Buckett Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 I'm currently running under the following config: Athalon XP 3200+ Barton Gigabyte "GA-7VT600 1394" motherboard 1G DDR3200 (don't know the timings) ATI 9800XT I'm looking to upgrade my system again, since it likes to randomly lock up on me...I want plenty of head room, though. I don't like being limited on upgrades. From where I sit right now, there is no place for me to go. I'm using the fastest Socket A processor that AMD made, the video card is already 8x AGP, and the RAM is running at 400MHz. I'm also on a budget....I'm not looking for a budget computer setup, I'm just limited on the amount of money that I can spend at any given time... Here is what I'm looking at getting.... ASRock (yea, I know...) 775Dual-880Pro motherboard Pentium 4 631 series CPU (3.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, 65nm) 2GB DDR2 533MHz RAM (not right now, though) Video card is still undecided Well, with this particular mobo, I can keep using my current RAM and video card until I have the money to upgrade them. Same with my hard drives. Gives me plenty of room to upgrade the CPU as well, since it can use the Intel Dual Core (Pent D and Extreme Edition) processors. I'm not really sure what video card I should look into. I'm still doing some research on them, but I'd like other peoples' opinions on the situation as well. What do you all think about ATI's X1600's? They're not that bad in price, and I'd REALLY like to stay under $200 if I can help it....I'd be sleeping on the sofa for the next 6 months if I spent over that on just a video card.... Wife---->> :spank: <<----Me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.Ob. Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 Hmmmm, Intel seems to switch sockets alot, although AMD is moving from the 939 to the AM2 (940, but different from initial 940 socket) Of the Intel CPUs, the newest ones seem the only decent ones, but they use DDR2. At least with socket 939, you can get a decently cheap quality (thinking DFI or ABIT) m/b while still using your current ram and still upgrade from say a single core 3000+ or 3200+ to a dual core 4800+ x2 or FX-60 down the road. My wife has the MSI 1600XT and it is a nice card! It should have some legs for the newer games also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckett Posted April 6, 2006 Author Share Posted April 6, 2006 I've been all over Abit's site, newegg.com, pricewatch.com, ASRock, and Gigabyte....can't find a single AMD mobo with DDR2....That was actually the main reason for wanting to go to Intel.... I'm actually quite partial to AMD. The first, last, and only Intel processor I've ever built on was my Pentium 133MHz back in 1997.... Since I'm such an Intel moron....Would it be better to get a 3.0GHz Pentium 4 or a Dual Core 2.8GHz Pentium D? I couldn't find anything on TomsHardware.com about it.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.Ob. Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 Pentium D would be the better of the 2 Intels as I recall. Yeah, DDR2 AM2 socket won't be out til July, assuming it does not get pushed back again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckett Posted April 6, 2006 Author Share Posted April 6, 2006 Thanks a lot, B.Ob. I really appreciate the input. I kinda figured that the Pent D would be better, even if it was a slightly slower speed. I'm definitely going with that. Won't know exact speeds til I get some money saved up though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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