planning on upgrading my computer

[WildTangent]

my birthday is coming up in just over 3 weeks, and my plan this summer is to completely overhaul my primary computer. new CPU, new mobo, new hard drive new everything eventually. because of the enormous estimated cost of the upgrade, im going to do it in stages.

this week, im buying a CD burner (been forced to use my old, 8x one :( ) and when my bday comes, im getting an Athlon 64 3000+, and Asus A8V-E Deluxe, a nVidia GeForce 6600 (PCI-E) and a Maxtor 80GB, 8MB cache hard drive.

the next stage, will add a Maxtor 200 GB, 16MB cache SATA drive, with a 80 GB linux partition (yes, this computer will be primarily windows, because im a gamer at heart) and a new KB/mouse.

stage 3 will be doubling the RAM to 1 GB, getting a new case and a new monitor to match the color of the case.

thats about it, i was just wondering what the rest of you think about the parts i chose.

-Wild

[Dylanby]

DVD burners are cheap & can double as CD burners and give you more flexibility.
If you're not going to OC your ram then go for a low latency value ram kit.
New video cards are going to be announced soon, that will hopefully drive down the prices on current cards. Don't skimp on the power supply. I recommend one with active PFC.
Just personal preference, but I never cared for Maxtor too much.

[somuchfortheafter]

yea their drives are noisy, go western digital, also idk about the a64, i suppose if that is what you want but i would go for a high end p4 at the moment, of course im really happy with my 2800+ at the moment....

[sapo]

Yo avatar thief [-X

i ve bought this dvdr drive and it is worth each cent you pay for it

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/172/9

and its very very cheap.. cdr drives are becoming museum pieces :roll:

And i think you should get 1GB ram ASAP :grin:

[WildTangent]

im set on the AMD chip, P4s are too hot :P and no, i havent forgotten about the power supply, im quite aware of the difference power supplies can make in peformance. im thinking of getting an Antec case, so itll come with an Antec power supply :) as for DVD-RW...i already have one in my other computer, i do plan on getting one eventually, but i honestly dont use them much, in the year or so ive had one, ive burned like...10 DVDs. as for maxtor drives vs WDC....hmmm im not sure if WDC makes 16MB cache drives yet, so ill have to look, if they dont, then ill be getting maxtor

-Wild

[Dylanby]

I think Maxtor is the only one on the market right now with a 16MB buffer. I have a AMD64 3200+ & it's great.

[poofyhairguy]

my birthday is coming up in just over 3 weeks, and my plan this summer is to completely overhaul my primary computer. new CPU, new mobo, new hard drive new everything eventually. because of the enormous estimated cost of the upgrade, im going to do it in stages.

this week, im buying a CD burner (been forced to use my old, 8x one :( ) and when my bday comes, im getting an Athlon 64 3000+, and Asus A8V-E Deluxe, a nVidia GeForce 6600 (PCI-E) and a Maxtor 80GB, 8MB cache hard drive.

the next stage, will add a Maxtor 200 GB, 16MB cache SATA drive, with a 80 GB linux partition (yes, this computer will be primarily windows, because im a gamer at heart) and a new KB/mouse.

stage 3 will be doubling the RAM to 1 GB, getting a new case and a new monitor to match the color of the case.

thats about it, i was just wondering what the rest of you think about the parts i chose.

-Wild

Hmmm....personally I would wait a little until dual core chips are able to be bought. But if you can't wait I would get a 3200 Athlon 64 to ensure that you don't have the old generation of AMD chips.

[somuchfortheafter]

dont you always end up with the last generation of a chip somehow? or atleast it happens to me,,, meh

[WildTangent]

i originally planned on getting the 3200+, but i dont have enough money. the most i know i can get for certain is $600 CAD (300 from bday gifts, 300 ive already saved up) and that just wont cover all the parts i want, so sacrifices must unfortunately be made. all i can do is hope that the mobo ive chose will support the dual core CPUs

-Wild

[skoal]

[...] because of the enormous estimated cost of the upgrade, im going to do it in stages.

3 Install stages??

Hmm...

If history teaches us anything, you might spend your longest time waiting for the 1st stage install to finish...

\\//_

[somuchfortheafter]

was that a gentoo reference?

[skoal]

was that a gentoo reference?

yeah, sorry 'bout that...

didn't think I made it subliminal enough though. Was wondering if anyone would catch it.

\\//_

[poofyhairguy]

all i can do is hope that the mobo ive chose will support the dual core CPUs


Ok. I see you position. Get a Socket 939 motherboard.

[WildTangent]

Ok. I see you position. Get a Socket 939 motherboard.
it is, the Asus A8V-E Deluxe (http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket939/a8v-e-d/overview.htm) is the motherboard i chose

-Wild

[minio]

Do you really need harddrive with 16MB of cache? I would go with something more silent then Maxtor. I would recommend you Samsung which are most silent drives today, but they are "slow" and with capacities only up to 160GB.

[WildTangent]

after doing a little bit more research, ive decided im going to go with WDC, and have both drives SATA. still gonna be an 80 GB and a 200 GB. my plan is this, have my windows OS and documents on the 80 GB drive, and have all my programs and my linux partition on the 200 GB drive. im not too concerned about data security, in all my years using computers, ive never had a drive fail, i can always reinstall my programs, and i usually have a mirror of my documents stored on my other computer, or a recent DVD backup. Ive also found a store thats about 30 minutes away thats cheaper than the store i work at, so im going to buy from them (i wont tell my boss :P )

-Wild