

Thanks for any help.

budget, says you? what kind of games? the type of games you desire greatly impacts what you're going to need hardwarewise, so be specific.

ya my budget is $400-$500 Canadian dollars. I mostly play games like Warcraft 3 TFT, dungeon siege, AOE, and plan on getting the latest DS2 when it comes out. I know a 1.8ghz can run all these and thats all i really need IMO. then just need ram and mobo. What would be the best for me to get?

Also I am not the pickiest when it comes to graphics, my video card will be able to run them fine to my expectations.

Now I know that there are going to be a lot of noobs that dont like to read the person's needs listed and say go 64 bit and get 2 gig of memory and upgrade that 20 gig to 2 300 gigs in raid 0 and get a 7800GTX to play games that a voodoo 3 can manage but this guy wants it simple. He wants to not spend a ton to do a little. But that dont mean that he isnt able to get a lot for a little.


Id suggest going with a AMD socket A Sempron CPU 2600+ or above.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819104212

It will handle anything that you want it to do in your situation

Your not going to be doing anything hard core with it from what you say so buy the retail version and you get a heat sink and fan with it plus the 3 year warranty not the one year vs. OEM.


With the memory you are not limited to the brand that I am suggesting but make sure it is a quality brand in PC 2700. Cosair, OCZ, Kingston, Mushkin or Samsung. As cheap as memory is right now there is no excuse to buy a cheap no name brand.

As for the speed I reccomend PC 2700 AMD Sempron's are touchy when it comes to memory speed matching their bus speed and I have found out that using PC 2700 (333 mhz) over PC 3200 (400 mhz) improoves overall performance. In your case id get no more than 256mb, that is more than enough for the applications you want to run.

Motherboard basically are endless when it comes to socket a. Id suggest a ASUS Abit or Gigabyte. I am not going to post one because I do not know what brands the retailer you described carries. List a few and i'll help you make a determination

ya that processor sounds good,and ram i might just go pick up at futureshop or bestbuy.

if you want go to www.factorydirect.ca basically it has stuff right from manufacturuers or refurbished stuff, i never get the refurbished myself but I am sure it is just as good.

BTW does newegg ship to canada? Thats my only downfall with all these things in the US.

i was just looking on factorydirect and found this

http://www.factorydirect.ca/catalog/...p?pcode=SE2200

can you tell me if that is any good for me? if so what ram is best suited for that combo?

i found this: http://www.factorydirect.ca/catalog/...p?pcode=KI5124

And what does it mean by shared 64mb pro 2d/3d graphics, is there a graphics card right on the mobo or something? becoz i still wanna use my ati card

tigerdirect ships to canada, newegg does not. Tiger Direct is my second choice after newegg and sells similar products. But are a tad higher in price.

Definatly order from them not that other place you had listed...took a look and they sell crap.


AMD Sempron 2600+ $110.99
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...?EdpNo=1050224

Or

AMD Sempron 2800+ $125.99 (Id shell out the extra $15 to get me over the 2ghz line )

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...?EdpNo=1050226

Ultra 256 MB PC 2700 ( An off brand but works really good ) $22.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...6572&CatId=147

MSI KT880 DELTA-FSR Via Socket A ATX Motherboard $84.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...173573&CatId=0

With the Sempron 2600+ the tolal comes to $218.97 with the 2800+ $233.97

If you wanted a setup you can play most modern games with up the memory and and invest in a little better video card....you will still be under your buget.

IC that you are are online. If you use yahoo messanger IM me jimshady23_z
Well under your $400-500 mark

But once you turn that into canadian dollars, plus shipping and handling and customs and whatever else there is it will be well over $300.
But just those two items i listed, the ram, mobo and chip are they good? because i have totaled those plus a $20 floppy drive and its only $258 canadian. and a factorydirect is really close to me.

tigerdirect.ca is canada....it is their canadian branch and all the prices that I listed and in the links are in canadian so there are no import taxes or other fee's just shipping

Tigerdirect.com is the United States Store
Tigerdirect.ca is the Canadian store

98% of their instock orders ship in 24hrs


That combo that you listed is not really a good deal. The motherboard is very limited and the CPU would be lacking.

Your already going cheap....dont go too cheap

o ok thnx ill look at that, btw do they have stores throughout canada too, or can u just order?
would the mobo u listed support this ram instead, i never do rebates so mightbe easier for me to do this:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...?EdpNo=1071019

Yeah if you want to get that memory you sure would increase your preformance that is for sure... 1024 mb vs. the 256mb. But to let you know when tiger direct says rebate it is automatically taken off the price, it is not a mail in rebate unless it says it is so yeah the ram would be 24.99 or how much ever it said.

But if you have the money to spare go with the 1024mb

make sure you've got at least 512 mb of ram, and make it ddr333. perhaps you would benefit from a trip to one or more local pc repair shops, as they will either have the parts you need or be able to build you a decent rig in a day or so. just make sure you've got name brand parts.

I'd avoid Socket A VIA boards myself, because of their PCI latency problems. I'd use a nForce2 board.

you would do fine with an Athlon XP based system, nothing fancy. You can get motherbaords for around $70, CPUs for $80- $130. You don't need a humungous hard drive. A 60 GB is fine for around $50. Memory is cheap also. PC3200 runs around $35 a stick for 512MB, you can probably get it for less.

you really dont need a flopy disc you rip one off a old PC . 80 GB HD . A DECENT mother board in 939 socket . maybe a 3200+ with the 939 socket at least you could upgrade later on when bigger AMD chips prices drop big time. 3200+ is quite fast . a 3000+ is relative cheap around $149.00 U.S but it is a socket 939.

The KT880 is the flag ship for socket A systems. Not that I am bashing Nvidia chipsets but when Athlon 64 CPU's came out Nvidia stoped any inovation on socket A systems and put all attention on 747 and 939 socket boards. Via atleast chose to give socket A users a option to upgrade from KT 600 and nforce 2 boards. I have owned a K7880 board and its features, stability and performance topped the nforce 2 board that I had previous and that board was Abit NF7-S the pinaccal of performance in the socket a era.

The PCI latency issue that you mentioned was only particular to KT400 and some KT600's

how about this jimshady?
it comes to less then buying the parts seperatly as well total 275.98 or so
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...MCM-KV7V-2900A

btw my current graphics card is an all in wonder radeon 7500 64mb ddr agp4x i believe

it says in detail is agp 1x, 2x and 4x and this mobo says it supports 8x/4x agp

i think it will support my card, are my assumptions correct ?

ty alot

What part of Canada do you live in?

I think you can do it for a little more then that but we can get you on your feet...

let see here
mobo = ASUS K8S-MX SOCKET 754 $92.23 CND (OB sound)
video = ASUS AS-R9250/TD RADEON 9250 W/ TV-OUT DVI 8X AGP W/128MB DDR $82.52 CND
CPU = AMD RETAIL ATHLON 64 2800+ CPU SOCKET 754 $160.19
RAM = About $60.00 - $90.00

So yah you can upgrade to a minum of what you will need I would try to save alittle more a better CPU...

OH! and about $15.00 for a 3.5 drive, $45.00 if you get them 3.5/6 in 1 readers that are real good to have as 3.5s are getting hard to find

As you may have noticed I directed him to the 754s as this puts him in an entry level 64 and still keeps his costs down aside for that it does not seem like he want to play doom 3 or HL2 here.