Upgrade Time, Some Questions

[Darthshearer]

Hi Guys

Its time, to upgrade and I need some of your experiance and knowledge.

This time I wanna get a nice one so I can play X2 and some other games that are coming out

I would like to spend some decent cash on decent parts, ie not be tight and get shit but not be too flash and get stuff for the sake of the name, anyway I think I know what you mean

Current Setup (Dont Laugh)

CPU - AMD Athlon XP 2000+
Mobo - Asus A7V266-E
Memory - 512Mb Generic DDR memory
GFX - 64Mb Geforce 4 MMX 440
Sound - 128 PCI Creative Soundblaster
HDD - 40Gb Maxtor
CDR/W - Standard One (Sorry Not A Lot of Info )
Other H'ware - Standard 3.5" Floppy Drive, 52X CD Drive, ATX Case Standard
OS - Windows XP Pro
Anyway Thats it, as you can see I got this with Standard in mind

Well tbh I aint got a clue what I would like. I dont need to change my Keyboard, monitor or mouse that for sure, but would like the following in mind anyway.

Case - Nice large one (dont we all) with plenty of space for expansion etc.
thats loackble
Memory - 2Gb
GFX - help
HDD - Western Digital 120Gb?
DVD Drive - ?
CD/RW - ?
Mobo - ?
CPU - Normally stuck with AMD BUT this time I am willing to venture into Intel land if needs be

Well as you can see im stuck so can you please help me

TIA

 

[Scooba da Bass]

Post your budget so people have a clue what to suggest.

 

[Darthshearer]

Hmm well its £1k but I could do maybe £1.5k

 

[wyrd_fish]

bah, rich git

this is pretty much what i'm working towards

all prices are aproxomate

Asus A7N8X Deluxe V2 - £80
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ "Barton" - £100
1024MB Corsair PC3200 TwinX RAM - £150
120GB Wetern Digital SATA HDD - £70
Radeon 9800XT - £300

total - £700

note: my math ain't that good, and some prices may be -VAT

 

[Darthshearer]

Cheers Wyrd.

Anyone else give me any opinions

 

[throdgrain]

Wyrds description is very similar to my set up darth, and Im very happy with it
However , be aware its kind of on the end of its development, xp3200 notwithstanding, and if you really want to go mad maybe a 64 bit set up is the solution.

 

[leggy]

9600xt - £140
HD - £60
Stick of generic 512 - £50

I've just saved you 800 quid. Buy me a pint.

 

[ECA]

you can get 160gb WD's for 65 quid.

I've been working with chieftec cases this week and they have impressed me, good build quality, couple of edges but mostly rounded, rail mounted drives, removable hdd and floppy bays on a latch ( secure dont worry ), lockable front and side panel ( great for lans in scotland ) and plenty of space inside to work with.

Around 45quid for a 5+1/4 and 2x3+1/2 bays model.

 

[leggy]

( great for lans in scotland )

*Uses 2 hour on ECA*

 

[Darthshearer]

I have been looking www.overclockers.co.uk for Cheiftec Cases and they are £80+ quid, what are some other good sites to look at for PC stuff?

 

[Darthshearer]

Right sorted the above out, but cant edit my post

Anyway after thinking about Throddy's suggestions and as I aint up to date on the techno stuff can someone answer the following.

What is the differnace between AMD Athlon & AMD 64 Processors?

Is it Worth gettinga high end AMD 64Bit CPU or a High End Inetl CPU e.g P4 3.3Ghz Processor?

Oh and what is a SATA Drive?

 

[throdgrain]

The new 64 bit xp3200 cpus are meant to be about 20% faster than the regular Barton xp3200, thats the difference. Of course you have to get the mobo to match, so it does add a bit to your shopping bill. However if you want to spend a grand or more I expect that wont be too much of a problem.
I dont know anything about Intel really, sorry, I expect Xavier will know lots though.
(ps they're evil buy amd)

 

[Darthshearer]

The new 64 bit xp3200 cpus are meant to be about 20% faster than the regular Barton xp3200, thats the difference. Of course you have to get the mobo to match, so it does add a bit to your shopping bill. However if you want to spend a grand or more I expect that wont be too much of a problem.
I dont know anything about Intel really, sorry, I expect Xavier will know lots though.
(ps they're evil buy amd)

I know I have thought Intel were always evil wevil but I may change (dont hurt me)

 

[Darthshearer]

Cant bloody edit again.

Anyway, can I ask wtf is a "AMD Opteron" is it a model of the AMD 64bit?

What is the better of the two here?

AMD Opteron 1.8Ghz - 1Mb Cache
or
Intel P4 Prescott 3.2Ghz (800FSB) Man this is confoosing for me

 

[SawTooTH]

Ive been pricing stuff and thoiught the shuttle with AMD 64 3400.

 

[Darthshearer]

Really helps my questions though dont it

 

[wyrd_fish]

Cant bloody edit again.

Anyway, can I ask wtf is a "AMD Opteron" is it a model of the AMD 64bit?

What is the better of the two here?

AMD Opteron 1.8Ghz - 1Mb Cache
or
Intel P4 Prescott 3.2Ghz (800FSB) Man this is confoosing for me

the opterons are for rack mount servers, i think, feel free to correct me


and as for betterness, it depends

 

[Darthshearer]

the opterons are for rack mount servers, i think, feel free to correct me


and as for betterness, it depends

So far my Home PC they wouldnt be any use? Also dends on what? mobo, memory etc?

 

[Gengi]

Wyrd is right Opterons are AMD's server offerings. Darth take a look at the stickied thread about the 64 bit Athlons and the Prescott Intels that Xavier has compared. I am waiting at the moment for the 939 chips to come out as that will be the upgrade path of the future (possibly)

Later

 

[Darthshearer]

Wyrd is right Opterons are AMD's server offerings. Darth take a look at the stickied thread about the 64 bit Athlons and the Prescott Intels that Xavier has compared. I am waiting at the moment for the 939 chips to come out as that will be the upgrade path of the future (possibly)

Later

Cheers Gengi, will do.