Building a new computer soon

[bigballerdan]

Ehh decided the post was too long.

Current rig:
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ 2.1ghz
MSI motherboard that came with original Compaq
Sapphire 9600xt 128mb at stock speeds
1 gig of PC2100 RAM
slow 120gb HD
crappy 200w PSU
Creative Sound Blaster LS 5.1
Logitech Z-5300 5.1-at least I have some decent speakers right 8)

-Want to upgade very soon, CAN wait until Conroe but would rather not.
-Budget $1000-$1300
-Must be AM2 or Conroe Compatible mobo
-already have monitor, keyboard, and mouse although I'll get a new LCD at some point

Suggestions?

 

[The_Abyss]

Don't worry abuot DX10 - it could be nearly a year away.

Why not look at a socket 939 system, which will easily fit in your budget (single core) and still be able to play virtually all games at 1280 x 1024. You can always look to update in a year / 18 months once all the new technology has bedded in then (Vista + DX10, and all the new hardware).

 

[bigballerdan]

Well if I go single core I might as well go AM2 correct? That way I wouldn't have to upgrade RAM in the future. Newegg has some Semprons and low end Athlons I could buy. Would an overclocked Sempron hinder the performance of a 7900gt or x1800xt type card? Also if I do go AM2, any motherboard suggestions? I know that there aren't too many reviews on the ones out right now.

 

[The_Abyss]

AM2 keeps your upgrade pathway open, and I wouldn't think that a Sempron would hinder one of those graphics cards too much, provided you consider 2gb of RAM to compliment it.

I don't know the new motherboards well enough yet - sorry!

 

[bigballerdan]

Yeah it doesn't seem that anyone knows too much about the motherboards. I will probably wait to see what this week brings because I've heard that June 5 Conroe supported motherboards will be available, but then again I heard that AM2 parts would be available on May 23 and not too many were.

 

[syn1kk]

Just for the record, the majority of topics about intel vs amd *favor* the new intel conroe.

So I would wait till conroe is released (July 23rd) and buy the low end conroe and overclock it. There is lots of headroom on the conroe for overclocking.

Even if you dont want intel the amd prices will drop once conroe is out.