Input on an Upgrade

[Kevin]

My current PC is pretty stable but its starting to show its age (at least I think it is). My current setup is:

AMD 2500+ Barton (OC to 171 x 12)
Abit NF7-S
Corsair XMS 1GB (2x 512MB)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Seasonic S12 380watt
NEC DVD+/-RW
Lite-On CDRW
Hitachi 120GB SATA

I really haven't had a problem with the system with the exception of it originally had an A7N8X-E that died and the only replacement I could find was a second-hand Abit. For my needs, its been pretty good but I feel it could be faster. I'm thinking of doing a partial to complete rebuild. Here's what I have in mind so far:

GIGABYTE GA-MA69GM-S2H
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+
Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

I'd like to reuse everything else sans the obvious but I guess my main concern is the power supply and its ability to power the rig. It has about 300watts on the 12v rails so I'm hoping this is enough.

I'm not really a power user anymore and use the computer more or less for internet, multimedia and work. Basically my most used programs are Firefox, Pidgin, Outlook, Word, Excel, Quicken, Yahoo Music Engine, WMP11/Zune, uTorrent, Adobe Acrobat, ActiveSync and Avast. Occasional are Nero, Ghost, DVD Decrypter and SUPER. Zero games are played on this machine. The biggest CPU intensive process I do is encoding movies to work on my Zune, which takes FOREVER. Hence my thoughts the system 'could' be better.

Brand preference is really none. I went with the AMD setup more because of price/performance from what I quickly read. The components above should cost around $275 so I'd like to throw in another $75 for anything else I missed.

Any ideas or am I on the right track?

Thanks,

-K

 

[MarcVenice]

Looking pretty good, if the mobo has integrated graphics you should be really good to go. Check out anandtechs latest article about midrange cpu's and mobo's, http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...ts/showdoc.aspx?i=3112. It might prove usefull. How much does the ram cost btw? This memory will be fine as well: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145034 and is pretty cheap. The dualcore should really help when encoding, but if you don't mind OC-ing and go with a e4400 or a different 'cheap' Intel cpu you could OC it to 2.6-3ghz and it will blow the AMD cpu away.

And I'm pretty sure your PSU will be able to power things just fine. Especially since you don't have a powerhungry videocard.

 

[Kevin]

Thanks for the responce. The integrated graphics was an important aspect due to the fact I don't game, at all. The ram I posted was $7 or $8 less than the Corsair so it was pretty much in line. I don't really want to over-clock, hence the reason I went with the AMD. I believe stock to stock, the AMD outperforms and is at the same price point. Things do not remain equal from what I read when you over-clock but I couldn't be bothered truthfully. I was thinking the same thing about the PSU, which was another reason for the integrated graphics.

 

[MarcVenice]

Seasonics are qaulity PSU's. There is a hype going on about needing 1000w for a PC, but it's all bull. Anandtechs test showed a qaud with a high-end videocard using like 300w or so at best. You might need 700w with a overclocked qaud, 2 high-end videocards and a few HDD's and such, but for a rig like yours, 350-400w is plenty. You could even add a 'normal' videocard, like a 8600gt(s) or a 2600xt and it will still run just fine.

 

[imported_trans]

Hey man i'm interested in ur ATi 9800pro will u charge a price for it ??IF yes how much??

 

[Kevin]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Seasonics are qaulity PSU's. There is a hype going on about needing 1000w for a PC, but it's all bull. Anandtechs test showed a qaud with a high-end videocard using like 300w or so at best. You might need 700w with a overclocked qaud, 2 high-end videocards and a few HDD's and such, but for a rig like yours, 350-400w is plenty. You could even add a 'normal' videocard, like a 8600gt(s) or a 2600xt and it will still run just fine.

Thanks for the help. The parts all came today so I'll piece it together this weekend and see how everything goes.

Hey man i'm interested in ur ATi 9800pro will u charge a price for it ??IF yes how much??

No, its being demoted. Sorry...