Been out of the loop for 2 years... Need Upgrade Advise ~$200

[Grimace]

I want to upgrade my current setup from:
wow i actually had to look these specs up

AMD Opteron 146 s939 @ 2.7
EVGA NF41 nforce4 mobo
2 gigs of ram in dual channel

I would like to keep it under $200 and order this stuff ASAP so I can build it next week.
from some searching it looks like I should maybe go with Intel this time around and DDR2?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Regalk]

Gigabyte GA-DS3L, E2160 + 2G Crucial, Mushkin or Corsair on sale should get you there = what I have now as my casual machine

 

[LOUISSSSS]

after 2 years u only got $200 saved? this is the best time to get a Q6600. u should def save up for it

 

[bryanW1995]

sell your old rig on fs/ft and up your budget a little...you know you want a quad...:evil:

 

[aidanjm]

advice

 

[Denithor]

Cheapest option:
ASRock 4CoreDual-Sata for $66
e2180 for $90
Reuse your 2GB DDR400 for FREE
Total: $156

Better OC option:
Abit IP35 + e2180 + 2x1GB DDR2 for about $225 (shipped, after $25MIR--ends today)

Either way, overclock and never look back (3GHz should be easy on option 2).

And yes, sell your old stuff (FS forums or eBay) to get back some of this cost.

 

[Grimace]

Denithor, your better oc option was blank at mwave.
did you recommend the abit IP35-V mobo?

 

[Denithor]

From what I've heard the IP35-V is a lower quality board. SerpentRoyal is probably a very good person to ask.

The IP35-E, IP35, and IP35 Pro are all top quality, super stable boards that most people can get to ~500MHz fsb (if your chip can take it, that is). The only real difference is the features: IP35-E is stripped down (basic), IP35 has RAID options and firewire, and IP35 Pro is everything you could possibly need (and the kitchen sink just for good measure).

The IP35-E is getting very scarce for some reason (discontinued perhaps?) so I would go with the IP35. And jump on it today as that $25MIR ends today.

EDIT: Abit IP35 and configure with e2180 and 2x1GB Mwave DDR2-667 memory.

 

[Grimace]

thanks for clearing that up