Some computer help needed

[Martok]

Its almost time for some upgrading for my rig. With my current motherboard, I can't plug in an 8800GT. *sadness*

Here is my current specs:

Processor

Name: AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor 4000+

Memory

2 Gig or 4 x DDR512PC3200XMSX

Motherboard Information

A8N-SLI DELUXE

Video Adapter

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT (2 in SLI)

Adapter RAM: 128MB

Hard Drive

NVIDIA STRIPE 138.49G

If I have to upgrade my motherboard, I was thinking of getting a new processor at the same time.

Something like: Asus M2N-SLI Motherboard CPU Bundle - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+

I am guessing I will need a new power supply as well. I believe mine is 450watts. Guessing to take it to 600w.

And if I plan to do all this upgrading, I'll certainly be upgrading to Vista as well.

With a new processor, mobo, power supply, I can then check into video card options.

Any tech advice out there? I have never changed out anything much more complicated than a video/sound card and a few fans, but if I end up ordering all this stuff, I hope it goes well!

[Corellon]

I normally go with a bare bones and gear it up, but I do know what your talking about.

In order to put the latest and greatest video card in you will almost have to up grade the mother board. Memory may not and probably won't transfer from the old board. Hard drive depending on age can still be used. Power supply, unless you need it for dual vid cards, you can make that 450 work just fine, unless the amd processors eat up power. Unless you have to or have found something useful that you like, vista is pretty much junk. I would still perfer to use XP over anything else I have. You can still order most systems with XP also, which is a plus if you don't want Vista. I'm sure that eventually you will have to in either case, that makes me sad. When I did my last upgrade last year all I did was piggy back my old hard drive for a month and drag all the stuff off it I wanted. WoW transported great. Saved me having to reload that pig. I have a portable drive I keep it backed up on now. I don't know if any of my other games would have done that. I never installed much else but norton on this system to keep it clean of excess processes for WoW gaming. I'm almost thinking that I will go with the AMD processor then next upgrade cause I don't hear much difference is performance between the two anymore and the price would allow me to get a little nicer system.

Now depending upon age of the old board, standards have changed a bit in connectivity of the hardward and you may not be able to use any of the current parts. Alot of ribbon cables have gone to a much smaller connection along with the power plugs. That's why I have gone with bare bones systems, keeps everyone happy that way.

Anyway, I tried to keep to the original question and hopefully you find enough help from this and other posts.

[Ghules]

**Vrugz version at the bottom of post**

You will definitely need new ram.

Your current board is using DDR 400 PC 3200 and the one you mentioned upgrading to most likely takes up to DDR2 1066 PC2 8500 sticks.

The board's specs should say somewhere if it takes up to DDR2 800 or DDR2 1066.

Ram is fairly cheap now so you can get a decent amount of either for a reasonable price.

As for Vista.

Let me first preface this by saying that I am *far* from a Microsoft fanboy.

I'm currently running Vista Ultimate 64bit but was dual booting between Vista and XP for the previous year.

Vista has actually come a long way. It does take a little getting used to but Service pack 1 has really cleaned up a lot of issues and I've been very pleased with it since.

In your case I would say it really depends on a couple of things.

If you plan on having more than 4 gig of ram XP 64 or Vista will be a must over Regular XP.

If Vista comes with your new rig for free. Awesome. Put service pack 1 on it, turn off the security prompts and you'll be fairly impressed.

If you already have an XP CD and don't plan on having more than 4 gig of ram, I'd say XP all the way. Spending the cash for a Vista CD if you already have an XP cd isn't really worth it for the marginal performance enhancements.

As for all of your other previous hardware. More than likely everything else can be reused without issue.

Your new motherboard should come with plenty of extra cables as well.

If you want some tips on backing up or moving WoW let me know.

The 600W power supply should be fine for running the 8800GT and your new processor.

If you think you might drop a second 8800GT in for SLI later on, you may need to up the power supply a notch as they each take about 110W.

If you're thinking about going all out from the 8800's to the 9800's. I'd definitely recommend a bigger power supply as those beasts eat between 225W-300W a piece under load. http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html

VRUGZ VERSION

---------------------

600W Power supply is fine. Maybe take it a step up if you plan on running two 8800's sli though.

You will need new ram. Check which is the maximum speed your new board will support and buy that.

2 gig is fine, 4 gig is better, 8 gig if its going on the company card.

If you have an XP CD already use that. If Vista comes with your new rig for free use that instead.

Edited August 9, 2008 by Ghules

[Martok]

Thanks for the info so far all! I plan on using my current case. Here is a list of what I'm thinking on so far:

Processor-AMD Phenom X4 9850

Motherboard-Asus M3n-HT

Memory

OCZ SLI Ready Dual Channel 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800mhz (2 sticks for 4 gig total). I'll eventually up that. HOLY COW has memory gotten cheaper than I remember????

Video Card

EVGA GeForce 8800GTS KO (2) Thinking of 8800GTX's as well. Haven't decided yet. GTX doesn't seem like much of an improvement over that 8800GTS KO

Power Supply

Ultrax3 Ult40064 1000watt

I'll eventually upgrade my hard drive, but that doesnt seem like a need at the moment.

[Scryll]

My turn. I'm thinking of finally replacing my near-senescent machine. Unfortunately I have a fairly limited budget to work with, in the order of 4-600 bucks. I know, from browsing Dell's website as a price benchmark, that I can get some fairly limited Inspiron dual-core setups with that, but it would probably only with about 2gigs of RAM. And at least from Dell, it would have to run Vista *ugh*

I've still got my XP Professional license with a couple of installs left on it. Professional can handle dual-cores right, even if it's 32bit and not 64? My bug-squashing book on my OS says it's supposed to able to hand more than 2GB of RAM, but I've heard that's actually a lie. If I upgraded, would I actually be able to just use my current license, or do I have to go out and buy a new one?

If I do buy a new one, I might as well end up buying a Vista that's 64bit, it would be cheaper. In which case, what are the minimum recommended specs I should be looking for? And where would it leave me standing with my current video and sound cards *an Nvida GeForce 6200 and Creative Audigy 2, respectively*?

Edited November 29, 2008 by Scryll

[Kadi]

(Post deleted due to double posting. Somehow I hit 'enter' long before I intended to)

Edited December 1, 2008 by Kadi

[Kadi]

My turn. I'm thinking of finally replacing my near-senescent machine. Unfortunately I have a fairly limited budget to work with, in the order of 4-600 bucks. I know, from browsing Dell's website as a price benchmark, that I can get some fairly limited Inspiron dual-core setups with that, but it would probably only with about 2gigs of RAM. And at least from Dell, it would have to run Vista *ugh*

I've still got my XP Professional license with a couple of installs left on it. Professional can handle dual-cores right, even if it's 32bit and not 64? My bug-squashing book on my OS says it's supposed to able to hand more than 2GB of RAM, but I've heard that's actually a lie. If I upgraded, would I actually be able to just use my current license, or do I have to go out and buy a new one?

If I do buy a new one, I might as well end up buying a Vista that's 64bit, it would be cheaper. In which case, what are the minimum recommended specs I should be looking for? And where would it leave me standing with my current video and sound cards *an Nvida GeForce 6200 and Creative Audigy 2, respectively*?

Lately, I have found Dell's stuff to be overpriced for what they offer. Instead, I took a quick look at HP's website, and they have some pretty decent deals right now. I was able to customize an HP A660t to add up to $599 and that included 2.6ghz Core2 Duo processor, 3gb of memory (free upgrade), a 750 gb hard drive and an Nvidia Gforce 9300 video card. On-board sound these days is usually pretty good, but if you aren't satisified, then you should be able to use your current Creative Audigy 2 with that system. For $100 LESS, customize the A660Z the same way, but also upgrade the processor to an AMD Athlon 2.5ghz.

[Rhoach]

Just a quick FYI: Vista 64 will NOT work with more than 2g(or is it 4? I can't remember) of ram inside the motherboard until you download a certain service pack (can't remember which one) for it. Just load up 2g or less to start, download/install the fix, and then you should be good to pop that extra RAM in there. So if you get 'er all put together and are getting a black screen, this could be the reason.

Just google search 'vista 64 more than 4gb ram' or somesuch to fill in the blanks.

Edited December 5, 2008 by Rhoach

[Kailand]

Just a quick FYI: Vista 64 will NOT work with more than 2g(or is it 4? I can't remember) of ram inside the motherboard until you download a certain service pack (can't remember which one) for it. Just load up 2g or less to start, download/install the fix, and then you should be good to pop that extra RAM in there. So if you get 'er all put together and are getting a black screen, this could be the reason.

Just google search 'vista 64 more than 4gb ram' or somesuch to fill in the blanks.

it will install fine on 8 gig of ram... the issue was with certain video card/chipsets with more than 4 gig of ram with 64 bit vista, but it has been fixed with an update shortly after release.