Thinking of doing an upgrade, what yiz think?

stakey

I currently have a AMD Athlon XP 2500, Asus A7N8X-X, 1 GB PC 3200 RAM, 9600 XT, Antec Sonata case (350w), 1 x 80 GB IDE Primary and 1 x 250 GB IDE Secondary and the other bits and bobs. So I for one think its time for an upgrade, pull up a chair, here's what i'm thinking.

Whip out the Athlon, Asus and 9600 XT. Insert in its place

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz Socket 939
Zalman CNPS7700-AICu CPU-Cooler
Abit Fatal1ty AN8, nForce4 Ultra, Socket 939 Board
and
PowerColor Radeon X850PRO 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express

Obviously i'll have to change the PSU, what would yiz recommend, 480w?

I'm new to SATA, do SATA mb's have auxillary IDE? or do i have to dump the 'ol HD's as well?

Cheers

Might have a few more questions....

vishal

no most have 2 ide connectors so that is 4 ide devices you can use.

stakey

good news vishal, cheers

anyone else got any suggestions, warnings etc etc???

TomCo

I don't think you'll have to change that psu.

To keep costs down why dont you order the other stuff and try it out on the current psu?

Edit: Oh and you could also get a XFX 6800Gt instead of the 850pro, and overclock (only a little ) up to 6800 Ultra.

Spunog UIE

maybe a new powersupply. i don't really like that antec one in the sonata, there's quiter ones with better performance. Give it a go for a while and see anyway.

stakey

Aye maybe the 6800 GT as its an SLI board. will give the PSU a shot, but it will be running:

DVD RW
DVD
2 x HD
6800 GT or equiv
Audigy 2

no one see's any other logistical problems?

stevenmu

Try and find someone with the same setup and check that that cooler will fit. I've the 7000 (80mm vs 120mm) and it just squeezes in, altough I do have a different mobo and a leadtek 6800 with a huge copper cooler on it. It'd be a bit of a pain if all your new kit arrived and you couldn't use it because the cooler doesn't fit in

K.O.Kiki

Get a 480W or higher PSU; the last thing you want is your rig burning out! :eek: Plus, like was said for the noise benefits.

Khannie

I just upgraded from a spec similar to yours to a spec similar to yours.

Couldn't be happier. The thing goes like the flippin' clappers.

Few questions:
Why the dual core?
Why not the 3700+ single core? (that's what I have)
How much are you paying for the X850? I love my 6800GT. If you're going to be starting from scratch (which I'd recommend) with a fresh OS, then there's no need to stay ATI.....just in case that was part of your thinking.
You staying with the 1GB of ram? (I personally reckon it'll do fine for now....just asking)
Last one: How much is that fatality mobo? I seem to remember it being (relatively) expensive for what you get.

Venom

If you are going for an SLI based mobo you would be wise going the 6800GT route for better upgrade options. I would get a 500w + psu tho to cover yourself if you ever add a 2nd gfx card to your system

stakey

mmm.... well it was a rushed price, oooh i got money lets spend decision so looking back at it now dual core was a little OTT esp considering the 3700 is only 280! ***** me, thats cheap...


The X850 Pro is 315
The X850 XT is 450
The 6800 GT with 256 MB is 335 (so its looking like the 6800GT)

Not sure about the mobo though. A friend just recommended the fatal1ty but im not 100%. Havent made a proper check on this yet, too little time. Playing with bank accounts in head trying to organise this. Tee hee. Would prefer a good SLI.

I'm keeping the 1 GB, probably upgrade to 2 over the year

I'll probably do a fresh re-install of windows. BTW should there be any problem reinstalling XP on a modified machine?

Khannie

Once you don't have an OEM licence, you should be fine with your current XP licence. I'm not sure what the legality of the situation is beyond that for OEM. You might be able to legally take the OEM licence to your new machine if there's some of the old machine hardware (which there obviously will be). I'd google that one. Some Dell versions of XP refuse to be installed on other machines AFAIK.

On the mobo front....I'm happy with my Gigabyte mobo (which was around 130) after a bios flash. It has SATA2 support, up to 10 USB2, firewire, Gigabit LAN, PCI-E SLI support, etc.

I don't think that fatlity mobo has SATA2 support. Just something to consider.