Upgrading computer

token

Current spec:

P3700@933mhz
256mb ram
gf4 ti4200

Ive had that comp nearly 4 years now served me well but time for an upgrade i think

I was thinking of:

CPU: AMD64 3200+
Motherboard: ?
RAM: 1gb, what ram?
PSU: ?
GPU: Holding out until 6800GT comes down in price
HDD: Any point getting one of those 10,000rpm raptors?
DVD-RW: Which one? just get the cheapest?

Thats about it i think, ill be buying another case to put old stuff into ( got a good tower from komplett 1-2yrs ago). So ill need another monitor aswell ive a lower end 19" monitor atm i was thinking i might look for a trinitron 19" monitor for the new computer, anywhere to get them cheap?

Finally is there anything i need to know about overclocking with new hardware? And what heatsink/fan should i get bearing in mind quietness is regarded more highly than added speed.

token

bump

Jammer

i recently got the following, and am very very happy with the results.

AMD64 3200+
MSI NEO FSR 7030
1GB Cosair XMS 2-3-3-6 PC3200
Antec 380W TruePower (Came with the 'Silent' Antec Sonata Case)
2 x 120GB S-ATA Seagate Barracuda's...put them in a RAID 0 array
NEC DVDRW - Dual layer.

Came to 1020 incl. delivery.

I have a 9800Pro/XT from my old system, so i stuck that in. And a soundblaster 2 ZS Platinum Pro. I can play Battlefield Vietnam on high everything and its perfect. Havent put doom 3 on it yet!!

As for the raptors, i wouldn't pay that much for one. Mainly, because i can't afford to. I'd say if you had the money, why not. I've read good things about them. I'd say they heat up an awful lot though!

Overclocking...i dunno. I dont play to overclock mine for a while, mainly because theres no need to. The processor can handle anything thats thrown at it with recent applications and games! The RAM above comes with heatspreads, so that'd probably overclock nicely. I got the boxed AMD chip, so i'm using that fan. its quite good. I'm using it with the Cool 'n' Quiet AMD64 feature.

There is practically no noise from my PC now, the AMD fan is quiet, and i bought the Antec Sonata case. It has 120mm Fans and an ultra quiet PSU. Great case, very well made. You'll see alot of people recommending it on here.

parsi

I have just put together an Epox ex5-300s and used an MSI DR8-A2 combo DVD writer/cd writer as my optical drive. It's a nice unit but is slow to spinup and is very picky about DVD media - I bought 2 spindles of DVD-R on boards recently and it failed on 3 off the first spindle and sailed away merrily on the second ( I know have 23 DVD-Rs available..) so maybe you could keep that in mind (and I know that for real builders the choice of optical drive is a minor matter but it may benefit someone !).

GreyAlien

If your planning on getting a dvd burner I'd recommend getting a dual layered burner (even though the disks aren't out yet). In the future you'll be able to burn at twice the capacity.

parsi

The disks are there alright around eur13-15 - which is significant - I presume they will burn bog-standard disk ?

Jammer

yeah i got a dual layer, they burn CDR's and CDRW's too, as well as standard DVD-R's and DVD-RWs