Upgrade time! Socket 939 and PCI express vid card

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jcee76

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Hey guys I've been out of the loop for 3+ years and I'm in need of an upgrade. My comp has been just sitting in my room for months. A couple of my components broke!

1) Sound Card: Creative Labs Audigy 2,
2) Video Card: eVGA GF6800GT 256MB PCI EXPRESS.

I don't know bad luck. Sound card makes all kinds of static so I'm using mobo's sound. The video card hmm.. I'm able to load windows. But the screen gets all white and crackled like in the movie the ring.

I need to replace my vid card, cpu fan (stock one that came with the cpu is too noisy) and sound card. I'm looking for the best bang for your buck. Not too expensive mid range stuff.. Can you guys find me the parts via new egg/mwave and post it up with prices. Thanks!

Need more info? Let me know.

Mobo:
MB ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe NF4SLI socket 939

Processor:
AMD ATHLON 64 3500+ W/512KB CACHE 90NM (VENICE) 64-BIT SOCKET 939

Ram:
1GB KIT CORSAIR VALUE SELECT VS1GBKIT400 (512MB x 2) PC3200 400MHZ CL2.5 184-PIN DDR DIMM

Vid card:
eVGA GF6800GT 256MB PCI EXPRESS

HD:

1)SEAGATE 200GB ST3200826AS SATA-150 7200RPM 8MB
2)SEAGATE 320GB

-Jay
 
The 4670 is the best you will be able to run with a 400W, but it will be a huge step up from what you had. ;)
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-R467ZL-1GI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
$70 w/free shipping and $10 MIR card

Zalman was hard to beat for the s939. While I would recommend the 9500 like I have, this one will do you good and is several bucks less.
Newegg.com - ZALMAN CNPS7700-CU 120mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan - CPU Fans & Heatsinks
$35.49

I don't know sound cards that great, but I'll go with what you had before.
Newegg.com - Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Sound Cards
$25
 
Awesome thanks for the advice! Couple questions:

My current vid card had to DVI ports for dual monitor action. Will this dvi and vga be as good?
Will the PCI 2.0 x16 work with my current PCI Express x16?
Is there a good vid card that is a combo with a HD Tv Tuner also?


The 4670 is the best you will be able to run with a 400W, but it will be a huge step up from what you had. ;)
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-R467ZL-1GI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
$70 w/free shipping and $10 MIR card

Zalman was hard to beat for the s939. While I would recommend the 9500 like I have, this one will do you good and is several bucks less.
Newegg.com - ZALMAN CNPS7700-CU 120mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan - CPU Fans & Heatsinks
$35.49

I don't know sound cards that great, but I'll go with what you had before.
Newegg.com - Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Sound Cards
$25
 
jcee76 said:
My current vid card had to DVI ports for dual monitor action. Will this dvi and vga be as good?
Will the PCI 2.0 x16 work with my current PCI Express x16?
Is there a good vid card that is a combo with a HD Tv Tuner also?
Yes. VGA is not as good as DVI, but I doubt you are running the cutting edge monitors that it would really make a difference on (I'm not).

Yes. PCI 2.0 is backwards compatible. No cards fully saturate the 1.0 bandwidth anyway.

There's no great video/TV combos that I know. Getting a separate tuner would be my recommendation. Of course, someone else may know tuners and be able to actually find one.
 
Yes. VGA is not as good as DVI, but I doubt you are running the cutting edge monitors that it would really make a difference on (I'm not).

Yes. PCI 2.0 is backwards compatible. No cards fully saturate the 1.0 bandwidth anyway.

There's no great video/TV combos that I know. Getting a separate tuner would be my recommendation. Of course, someone else may know tuners and be able to actually find one.

Thanks appreciate it!

Might I suggest an extra gig of RAM too? Would be a very cheap and effective upgrade.

Yup I was thinking about that. I saw the max for my ASUS A8N mobo is 2gb. Right now I have (2) 512Mb setup as dual channel. Should I just get another set of 512's? Or should I just do a (2) 1GB setup? Please advice and can you recommend me to some ram? Thanks!
 
If the max your mobo can take is only 2GB you may as well just get the 2x512 since they will be really cheap. I did that for my miserable rig so I could have 3 gigs and it cost just under $20 with shipping.
 
Actually, your mobo can handle 4GB.
4 x184-pin DIMM, Max. 4 GB, DDR 400/333/266 SDRAM ,ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

If you are running a 32-bit OS 4GB wouldn't be the best for you as it can only handle 3.5GB (including video RAM). 2x512 would work good, but if you could find a set of 2x1GB at a reasonable price would be even better.

And, yes, Win7 would run fine on your rig. It's running rather nicely on mine (X2 4200, 4GB DDR, GTX 260). I was running a 3850 when I installed it, still fine.

EDIT:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model F1-3200PHU2-1GBNR - Desktop Memory
$32

Newegg.com - G.SKILL Value 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Desktop Memory Model F1-3200PHU2-2GBNT - Desktop Memory
$58 w/free shipping
 
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