NEW COMPUTER!! NEED SUGGESTION ASAP!

[Jw_Leonhart]

Hi, my old computer just died. I am getting windows errors constantly and I cannot reload windows XP. It keeps saying unmountable boot volume, memory errors, and a bunch of other wonderful things. I am wondering what I should get to replace all of it? My current specs are:

Asus A7v266
Athlon XP 2000+
768MB Samsung DDR PC2100 Ram
5 Hard drives across and IDE controller ( 3 currently work with no problem, the other two are dead.... No idea why.)
2 IDE Cd-Roms
1 SCSI CD-Rom (Internal)
1 SCSI CD-Writer (External)
Geforce 3 Visiontek
Sound Blaster Live! Value 4.1

I am looking to spend about 700 dollars max on upgrading things. I would also like it to BE ABLE TO WORK with the new Athlon processors that will be coming out. I am thinking about upgrading the ram to PC2700 and about 2 512MB chips. I know the processor is fine because I just got it yesterday in a retail box. My heatsinks/fan is the Coolermaster HHC-001 which seems to work very good. For my hard drives I am unsure of what to do. I had a total of about 250GB hard drive space.... Think I will just toss these hard drives for maybe 2 hard drives instead of using more power on my PSU for 5. My PSU is 450watts so it should be able to handle almost any suggestions you would have for a 700 dollars upgrade or so. I would also like it to be compatible with the new Athlon coming out next year. Thank you!

It must also be able to be overnight shipped for sunday. =)

 

[vk2amv]

Firstly 2700 will not be enough to run the new Barton core Athlons due out early next year as they have a 200Mhz bus and PC2700 RAM is only 166Mhz. Secondly if you are referring to the Hammer based athlon 64 due out next year that you want to be compatable with then that is not possible because there is no hardware that is available that is compatable with that chip yet as it is not due to be released til around halfway through next yeat and the chip is a complete redesign of current technology. So you will need to settle for Barton athlon. Which will still be valid for at least a year yet. For that you need to go for an NForce2 chipset. I suggest either an Epox 9RDA+ (I think thats the right model) or an asus A7N8X motherboard. Next you will need some DDR400 ram. I recommend 2x Corsair 256Meg XMS3200 CAS2 SIMMS and run them in dual channel mode. The rest I leave up to other people to suggest. But that will do you for motherboard and memory.
AREA_51

 

[halkebul]

Hello. Before I give a recommendation, which particular future AMD processor are you referring to? AMD Clawhammer or AMD Barton. The Barton uses "socket A" like current AMD athlons. The other uses a different socket, which means, none of the motherboards currently available can support it.

Edit: vk2amv addressed this issue wonderfully! I'll go on with my recommendation in the next post.

<i>It's your world kid!!!</i><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by halkebul on 12/14/02 10:05 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[halkebul]

Asus A7N8X deluxe is the best socket A motherboard available. And it has the all-important PCI Lock - needed for probable future upgrade to a 400MHz DDR FSB Barton processor. Motherboards without the PCI lock will have to implement a 1/6 PCI divider in order to support 400MHz DDR FSB Barton.

My Recommendation:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard
Two <A HREF="http://www.coldconcept.com/default.php/cPath/39_42/osCsid/bacb71282522ff2370ab505db85302d5" target="_new">512MB OCZ PC3500 Enhanced Latency (EL) memory modules</A>

<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=527833#527833" target="_new">Official A7N8X Deluxe thread</A>

<i>It's your world kid!!!</i>