Upgrading PC 'The hard bits' Need help and opinions on products.

[simonsayers]

I've pretty much upgraded all I can, now things are being limited by the PSU and Mobo and other various incompatabilities.

Such as my 2gb 3200 ram being UNDERCLOCKED to 1gb 2100 ram!!
Mobo only supports a pittyful 4x agp pipeline when I have a hulking Radeon x800xl in the gfx card slot, and much more. I've had enough.



Before we Start

~~~~~~~~MY SYSTEM!~~~~~~~~~

The things I can quickly List down are:

2.52ghz P4 processor
2gb 3200 ram (Underclocked to 1gb 2100 *apparently*)
Radeon x800xl 256mb

I've obtained the spec sheets from my DELL manual, which has a boat load of specs
Here they are

http://img344.imageshack.us/img344/4438/ssssssssportz3dc.jpg

http://img344.imageshack.us/img344/3409/ssssssssportz28oa.jpg

I also used a program a while ago for some further specs, I managed to salvage them also!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v70/SimonS/cpuz1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v70/SimonS/cpuz2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v70/SimonS/cpuz3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v70/SimonS/cpuz4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v70/SimonS/cpuz5.jpg

If there's any other info that's needed, do tell me

My 'Prefered' Seller
I usually buy my stuff from http://www.Overclockers.co.uk. If there's anywhere cheaper / better products, please tell me.

Motherboard
I wouldn't know the first thing about (in)/compatabilities, abilities, capabilities, limits etc with a Mother board. A friend told me that My CPU may not be compatable a new Mobo. Essentially, All I know about a mobo is that everything in the PC is slammed, clicked and clipped onto it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Intel_Motherboards_67.html

My friend reccommended ASUS Mobos, I need an AGP +PCI Mobo. There's an ASUS one on there, but I don't know if it's compatable with the system.

Any reccommendations would be great!

Power Supply
Another mysterious component. All I know is that mine is 250W and it's a big scary screwed down box in my case which eats alot of cables.

My friend recommened I get a 400 at least to support my GFX card (x800xl 256mb).

Is it possible for a PSU to ever be incompataible in one way or another, or doesn't it matter. Would my system be safe for a higher PSU


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Power_Supplies_123.html

What brand has great value and quality CPU's


Processor/CPU
I reeeeeeeeally don't want to upgrade this because they're so expensive. My friend mentioned that my chip may not be compatible with a new Mobo, another worry. So the CPU needs to be compatable with the Mobo.

Gould knows how I find that out!

My CPU is a 2.52ghz (Should have further info on the DELL spec sheets at beggining of thread)


GFX Card
My current card is a Radeon x800xl 256mb *AGP*

This cost quite alot, I had to get AGP because my mobo atm is AGP only. So essentially , I need a MOBO which is AGP+PCI-e. So I can upgrade to PCI-e in the future


Miscellaneous Upgrades

HDD
I have an 80gb Hard drive. It could use with an upgrade, but it's not essential. And the sound of loosing all my stuff and starting over again (again!) sounds dreadful. Although I could use more space for bigger games.

DVD drive
I have a DVD rom drive, But I could use a DVD-RW to burn things onto discs, again not essential.





That's all I need AFAIK. If you reccommend any other system upgrades, they'd be helpful


I have a medium budget for upgrades, What I mainly need is a PSU and MOBO upgrade, but the compatabilities and whatnot are overwhelming to work out from my point of view , due to little experience.

Refer to Spec sheets and program dump SS's if you need spec info

Help and reccommendations and further directions would help SO SO MUCH.My mobo is undercutting me from upgrading, it's just becoming an increasing problem with new games , hardware and software, it's time to upgrade! and I need help

 

[MrCoffee]

Overclockers are a fine site but they only really sell cutting edge stuff.

FOr that processor you will need a Socket 478 Mobo and I don't think any of the Asus mobos there are socket 478 v(infact all the mobos there are skt 775).

As far as PSU is concerned I recommend a antec truepower, may as well stretch to the 480W but dont get less than 400W.
There isn't really anything to worry about with PSUs, its not like you need any fancy connectors but you'll get them anyway.

You may need to try another site like Dabs, Ebuyer, or Scan for the mobo.

Edit: As a side note Why are you running at FSB 133 (533)? try upping the FSB to 200 (400) then overclocking it, or do you have the option to run a ram divider? . I think the result will be much better memory bandwidth with that ram you have but you could check that out with either Everest or sandra lite2005.
What is your current bandwidth btw?

Something like this perhaps

Edit: Additionally I recommend you google to make sure what ever mobo you get is compatible with ATX 2.
And I think you will be lucky to fins a skt478 mobo with PCI-E support, good luck with that. It will probably be silly expensive if you do find it.

HDD
I have an 80gb Hard drive. It could use with an upgrade, but it's not essential. And the sound of loosing all my stuff and starting over again (again!) sounds dreadful. Although I could use more space for bigger games.

you dont need to lose anything just because you change your Hdd, you can just clonethe drive using something like acronis truimage or norton ghost. HOWEVER you will lose everything/need to reinstall if you replace your mobo.