Time to upgrade - but to what?

[Raithlin]

Hey there, all you hardware experts.

My venerable PC has had it. Everything has been replaced but for the motherboard and CPU. It's time to upgrade in order to fix it. But to what?

I'm looking for a low cost (max R4000) solution that will enable me to re-use as much as possible. My current setup is as follows:

AMD Athlon 2600+ CPU with Tornado CPU cooling fan
MSI K6-Delta motherboard
2x512MB DDR400 RAM
AGP graphics card
2x SATA150 HDD
ATX case, 400W PSU (new)

Any takers? I don't need a monitor, and my DVD/CD combo drives are new. What do you recommend I go for, and where? I can't take it any more as is - 3D of any kind hangs the machine, and it pops regularly on its own. Testing said motherboard is at fault, so here goes nothing...

Thanks in advance.

 

[Napalm]

AMD AM2 dualcore's are quite cheap

AMD AM2 3800+ Dualcore chip goes for a bit over R1000

AMD motherboards go for around R800-R1300 (depending if u want 1x PCI-Express 16x slot, or Two PCI-Express for SLI)

512mb DDR2 667mhz RAM goes for around R350-R430
1gig DDR2 667mhz RAM goes for around R750-R800

ATI X1600pro 256mb goes for just over R1000 (PCI-E)
XFX 7600GS 256MB DDR2 (PCI-E) R1200

have a lookey on the web, some of the shops have specials going on small bundled pc's,

www.lanworld.co.za , www.pcgameworld.co.za , www.chaosnet.co.za

 

[feo]

www.prophecy.co.za , www.sybaritic.co.za

 

[Raithlin]

K, so by above I take it a new motherboard, AM2 dualcore CPU, graphics card and RAM will be the order of the day? Most barebone systems I've found include more than I need, so I'll probably have to order separately to save cash.

Anyone know if Biostar is any good at motherboards?

 

[Johnn0]

Looking at Cafe Viva's Price list...

MOBO: R 649.00 - BioStar (I have the Foxconn flavour of this board, really decent) 2xSata, 2 x IDE, USB 2.0, 1 x PCI-e, up to 4GB of RAM

CPU: 3600+ R1 049.00, 3800+ R1 449.00 AM2 Dual Core

RAM: R949 (1024MB DDR2 667)

GPU: R1 399.00 Colorful 7600GT (I recommend this card, have it and it works like a dream for its price also way better that Radeon X1600 and 7600GS)

As for Biostar products, can't really help no experience with them, but have never heard anything bad...

 

[Raithlin]

K, thx all. I'm now the proud new owner of a semi-upgraded PC, courtesy of PCGameWorld in Centurion. They were quite helpful, considering it was Good Friday.

BioStar K8M800 motherboard
AM2 X2 3800+ DualCore CPU
2x512MB DDR667 RAM
Oh, and a new case (Sagitta) to fit my CPU cooler (Zalman - awesome!).
All in all, R3559.00.

I went this route to re-use the components I already had - replacing the graphics card would have cost me an extra R1000 (card + ASUS m/b) - that I didn't have.

Thanks for the advice on such short notice.

 

[The_Techie]

Might I add that on the Rectron pricelist the AMD 3800+ AM2 dual core is R792.30 (VAT included)? Have a look, maybe you could have saved a few bucks by shopping selectively. But what's done is done, enjoy your new PC!