Help-I'm Upgrading

[tingtang]

I have an NEC P2-350 and need to speed up. I want to replace the motherboard and the processor. Probably will stay with P3 800 & up but will consider AMD Thunderbird.I am willing to spend $ to get decent quality and reliability.Probably will also need a new power supply, right? Comments please? Also want a good soundboard so I can use my computer for telephone calls. Any suggestions? Also would like to know best video card

 

[johnjohn320]

Well, just to get you started, the best video card, well 3D card anyway is the GeForce MMX, but it'll cost you.

 

[office boy]

Lol, blind leading the blind?

 

[monotone]

A Geforce MMX? Must be some Intel hype..

 

[office boy]

Well tingtang, first off you need to see if you NEC Case is ATX, because if it's not then you'll be needing a new case, for your new motherboard. Then you need to decide AMD, or Intel. I'd say go AMD, but that?s really just my opinion and not based on anything at all.
Once you decide on Intel/AMD, then you need to find a cpu, and motherboard the fit your needs ($$, performance, tweaking options).

Get back to us once you have a look at your case, and decide to go AMD/Intel, and then we can give you a better idea of what to do.

And johnjohn320, there is no GeForce MMX, There is an MX, but it is a lower performing card targeted at the value market. The Highest performing chipset would be a GeForce2 ULTRA.

 

[tingtang]

Don't know how to tell which case I have. I'm a newby at this. Case measures 8" wide x 17" tall x 16" deep if that helps. It is quite large in my opinion. I guess I want your opinion on which is better, the P3 or the AMD Tbird. Thanx in advance.

 

[shawnmos]

Is the plug that plugs into the motherboard from the PS have 1 connection or 2? 1 would be ATX and 2 would be AT. If it's AT then you will need a new case.

 

[office boy]

And is your motherboard in one peice or two? do you maybe have a picture of the back? or a link to a picture?

 

[tingtang]

There's only 1 connection from the power supply and the board is a one piece. The board is 8" wide x 12" high. SiSoft Sandra tells me the following:
Class - IBM PC/AT
System Bus(es) - ISA(16-bit),PCI(32/64bit),USB,AGP(32bit)
System Chipset - Intel Corporation 82443BX/ZX 440BX/ZX
CPU to PCI Bridge(AGP Implemented)
If you need more info let me know. I can also get a buddy to take a digital picture of the board and the back if needed.
Thanx

 

[gUEv]

er...first of all, its just called a geforce2 mx. secondly, no, it wont cost you. that is the entire idea behind the geforce2 mx...

it sounds to me like you are in the markey for a comple new system man

 

[solarbear]

I'd get myself a new case with a 300W power supply. One with a fan blowing in the front and a fan in the back blowing air out (an extra fan besides the power supply fan). One that is about 70-80 bucks and I have heard recommended by others is Inwin IW-Q500N w/300W PS.

Go with AMD. That way you can spend the money you save on a processor getting good parts! Best deal at the moment is the 1G Athlon.

Get a good mombo. MSI KT7 Pro 2.0a, Abit KT7Raid, Asus A7V. Myself I like MSI. I have had good luck with them.

Get good memory. Case 2 PC133 is very well priced. Cheapest brandname you can find. Kingmax, Mushkin, Crucial are all good names. Do not skimp and buy generic!

Graphics card. Geforce2 MX if you want to play a few games. Geforce2 GTS or Ultra if you love to play Quake and what not. Hercules, Asus and Leadtek are names you can trust but most no names work just fine. If you want to watch DVD movies from this pc you must make sure your graphics card has TV Out. If not don't worry about it.

Soundblaster Live Value soundcard. Labtec APX-4620 speakers.

Most importantly get a real good Hard Drive. A 30 G IBM Deskstar 75GXP could do you for years. It is ATA-100, 7200rpm, 2M buffer. It is supposed to be the best there is.

Do you think you will watch movies on it? If not get an cheap 50x cd rom: Aopen, Acer, Liteon all make cheap drives. If so get a Pioneer 16x DVD rom. Or Acer makes a cd/dvd that also writes and is quite cheap. Also must make sure that your video card is equipped with tv out.

Any floppy drive will do you. Any 56K modem as well. You might want a network card but is only really necessary if you plan to go to Lan parties.


If you are in no hurry you could wait a month for the prices to stabilize and buy a DDR Athlon system. All parts would remain the same but the motherboard and memory.

Other parts to consider is whether you want a cdwriter or not.

Operating system. I'd go cheap myself and get Windows 98SE. It runs better than ME and is better for games than 2000. Could probably find it second hand. However, get 2000 before you get ME.

 

[TheMasterGhost]

Hereis what you really need, because it is what everybody is going to tell you Remember this is anandtech land, if we didn't agree with anadtech 99% of the time we would not be here oh and just to give that guy who said... oh never mind he got enough heat

 

[tingtang]

Thanx for all the help so far. Still haven't totally decided on AMD though. If I was to go P3 933 what board would be best and would I still need to change my case and power supply? I probably only have a 200-250 watt supply now.

 

[cpars]

Sounds like you have plenty of input for the essentials so ill skip for now. As far as using the PC for phone calls most important will be your modem choice, a good sound card would be advisable also. I have been researching modems for a week or so now to replace my trusty old USR ISA now that I have no ISA. you will need a voice capable modem if I am understanding you correctly, the best I have found so far Is the USR 005605-00 for my needs. I am taking back a Zoom USB I bought yesterday and trying the USR Internet call modem today and if that does not satisfy me I will order one of the 00605's monday.

 

[cpars]

Just installed the USR Internet call modem, full featured modem and voice software,answering machine, fax etc. works for me!