Good deal on upgrade?

[Benz2002]

Hi guys, I am an avid gamer and right now my machine is lagging very badly so I have gotten a quote from a local independant computer shop to upgrade it. My specs right now are:

AMD ATHLON XP 2500+ (1.8 GHz)
MICRO STAR KM400-8235
256 RAM
ASUS RADEON 9600SE
Realtek 97

The parts I am getting are:

CPU AMD ADA 64 Bit 939 Pin 3800 $185
RAM 1GB DDR PC3200 $115
ASUS EN7600GS/HTD/512M,
PCI-EGEFORCE 7600GS, 512MB DDR2 $189
430W Cooler Master ATX Power Supply $49

Total $538 (for parts)

In total he has quoted me $750 for parts, labor and taxes! I had no idea taxes were so high!! I am 15 and I'm trying to keep my expenses as low as possible. Am I getting a good bang for my buck here?

 

[Boogityboo04]

you'd be getting a better deal doing the upgrade yourself. Belive me, everything pretty much fits together one way these days.

 

[DonNagual]

What is he/she giving you for the motherboard? Your current motherboard looks like it is socket A, with an AGP slot for graphics. For the parts he is listing, you need a socket 939 board with a PCI-e graphics slot. Your current board will not work with those parts he is listing.

 

[Benz2002]

Oh right!!

He told me that already, I forgot to ask him what I'll be getting as I am still arranging it. I'll repost when I find out.

 

[DonNagual]

Some good questions to ask:

1. What kind of ram he is quoting you (make and timings). Is it two sticks of 512mb or one stick of 1Gb?
2. Why is he not building you an AM2 system. The price wouldn't be that different, and it would give you more options in the future.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Avoid Socket 939 nowdays. AMD has stopped manufacturing them so u won't get any support from them regarding Socket 939 processors. A better bet would be to order the parts online and then get the PC assembled by this computer shop fellow or someone from another shop. U can do that urself too, it's not so difficult. Plus u'll save a lot of money.