New, confused, desperate, STUBBORN...

[Jayce]

Building a new PC is not an option.

How about this, I put my serial number into the gateway support documents and found the information to my computer. I downloaded this exe file that they instructed me to save to my desktop. Then they told me a bunch of other instructions, but I ended up falling asleep and woke up now and I must be going to work.

I believe it was labeled a bios driver or something. Might this solve my problem? Kind of a dumb question, I know, but I'm just curious to know what it will do since I'm on my way out the door to work for the night.

BTW - Since when does a new mobo require a new ram? I've NEVER heard of this.

Edit - What about vice versa? I put new ram in my computer with the original motherboard. I'm just not seeing how a new motherboard dictates new ram. Maybe I'm wrong or misunderstanding, but right now I just don't understand how I can't drop in a new motherboard that is compatible with my processor.

 

[macdude425]

Older RAM is slower, and probably not compatible with the new boards. I'm assuming that by the age of your computer that you are using PC100 or PC133 RAM. Buying a new board will most likely require something like PC3200 RAM. The two are not backwards compatible.

 

[Jayce]

Hm, so if I were to go ahead with a new motherboard, it'd be sensible to just get new ram WITH the new mobo.

This I could probably deal with. Is the RAM + MOBO combination the only 2 I'd "have" to get at the same time? Would my original Athlon processor be fine? (assuming I found a mobo board that fit the compatibility list)

 

[macdude425]

I think I misunderstood you there...I thought you wanted a BRAND new board with a new proc. But I was wrong.

You will have to shop around for an older board, and it may work with your RAM, being that it is an older board. The original Athlon should be fine, so long as you find a mobo with the socket it uses.

 

[Jayce]

Alright, I'm shopping around now. I went to a local PC store and the guy there suggested I do the same thing I was thinking of. He said more than likely my video card and sound card would transfer over, plus the CD drives and hard drives should be good... more or less leaving me to get a mobo, cpu, case, and ram.

So I'm leaning towards a 64 bit AMD processor, however there's a few things I'm unsure of. How important is the FSB? What about the cache? Should I shoot for higher cache or is 128 okay? I kinda liked the looks of this Sempron 64 2800.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104245

How different would it be from the 3,000? My budet isn't all that high (even though I'm unsure of what it exactly is yet, I'll wait until I add up the ram + mobo costs too).

Note: I play counterstrike and a few other games kind of heavily, but for the most part I watch movies, play music, and download very very heavily.

I'm also thinking about this motherboard. Would this motherboard be compatible?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131513

RAM I'll look at later after I make sure these two are okay.

 

[Apokalipse]

yup, they're compatible.
higher cache = faster
you probabbly won't notice that much difference with an extra 128kb, but it is only 99c more, so you may as well get it.

I'd recommend this board. MSI has done well making boards for K8 processors.
it has onboard video, but you won't want to use that. no onboard video card is good no matter what motherboard it's in.

for RAM, I'd recommend one of these
with the rebate, this is really good value for this standard of RAM. if you can, you might want to get 2 to make 1GB RAM.

 

[Jayce]

What's the difference in L1 and L2 cache? When I was looking, most of the cache was 128kb. This one was 256kb. Most of the others if you went much higher in cache were MUCH higher in price.

Is 256kb a respectable number? What do you think of that processor, is 2800 pretty nice/fast?

I'd definitely get a pair of those ram sticks. I already have 512. I'm upgrading here!

I also looked at that mobo and started to learn towards that once I read some of the ASUS reviews. Plus my gateway currently has an MSI motherboard in it, and since I've owned it for 5 years I can vouch for its reliability.

Is there anything else I should look at? PATA? FSB? PCI Express? Anything like that?

ALSO - Cases. What kind of power supply should I look at getting? Or should I get a case with no power supply and get my own separate power supply? What's the best choice? I'm looking on ebay for like 30-40 dollar cases... some of these look pretty nice for the price. I don't need anything special, think these will suffice? All of these come with like 400-450 watt power supplies. Is that what I want?

This sucks, wanting to do so much and knowing so little. It's like wanting to build up a 1969 Chevrolet Corvette and not knowing where the gear shifter goes.

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

PCI Express is the future of video cards. it depends if you are going to hang onto this machine for a good while, or for a temporary machine to last you a year or so. I like MSI motherboards.

Again, if you're planning on keeping this thing updated for a while, go with a socket 939 processor. If it's okay temporarily, go with socket a or socket 754 if you find reasonable deals.

The 2800 would be a very good processor I think, so go with what's in budget

 

[Jayce]

The 939 is extremely out of budget.

How is the 754 going to be OKAY as a temporary? It seems like it will dominate what I already have.

Note: I'm very happy with what I already have.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, but if CS will run good on this + play a few movies and download nicely, then I'm golden.

 

[Apokalipse]

you will do fine on the 2800+
also, what is your video card?