w00t! Upgrade time!

I think I'll buy some new hardware before I install Vista, so I need some advice / opinion... I have been following hardware less as I'm still running my Athlon 2500+. I'm looking for a decent PC, nothing top of the line, but something that will last another few years.
So, question one, with PCI express, if I see this: PCI Express x16: 1 (Runs at x8 mode) What does that limit me to (if anything).

Second, here's the common components I'm looking at:

Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
$63

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory Model VS1GBKIT667D2 - Retail
$75 - I'm not sure if this is the right speed memory, the new AMD CPUs on NewEgg don't show the FSB, so I might have to get DDR2 800 or something...

Here's where I start to have questions. I'd prefer AMD, but I haven't ruled out Intel completely... Also, I prefer nVidia chipsets / video, but I haven't ruled out the other ones completely.

I found this combo on newegg... Toms liked the card, and it's a dual-core CPU.

SAPPHIRE 100176L Radeon X1950PRO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane 1.9GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO3600DDBOX - Retail
-$15.00 Combo
$251.98

I found this motherboard...
MSI K9VGM-V Socket AM2 VIA K8M890 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
$51.99

I liked MSI, I've had good luck with them. I saw This MSI nForce board, but it was the one with the 8x PCI express slot.

That would be it. I've got case / PSU / DVD / Burner at home. I'm at $441 for the above items.

I was planning on the 7600GT, but when the above card is $150 and the 7600GT is $125 and up, I'll take a look at the ATI.


Any thoughts / suggestions?

Read the stickies!

Die, newbie, die!

Right, now we've got the formalities out of the way...

I'd concur with the suggestion to get 1 stick of ram, or go for 2Gb off the bat. some games are already benefitting from >1Gb of RAM, and that trend is only going to continue.

Also, I've heard nVidia's Vista drivers are less stable than ATIs at the moment. This will probably be rectified soon(ish), but if you're not planning on dual-booting, this might influence your decision.

First question..

What are you going to use your computer for?

Just buy Dell's Alienware.

Seriously, what are you going to use your computer for before anyone can tell you advice.

Hell, get VGA onboard and save yourself a couple hundred.

For the mobo, since you're going to be playing OC a little, get something with nForce. Via makes good stable chipsets, but not for OCers. MSI had a few bad years recently, don't know if they've recovered or not. Abit or Epox would be my recommendation (not to exclude any others including Gigabyte, Foxconn, ASRock, Asus, etc.). Abit tends to OC better (but either will OC plenty for a 'hobbyist'). Umm, I tend to avoid Biostar (although I have Duron that's been running for 5 yrs on a Biostar), PC Chips and ECS.

Mike.

You might be better off waiting until the end of the month. nV is supposed to release their mid-range (8600 series) DX10 (big deal ), unified shader (that is a big deal) GPUs at CeBit. Everything is looking like a hard-launch. The price is estimated at around $200. From the sounds of it, it will be worth the money and the wait. If you cannot wait, then the X1950Pro is a good card by current standards. Honeslty, I really think their 8600 series is going to be a real winner for the money. There is supposed to be a GT and GS versions with the GT being the higher-end ~$200 card. ATI's stuff isn't coming out until May which is a bit too long to ask someone to wait for. It is looking like ATI will hard-launch with a full range of cards as well.

You should strongly look at the Intel Core 2 Duos if you do plan to overclock. AMD is only holding onto the low-end right now and their processors are great in that respect (and still offer enough for the average user) but when you bring overclocking into the picture the AMD's don't scale or perform anywhere near the Core 2 Duo architecture right now for the money. The base E4300 and E6300 are a good choice to keep the cost down.

If you do decide to got the Intel route, the Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 will be your best bet for a budget priced (still pricey at $110) board for either the E4300 or E6300. If you stay AMD, then I think fishmahn is on the right track with Epox and Abit although it only applies to Abit's newer boards. They ran into a spot of trouble with a lot of their S939 boards and some of their earlier AM2 boards. They were the king when it came to Socket A. If you need to really keep the cost down, then stick with ECS and not PCChips. ECS isn't much better, but they're still better. I don't recommend Asus boards for AMD solutions but that is based on my Socket A experiences. They may have changed. Their Intel solutions are some of the best.

@ fishmahn is correct on the PCI Express bus. Anandtech listed about a 5% performance hit when using a 4X PCI Express lane so you shouldn't see any difference at 8X.

Since your used to the Athlon XP, and if you go with the AM2 you can kiss the FSB goodbye and say hello to the HyperTransport frequency, the Hypertransport multiplier, the CPU External Clock, the CPU Multiplier and memory speed dividers.

My nVidia was acting...odd...when running off the Vista installed driver but
once I updated directly from nVidia I've had no problems. This is on my old
and dusty 6800GT though...

My budget is nill, so every step I take as an upgrade I have to evaluate. Such as the cheapest AM2 CPU was a Sempron at $43. The cheapest non-Sempron was $65. The cheapest dual-core was $95. I figure the $30 for the dual core is a worthy investment.

I do the basics, web surfing, e-mail, office, but I do game on occasion. As I said, I'm not looking to run everying at 2000x1500 (ish), but I think 1024x768 with full detail is a good compromise...

I bought Vista OEM, so I wanted to bump up my rig before I installed it...

I would, but by then I'll be all set with my settings and customizations and files and such, and I just won't want to install Vista anymore... Too much work...

I'll give it a whirl and let you all know what happens...

But as far as the upgrade, it does look like I will wait until the new nVidia cards come out in a week or two...

Due to advice here, I'll go with a single 1 Gb stick now, and add a second stick later when money is a little better... That's another $80 or so...

And thanks for the info about the C drive. I'll likely go with a 40Gb or so partition...

Here at work, they put the Docs & Settings folders on the D Drive, leaving windows on C. I'd like to figure out how to do that, as it separates the OS / programs from the data...

Those long winter evenings must just fly by

I don't know if they have a TweakUI for Vista yet, but it's a very nifty tool for allowing you to change a lot of defaults in Windows XP, including where a user's My Documents, Desktop, etc.. resides. Believe it or not, it is (or was) a free download from Microsoft.

I appreciate the situation. I'm in a similar boat that I don't have any spare cash and my PC is getting older. The low end AMD's are good value but on a pure performance per $ assessment the C2D is probably the winner in most cases.

I'm on a 2500XP and the route that I have looked into is a E4300 on an AS Rock Dual. This would allow me to carry forward my DDR memory and AGP graphics (although 6150 onboard would likely smoke my 64Mb 9200!) and then move to the new technologies as and when.

I wonder about the wisdom of waiting for DX10 cards right now. The existing cards have settled down price wise and the drivers are now stable. For me something like a 7600GT would probably be about the sweet spot right now.

The other thought that springs to mind is that we could just distract the Ninja with some bubble butt pictures and go rob his lab while he is looking the other way

Now that would be a neat trick...

*starts googling for registry hacks*

Does that mean you won't if noone is interested?

*raises hand in favor of "not interested"*

8)

If you want something exhuming, ask Wingy. He's got plenty of practice.

OMG!

You're such a pc hardware idiot, Jef. OGM (Oh, god me!), I cant believe you cant understand what 8 X stands for!

It means you are absoultely happy with a GPU that can 8X your scrotum. Instead of the regular PCI 16X "double lick" scrotum special, you instead are happy with the 8 X "single lick" standard Auburn cheerleader special.

Auburn cheerleaders are notoriously lazy when it comes to the "double lick" so Phuks "Bama Double/Triple licke" sheilas are all the rage bro.

So piss those GPU figures off, and instead look to the GPUs that can provide the best headjobs for the least amount of power output. You know Al Goe would be happy, despite his own atrocious levels of usage.

Well, you seem to be in a better mood... I hope things pick up soon, or we are going to have to fly down there and kick you ass on general principle...