cheap but good...

[andlcs]

Wich MOBO, CPU, MEMORY, CPU COOLER do you recomend to a upgrade?
I plan to buy:
Asus A7V266-C (KT266A MOBO) or ECS K7VTA 3 (KT333 MOBO)
Athlon XP 1600+ w/ stock cooler
256MB Samsung PC2100 CL2 DDR SDRAM (w/ Asus) or Samsung PC 2700 CL2.5 DDR (w/ ECS)
I already have:
Asus V7700 (GF2 GTS 32MB)
13.6GB 5400rpm/ATA-66 Fujitsu HD
LG 32x10x40 CDRW
Modem
LAN
Mid-case w/ 400W PSU 2 FANs

thank u.

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

Cheap but good.....
hmm...

ASUS A7S333 motherboard....
256MB PC-2700 CL2 (not 2.5) DDR RAM
AMD Athlon XP 1600+

forget the ECS Board or the ASUS A7V266-C....go for the SiS745 A7S333 board.....

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>

 

[Guest]

I suppose you are a gamer (GF2 GTS), so I'd really recommend more than 256 Mb RAM; go for 512 Mb, it makes a HUGE difference under WinXP running newer games like Battlefield1942 or RTCW. To give you an idea, my system used 620 Mb memory while playing Battlefield. +-200 for XP, firewall, antivirus, msn etc, and well over 400 MB just for the game. With 256Mb ram it is intollerably slow on loading, no matter how fast your cpu or harddisk is..

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

 

[Biznaz]

if you're really going for a cheap system, i'd say go with a ECS K7S5A SiS 735 mobo from newegg. at $56, you can't really get any better for your dollar. It has integrated lan and sound, and is very stable from what i've seen so far (running ecs k7s5a and a 1600+ for about 2 weeks now). As for ram, i'd go with 256mb. Saves you about $60-$70, and is plenty for games and windows. I opted for 256mb, and noticed slight hiccups playing games. XP and bf1942 was using all of my available 256mb. Windows alone was using almost 100mb. I went to a website that explains what certain services are, and disabled the ones i didn't need. Brought me down to 58mb from 100mb just running winxp (no ie or firewalls or virus scanners). No more hiccups!

<A HREF="http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm" target="_new">http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm</A>

my first post!! yay for me


/edit you might want to get a faster harddrive than that 5400 beast your running. The 70 or so bucks you saved on ram could buy you a Maxtor 40gb 7200rpm ata133 drive from newegg

 

[Spitfire_x86]

Athlon XP 1600+ or faster retail with stock cooler or OEM with Volcano 7 ($15 at newegg)

MSI KT3 Ultra2 ($79 at Newegg) or MSI 745 Ultra for cheap ($64 at Newegg)
256 MB Samsung PC2700 CL2.5 DDR (CL2 is recommended if you can afford)

OEM processor + volacano 7 is better than retail processor + stock cooler. Also allows better overclocking.

Both MSI KT3 Ultra2 and MSI 745 Ultra are rock solid. NEVER GET ECS CRAP (ESPECIALLY ECS K7S5A)

256 MB RAM is adequate now. If you need more ram, you can buy it later.

A 40 GB Maxtor Diamond Max Plus D740X (7200 rpm, ATA-133, 2 MB Buffer, $78 at newegg) or a 80 GB Western Digital Special Edition Cavier (7200 rpm, ATA-100, 8 MB Buffer, $106 at newegg) will be nice.

If you think your gaming performance is not adequate, then buy a MSI 64 MB GeForce4 Ti4200 ($135 at Newegg).

<b><font color=red> Long live piracy! </font color=red></b>