what is my next step?

[jane]

AMD 2600+ Thouroughbred

512mb PC4000 Kingston DDR-SDRAM

256mb PC2700 crap ddr-sdram

asus a7n8x-la mobo

maxtor 36 gig hd

ATI 9600XT

No floppy drive

One cd drive(no write, just read)

one box fan

integrated sound

HP mx70 17" monitor(best in the world )

Sony MDR-V600 Headphones(cant find better headphones unless you talk to the martians, and they dont speak l337)

crap keyboard

microsoft something, optical, three button....

 

 

what do i need to upgrade first to get a better performance comp?

 

i was thinking the mobo because my ram is clocked at faster rates than the fsb on my mobo(PC4000 vs PC 2700). but will my cpu then be the bottleneck(i think its a 333fsb as well). BTW HOW WOULD I GO ABOUT CHANGING THE MOBO?

 

 

but after the mobo, i was thinking about overclocking my cpu....but would that change my fsb? or would that just make the cpu faster?

 

 

im gonna get another stick of 512 PC4000 Kingston to fulfill the ddr capabillities.....

 

 

i have the ati 9600xt and really like it. i know i shoulda held out for the 9800pro but i couldnt wait very much longer.

 

 

my hd is a 4500 rpm pos maxtor. i wanna change that. Western Digital?

 

 

some day ill get another cd drive, most likely a cdrw something or another....

 

 

anyideas?

[All Kill3r]

how much do you want to spend ? that really matters

 

for cheap i would get a 35 dollar 52x cd burner.

 

next would be a 7.1channel PCI sound card or a new Antec 430 PSU depending on what you have now ?

 

maybe a DFI Infinity board for a barton.

 

if you get that board this cpu would do nice =\

 

if you have more money you can pick any new platform to switch to. Intel or Amd, you have the ram so only mobo/cpu.

 

once you get a mobo that support SATA raid you could get one of these and one later, or both at once

 

/how much money you got

 

i was thinking the mobo because my ram is clocked at faster rates than the fsb on my mobo(PC4000 vs PC 2700). but will my cpu then be the bottleneck(i think its a 333fsb as well). BTW HOW WOULD I GO ABOUT CHANGING THE MOBO?

 

your pc4000 ram is not running faster then the pc2700... right now your pc4000 IS pc2700 until you have a cpu that does 250fsb (ddr500) it wont be pc4000 =\ You will need to go intel to do this, or get an A64 and drop the multiplier down and raise HTT. Swappin out you board is pretty easy. Take your pc apart and put it back together. take a pic if you need a guide... if you need guides for any part of installation lemme know

 

but after the mobo, i was thinking about overclocking my cpu....but would that change my fsb? or would that just make the cpu faster?

 

yup raising your fsb raises the cpu and ram speed. You can change the ratio they run together at from 1:1 to something different but you will always want 1:1 since you have pc4000.

 

 

my hd is a 4500 rpm pos maxtor. i wanna change that. Western Digital?

 

i dont think brand matters much. probably western digital though since they make the Raptor hard drives and they are good for raid performance. need a raid supporting mobo first though

 

anyideas?

 

i need another beer

Edited May 25, 2004 by All Kill3r

[[Mmmm]Homer]

Jane I think All Killer had good info but maybe is jumping the gun. I'd like you to tinker and learn but not get over your head.

 

First off, the motherboard you have is pretty good base, though I'm not sure what HP specified for this OEM board. The BIOS might need to be updated which looks a little tricky from a quick browse of the net (and you don't have a floppy drive to do this). If it was more straightforward I'd suggest maybe going to a Barton CPU, maybe an XP3000+. But since this is likely frought with complexities that even I'm not sure I'd want to deal with I'd have to advise against it, even though it would get you the Dual-DDR you are seeking.

 

Replacing the motherboard in the HP case is surely not going to happen easily. A new case with a quality power supply might fit the bill.

 

More RAM isn't probably going to do too terribly much in the big picture of what you have now.

 

The Radeon 9800 Pro was probably your best bet for getting up around 14k 3dmarks with the rest of the hardware.

 

A Lite-On 52x burner would be a nice addition for $35 but it won't make the PC faster.

 

A bigger PSU would be ok, but again, it won't make it faster.

 

Depending on budget I'd skip the Athlon XP upgrade (to a Barton) completely and not worry about overclocking. The cost involved isn't going to give you a huge jump in performance. A ~3.2ghz Intel or Athlon64/3000+ would be a nice step up but would cost several hundred dollars. Having 3+ ghz of P4/A64 power would drive that 9600XT up a bit in 3dmarks by brute force.

 

A faster hard drive is a realistic upgrade and give you chance to reinstall Windows if you've never done it. You said 4500rpm, but I'm taking that as a typo for 5400rpm which is a standard speed. A 7200rpm drive would get you into games faster and you could use the 35gb one for backup. I'd suggest a WD800JB for $67. The Raptor that Kille rsuggested would be nice too, if you have SATA conectors on your motherboard (which I'm thinking that this -LA cheap version of the Asus would be something that HP would skimp on if they put a 5400rpm drive in it).

 

The sound card would be nice, even a 6-channel one for $36 as it would give superior sound and take some load off the CPU. I'd probably start here.

 

To sum up, I'd do the following, more or less in order:

 

1. Add in a sound card (~$36)

2. Add a decent hard drive (~$67)

3. Add a CD burner. (~$35)

4. Get a new case and power supply. (~$99)

5. With this foundation I'd junk the CPU/mobo and get an A64 and a mobo for it. (~$320)

6. Add the second stick of Kingston RAM. (~$100)

 

The order is important, don't try to build a house with a poor foundation.

[dwEEziL]

You need a floppy drive...that's what's holding you back.

[jane]

what about this? i thought it was a cool deal.

 

 

as far as PSU i got 250 so ill want more whenever i get a new mobo/cpu(which will probably be this summer )

 

homer your case is probably what im looking for, though will that PSU be enough for, say, this?

 

im seriously considering the 2500+ Barton, but why would i want this if im not gonna overclock? not saying i wont, but im kinda a lover of my PC and dont wanna mess anything up....

[[Mmmm]Homer]

I think this one for almost $100 less would sound the same.

 

This is a good quality 420w PSU, cheaper than the Antec "True" series.

[NOFX]

you wont mess anything up by OCing unless you dont read what people advise you to do.

 

If it was me, I would definetly not buy a Barton. Maybe if it was going to be my first comp and the only one I have built.

 

Overclocking or not you want a high end p4 or a64. I have been able to test out the A64's but the Hyperthreading on P4's own.

 

My 2.6Ghz p4 runs at 3.2Ghz stable but, I would switch to an A64 if i could afford it, i really wanna try longhorn beta and linux on a 64-bit cpu.