DELL 2300 upgrade

[Elite0ne04]

jayhawker01, i do have a job as you did at 17 but the only problem is i dont have a huge income.. (150+) a week.. i enjoy playing games and such... i do not have many friends however who can fix computers most of the time there the ones asking me to set up there home network, throw in another memory module, or install a video card, or remove the virus so basically if anything was going to b done it would b done by me.. so if you reccomend selling this computer and building my own do you think it could b done with lets say around 800$ not including the video card? and then theres always the amd/pentium despute i would like to put a amd 64 in the computer.. and another thing is windows xp i dont have a copy available about how much would i have to spend to get my hands on one?

Edit** and i would most likely attempt to overclock it a little do you guys suggest against that?

 

[Perditionchi1d]

with a budget of 800 you cant afford an amd 64. it costs almost $1k from what i've seen. i'd get a pentium IV with hyperthreading if i were you, if you are looking to extend the life of this pc. windows xp will cost you from 70-100 dollars i think, try to get a recent copy with sp1 included or you will become INFESTED with viruses trying to download the sp1 patch.

build the system first and check the temperatures. if they look ok and you have decent parts go for the overclock. the whole idea of overclocking for many people is the thrill of getting more pc power at the same cost of the factory clock, however they end up buying things with cooling in mind and end up spending more money on it anyways.

a good budget strategy is to make a list of what you plan to do with the new pc, eg, burn cds or play games, and get the parts that will perform well in these categories first, and then use the leftover money to get the less essential parts.

im sure someone else here will be able to advise you on hardware choices.

 

[Perditionchi1d]

actually sorry, regarding the amd 64's they actually come signifigantly cheaper, a decent one can be aquired for 400-500, with the low-end ones barely breaking $200.

 

[koldapu]

AMD64 $185 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-452&depa=1

ASUS Board $105 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-491&depa=1

80GB HD SATA $75 http://www.newegg.com/app/viewprodu...2-018&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch&ATT=Hard+Disk+Drives

1GB Corsair XMS $234 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-450&depa=0

cd burner $28 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-823&depa=1

windows xp home oem $90 http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=37-102-141&DEPA=6

speakers $55 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=36-121-104&depa=0

lol hope i didnt forget anything . . .

besides monitor and vid card and case w/ psu - $767

 

[Elite0ne04]

thx for the help guys.. the only question i had with the stuff you picked was.. is there a difference with the scaleable hyper transport as compared to normal hyper transport and shouldt i just go for the 1mb cache speed 64 and spend the like extra 30 bucks?

 

[slvrstang]

Alright i am new to this forum and decently knowledged on computers for a 17 year old i purchased a dell 2300 a few years ago just wanting a computer and upgraded the mem first throwing in the 512.. its a huge performance difference and i am told i really dont need a ton more i started gaming with your basic games like cs daoc... d2 and so on and upgraded to a pci vid card do i really need a faster computer if so what do you suggest that i do

sell it, build a new tower for ~500$ (750 if you want a kickass 9800pro) minus the money you made for selling the dell (might get 200$ if your lucky prolly closer to 125$ tho)

done