Stoopid question...

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basketcase

basketcase

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Hi all, I have what I think will be an easy question for you to answer.

I am looking to upgrade my mobo and cpu.
Here is the mobo I am thinking about...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135151
and here is the CPU...
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819104231

My question is, can I use my 2x512 sticks of 266 ram? It says DDR 400, but will my ram work, or do I need new ram?

If if does work, how much of a performance hit will I really notice. My current rig is an Athlon XP 2600+, so I am sure I won't notice a difference between the ram speeds.

Thanks
 
rodney_ws

rodney_ws

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That should ("should being the key word) work fine. That board requires DDR and you presently have DDR... I've never heard of a board requiring a particular speed of a certain type of memory. Yes, that socket is a dead-end, but man it's hard to argue with that price.
 
basketcase

basketcase

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Yeah, I know the 754's are already outdated... But I have read good things about the Sempron64 3400. Some benchmarks put it close to a Athlon 64 3500-3700, but atleast as fast as a A64 3200+. So it is going to be a significant improvement over my AthlonXp 2600 (right?...).

But really, my main reason is to get just a little more use out of my Sapphire X800GTO (AGP) card. I mean, sure it isn't PCI Exp or a 8800 SLI... But the thing is a monster. Plus for about a hundred bucks, my fiance won't kill me.

Anymore thoughts or opinions on either pieces of hardware would be appriciated.

Thanks!!
 
basketcase

basketcase

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Well.... first of all, let me leave the room before you start laughing...

I am going to use it primarily for gaming and some video editing. But, I use my current rig for gaming too and I am actually pretty pleased with it. But, it is about 4 years old and starting to show its limitations. I just want something to get me another year or two without a complete upgrade. Now, when I say gaming... I am not your "Hardcore Gamer" with everything cranked to 1600x1800 (or whatever) resolution with max AA and AF on. My monitor doesn't even go that high.

So with that in mind, do you think that CPU/MOBO setup is better than what I currently have? And before you ask, I don't know what kind of MOBO I currently have. It is a Compaq Presario 6430nx (if that helps).

Thanks!!
 
kstrat2001

kstrat2001

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I am looking to upgrade my mobo and cpu.
Here is the mobo I am thinking about...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135151
and here is the CPU...
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819104231
Click to expand...

I would definitely advise against buying that motherboard. It seems to be creating nothing but problems for almost everyone that owns it.

It also seems like you need to flash the bios before it will recognize a sempron. If this is the case you may need another s754 CPU to boot up and flash the bios. My guess is that your problems will not end there.

Do you have a budget for this upgrade?
 
basketcase

basketcase

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Oh yeah... plus then I can move my Athlon XP 2600 and mobo down to my Home Theater PC. It currently has a Duron 1200 running it and it is painful to use (sometimes).
 
basketcase

basketcase

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I am looking to upgrade my mobo and cpu.
Here is the mobo I am thinking about...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135151
and here is the CPU...
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819104231
Click to expand...

I would definitely advise against buying that motherboard. It seems to be creating nothing but problems for almost everyone that owns it.

It also seems like you need to flash the bios before it will recognize a sempron. If this is the case you may need another s754 CPU to boot up and flash the bios. My guess is that your problems will not end there.

Do you have a budget for this upgrade?

My budget is approx $100 (I can go up a little, maybe $130-140, if it is really worth it.) I don't have another 754, so maybe you could recommend a better MOBO. The big thing is that it has AGP.

And another thing I just realized is I need a MicroATX board and this is a regular ATX, so I couldn't use it in my current case anyways. Though, I am not opposed to a new case as well. I do have a good 400 watt PSU already.
 
basketcase

basketcase

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sorry, sempron's are not the usual thing you see in gaming rigs. however it has been a while since i have seen any benchies so i don't know. for gaming it is all gfx card so i suppose if you play as maxed out as you can it shouldn't matter although for video editing it might not be great.

then again as long as it does what you want it to do im sure it will be fine. i didn't want to sound patronising.
Click to expand...

Believe me, I understand what you are saying about the Sempron. The thing about this one is it is the same chip as a regular A64 chip (or so I have read), it just has less L2 cache. So, I am not too afraid of it... expecially when I compare it to my current CPU.

But, I do appriciate your opinion.
 
basketcase

basketcase

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Anyone else have any thoughts on a better upgrade for approx $100 (max $140) that can handle AGP?

Remember I am going from an Athlon XP 2600, so just about anything is an upgrade.

Thanks Again.
 
utaka95

utaka95

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I know you wanna use your AGP card, but for $140 at Newegg you can get a Biostar Tforce 6100 (w onboard video) and an A64 4000. Sell (or use in another box) the agp card and you can upgrade to pci express. In the meantime you can use the onboard video to carry you over until you can afford a new vid card, and you get max computing power for your dollar.
 
T

triggerhappy

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uhm i don't think it will work with your ddr 266 as this is a 333 f.sb cpu.
your ram runs at 133 mhz and this cpu will overclock it to 166, which by all acounts may work but chances are the ram will not take kindly too the increased bus speed and its blue screen city.
 
kstrat2001

kstrat2001

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Forget the GeForce 6200, use the integrated graphics, buy the 512MB ram. Get it all for $140.98!! Same reference, same bundle...Hello!!!
Click to expand...

Now were talkin'.

That would put you in a great position to upgrade later on as well. I think that it is awesome that people on this forum are able to find something for everyone given a budget and goal/application.

Now all you have to do is convince your better half that a new monitor is necessary!
 
basketcase

basketcase

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Well, thanks for all the responses. I would rather stick with what I have than go to a IGP or the 6200. I mean for this to be the only upgrade I do for a year or two... and there is no way I am going to try to use a 6200 for gaming.

Does anyone else agree with Triggerhappy about the overclocking of the ram? I don't want to deal with that, as the ddr266 ram I do have is nothing special (value ram).

Thank you all, again.
 
basketcase

basketcase

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T

triggerhappy

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why are you pricing out cases when you should get some ddr 400 mhz ram?

i think that the athlon 64 3000 would be faster then the sempron because of the added cache. note they both run @ 2 ghz. just because the athlon64 is cheaper does not mean it is slower That is just supply and demand. get the athlon 64, the right ram and a decent board and you will be set. that a64 should overclock well too.
 
basketcase

basketcase

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I have tried doing that... but I end up with a price well over $175... Which is way more than I wanted to spend right now. If you can find a better deal, let me know. I haven't bought anything yet. I wanted to stay around $100... $130-140 is the absolute max.
 
T

triggerhappy

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better deal or not, your ram will not work with that setup.
i generally don't price out cheep components so i have no idea what better price combos there could possibly be.
what this comes down too is if you can't afford to spend the money to upgrade your machine the right way, you cant afford too upgrade it right now period. your budget for mobo cpu and ram for under 175 is pretty low, i just spent 400 on ram for my computer and it wasn't even the really expensive stuff!
 
Fulmar

Fulmar

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Yeah, I'd stear clear of ECS boards. Even though they are $, a couple years back friend went through 3 motherboards from ECS in about 14 months. After the 3rd time I finally convinced him over to Asus.
 
basketcase

basketcase

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better deal or not, your ram will not work with that setup.
i generally don't price out cheep components so i have no idea what better price combos there could possibly be.
what this comes down too is if you can't afford to spend the money to upgrade your machine the right way, you cant afford too upgrade it right now period. your budget for mobo cpu and ram for under 175 is pretty low, i just spent 400 on ram for my computer and it wasn't even the really expensive stuff!
Click to expand...

Ok trigger... No offense, if you just paid $400 for cheap ram, you may have been swindled, or you bought a lot. I am guessing you bought a lot, though. But, either way, I think you are wrong about the ram not working. Ok, I will stay away from the ECS, because of what the other post said. But what about this one?
MFG Site...notice the ram that works.
http://www.epox.com/USA/product.asp?ID=EP-8HMMI-A
New Egg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123240

This one lists 2100, which is 266. But, I can appreciate your resistance to recommend any of this trigger. It will not be the greatest system ever, but it will be a significant upgrade over what I have. The ram will be the bottleneck in the system, but it will work. I am going to give it a couple days and see if I can find a better solution, such as a 939 board that accepts AGP (those are hard to find) but I think a setup like this (sempron64) is my only choice if I want to keep my video card and not spend too much. If I spend much more than $130 - $140 I would rather buy a whole new system.
 
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