Name: robu5t Date: May 7, 2008 at 20:33:03 Pacific Subject: Looking to upgrade PC w/ core 2 duo OS: Win XP CPU/Ram: AMD Athlon 3000/ 1gb
Comment:
I am on a budget looking to upgrade my mobo, cpu and memory for my pc. Since I have an X800 XL AGP, I need a mobo that has AGP. That's why i am looking at the ASRock 4coredual sata2. I am a bit of a newbie when it comes to PCs. Will this setup work?
Don't back yourself into a corner by keeping your -- pretty weak by today's standard -- AGP X800XL. Moreover, it will bottleneck even the lowest C2D out there if you build a new rig around it.
You are better off building your new system from ground-up & forget looking for a hybrid motherboard.
I wanted to only plan on spending 300 max. The thing is, i don't play games that demand a lot of hardware. Right now my system is an AMD Athlon XP 3200, 1 gb RAM, X800 XL AGP, and it runs most of the games i play decently. I only want to make a small upgrade because my system is freezing all the time. If you guys can suggest a better bang for my buck, i'm open to hear.
That brings the total to approx $280 with shipping & after rebates. However, chances are you'll need a new power supply too. Sell your old board/CPU/RAM/video card to finance the PSU.
"And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"
Does your current PSU have a 24-pin main power connector? Does it have a 4-pin ATX12V plug for the motherboard? Does it have adequate amperage on the +12v rail? I could be wrong, but my guess is, No.
Generally speaking, the higher the FSB, the better the overall system performance. For example, 7.5 x 400MHz would be faster than 9 x 333MHz, even though both settings will run the CPU at 3.0GHz. Of course, your RAM & motherboard would have to be capable of running at that speed. DDR2-800 is meant to run at 400MHz & the P35 chipset can handle that speed as well, so you should have no problem with either of those boards.
Did you notice the different layouts though? The Gigabyte board has a single PCI-e x16 slot, one x1 slot & 5 standard PCI. The Abit board has a single PCI-e x16 slot, two x1 slots & 3 standard PCI. Both use passive cooling on the chipsets. There are other good P35 boards available, but they're more expensive. I picked these two to keep the cost down. Another very popular Gigabyte board just jumped in price by $10:
It seems expensive when I factor in the power supply. What if i just purchase a barebone system so it includes the PSU, mobo, and cpu. Is there a decent barebone system i can get out of this website?
I'm hoping i can get a barebone system from here for less than 250, so i can spend 50 for the geforce 8600 and a little more for RAM. Or even if someone has a another site that has a good barebone system, please recommend one to me.
The power supply is the single most important piece of hardware in the system. If it doesn't work properly, nothing works properly. Here's something a little cheaper, also not as good:
