Help with upgrade,2 PC's at once

[djkovach]

I need to change My wife's PC's MB. My
My PC is: XP 2100 T-bred in a Abit NF7-S.
I also have a Epox 8RDA+3 Pro MB new in a box. I want to use 1 of the MB's in her PC along with my 2100. That leaves me with the other MB and getting a new CPU. (Her PC was a PIII 1000 with PC 100 ram so her upgrade to a 2100 with my old DDR will be a decent upgrade for her,she just surfs the web anyway.)
Here's where I could use some advice: which MB should I use for me,the Epox and the Abit are very similar in features,and what CPU should I get. I believe they both go up to a 3200 Barton. How much of a cost difference is there between a CPU for current MB vs say a Athlon 64 and new MB?

 

[TC10284]

Yes, that would be a good upgrade for her just surfing the web.
What do you plan on doing with your machine? Gaming or just regular usage? If you plan on gaming, it may be worth it to get an Athlon 64 and a Socket 754 or Socket 939 mobo. But if you plan on just using your system for surfing or other non-CPU intensive things.

Tavis Curry

 

[djkovach]

No hardcore gaming ,just a few games that have played pretty well on my current 2100 and Gforce 6800. I would be going from a 2100 tbredwith 512mb PC2700 ddr to a 3200 Barton with 1 GIG of PC3200. Is that enough of a improvement or a waste of money?

 

[TheRod]

I would be going from a 2100 tbredwith 512mb PC2700 ddr to a 3200 Barton with 1 GIG of PC3200. Is that enough of a improvement or a waste of money?

If I were you, I would get this :

MOBO : Any low cost S939 nForce3 based, like the K8N Neo3-F. (75$)
CPU : Athlon 64 3000+ S939 - 90 nm. (137$)

Reuse your DDR333 for now. This is a worthy upgrade. In a near future, go and get another 512Megs of DDR333 or buy 2x512Megs of DDR400. DDR333 is not affecting Athlon 64 performance by much. This system would be competitve (even better) than a Barton 3200+ and it would be upgradable.

-
GA-K8NF-9 / <b><font color=green>Athlon 64 3200+</font color=green> @ 3800+</b>
Infineon DDR400 (CL2.5) 2x512Megs
<font color=green>GeForce 6600GT 128Megs</font color=green>
<A HREF="http://www.getfirefox.com" target="_new">Get Firefox!</A>

 

[P4Man]

>I would be going from a 2100 tbredwith 512mb PC2700 ddr to a
>3200 Barton with 1 GIG of PC3200. Is that enough of a
>improvement or a waste of money?

Bit of both actually If you need the improvement, Id go for an A64 as well. its faster for pretty much the same money ( or a little more) with a tangible upgrade path. My main PC is an XP @3200+ and I assure its considerably slower than the A64s 3000+s Ive built, especially for gaming.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[reader850]

The improvement to a 3200 Barton will be noticable and worthwhile. But since you have a GREAT Abit NF7-S (assuming it is Version 2) motherboard already, go with an Athlon mobile 2500+ instead ($85 at NewEgg), on your Abit board, and clock it at 200FSB x 11.5 (or x12 with a good HSF), which will be faster than the 3200 Barton and cheaper. I have this in my computer and it runs everything, including Battlefield 2, very well with my ATI 9800 Pro.

 

[reader850]

I'd advise building a new 939 system if you didn't already have two good Socket A boards. In your case, spending a mere $85 to get the performance of a 3200+ on your Abit board is too good an option. I recently built a new A-64 socket 939 system with a DFI board, running at 2.33 GHz at 2-2-6-2(1T). Compared to my Abit NF7s-v2 with the Mobile Athlon XP running at 2.3GHz (with ATI 9800 AIW Pro), the A-64 (with ATI X800XL) is faster, but the difference isn't significantly noticable in games. (Both systems have a Gig of RAM.) I wish I had waited longer to upgrade; next Spring would have been a better time.