Buying new stuff, looking for recommendations

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Martin
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Chris Martin

Alrighty, I got some new stuff a few months back, audigy2zs, dvd writer,
radeon 9700pro.. so at the moment I'm being held back by my motherboard and
memory. Right now my motherboard is a K7 Master-S (MS-6341), with a AMD XP
1900+ processor on it.. although I haven't been able to successfully
overclock the processor to 1900 without losing stability, so I run it at
1200. The motherboard definately needs to go, for multiple reasons, so with
it I'm obviously going to need new memory. I'm a gamer, so I'm looking for
lots of speed, so I was hoping I could get some suggestions. Looking at
spending under 300 (US) for board and memory (hoping it will be less, but
300 should cover whatever. I'd rather not upgrade the processor, but if the
newest boards don't support my 1900+ I will. Thanks in advance,

~Chris
 
Alrighty, I got some new stuff a few months back, audigy2zs, dvd writer,
radeon 9700pro.. so at the moment I'm being held back by my motherboard and
memory. Right now my motherboard is a K7 Master-S (MS-6341), with a AMD XP
1900+ processor on it.. although I haven't been able to successfully
overclock the processor to 1900 without losing stability, so I run it at
1200.
Click to expand...

???

That makes no sense. An XP1900 is spec'd to run at 1600MHz. If it won't
overclock to 1900MHz, run it at 1600MHz. 1200MHz would be with the FSB at
100MHz, and so it seems your problem isn't the CPU but rather the
motherboard or memory... but then you already plan to replace them.


The motherboard definately needs to go, for multiple reasons, so with
it I'm obviously going to need new memory. I'm a gamer, so I'm looking for
lots of speed, so I was hoping I could get some suggestions. Looking at
spending under 300 (US) for board and memory (hoping it will be less, but
300 should cover whatever. I'd rather not upgrade the processor, but if the
newest boards don't support my 1900+ I will. Thanks in advance,
Click to expand...

The newest boards will support your XP1900, so you might go ahead and
reuse the CPU, but you ought to buy modern PC3200 memory and a motherboard
with support for the fastest Socket A CPUs, like an nForce2 Ultra/400.
After replacing the board and memory your CPU will be the most significant
bottleneck to gaming, so ultimately it would be beneficial to replace it
too.

On the other hand, with this in mind you might even consider keeping the
current parts as a system and begin building an Athlon 64 based system.
It may cost $100 more, but surely you could sell the current parts for
$100 if you didn't need a second system for (whatever).
 
Alrighty, I got some new stuff a few months back, audigy2zs, dvd writer,
radeon 9700pro.. so at the moment I'm being held back by my motherboard and
memory. Right now my motherboard is a K7 Master-S (MS-6341), with a AMD XP
1900+ processor on it.. although I haven't been able to successfully
overclock the processor to 1900 without losing stability, so I run it at
1200. The motherboard definately needs to go, for multiple reasons, so with
it I'm obviously going to need new memory. I'm a gamer, so I'm looking for
lots of speed, so I was hoping I could get some suggestions. Looking at
spending under 300 (US) for board and memory (hoping it will be less, but
300 should cover whatever. I'd rather not upgrade the processor, but if the
newest boards don't support my 1900+ I will. Thanks in advance,

~Chris
Click to expand...

There are nforce2 boards which have been out for awhile that are going
for quite cheap nowadays. The Biostar is around $60 or so. If you dont
mind a refurb - I bought a ASUS deluxe a7n8x for $50 , at the time it
was going for around $130 or so - but I opted to get the accessories
pack from ASUS since it came as a barebones version for another $20.

Ive seen the older ABIT and ASUSes for dirt cheap as refurbs.

The Barton 2500 for $80 or so retail almost always OCes to 3200 - not
always but its a pretty easy OCer. Thats what I bought and am running
at 3200 with cheapo mem - Kbyte and Kingston sticks I got for around
$55 each on a rebate deal , 512 meg sticks.

You can defintely get 512 megs 3200 + 2500 barton + nforce2 etc MB for
$300.

Lets see I paid $120 or so for 1 gig of mem , $85 for a retail Barton
and $80 or so for the motherboard (with accessories pack).

Youll have to wait for a sale but if you want to get only 512 megs you
can get that easy under $100 anytime.

Theres 2700 mem deals going the last few weeks - I bought a 256 stick
for $25 at CC after rebate and there are several 512 meg deals for
$50-60 . Look for 3200 deals though so you can OC a barton.

Sell you old components and you defintely will be far under $300.
 
[email protected] said:
There are nforce2 boards which have been out for awhile that are going
for quite cheap nowadays. The Biostar is around $60 or so. If you dont
mind a refurb - I bought a ASUS deluxe a7n8x for $50 , at the time it
was going for around $130 or so - but I opted to get the accessories
pack from ASUS since it came as a barebones version for another $20.

Ive seen the older ABIT and ASUSes for dirt cheap as refurbs.

The Barton 2500 for $80 or so retail almost always OCes to 3200 - not
always but its a pretty easy OCer. Thats what I bought and am running
at 3200 with cheapo mem - Kbyte and Kingston sticks I got for around
$55 each on a rebate deal , 512 meg sticks.

You can defintely get 512 megs 3200 + 2500 barton + nforce2 etc MB for
$300.

Lets see I paid $120 or so for 1 gig of mem , $85 for a retail Barton
and $80 or so for the motherboard (with accessories pack).

Youll have to wait for a sale but if you want to get only 512 megs you
can get that easy under $100 anytime.

Theres 2700 mem deals going the last few weeks - I bought a 256 stick
for $25 at CC after rebate and there are several 512 meg deals for
$50-60 . Look for 3200 deals though so you can OC a barton.

Sell you old components and you defintely will be far under $300.
Click to expand...

Actually, the components that come from this computer will go into another
one.. I've got 6 or so and whenever I upgrade another computer gets finished
off, usually.. I have lan parties with friends most nights, so whenever I
upgrade another person gets to come over and join in. I'm not horribly
worried about the price, 300 is more of a ballpark. I would much rather
have quality than cost effective, at this point. Thanks for the thoughts so
far, everyone, I'm looking at what everyone says :). I bet this is a
debatable topic at the moment, but what is the best memory on the market
right now for high end AMD machines?

Thanks again,
~Chris
 
kony wrote:

On the other hand, with this in mind you might even consider keeping the
current parts as a system and begin building an Athlon 64 based system.
It may cost $100 more, but surely you could sell the current parts for
$100 if you didn't need a second system for (whatever).
Click to expand...

There's not much point in doing that yet. There isn't enough software
support to justify the extra expense, especially for a gamer. By the
time there is, prices will have dropped a fair bit. Put the extra $100
into the piggy bank for next time...

--
-Luke-
If cars had advanced at the same rate as Micr0$oft technology, they'd be
flying by now.
But who wants a car that crashes 8 times a day?
Registered Linux User #345134
 
Chris Martin wrote:

I bet this is a
debatable topic at the moment, but what is the best memory on the market
right now for high end AMD machines?
Click to expand...

Grab the best that your new mobo supports. Don't buy over-spec'd RAM as
it may not work. Go for a reputable brand like Corsair, Kinston,
Kingmaxx etc and you'll be best off. DDR 2 is nice...

--
-Luke-
If cars had advanced at the same rate as Micr0$oft technology, they'd be
flying by now.
But who wants a car that crashes 8 times a day?
Registered Linux User #345134
 
Actually, the components that come from this computer will go into another
one.. I've got 6 or so and whenever I upgrade another computer gets finished
off, usually.. I have lan parties with friends most nights, so whenever I
upgrade another person gets to come over and join in. I'm not horribly
worried about the price, 300 is more of a ballpark. I would much rather
have quality than cost effective, at this point. >Thanks for the thoughts so
far, everyone, I'm looking at what everyone says :). I bet this is a
debatable topic at the moment, but what is the best memory on the market
right now for high end AMD machines?
Click to expand...

Well obviously Corsair , Crucial - though a few bash Crucial as just
oridinary but theyve been always mentioned as decent mem. Kingston as
some special more expensive mem - many sell something called matched
pairs or something. Frankly a few people still seem to have problems
no matter what they buy - expensive or cheap stuff while others have
zero problems.

Ive had zero problems except a few quirky things associated with the
learning curve of getting all this stuff.

Like I said - its almost guaranteed youll get to 3200 with 2500 barton
given you have no obviously weak links in the chain of components but
the strange thing is some , a few people just seem to have problems no
matter what type of expensive mem or motherboard they buy.

Not only was I surprised to have zero problems with run of the mill
Kingston 3200 and Kbyte 3200 but I also tried my two old Crucial 256
2100 sticks @ 3200. They worked perfectly leading me to believe that
everythings pretty tolerant/compatible now - but I still see some
posts from people with new systems who whine about having problems so
there is no guarantee.

Im using a ATI 9800.

Youre best bet is the 2500 barton retail @3200.

Get 512 - though with one stick you wont be able to do the dual mem
thing - Crucial though I think a Kingston stick probably will work.

You can get an A7N8X-E Deluxe or NF-7 ABit for around $100-109 new at
newegg.com. Both are Nforce2 boards with SATA and a regular IDE
controller so you can move up to SATA later.

SATA can be used as RAID - youll have to get adaptors to use your
older IDE HDs on the SATA controller for RAID.

3200 XP + 3200 mem + ATI 9700 Pro is a pretty solid system for gaming.
Im not sure what impact a RAID setup would have on a gaming system.
 
kony wrote:



There's not much point in doing that yet. There isn't enough software
support to justify the extra expense, especially for a gamer. By the
time there is, prices will have dropped a fair bit. Put the extra $100
into the piggy bank for next time...
Click to expand...

Sure there is, the higher performance. Even someone who doesn't need
64bit support must go with an A64 to move up to higher performance than
the top speed socket A can provide, plus there's the benefit of buying a
newer platform, not already having a board with no practical upgrade for
CPU later.
 
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