Computer upgrade?

[Simon]

So my powersupply blew up last week and took my motherboard along with it. Figuring this is a decent time to upgrade, I figure I might as well. The old motherboard was AGP so my old vid card is AGP as well, but I might as well embrace the PCI-E 16x revolution and fork out money for a new vid card too.

Thinking of purchasing the following from ncix:

EVGA E-GEFORCE 7900 GS KO 500MHZ 256MB 256BIT 1.38GHZ GDDR3 Dual DVI-I HDTV Out Video Card -- $220
ASUS A8N5X ATX S939 NFORCE4 DDR PCI-E16 SATA RAID Sound GBLAN Motherboard -- $100
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Processor S939 Venice 2.4GHZ 512K L2 Cache 90NM Retail Box -- $150

Total is ~$450 canadian. Anyone know why or why I shouldn't get any of these parts, or maybe where I should spend more or less money? thx

[Chikko]

Re: Computer upgrade?

I'd consider going with the AM2 socket, as it is newer and very similar in price. The only additional cost to consider is you will require new ram (DDR2), but in the long run you will be able to buy upgraded parts for a longer period of time. That being said I was stupid and bought one with the 939 socket so I could keep my ram - then I ended up buying new ram anyways (DDR). The socket 939 still great performance, and way more computer than I'll need for a few years.... But there's still something to be said for upgradeability with PC's. I went with a M/B with included video as well, so that I didn't have to take the hit on a video card right away. It's got DVI out built in, and works find for what I do, and was only $10 more for the M/B. I can and do still plan on getting a better PCI-Ex16 card at a later date, at which time I can use it with this board no worries.

[Simon]

Re: Computer upgrade?

Yeah I am definitely consider going the Am2 route, but buying another gig of DDR2 ram will make the price go way up, especially when I already have a perfectly good gig of normal DDR ram.

And I figure might as well get the video card now, I built my roommate a comp a few weeks ago w/ onboard video and wasn't impressed. It was choppy at high resolutions in windows.

[Simon]

Re: Computer upgrade?

Another option Tigerdirect.ca has on sale right now is:

Asus A8N5X-GR NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ OEM Processor

on sale for $249, so same motherboard w/ 200 more mhz. Seems like a decent deal.

[Khyron]

Re: Computer upgrade?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ w/ 2x512K Cache - 180
MSI K9N Neo-F w/ DualDDR2 800, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, PCI-E x16 105
OCZ 1GB PC2-6400 Gold Gamer eXtreme XTC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 512MB) 180

with your video card above 7900. Pay the extra 180 bucks and sell your existing ram.

Khyron

[bart]

Re: Computer upgrade?

i have a socket775 mobo with 1gb ddr ram for sale. $250, its only a few days old. microatx format, onboard video with 3 pci slots. no agp or pci-e though :(

[Simon]

Re: Computer upgrade?

i have a socket775 mobo with 1gb ddr ram for sale. $250, its only a few days old. microatx format, onboard video with 3 pci slots. no agp or pci-e though :(

haha

[bart]

Re: Computer upgrade?

you know you want it