Need help on buying new motherboard and CPU and RAM

royknives

royknives

Geek Trainee
I am new to the forums and I am looking to upgrade my system...I have a Asus A7v8x motherboard with a Athlon XP 2400+ 2.00 ghx with 512 ram...I am going to rebuild this PC myself...I was wondering what your guys would recommend...I have been looking at MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI nForce4 SLI Athlon 64(FX) Skt939 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA or maybe a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe nForce 4 SLI Athlon 64(FX) Skt939 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA I am not sure what I would need for CPU's for these boards and I want to have at least 1024 or 1536 of ram...HELP!!!!!!! will I also need to buy a soundcard and video card with theses???? :confused: I also just read that there will be BTX boards in the near future..should I wait for those? :swt:
 
As far as I know, the 3500 + athlon chip is almost as good as the FXs, and not worth spending the ridiculous amounts of money. Consider a 4000 if you have money to kill, though.
 
Those boards will require a video card which is PCI-E but there will be already onboard sound so thats not a problem.
 
Okay, lets start with the basics:

What are you going to use this for, and what do you want to spend for this upgrade?

You will need to buy a new video card as nForce 4 boards DO NOT have AGP.
You will also likely need a new power supply if your current one isn't a quality unit.
Considering you're replacing the main parts of the system, I'm also figuring that you'll go ahead and upgrade the hard drive and optical ones, so factoring all that in, here's a suggestion, as you're looking for something of a high-powered upgrade.

Motherboard: Gigabyte K8NF-9 nForce 4 ---$149.00
CPU: Athlon 64 3500+ OEM (CPU only) ---$325.00
CPU cooler: Gigabyte 3D Rocket Pro $35.49
RAM: Corsair XMS PC3700 1GB (2x512MB) DDR ---$261.77
Video Card: MSI NX6800 TD256-E, GeForce 6800 256MB PCIe ---$335.00
Power Supply: Thermaltake 480W Silent Purepower Xaser Edition ---$56.50
Hard Drive: Western Digital 200GB, 8MB cache, Serial ATA ---$121.00
Optical drive: Samsung 16x DVD+/-RW, TS-H255B, OEM Bulk ---$59.99
Case: Lian Li PC-60 ---$89.99

Total (excluding tax for CA & NJ and shipping charges): $1,443.74

The nForce 4 SLI boards are listing for over $250. Unless you have to have it, I'd not get one unless you absolutely must jump on the SLI bandwagon right now and have the money to do it. The Athlon 64 3500+ is about the fastest you can get while maintaining a good price/performance ratio. The 3800+ goes for over $200 more than the 3500+, and the Athlon FX's are simply far too expensive in light of similar performance from chips costing several hundred dollars less. $700-1k for a CPU? Hell no.
 
Wow Big B, that is exactly what I am talking about....thanks...I want to upgrade my system to something HOT and right now, if that makes sense..I have had the present system for 3 years and want to have some of the latest and greatest. Yes, I will change the hard drive and power supply as well...I just purchased the Sony Optical drive DRU-710A on sale with a rebate before Christmas..which I installed in my present system, along with a liteon LTD 163 DVD-rom player..which will move from this system to the new one. Question...when you say CPU: Athlon 64 3500+ OEM (CPU only) why the OEM...for instant I just went to
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80717-R they list the OEM version for $1 more...that's strange....maybe this is a typo..and they suggest buying the RETAIL version because of the warrenty, Is price the only advantage to OEM? Don't you just hate NOVICE GEEKS! Go ahead...I can take it.. :D
 
Yes thats strange since OEM are generally cheaper than the retail versions. With retail you'll get a stock HSF aswell as the warranty.
 
That's true. It really depends on the price between the retail and OEM. If you get the retail, you certainly don't need to get the extra CPU cooler. However, a third party cooler can offer better cooling capacity.

For sound, if you're gaming, you'll want to look at the Audigy 2 ZS. If music is a little bit higher priority, you'll want something with the VIA Envy 24HT on it. These can run anywhere from $25 to well over $200, depending on what card you get. Some of them are geared toward audio professionals an have break-out boxes and tons of connectors. Chaintech AV710 and Gainwards Hollywood@Home 7.1 are on the cheap end. M-Audio is on the higher end of things.
 
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