Upgrade advice

[g5604]

Hi,

my mobo has died :-( so i am thinking this is a good time to upgrade. unfortunalty my hardware knowledge is stuck from when i built my current pc, about 2 and a half years ago.
i have 2gig (4x512) ddr 400 ram, a 2.8ghz HT northwood P4, an agp nivida gt6600, plus the usual drives.

can anyone give my some advice on what type of motherboard and processor to get? i want it to be faster than my current rig, and if possible very quiet.

cheers,
Gareth

 

[steve67474]

well m8 if you are changing mobo and p4 then the worlds your oyster really. do u want intel or amd?? is it a gamer or work?? memory will be fine but unless you have any preferences here there is a myriad of configs u can go for in my humble opinion. If it was just mobo then u wld be restricted to your p4 chip as to what mobo. Hope this gives some guidance

PS whatever u get ensure it has 4 mem slots to make use of all ur memory

 

[g5604]

Hi,

it is for work.. photoshop, flash etc.. but i would like to be able to play most games.

can you recommend a better processor that wont break the bank,

do you think its worth upgrading at all? i could just get a new mobo, but socket 478 boards seem hard to find now and i would rather spend money upgrading than just replacing with the same 3 year old technology.

cheers,
G

 

[steve67474]

Can't choose it for you as each to their own but I prefer amd skt 939. The Abit AV8-3RD Eye Skt 939 is a nice board which supports AMD (Venice) Athlon 64 3200+. You could probably pick these up for about £150 but you need to check on your power supply and I think this board only supports SATA not sure so needs some investigating. As I say one mans meat is another mans poison. This should fly and there is capability to overclock with the third eye option.

 

[g5604]

sounds good thanks, would this be a big speed boost from my current spec? my psu is 400w

 

[RealBlackStuff]

In that case, AMD64 would be the preferred route to go (get an Opteron 165 if you want to overclock).
If you want to continue with your AGP card, the choice is getting limited, as PCI-E cards and mobos are taking over.
Look at this article for some ideas http://www.firingsquad.com/hw/4076/MSI_K8N_Neo2_Platinum/

 

[steve67474]

read your PM I have sent a site I use to buy bits. Again its ones own choice but didn't want to post it here in case I broke rules.

 

[g5604]

thanks steve, i have used them before always great prices

 

[RealBlackStuff]

If it helps, I have that very Abit AV8 3rdEye, with a 3000-Winnie. Still on BIOS #17 although #26 is out by now. 2x512MB PC3200 runs as dual-channel.
Matrox Millennium G550 AGP-graphics. 2x80GB Seagate Barracuda PATA.
I have yet to have any crash or BSOD since January 2005!
I don't overclock and use the PC almost exclusively for business. With XP-Pro it's been rock-solid.
Some people hate the mobo, others love it (I do).