Advice on Upgrading My Computer

[jwhite480]

I currently have an ASUS A7V motherboard with a 1Ghz processor and 512 RAM. I would like to upgrade the system and really increase my gaming performance. My budget for Motherboard, CPU and RAM is around $500. Please offer any advice on what I should be considering...my son has suggested an ASUS A7N8X with an AMD 2700 Barton and 1 Ghz matched RAM.

 

[jwhite480]

correction, that was an AMD 2800 "Barton"

 

[RCPilot]

ASUS A7N8X with an AMD 2700 Barton and 1 Ghz matched RAM.

I'd go with the Deluxe version 2.0 board, the 2500 & a gig of Hyper X 3200 myself. That's what I'm running as I write. You can run the multiplier at 12.5 instead of 11 & get 2800 speeds on stock cooling out of the box. I've put several of them together. A gig of RAM is a lot depending what you use your machine for. What about a vid card to handle the new setup? that's about all you'd need. Well maybe a WD JB 8 mg HDD to feed it?

newegg Prices
A7N8X Deluxe 1 day sale $117
XP 2500 Ret. $91
XP 2700 Ret. $121
Hyper x cas 2.0 1x 512 $120
WD JB 8 md cashe 80 gig, 1 day sale $73.50

That's a good backbone for sure. Not much differance in price for the CPU, but I know the 2500 OC's great! Make sure you've got a good case & PSU!



Dazzle them with Brilliance, or Baffle them with BS!

 

[jwhite480]

If I go with the Hyper X 3200, does this assume that I am overclocking the CPU?

What is the WD JB md Cashe 80 gig HDD?? KNow that sounds like I don't know what I am doing....but there is a lot of truth to that.

 

[RCPilot]

Not really. The way I told you to OC the CPU would leave the RAM in Sync. @ 333 FSB. The reason I suggest DDR 400 on that board it next year when the prices fall on the 400 FSB CPU's, you can just buy that & garb as much speed out of the board as it will allow. It won't ever go past 400 FSB. Just a economical upgrade, late next year , if you'd like. THe RAM prices are so close between 27700 & 3200 anyway IMO.

BTW that's exactly what I'm doing!



Dazzle them with Brilliance, or Baffle them with BS!

 

[jwhite480]

I thought that you couldn't use PC3200 memory unless your processor supported it.....it makes sense to go ahead and buy the faster memory now and upgrade the CPU later

 

[RCPilot]

No, the RAM just is running under clocked until you change the FSB to 400 for the new CPU, then the RAM will run at it's rated 400 speed. If you want to play with FSB OCing you can with the 400 & a 333 FSB CPU as well, just watch the temps.

If you had 2700 RAM & Then got the 400 FSB Cpu, you'd have to OC that memory up to 400 speeds. It's easier to go the other way, believe me.

IMO it's better to have the extra gas in the tank so to speak.



Dazzle them with Brilliance, or Baffle them with BS!

 

[RCPilot]

I missed the 8 mg cashe question. 8 mg verses 2 mg. You'll see a lot of difference in performance, especially with a dual channel RAM MOBO running. It matches better to the RAM , CPU, & MOBO, no bottlenecks slowing things down.



Dazzle them with Brilliance, or Baffle them with BS!

 

[jmycal]

definately go with the deluxe v2 and get a cpu with a "barton" core, 512 l2 cache, and since the a7n8x & del has dual memory channels you can get matched memory if you like i have a set of matched corsair TWINX512-3200C2PT. also to consider is your video card. you might want to consider upgrading that as well. check pricewatch for the best prices but newegg has pretty competitive prices all around. for the cpu mobo and ram i paid about 375$'s which would leave you some money to upgrage video card as well. my 2 cents

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