Real Fiero Tech

Sup guys. I thought my PC was great. I got some new games and realized that I can only play them on the lowest quality levels. Then it hit me...It hadn't REALLY been that recently that I built my system. In fact it's been almost 4 years! I pieced it together myself:

AMD 2600 Socket A (got it running at 1.98 Ghz!, never goes higher than 34*C)
ECS MoBo w/ nForce2 Northbridge, 400mhz FSB
ATI 1400 XAEFADZXFDF or somesuch 512MB graphics card
1GB DDR333 RAM
140GB ATA Drive + 16GB drive that I boot from.

So...
My Hard drive is full. My shit is slow. For god sakes PC's don't even use the same RAM anymore! Not to mention AGP is now old news, so I need a new PCI-E graphics card.

I'm looking for a decent gaming system on a really, really tight budget.

Does anyone make ATX form factor mobo's anymore? I've been researching on Newegg and they're almost all Micro-ATX. Is everyone just putting tiny mobo's in their huge old cases?

I'm looking for a socket AM2 mobo and processor. Can someone tell me pros/cons of the different northbridges? What kind of power supply am I going to need to power this biatch? Have a 550W right now, and it's always done very, very well. Oh yeah, WTF is up with single core vs dual core CPU?

So I need new:
Mobo/CPU
Graphics card
RAM
Hard drive


What am I looking to gain versus just getting a 3200XP processor for my old setup? (besides eternal regret that I spent more money on obsolete crap)

I will be doing much more research, but I'm not on the down-low with this crap like I was 5 years ago.

Open Box: ASUS M2N4-SLI Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - OEM
Model #: M2N4-SLI
Item #: N82E16813131068R
In Stock
$52.99 $52.99

SAPPHIRE 100173L Radeon X1550 512MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
Model #: 100173L
Item #: N82E16814102080
In Stock
$65.99 $65.99

Open Box: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Windsor 2.2GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADA4200CUBOX - OEM
Model #: ADA4200CUBOX
Item #: N82E16819103747R
In Stock
$91.69 $91.69

Patriot 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model PSD21G8002 - Retail
Model #: PSD21G8002
Item #: N82E16820220088
In Stock
Mail-in Rebate
$49.99 $99.98

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: WD2500KS
Item #: N82E16822144701
In Stock
$69.99 $139.98

Subtotal: $450.63

$460 something with shipping.

That stuff look decent? I wasn't sure about the video card. I am planning on getting two of the 250 GB drives and running them in RAID 0, and transferring the OS and all the other crap that's on my 17GB onto my 140GB drive. I've never used a RAID before, so I was wondering if it is better to use the onboard support or buy an additional RAID controller. Anyone have any ideas?

You can't transfer your O/S because you're running a different chipset. Do yourself a favor and do a full rebuild.

I have ZERO patience for the ATI line of xXX50 cards. IMHO don't even waste your time with anything less than an X19xx

You'd be better served finding a used PCI-e X850 than any of the x13, x14, x1600 series...

I've got a pair running in cross-fire on my FX-60 and it hauls good ass.

For your setup, avoid the ATIs since the low-mid cards are too expensive for what you get. They really are useless. You're better off with a 7800 or higher--which you should be able to do on a budget; used or otherwise.

Also, you can pretty much ignore how much memory is on the vid card. Anything better than 128mb will do you just fine, since you aren't going to be running hig-res anyway.

Last thing: That CPU you have listed DOES NOT have a CPU cooler. You're gonna want one of those!

I highly recommend geeks.com

no better bang for the buck on a new build than intel e6600

Looks like this idea could be getting canned.

Goodbye, money.
*sigh*

Indy wrote:Looks like this idea could be getting canned.

Goodbye, money.
*sigh*

Car problems?

Topic isn't dead. I decided I REALLY need to get rid of some of this extra money I have.

1 ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Model #: M2N-SLI Deluxe
Item #: N82E16813131013
$134.99 $134.99


1 MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC GeForce 8600GTS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Over Clock Edition HDCP Video Card - Retail
Model #: NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC
Item #: N82E16814127284
$164.99 $164.99


1 AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADX6000CZBOX - Retail
Model #: ADX6000CZBOX
Item #: N82E16819103773
$169.99 $169.99


1 G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - Retail
Model #: F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
Item #: N82E16820231098
$129.99 -$40.00 Instant $89.99


1 Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: ST3320620AS
Item #: N82E16822148140
$79.99 -$5.00 Instant $74.99


1 ZALMAN CNPS9500 LED 92mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan with Heatsink - Retail
Model #: CNPS 9500 LED
Item #: N82E16835118223
$63.99 -$10.00 Instant $53.99


Subtotal: $688.94


I think the new list is a bit more put together. I plan to eventually get rid of the Zalman cooler and go with a custom watercooled setup, my first. Thoughts?